Mashinka

Victim? How does someone who can't take a joke become a victim? Complainant, obviously, but he is not a victim.

That is disgraceful and ageist, he made a throwaway remark, he wasn't trying to 'get away with' anything. There was malice in that room but it clearly wasn't Copley's.

I don't need to take any to recognize what sexual harassment means, I've experienced it and it's bloody awful but without witnesses impossible to prove. Sexual harassment is deeds generally not words and no sexual threat could possibly exist in a room full of people.

Copley did none of the things you list, he made a harmless joke.

So you completely ignore those people that actually know Copley and can testify that there's no malice in the man whatsoever. No such thing as a character witness anymore?

Out of interest, do the terms camp, high camp, campery, exist in US parlance? A lot of people this side of the pond are reading homophobia into this incident. Whereas this totally trivial remark would be laughed off here, homophobia is considered a very serious matter in Britain and that would have been the sacking offence.

The proverbial has finally hit the fan over at ENB after years of insider leaks, that situation is genuine harassment, but wait, the perpetrator is a woman, I imagine inflicting years of misery on dancers still won't compare to a singlr daft comment by a silly old man.

This issue has enraged the opera going public in London, two weeks on and it is still the major topic of conversation. I have since been told some gloriously un-pc stories of far more outrageous behaviour than John Copley's though. I'm very much reminded of Thomas Bowdler, so offended by the bawdiness of Shakespeare that he re-wrote it and bowdlerize has entered the language as a puritanical attempt to censor other's forms of expression. I hear Grange Opera have just engaged Copley to direct Escape from the Seraglio, fully intend to go to the first night and give a noisy demonstration of my support, and I won't be alone.

I love watching two debutants together as their shared inexperience produces a freshness only achieved by dancers both discovering the role for the first time. One of the most moving performances of Romeo & Juliet I ever saw was Lesley Collier and Wayne Eagling making a double debut Chopping and changing partners is a sensible and pragmatic thing to do, the RB has a long roll call of injured dancers at this very moment and the more partners a dancer has shared performances with the easier it is to cope when last minute changes of cast occur. Marcelino Sambé is the only out and out virtuoso among the RB's younger male dancers and the recent acquisition from troubled ENB, Cesar Corrales, suggests Mr O'Hare is aware of this talent gap and requires another technical whizz in addition to Sambé . In seasons to come these two will invigorate the company and my well prove the major audience draw in the way Acosta and Nureyev were.

I'm not the biggest fan of some of Nureyev's re-workings myself but in theory the only piece by him in the RB rep is the third act of Raymonda and it is superb, I think it is highly unlikely to be revived this year as I've some insider knowledge of this autumn's programmes, but his London productions were all good, particularly Bayadere act III, with a beautiful alternative final tableau.

I'm told Finnish is the only European language without gender related pronouns, it that correct, does anyone have a working knowledge of Finnish?

Very surprised Petipa is being ignored, is that because his most productive years were in Russia rather than France? Off topic, but I'm disgusted the Royal Ballet has no tribute to Rudolf Nureyev this year as it is the 80th anniversary of his birth and the 25th anniversary of his death.

Presumably opera singers that aren't pitchfork waving puritans.

An adult would either laugh it off or respond with a ripe riposte

Having worked in UK theatres I can assure you his comment was small beer compared to some things I've heard. Mr Copley, as an octogenarian wouldn't exactly pose any kind of threat. All of this is beyond my comprehension.

Why did they fire Copley for fairly innocuous banter?

Chorus members are ten a penny, great opera directors aren't. I know which one I'd have sacked. This is unbelievable.

I think the man who burst into the Bolshoi box I was sharing with two friends at a performance of Prince Igor to cheer an excruciatingly bad mezzo must have been paid to do so, it stretches credibility too much to imagine she actually had a fan. In the past a number of dancers have complained about the claque in interviews, they clearly haven't imagined it. Spontaneous applause is just as identifiable as the ugly over-the-top hollering of the claquers. Their antics beg the question why does management not do something to put a stop to them?

When a Royal Ballet dancer lost her mother in the most distressing circumstances she was given indefinite compassionate leave. Clearly such niceties don't exist in Russia.

LOL, no fear of that in my neck of the woods, the uber fans are mainly geriatric but can still produce the odd feeble 'bravo'.

Apart from Russia, the major European ballet centres are London, Paris and Copenhagen and no claques exist it those theatres. The antics of the claque in Moscow are disgraceful.

Please do not misquote me, I absolutely did not say 'no Bolshoi ballerina since Ananiashvili has been able to do fast chaine turns'. I wrote the following: I first saw Etudes danced by ABT with Toni Lander as the featured ballerina and from then almost to the present day by English National Ballet (nee Festival) with amazing casts, not least Margot Miklosy whose chaine turns were so fast she turned into a blur, incidentally the last Bolshoi dancer I saw with that turn of speed was Ananiashvili, at her peak a good twenty years ago. I think Russians can't dance it, I saw the Maryinsky screw it up when they danced in it in London too. I was writing about Margot Miklosy in Etudes and my experiences of watching that one ballet.

Now you're being naughty, but in the context of the bumf I'm reading on other threads, thanks for making me laugh out loud

Actually Makarova's production had a lot of admirers in London, the designs in particular were quite lovely. I am an admirer of Konstantine Sergeyev's productions that still remain the backbone of the Maryinsky's classical rep. The SB that replaced it is deadly dull, but like Dowell's Swan Lake we are likely to be stuck with it for a very long time as the RB rewards it s directors with the opportunity to stage something, no matter how inept, as a kind of pension pot, so that when they vacate the job that still get money from royalties. As for Don Q, we are now onto the RB's third production, it may not play to the company's strengths in general, but there are finally dancers available that can do it justice and it is always an audience pleaser, it's about time the RB performed a bravura piece that is nevertheless rooted in classicism, particularly looking forward to seeing Hayward, Sambe and Corrales dance it when it is next revived. This thread however is in danger of going seriously off topic as we are supposed to be discussing Liam Scarteltt's Swan Lake.

That 1963 production was by Robert Helpmann and began with a prologue showing Odette transformed into a swan, the sets were by Carl Toms and I remember lots of gothic spikes but the performance area left clear. I have a feeling Nureyev staged one of the national dances along with the new solo for the prince. I think it was this production for which Ashton re-choreographed the 4th act, I remember it as being very beautiful. As a choreographer I have found Liam Scarlett's work to be hit and miss, much to admire but inconsistent, has he staged a classic ballet elsewhere or is the RB handing him this opportunity without him having a proven track record of similar productions? If it turns out to be two duds in a row I'll be feeing more than a bit miffed.