London Tour This Summer

[Naoko S]

Lucky me - someone close to a ROH patron has given me a leaflet by V. Hochhauser for the summer season - looks like this allows me to book ahead of others! (Sorry folks!) FYI here's the performance schedule:

WEEK 1:

21 - 23 July (including one Matinee performance): Le Corsaire

24 - 26 July (including one Matinee performance): Swan Lake

WEEK 2:

28 - 30 July (including one Matinee performance): Homage to Diaghilev mix bill*

31 July - 2 August (including one Matinee performance): "London Premiere" New/Old Bayadere

WEEK 3:

4 - 5 August: Contrasts mix bill**

6 - 8 August: (including one Matinee performance): Swan Lake

9 August (M&E): Le Corsaire

*Diaghilev mix bill to include: Chopiniana; Les Noces; Scheherazade

**Contrasts mix bill to include: Serenade; The Rite of Spring; Etudes

They claim to bring the following dancers: Amosova; Ayupova; Dumchenko; Gonchar; Gumerova; Lopatkina; Makhalina; Nioradze; Pavlenko; Sheshina; Sologub; Tarasova; Vishneva; Zakharova; Zhelonkina; Baranov; Fadeyev; Kolb; Korsakov; Korsuntsev; Kurkov; Merkuriev; Ruzimatov; Sarafanov; Yakovlev; Zelensky.

Question for MarK on 'premier' performances: In the leaflet, referring to this year's special 3-months long White Nights Festival, the impresario mentions the following: "And in honour of the occasion, The Kirov Opera and Ballet will present no fewer than ten premieres, which will include a complete Ring Cycle, The Demon, The Enchantress, Il trittico and Etudes, Les Noces and the Rite of Spring." This has made me confused - has Kirov ever performed these 3 ballets at all?? Or, as to Les Noces and the Rite of Spring, are these identical productions you described as dreadful in another thread?

[Marc Haegeman]

Lucky you, Naoko and thanks for posting this. I assume the leaflet also mentions the ticket prices?

All publicity material should be approached with proper care, as we all know, double care in case of the Kirov-Mariinsky. That said, it seems that "Sacre" and "Les Noces" will be premiered during the White Nights Festival on June 9. These are the scheduled new productions, not the ones they did in 1997.

So, I guess, yes, it could be true about the three new ballets and it could be well in time to bring them to London.

Nice lineup of announced artists there. Seems like they copied the list of principals and soloists again

[Naoko S]

Ticket prices... here it is, as you've dared to ask!

Prices for all evenings & Saturday matinee performances range from 8.50 to 80 quid; mid-week matinees slightly cheaper at 6.5 to 70 quid. There are many layers of the price setting in each level of the theatre (for instance prices for Stalls Circle ranges from 22 pounds to 80 pounds) so be extra alerted when booking your tickets! In my views there's a substantial increase in the price compared to their last visit in 2001 - especially at the lower end. One friend of mine has pointed out that side amphitheatre, where usually are completely occupied by regular ballet-goers who seek a better value for money, now costs 22 pounds - it used to be 12 pounds.... (Oh and just in case you're wondereing, true to the impresario's own traditions, there seems to be a limited number of "Champagne Superseats", costing just 100 pounds!) They open public booking on 20 May.

>>So, I guess, yes, it could be true about the three new ballets and it could be well in time to bring them to London.

Wonderful! Will keep fingers crossed this comes true....

[Marc Haegeman]

Thanks for the info, Naoko. Better start saving up for this summer then, it looks like it's going to be an expensive one .

[colwill]

Why pay GBP 80 to see the Kirov dance at Covent Garden, certainly I won't much though I love the dancers. Instead I can see them for only GBP 52 in the North of England at the Lowry Theater in a more restricted programme of Swan Lake and Bayadere, and it has the added bonus of only 40 minutes drive from home as against a 200 mile train journey.

[Marc Haegeman]

Colwill, at the Lowry you also have the bonus of seeing the old Soviet production of "La Bayadère", not the recent new-old reconstruction by Vikharev which they bring to London.