Mashinka

Agree about Shklyarov, a young man who just gets better and better. He really does deserve partners of a higher calibre Very pleased about that, the content on that site was deplorable, goodness only knows why the Kirov organization allowed such junk to exist for so long. Disgraceful: however Osipova is also in the frame for that award, let's keep our fingers crossed that she wins it. I gave Baden Baden a miss this time, but a friend who went came back raving over the performances of Obratzova and Tereshkina - cream rising to the top of course.

One can only assume the Russians like what Somova does; here in London she opened and closed the season last year and was disliked by critics and audience alike. I saw the last act of her Sleeping Beauty on the final night and the applause was light and brief. The customary flower throw from the audience on the last night of the season didn't happen this time around. Ms Somova is strictly not for export.

When it comes to holiday destinations we northern Europeans, including the Finns themselves, tend to head south to the sun at all times of the year and like most Scandinavians the favourite Finnish destination seems to be Greece. In the UK and Ireland there is a tendency to travel to wherever Easyjet and Ryanair are offering rock bottom fares, but inevitable if it is a choice between chilly Helsinki and sunny Marrakech most Europeans would chose the latter. Apart from my ballet going pals that have all been to Copenhagen, I only know of one other person who has been to a Scandinavian country for reasons other than work (Norway) and that is only because the sun brings her out in a rash.

Thanks for sharing that. Although I've had a look round the public areas, I've never been to a performance in the main auditorium, only to the studio theatre within the same complex. I can understand not wanting to wait for the boat on a cold night but that taxi journey is a very round about route. The mention of Pelleas et Melisande puts me in mind of a performance of it in London not long ago that I remember most for the bizarre behaviour of the (hugely over-rated in my opinion) conductor Simon Rattle turning to the audience and angrily berating them for coughing. As I had only heard the odd cough I found his reaction untoward and one of the opera goers who turned up every night agreed, saying there had been far more coughing on other nights. In London it's rare for conductors to get above themselves like that.

I wasn't going to comment on this event because like Simon G. I never saw this dancer in anything significant. I did however see him at an RB schools performance a few years back and don't remember spotting any abilities that would have suggested he was suited to more than "carrying spears, floral garlands". Presumably he has developed a more noticeable talent in the intervening years. Although I mainly agree with Simon G's post, I was also concerned about the effect this dancer will have on the morale of the Kirov's male dancers as many highly gifted dancers jostle for position within the ranks already. Also foreign dancers are a huge rarity there and I can think of only two dancers in the current ranks born outside of the former Soviet Union. Frankly I find this appointment very strange.

It seems the way to get British kids to behave themselves is the threat of listening to classical music. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8467347.stm My local bus station also plays the classics to deter the delinquents from loitering and it seems to work.

Comment on the BBC's decision from Sadlers Wells CE, Alistair Spalding which also gives him the opportunity to plug performances by Marie Chouinard at his theatre next May. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...an-be-dangerous

I find her inconsistent; at times quite glorious but occasionally turning in a performance where she clearly can’t be bothered. This erratic approach doesn’t put her near the top of the list of RB dancers I like to see.

There is one horror film so far unmentioned called Death Line, about people coming to bad ends on the London underground system. As a child I was frightened of the big dark tunnels at the end of the platforms and that may be the reason this film struck a chord with me - confirming that there was something awful in the dark. I found a good synopsis of the story here: http://www.britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/deathline.shtml and this is a good informative site about British horror films in spite of the typically naff English writing style. The complete list of British horror movies is very good, though I question whether Mother Riley Meets the Vampire was ever a horror flick in the true sense of the word. I have a special fondness for all the Hammer films though perhaps their ability to frighten was limited.

Tereshkina is a far better Aurora than one might think, she impessed me a lot.

I suppose you are alluding to Byron's possibly physical relationship with his sister, Augusta Leigh. Of the legions of Byron biographers some have assumed he did and some have assumed he didn't whilst others sit on the fence. Augusta's daughter Medora was said to be the child of their incest and it would be possible (though not in my mind ethical) to exhume Medora and check her DNA thereby confirming her parentage one way or the other. Byron is also considered to be bisexual, but as his adventures with boys were either at English public school/university or when he was travelling in Muslim countries it is likely he only found males of sexual interest when there weren't any females around. I believe Nureyev was the opposite.

Only when the choreographer sanctions them.

As this film appears to be about an unsubstantiated affair between Fonteyn and Nureyev surely it all comes under the heading of fiction rather than biography anyway, as all this speculation seems to be based on someone once spotting RN leaving MF’s hotel room at an early hour. That’s not much of a basis for assuming they were lovers in my book, but never mind, let’s make a film about it anyway, putting aside the inconvenient truth that Nureyev was gay and actually on record as saying how unappealing he found heterosexual union.

