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The Royal Ballet will be beaming Giselle live to cinemas on Wednesday, January 19. The performance is scheduled to star Marianela Nuñez and Rupert Pennefather.

http://cinema.opusar...content/giselle

Screenings in the United States can also be found by visiting the Ballet in Cinema web site.

http://emergingpictu...llet-in-cinema/

In New York City, for example, the ballet will be beamed live to Big Cinemas Manhattan at 2:00 p.m. http://us.bigcinemas...tSessionId=3178

In the meantime, Symphony Space is opting for a "delayed live" transmission at 7:00 p.m. http://www.symphonys...e-ballet-london

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Keep an eye out for 'encore' performances on different dates if Jan 19 isn't convenient. The venue near me isn't playing on the 19th, but on Jan 29 and 30.

(Frustration...SFB's opening night is the 29th (Giselle!) and I've already got tickets to that and the performance on the 30th. Talk about great timing :wallbash: )

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What irks me about these live to cinema broadcasts is that they're not cheap by any means, the last one was about £20 per ticket ($32 for our American chums), that's to sit in a cinema. If you're in London you can get a standing room or cheap seat for that price and see it live. For a family that's a really expensive trip to the cinema. I understand the costs necessary to make this feasible, especially as the one I went to at The Gate wasn't exactly packed to the rafters, but I do feel the price should be more in keeping with a standard cinema ticket.

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What irks me about these live to cinema broadcasts is that they're not cheap by any means, the last one was about £20 per ticket ($32 for our American chums), that's to sit in a cinema. If you're in London you can get a standing room or cheap seat for that price and see it live. For a family that's a really expensive trip to the cinema. I understand the costs necessary to make this feasible, especially as the one I went to at The Gate wasn't exactly packed to the rafters, but I do feel the price should be more in keeping with a standard cinema ticket.

The theater that is showing this live in Manhattan is charging $25 admission. That's not quite as expensive as London but still on the steep side. The Met HDs have run a bit less than that in New Jersey where I live, more like $20.

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I'm not familiar with Nunez & Pennefeather. For those in the know, will they give a great performance?

Hi abatt,

Nunez is a technical monster, a real standout dancer and slowly becoming the RB's go-to girl, she's always worth the price of admission. At the start she was often cast as the soubrette, or secondary non dramatic principal. She's without doubt one of the top technicians in the world. She came to prominence at the same time as Cojocaru, and fell under her shadow after Cojocaru's starmaking rise to fame after the two Giselles in 2001. Cojocaru got the meaty roles, Nunez got the show off demi caractere roles which was a pity as Nunez is a very credible, striking dramatic dancer too, she's been coming into her own of late and getting those big meaty principal parts, she definitely worth seeing.

Pennefather is pretty dreggy. A political promotion to Principal to counter the non-British principals at the RB complaints. Very bland, technically patchy, but tall and good looking but so what? He's paired with Nunez a lot he's the Hardy to her Laurel, the Marge to her Homer, the Scully to her Mulder, the Kate Jackson to her Farrah Fawcett, the Tonto to her Lone Ranger and the Richie to her Fonzie.

But Nunez is worth the price of admission alone.

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the Kate Jackson to her Farrah Fawcett

Hey, don't you go dissing Kate Jackson: she was the smart one.

I found Pennefather dull the few times I saw him dance.

Sorry Helene, I got carried away you're quite right, Sabrina was the dark, intelligent heart and soul of the Angels, the motivating force and essence Pennefather is just mediocre and out of his depth, like Shelley Hack, though at least they had the guts to terminate her contract after one season. Pennefather is set to run and run.

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I'm not familiar with Nunez & Pennefeather. For those in the know, will they give a great performance?

Hi abatt,

Nunez is a technical monster, a real standout dancer and slowly becoming the RB's go-to girl, she's always worth the price of admission. At the start she was often cast as the soubrette, or secondary non dramatic principal. She's without doubt one of the top technicians in the world. She came to prominence at the same time as Cojocaru, and fell under her shadow after Cojocaru's starmaking rise to fame after the two Giselles in 2001. Cojocaru got the meaty roles, Nunez got the show off demi caractere roles which was a pity as Nunez is a very credible, striking dramatic dancer too, she's been coming into her own of late and getting those big meaty principal parts, she definitely worth seeing.

Pennefather is pretty dreggy. A political promotion to Principal to counter the non-British principals at the RB complaints. Very bland, technically patchy, but tall and good looking but so what? He's paired with Nunez a lot he's the Hardy to her Laurel, the Marge to her Homer, the Scully to her Mulder, the Kate Jackson to her Farrah Fawcett, the Tonto to her Lone Ranger and the Richie to her Fonzie.

