Mashinka

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I'd like to see them bring it to Europe - with any cast.

Kirovboy, you use the words distasteful and clumsy to describe Somova and you are quite right. In my book no one with those two qualities makes it onto a stage let alone be appointed a principal dancer.

Numbers 6 & 7 together as in "It's an absolute nightmare". There is a radio announcer who says this every morning when she describes London's traffic jams. the M25, Limehouse Link, Blackwall Tunnel, M13 etc - all absolute nightmares. Worst of all for me is the number of people incapable of pronouncing the words something and anything and say somethink and anythink instead. Sounds vile and has even infiltrated the BBC. I hate 'Over the moon' too, as in "When the ball hit the back of the net I was over the moon". Ugh.

In view of the following, perhaps Michael Flatley and The Chieftains might be the best choice for an inaugural concert. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/...008/7713759.stm

Now here's something interesting, The Guardian (again) sends Charlotte Higgins outside her comfort zone to some rock venues. Her reactions are far less prejudiced than her colleague's were when confronted by opera. The writing is quite a bit better too, here is her reacton to Metallica. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/0...-opera-pop-rock I also like the bit about having been raised by wolves in the grounds of the Paris Conservatoire.

It was always accepted in London that the 'brothers' in the ballet were actually a young homosexual couple with the girl awakening hitherto unknown feelings within the older 'brother', plunging the younger boy into despair. The three young men who rough-up the rejected boy are clearly what were called at the time 'queer bashers'. The role of the woman in that ballet was complex and in no way one-dimensional (at least when the wonderful Antoinette Sibley danced it). MacMillan was a product of his age and his ballets were a reflection of that. His ballet Las Hermanas though. based on Lorca's The House of Bernada Alba, displayed a remarkable insight and compassion towards women trapped in a repressive society and perhaps only Antony Tudor came close to him in depicting the constraints that women laboured under until relatively recently (and still do in most of the world). I most emphatically do not find Kenneth MacMillan's ballets repellent.

Redgrave's Isadora came shortley after Ken Russell's TV film 'Isadora Duncan: the biggest dancer in the world' with Vivian Pickles in the title role and was inferior to the Russell version. Ken Russell made some wonderful TV films in his early career and I have fond memories of his films about Elgar and Debussy, not so keen on his later work on the big screen though.

It's on my list of favourites. All three characters were somewhat ambiguous in my view, but I didn't detect misogyny. The original cast was superb but revivals have been of patchy quality as the speed of the choreography created on Wayne Eagling gave subsequent dancers problems.

That's correct but she also danced in the Forsythe programme too. Actually it was quite an impressive little team they put together for the London week, mercifully Somova-less.

I couldn't agree more with what bart says. It must be open season for Bond right now, here's a similar attack from the BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7694801.stm The following has always puzzled me as well: On the other hand it's a bit unfair to hate Bond because he likes a drop of Dom Perignon, most of us do and as for the supposed xenophobia, he doesn't have to deal with British baddies because that's what the police do, he's a spy so consequently he sorts out the foreign villains. All this is persuading me that perhaps I ought to go to the new Bond film, I'm told Daniel Craig is very good. He certainly looks nice in swimming trunks (inverted sexist remark).

Those of you that read my post a few weeks back about the 'rock chick' sent by the Guardian newspaper to discredit the practice of opera going, will know that I'm no fan of the Guardian's feature writers. I'm clearly not alone as another Ballet Talker wrote a very amusing send up in typical Guardian style. Over the weekend this gem appeared written by a gentleman called Theo Hodson, a writer whose main interests appear to be sex (though probably only in abstract form) and religion. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...gender-thriller I'll admit to not being a particular lover of the Bond movies as I lost interest when Sean Connery relinquished the role, I loved the books though and had read most of them by the time I was thirteen. Surely no one takes Bond seriously? Isn't it all about escapism and that warm glow you get when the bad guy gets his just desserts? Lighten up, Mr Hodson, it's all just fiction. By the way this piece is now on Comment is Free, the online section where readers every bit as peculiar as the Guardian's writers have the chance to react to selected articles. Scroll down to the comment by waltz - very funny.

Thanks for busting the myth that Americans don't do irony

Jennifer Penney 'stated her disappointment' at a talk she gave about her career to the Ballet Association at the Swedenborg Hall. I was in the audience and remember quite vividly what she said. Although I can't quote her verbatim, it was the along the lines that Sibley wasn't happy with the role, didn't feel it was suited to her and backed out of rehearsals. Penney took over and claims that most of the role was created on her. According to Ms Penney's account Sibley changed her mind about Manon when she saw how well it was progressing and went on to dance the premiere, leaving Penney, quite understandably, rather unhappy about the whole thing. I agree with what Leonid says regarding R & J though, it was box office takings in the US that influenced the decision to give the first night to Fonteyn and Nureyev.