I found this report deeply disturbing, although I agree that this piece shouldn't be shown before the 'watershed' (pre 9pm when children could be watching), I feel angry that the BBC has chosen not to show the work at a late hour on the grounds of 'blasphemy'. That the ballet fits the literal definition of blasphemy I won't deny, but to use that as an excuse to actually ban it from TV screens on that basis is an outrage. This is nothing but blatant censorship, and a disgraceful move by the BBC. I am under the impression that blasphemy still stands as a criminal offence on the UK statute book, but it absolutely should not as it is an archaic term harking back to the inquisition and is totally at odds with modern day principals of free speech. Although I hated Eternal Damnation to Sancho & Sanchez and hoped it would be quietly dropped, I am going to paraphrase old Voltaire in this instance: I disagree with the ballet you created but would defend to the death the right for it to be shown on British TV.

I've seen ABT, ENB. RDB and Kirov all dance Etudes, though the Kirov made something of a dogs dinner of it, so I am far more familiar with the work than with Suite en Blanc which I've only seeen a couple of times, therefore a comparison would be unfair in my case. I saw quite a number of outstanding people in Etudes too, Toni Lander with ABT, Neils Kehlet with the Danes and a whole list of stars with ENB: happy memories.

I am very surprised that Mathilde Frousty hasn't been promoted. Can one of you Parisians tell me anything about Ludmila Pagliero please, as I have yet to come across her.

Hear, hear! Sadly I never saw Osipenko in the role, but there is one more name that should be mentioned: Nina Speranskaya.

The Telegraph legal dept had to take the red pencil to that interview I've been told, so it was very likely that Ms G. was coming up with very wacky stuff indeed.

The Telegraph sends it's opera critic Rupert Christiansen to talk to Angela Gheorghiu and this interview is on a more serious level than the one with Alagna. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/o...-interview.html Looks as if her professional links with Alagna are completely at an end, and as Christiansen notes, she may lose out as a consequence. Personally I like her very much, a beautiful voice even if a little underpowered and she has real old style glamour but the partnership with Alagna was special and I've a feeling her career may suffer without him.

I’m afraid your description doesn’t tempt me, especially as I already own a considerable number of Diaghilev related books, though I’d be interested to know how you think the book fares in a direct comparison to those of Buckle and Haskell. I may well pick it up in the near future along with the new MacMillan biography when both have been remaindered though. Here is a link to that review that opens with the daft Firebird comment. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle6875196.ece

This one is a gem! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandra...sh-TV-boss.html Problem is here in Britain we're not over keen on certain US actors because they look a little too...... dare I say it ..........plastic! Let battle commence.

Glad there are some fellow old films buffs here I read this in the Telegraph newspaper complete with up to date photo of Ms Rainer but sadly that wasn't included in the on line version. I must say she looks quite wonderful for her age - very elegant and well dressed with the poise and formality of a bygone era, rather like she was posing for Cecil Beaton. Great shame she abandoned those memoirs though.

Interview with Hollywood's Luise Rainer, who led quite a life. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/63...golden-era.html

Agreed: but these are all narrative works with the fighting being just one element of the story and the ballets you single out have the ability to deeply move an audience whilst telling that story. The only two examples of what I would call gratuitous violence that unsettled me on a ballet stage were both MacMillan works - in Judas Tree and Prince of the Pagodas; both of these were specifically violent towards women. ED to S&S has no real narrative at all just as it has minimal dance content and the sexual and physical violence is quite unrelenting. I will reiterate that it was the violence that upset me, had de Frutos's Pope been involved in a lengthy orgy with the altar boys and female worshippers; I would not have posted my original question but would simply have written it off as a turkey. What I saw was deeply, deeply unpleasant and if it is reactionary or prudish to object to the sight of a pregnant woman being punched in the belly, then I am a reactionary prude.

I have just looked at my booking confirmation e-mail which states The strobe lighting rather worried me as I am a migraine sufferer, but as 'scenes of an adult nature' can mean anything I wasn't overly concerned about what I would see. The e-mail did not specify which ballet contained the adult scenes or the strobe lighting.As I considered De Frutos the most able choreographer amongst those presenting work that evening, it was his offering I was looking forward to the most. Perhaps I am more sensitive to depictions of violence than most; for many years I never bothered with a television and only got one in the late '80's to watch ballet videos on. I have to say that I was shocked by the violent content of so many TV programmes after a gap in telly watching of about twenty years and I don't think it is coincidence that the casual violence one sees on the streets exists side by side with a diet of unpleasantness on TV programmes. In general dance rarely expresses violence, so the unrelenting stuff in ED to S & S came as a particularly nasty shock. As I went to the first night I hadn't read any reviews (which were mixed by the way), but if people sitting silently, almost in a state of disbelief and with their hands in their laps is an honest audience reaction, then the public did not care for what it saw any more than I did.