But Nunez is worth the price of admission alone.

Thanks Simon.

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abatt,

I've only seen Nunez twice but I really like her a lot and wish I could see more of her. I saw her as Aurora in the RB's Sleeping Beauty back in 2006 and then a little later in a gala where she danced the Corsair pdd . Both times were with her preferred partner, Thiago Soares.

She's on a few videos, most notably the RB Swan Lake (an icky production but perhaps the version of the choregraphy with the finest pedigree on DVD) and Ashtons La Fille Mal Gardee. I find her very fine in both of these.

She's also on two others, where she dances a more subordinate role; a dazzling Lilac Fairy on Cojocaru/Bonelli Sleeping Beauty and Myrtha to Cojocaru's Giselle.

As Simon noted, she's a killer technician but she's also a lot more than that and I like her in the ballerina roles quite a bit.

I don't know about Giselle, she's a bit "sturdy" for this fragile character, but she may surprise me, she has a lot of range.

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the Kate Jackson to her Farrah Fawcett

Hey, don't you go dissing Kate Jackson: she was the smart one.

I found Pennefather dull the few times I saw him dance.

Not to mention Marge Simpson and Dana Scully (and there aren't too many situations where you pair those names!) Mulder may have been the intuitive one, but Scully wasn't a lightweight. And Marge -- what can I say. That blue bouffant...

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I saw Nuñez twice last year, first in the role of Masha in Kenneth M’s Winter Dreams, and then, the female lead role in Theme and Variations.

In Winter Dreams, she was technically coolly flawless, but she did not end there, making the audience immersed in the emotions of Masha – her passion, pain and frustration. General view among the balletomanes in London was “This technically gifted dancer is now developing into a great actress”, and also The Telegraph said “Marianela Nuñez, as Masha, revealed new depths of drama beneath her classical reserve.” I think the praises paid to Gillian Murphy during the latest Met spring season can exactly go to Nuñez also. She was also good in T&V, though I liked Tamara Rojo slightly more in that role (on the day of her performance, I felt she sparkled, but, not at me, and, when I saw Nuñez do T&V, I found myself missing the regal brightness of Tamara).

However, it can be a little hasty to conclude Nunez successfully landed at the new level of artistry. Later, Nuñez danced the title role in Sylvia and Cinderella (filling in for Alina Cojocaru, who cancelled her all remaining performance of 2010 after doing two Onegins), and G. J. Dowler, a dance critic at www.classicalsource.com wrote about her first performance of Sylvia, “Nuñez is a gloriously talented dancer, make no mistake, but her transition to the next level of artistry continues to be hesitant – whereas she made a beautiful and wholly successful Masha in Winter Dreams recently, a role in which her technique was placed entirely at the service of the choreography, Sylvia sees her return to old form – mightily impressive but without variation.”

Still, I have somewhat high expectation about her Giselle, as reviews on her second Sylvia were more favourable, then, she got a very nice review on her Cinderella, and, more importantly, Giselle is not an Ashton work which seems to require more development from her than others, in the eyes of dance critics in London). And, I’m very curious to see how this sunny ballerina will portray Giselle, considering an interesting comment on her Cinderella, “She is a very ‘modern’ Cinderella…making it quite clear that if no prince comes along soon, she might just pack her bags and book a one-way ticket out of there. There is little vulnerability, but that is Nunez’s interpretation and fits very much with her own persona (by, again, G. J. Dowler at www.classicalsource.com)”

I’m going to see their performance live on 13rd, so, if there is anything I wish to note specifically, I’ll leave a short comment, though I don’t think I can conclusively make or reserve a recommendation.

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I'm not familiar with Nunez & Pennefeather. For those in the know, will they give a great performance?

abatt, as has been said, Pennefather is handsome but dull and certainly no dazzling virtuoso. Nunez, on the other hand, is beautiful, brilliant, and an excellent actress as well. I heartily concur with every assessment here of her whistle-clean technical facility (in fact, I'd say she's one of the strongest and cleanest virtuosos anywhere now) and what has not been mentioned is that she is also versatile. As SimonG mentions Cojocaru, I must say that she leaves me ice cold and I have never seen the reasons for ANY of the massive hype; Nunez, however, dances Balanchine, McMillan, Ashton, and every other choreographer with remarkable specificity and distinction. In a way, it's a shame she's Giselle in this version, because her Myrtha (which is more stereotypically suited to her 'fach': tallish, strong, good jumper, etc) is one of the finest I've ever seen--something which made the temperature in the auditorium plunge fifty degrees with her first appearance. She owned every scene in which she appeared, and literally made one shiver-- in the best possible way.

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