Mashinka

Certainly, I saw more opera at the Bastille today and am going to San Carlo in Naples on Tuesday. On a sour note, poster Gnossie was concerned about my safety in Paris after a recent terror attack, I'm fine but this morning my travelling companion was attacked by a gang of women outside the Opera Garnier and although unhurt was robbed of a substantial sum of money. The most troubling aspect was that the police are aware of these people and say that they operate from the same spot everyday, but as the justice system is overloaded, they let them off with a caution. I keep valuables in a concealed body belt when abroad and in over forty years of travelling to Paris haven't had a problem, but as it seems these robbers are a a constant threat in that location, take care my fellow travelling ballet watchers.

I saw the modern quad bill this afternoon, very mixed feelings about what I saw. On a rather prosaic level I have to say that unlike the Royal Ballet, the Paris Opera does give you value for money. With two intervals of twenty minutes, the programme started at about two twenty five and finished around twenty five to six. At Covent garden the interminable intervals are frequently longer than the ballets. The opener, Frolons by James Thierree, took place in the public spaces of the Opera, primarily the grand staircase. What is was about I haven't a clue because although there was a narrator, the acoustic in the area used was such that it was difficult to understand against the barrage of sounds, at one point a song was sung in English and I could barely catch any words so trying to understand the French was doubly difficult. The dancers descended the stairs, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, dressed in sequinned body suits and mostly carrying orbs of light that they peered into, whilst others peered into the faces of the spectators. They wore masks over their entire faces lit from within, there were also a couple of spectacular lizard type creatures that I really liked. You couldn't fault the designs they were superb, but it was not about dance. After we were eventually allowed into the auditorium, the performers made their way through the stalls onto the stage. fini After the pause came the Schechter, The Art of not Looking Back, again this was narrated but in English. A man tells how his mother walked out when he was two and the ballet was punctuated by "I hate her", presumably referring to the absconding mother. Awful soundtrack at times breaking into Bach, broken up by sounds of retching. The low point of the afternoon. Next came The Male Dancer by Ivan Perez and this I really liked. The only work with a decent soundtrack, it was danced to a recording of Stabat Mater by Arvo Part. This blended classical steps with modern and the all male cast wore bright eclectic costumes suggesting different eras, some wore frocks. Mostly ensemble with a few solos, there were also duets where they made the lifts look easy. This was the only work of the afternoon that I would happily see again. Crystal Pite's The Season's Canon had a massive cast that moved across the stage in an undulating block for a lot of the time and it did indeed look impressive though it reminded me of Akram Khan's work and even of Busby Berkeley, so for me a bit less original than it appeared. The soloists were led by Gillot who gets the most out of these modern works and for me a great treat to see her one more time before the POB's ageist policy puts her out to grass. The music was a version of the Four Seasons by Vivaldi and it does strike me that baroque music can work better with modern dance than to ballet. The audience really loved this one and they particularly loved seeing Gillot, as did I. There, I have reported back, can I add the Garnier was like a furnace today, after last night's storm, the temperature here has soared. The Gluck last night was superb and now looking forward to Puccini and Ravel tomorrow

Although the dress was indeed from the house of Givenchy, the designer Clare Waight Keller is actually British. Read about her here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-44188750/royal-wedding-2018-meghan-s-dress-designer-clare-waight-keller-from-givenchy

Why wouldn't he stay on?

Kolpakova was known to have strong political convictions, Panov's book To Dance makes that abundantly clear. Shortly after Markarova's defection, a play about a Russian ballerina was shown on UK TV that caused a bit of a stir as it suggested this fictional dancer had defected for financial gain rather than for artistic freedom.

A decision has been made and Princes Charles will stand in for her father. Of course not all Brits are euphoric about royalty and it's worth remembering this event will be costing the British taxpayer big time. Some eye watering details. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44154438

I agree. As previously stated there is a precedent in royal marriages for the mother to do this. Strangely no one has put forward the person most appropriate: Earl Spencer. The British public would be ecstatic if their beloved Diana's brother stepped into the breach.

Sounds dysfunctional. Most daughters rush to their father's side in the case of a heart attack. I certainly did.

You clearly never met him.

Scottish title might not go down well with the SNP currently in power at Holyrood, No kilts, Harry will wear regimental dress uniform.

At least they are paying lip service to Petipa, in Britain - zilch.

The jewels tend to be shared around anyway, at least on state occasions. Princess Anne and Prince Edward hanker towards being private citizens, something Anne's children have more or less achieved. Princess Meaghan will be obliged to wear bright colours in future so that she stands out in a crowd, understated good taste, though not frowned upon, gets trumped in favour of those at the back of the crowd being able to pick out the royal they've come to see.

These terrorist incidents are rife in London too sadly and we've been told by our mayor that we must learn to live with them. I'm away primarily for some opera (Jarousky in Gluck's Orfeo) and then on to Naples for a performance at San Carlo. Perhaps the POB should have heeded RB audience reaction to Shechter, because when they unwisely revived the piece he did for the company it was programmed last and the audience walked out in droves. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of Crystal Pite either, the fact she's using Vivaldi's Four Seasons brings to mind memories of Caligula - and being put on hold when calling UK utilities companies. On the other hand the casting is now up and there is a good spread of performers, on this occasion I'm definitely there for the dancers and not the ballets.

I don't think Princess Stephanie committed suicide.

Might he just simply be homesick? I'm off to Paris in a couple of weeks and have actually booked a ticket for a very unpromising programme, partly out of nostalgia for a company I used to love and partly to catch sight of the younger dancers whose careers I've completely missed, I fear there will be little point in reporting back.

A tragedy he died so young.

You have just made a very valid point, AF, ENB used to have a superb teaching/coaching staff and if we are to believe recent complaints from the company members (I do) the high standard that pertained under Wayne Eagling no longer exists. That has made the fact I'll be missing most performances less hard to take. It was Alexandrova I most wanted to see, but as I'm abroad for much of May and June, I'll either have to give up the one 'good' ticket I managed to get for Swan Lake or miss my one Garsington opera for this year if I want to see her. Something of a dilemma.

"Get a room quality"? I'd call it chemistry. makes a change from those dancers that barely acknowledge their partners.

I consider this production far superior to the RB's, Cojocaru will be dancing in this version for the first time I think. Company ballerina Erina Takahashi is an exquisite Aurora and beautiful Shiori Kase should be outstanding too. A bit disappointed Alexandrova isn't bringing Lantratov with her though,

Patrice Bart is seventy two. In most companies that would exclude him from the running, are things different in France.

In the UK a fair number of galas are for charity though, some do go towards specific projects such as arts education.

Unless things have radically changed recently, the casting of Cranko's ballets has nothing to do with the companies performing them.

She has competition in London. Francesca Hayward completely out danced her in Rhapsody, more to do with shortcomings in Russian training than anything lacking in Ms Osipova's abilities, but it is telling that she finds Ashton's choreography problematic. I agree with other posters that recent developments at the Bolshoi are worrying, if the company does come to London next year, I won't be booking blind for anything, there are very few female dancers in the company I would want to watch. My days of regular trips to Moscow are long, long gone and there's little to tempt me over to Paris any more, though that's more to do with repertoire. With a line up of Hayward, Lamb, Naghdi Nunez and Osipova, I just don't see the need to travel to see ballet any more.

That's as may be, but guess who pulls in the punters?

Not intrinsically Russian though. It is a relatively new phenomenon introduced by a French dancer and imitated (usually with little success) worldwide. It has no place in classical ballet whatsoever.