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Royal Ballet 2002-2003


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Some early news of the new season. It will begin on October 24th with a triple bill consisting of the Christopher Wheeldon ballet, which will given at the ROH for the first time this May; Mark Morris's GONG, created for ABT last year; and Mats Ek's Carmen.

Mayerling, the first of five ballets by Kenneth MacMillan in the new season, will be performed between the 29th October and 16th November.

Anthony Dowell's production of Swan Lake returns in November and December, and will be followed at Christmas by Nutcracker.

The first triple bill of 2003 will consist of Ashton's Scenes de Ballet, Macmillan's Winter Dreams and Kylian's Sinfonietta.

The first full length work of 2003 will be Macmillan's Manon. This will be followed in March by Makarova's new production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Angelin Preljocaj's three act ballet Le Parc will be given in April 2003 and will be followed by Kenneth Macmillan's Prince of the Pagodas.

The final triple bill of the year will feature a new ballet by David Bintley; Ashton's Scenes de Ballet; Macmillan's Song of the Earth.

The full details can be found on a pdf file on the Royal Opera House website

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Thank you for taking the time to post that, Brendan!

It's the 10th anniversary of MacMillan's death, I think, which would account for the amount of MacMillan. Ashton is in the dust bin, it seems. Ooops, the Heritage Works Storage Bin.

A much more conservative season than this one. Are there the Theme Titles that made everyone so happy this year? :)

Royal Ballet fans -- at home or abroad; there are a lot of American RB fans too! -- what do you think? What's the "take" on this in London?

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well i can see that this repetiore does match the plee for more "british heritage" work But since im not really such a huge fan of macmillan im not too pleased!!

its not bad though im very pleased to see some mark morris and the christopher wheeldon.

In a perfect world i would like there to be some robbins or balanchine on the bill as there was none this year either but i knwo they are foreign choreographers etc..!

anyway overall its ok i will keep an open mind and try some more macmillan! hopefully the wonderfull standard of the dancers will continue and that will of course be the key factor that will contribute to the sucess of the seasons.

waht do u guys think, is this fair enough outlook?

what does evryone else think of this season?

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Disappointing, if you ask me, especially in the very small number of triple bills - 3! I should think at best they'll get 20 performances between them, out of a total of 132 for the season. There's only one creation, too - the new Bintley piece.

On the other hand I'll be very interested to see Le Parc, and almost any new production of Sleeping Beauty will be welcome! And if we can really only have one Ashton piece, I'm glad it's Scenes de Ballet.

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I think it's completely right that we do a lot of MacMillan this season, I'm pleased there is so much and can't wait to see the castings! Although it does seem to be at the expense of our other "heritage works", which is a shame, but presumably there will be no MacMillan next season as we have an overdose now, and Ashton etc will get a look in then!

Interesting that Nutcracker really is an annual event now... that's all you can see in London over Christmas these days. It is a lovely production though, and of course there are a lot of little soloist roles to show off our fabulous dancers - even if your favourites aren't in the principal roles, you are almost guaranteed to see them at some point of the evening!

I like the idea of triple bills in the way that you can see a taste of several choreographers all at once, but I don't like the re-hashing of previous bills to create new ones, slipping just one new ballet in. Though saying that, I'm going to have to see Middle in April again as it was so fantastic! So i've ruined my point there! I think the balance is right for full length works and triple bills. I enjoy the whole "going out" thing about going to the theatre and I can dress up for the full length things wheareas the triple bills seem a lot more informal. But maybe that is Ross Stretton's intention I suppose, he does seem keen to get the "Yoof" into the House.

I think it is confusing to have titles for the triple bills, as a lot of the ballets performed in them are new, I can never remember which is the ballet and which is the title. Yes the Images may have been Enduring in the last one, but why not just call it Forsythe/Duato for ease of reference? I'm never certain of what I'm going to be watching as only the tltle is printed on the ticket.

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Ari posted this on Links, but I thought it should live here, too. Ismene Brown has some harsh words on the new season:

The Telegraph has an article about the Royal Ballet's 2002-03 season:

The next Royal Ballet season confirms what has been widely feared - a remorseless decline in the company as a creative organism within British culture.

So few performances and such a fierce push to internationalise the Royal Ballet's repertoire barely leave room for lip-service to its native geniuses. Just one Ashton, and only "obvious" MacMillans, in his celebratory year. Royal Ballet director Ross Stretton said at the season launch that MacMillan's one-act works were more suitable for educational work and peripheral theatrical presentation than the main stage - a judgment that can only damage the company's artistic identity.

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