5'5"? A bit shorter I think. I remember reading somewhere (perhaps on Ballet Talk) that Volochkova was 5'6". Stand the two ladies together and there would be a huge gap. The Russians don't deal in feet and inches, so probably make some sort of guess about their height instead of calculating it. More realistically Osipova is 5'2" or 5'3".

I've met Sarafanov and he is rather tall, certainly above six foot, I imagine it was his very youthful looks that made people imagine him to be a little chap. I think he's grown a bit over the years too.

Nothing controversial there, all three deserve their promotions.

I am currently reading 'Never Mind the Moon: My Time at the Royal Opera House' by Jeremy Isaacs, who ran Covent Garden for about nine years. Mr Isaacs is a very good writer and I'm enjoying the book a lot. I'm not sure about quoting from books here, so if a moderator takes this off, so be it. This is an account of Mr Isaacs's first encounter with Mr and Mrs Kenneth MacMillan, neither of whom he had met before. I think this is very relevant to much of this thread Isaacs goes on to praise R & J and Manon, although pointing out that the latter wasn't universally admired at the beginning. Then: Was it at this point I wonder, that Ashton and the English style were swept under the carpet?

Cygnet, you have an inspired turn of phrase I saw this same Kitri/Dryad Queen combination in Salford earlier this year and that's exactly what I witnessed in performance too.

One area where a grey audience doesn't proliferate is modern dance, at least here in London. Last night at Sadlers Wells I started to wish it was otherwise, as in the first half of the programme I almost become a victim of chemical warfare from the noxious scent the young girl sitting next to me was wearing, the fact that she chatted to her companions on and off throughout the ballet didn't endear me to her either. A friend I met up with in the interval suggested I sat next to him for the second half as there were a number of empty seats near him, however two young people a couple of rows in front were engaging in what I can best describe as inappropriate amorous activity. Ho hum..... on such occasions I would have preferred some of those aging Americans around me as in my experience the worst the elderly do is fall asleep...and snore.

I enjoyed reading this interview with Andre Previn in today's Guardian so much, I thought I would share it with other Ballet Talkers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/0...sicandopera.usa Hard to believe he's eighty.

Mayerling and Anastasia both came along after popularly successful films with Omar Sharif and Ingrid Bergman with Yul Brynner and I've often wondered if they had some effect on MacMillan. Both were close to being real stories, but both were prettified versions of the truth. Neither ballet works for me: Anastasia's last act is completely at odds with the previous two and Mayerling is lumbered with too many characters that are impossible to identify on stage until about your fifth viewing. I gave up watching MacMillan's R&J years ago as it has changed radically over the years and no longer has any dramatic impact, also for those familiar with Cranko's earlier version, it did seem that MacMillan was guilty of a spot of plagiarism where R&J was concerned. Manon is a different story though, remaining stubbornly popular with dancers and public alike in spite of the shortcomings already outlined. His other full-lengths were Isadora, the worst ballet I have ever seen and soon to be revived in a shortened version, and Prince of the Pagodas, not a popular success, but in my view his best 3-acter. Frankly I'm baffled as to the dislike of MacMillan's work in America as he was a prolific choreographer and there is as much to love among his works as there is to hate. Song of the Earth, Gloria and Requiem for example are masterpieces though not so well known as his full-lengths. a great deal of his best stuff is rarely performed or even forgotten while dross such as The Judas Tree and My brother My Sisters are still performed far too often - it's enough to make you weep.

It's the universe I inhabit too. The Royal Ballet is my local company but I rarely watch them as their continuing downward trajectory really depresses me. I haven't seen the DVD but I've watched this current Beauty production several times now and haven't seen a single performance in which principals, soloists and corps were all dancing to an 'international' standard.

Manon is massively popular almost everywhere and I'm given to believe it is now the ballerina role that is most aspired to. Rather amusingly I remember going out to dinner with some friends a couple of years ago when one of them unexpectedly brought along with him one of the Kirov's principals, when complimented on her performance in one of the classics, she replied "I don't like dancing it, my favourite role is Manon". I'm told that's typically now. Makarova, Guillem and Seymour have all given incredible performances in the title role, but I always feel that De Grieux is harder to bring off (Nureyev was hideously mis-cast in it). JMcN, you have just ruined my day as I'm now sitting here seething with jealousy. Caroline Cavallo and Andrew Bowman - what a cast! English National Ballet will add Manon to the repertoire later this year, another company to add to the list of those dancing this work.

This is how the ROH markets its production of Don Giovanni: http://www.roh.org.uk/video/index.html?bcp...ctid=1581481217 I'm told the two girls are characters from a popular soap. ROH opera regulars are up in arms about this one, though it is quite amusing and it is an accurate synopsis of the story line.