Mashinka

After missing Thursday's heat as well (was watching a Harrison Birtwistle double bill), on Friday I failed completely to predict the winner preferring both Canadian Aviva Fortunato and American bass Ryan Speedo Green to the very showy coloratura who won. The extrovert Mr Green is the type of singer the Brits love btw and I'll be surprised if he doesn't turn up in something this side of the pond before long. The song prize competition was broadcast last night and Jongmin Park's deeply emotional performance richly deserved to win. Tonight's final was a bit mixed with a couple of singers perhaps choosing repertoire that was a little ambitious. Mongolian bass Amartuvshin Enkhbat gave the performance of the evening for me with a stunning Tonio that should open opera house doors for him across the globe. I wasn't the only one to be wowed by him as he won the audience prize, awarded after the viewers cast their votes for who they like best. Interestingly this doesn't always coincide with the overall winner. Nadine Koutchner was the ultimate winner and she gave a faultless Bell Song from Lakme that was indeed impressive. It was her thirteenth opera competition, and she claims, her last. In an interview Kiri Te Kanawa made the point that latterly a number of the contestants are already becoming established in their careers and the average age of the singers has been increasing over the years, in fact one of the competitors was commuting between Cardiff and Paris where he's singing a major role in Cosi fan Tutte. As always, it will be interesting to see how many of the 2015 entrants will climb to the dizzying heights.

I am bitterly disappointed that Osipova isn't dancing in Two Pigeons, she would be perfect in the role.

I was at a performance of Don Giovanni on Tuesday (sung by former competitor Christopher Maltman) so missed round 1 but enjoyed yesterdays round 2 very much. For me it would have been difficult to choose between the winner, American Lauren Michelle, and Korean tenor Jaeyoon Jung. but it's worth remembering that even singers that don't win their heats can still be selected for the final. Ms Michelle was very confident and looked stupendous, only her choice of the 'embroidery' aria from Peter Grimes didn't quite work, the Traviata was very good though. The experts felt that Jung didn't sing the Italian tenor's aria from Rosenkavalier ideally though as it's a favourite of mine I rather enjoyed it. I imagine the scoring was pretty close and both singers will find appearing on CSOTY will have boosted their careers. I'm out again tonight so will miss round 3 but looking forward to the rest as the standard looks high this year.

Saw it the window of a shop in Brescia and went in to take a look. I think it is aimed only at a certain demographic.

Honeymooning in Dubai? In June? Good luck with that!

If they want to prove they are colour blind they could vote for Akram Khan as best male dancer. Both a modern dancer and choreographer he is also a brilliant exponent of Indian classical dance, he lives and breathes his art and is one of the most compelling performers you will ever see. His ballet Dust for English National Ballet was the best new work I've seen by a British choreographer in years - strange it isn't nominated for best choreography, I'm surprised that Jocelyn Pook isn't being nominated for her score for that work as well.

Many years ago Alexander Grant gave a talk about his career and told a story about being on a Russian jury. He wasn't happy about the nominees at all so he nominated a French dancer, after seeing a video of her the rest of the jury realized they couldn't in all conscience give the prize to anyone else and she won.

Actually it was a Taranda performance I had in mind, with Vetrov in the title role, twenty four years ago in Paris.

It can take off with the right cast, who was dancing?

Although I never saw him in the role I understand Mr O'Hare used to dance the lead in Two Pigeons, so luckily for us Londoners he seems to be reviving a ballet that I imagine he has an affection for. Birmingham Royal Ballet has a far better performance record of the work and I went to Brum in 2004 for a few performances when Two Pigeons was paired with Dante Sonata, but they may have danced it since. As far as casting goes I personally consider suitability to be more important than age: Morera, Nunez and Osipova would all be perfect for the role and if Acosta would take on something new in his final year I'd love to see him alongside McRae and Muntagirov.

In reality there is no objection from the box office staff about selling tickets to the queue on the night and I have done so on a number of occasions, but you have to step outside to do the actual selling,

Was so disappointed I walked out after act three so no idea how the audience responded. Personally I'd rather not list the technical errors, perhaps you would care to.

Too fond of the lady to post an assessment, let's just say its not her role and return to discussing Smirnova.

Saw her dance SL with RB this evening. Let's just say I now understand why the Bolshoi would prefer her not to dance it.

It was a highly enjoyable evening with some of the younger dancers getting the chance to show off their talents. The emerging dancer winner, Jinhao Zhang, I'm told joined the company from the school a mere six months ago and for someone with so little stage experience behind him his self assurance was remarkable. He danced the Don Q. pas de deux like an old pro. He was also the only dancer to choreograph a solo for himself and that was impressive too, clearly a remarkable talent and he won against stiffer than usual competition this year.

Not all London fans have a parochial attitude to SB and for those of us familiar with Russian versions of the ballet there was much to admire in the Markarova version, the sets were particularly attractive. As the RB is tax payer funded I feel it should be a little more responsible regarding how money is spent and not throw aside a perfectly acceptable production as a response to internal politics. The Dowell SL was a disaster from day one and most of us stay away, had someone had the nous to do something about the first act things might be more tolerable but nobody seems to have had the guts to demand changes. Against all the odds Kevin O'Hare is proving an excellent director and his jettisoning of this RB embarrassment shows that he has good taste and sound judgement. As to who actually stages SL it seems to be speculation at the moment as no official announcement has been made to the best of my knowledge.

I quite liked the Markarova Sleeping Beauty - far superior to the one it replaced.

When it comes to new RB productions the total car crash was Winters Tale not Don Q.

It's not that bad and actually the Kirov dance Don Q. rather well, or at least they used to. Remember Ruzimatov?

I agree with Ashton fan regarding the casting of RB principals irrespective of their suitability, but the practice has been going on since Anthony Dowell was director and Monica Mason followed that practice. Of course the short-lived director who had a brief tenure between those two started casting on merit and look what happened to him. Mr O'Hare would be wise not to rock the RB casting boat if he wants to keep his job.

Really? Clearly you've never sat through the Bolshoi's swan Lake.

Tickets are released at 10 am on the day and you can buy them in person or on line but standing is now sold in advance. If all else fails you can queue for returns on the night, as RB tickets are sold so far in advance a fair number can come up for resale.

We had an Ashton programme at the RB recently that was a great disappointment, I've never seen Symphonic Variations danced so badly and even Scenes de Ballet fell flat, particularly sad as they were Ashton's favourite ballets. The French dance Fille rather better in Paris than the RB do in London which leads me to think that the speed and intricacy of Ashton's choreography might suit them rather well, that particular style of choreography would be a good fit for the Danes too who have that historical link with his R&J. Diana Cuni is someone I would have loved to see in an Ashton work. Back to that Ashton programme, it picked up at the end with a stunning performance from Osipova who I imagined would put a lot into a familiar Russian theme, but she went beyond good. Early days yet but she could have the makings of the Ashton dancer so desperately needed in London.

On the contrary, Osipova is a very fine Odette/Odile if not yet in the first rank. you're right about the production though.

Do we know for certain if Stepanova is sanctioning all of this? At present when I hear her name I immediately think of her very vocal fan base rather than her dancing. Russian dancers tend to have a slightly different relationship with their fans than elsewhere, I've always interpreted it as a greater appreciation for them for following their careers. There is however common or garden gossip as well, but that's pretty universal in the ballet world.