2003/4 season

[Jane Simpson]

Monica Mason announced the details of next season's performances today. Details at:

http://www.royaloperahouse.org/Custom/Docu...04ROHSeason.pdf

Lots of interesting things:

We get Four Temperaments back at last! And Eric Underwood and Kevin Thomas from DTH dance some performances

Jeanetta Laurence is made Assistant Director

MacMillan's Isadora comes back - a strange decision, costing a lot of money and will need some justification

Johan Persson, who's been off injured for at least a year, is leaving the company to take up a career in photography

Russell Maliphant is making a new work featuring Sylvie Guillem, William Trevitt and Michael Nunn - the Ballet Boyz, who left the RB for Kumakawa's company and now run their own company

Ashton's Cinderella gets new decor - not, as originally announced, from Luisa Spinatelli, who's just done the RB's Sleeping Beauty; and Anthony Dowell and Wayne Sleep dance the Ugly Sisters' Ashton's Daphnis and Chloe also gets a revival

[Estelle]

Jane, thanks for the information. But I think you meant:

http://www.royaloperahouse.org/Custom/Docu...RoyalBallet.pdf

(The link you gave dealt mostly with education

and ROH2).

Is there a wave of "Four Temperaments" now in Europe? Last fall in Bordeaux, this April in Marseille, next fall in Paris and London... But I won't complain about that

For me it's interesting to see that the press release includes some information about the dancers who are leaving. It's something that is really lacking at the Paris Opera, it's really hard to find some information about the dancers who retire (even for those who have spent 25 years with the company) or who join another company.

[Viviane]

And there are two new principals announced !

From September on, Viacheslav Samodurov and Federico Bonelli, both currently first soloists at "Het Nationale Ballet" in Amsterdam, will join the company

[Alexandra]

Thanks, Jane. Who is Jeanetta Laurence?

"Isadora" may well be acclaimed as a masterpiece, these days -- I note there's a "new concept" involved -- looks like a redo. What I remember of "Isadora" was a long series of sexually explicit, if anatomically incorrect, pas de deux (in one, the man seemed to reach orgasm when the woman bounced up and down on his shoulder) connected by an actress giving us Isadora's deepest thoughts and feelings. I'd love to see it again.

Revivals of Les Noces and Daphnis and Chloe make it a serious season, though -- and there is new work, which is also good news.

[Jane Simpson]

Jeanetta Laurence is a former RB dancer who's been the company's artistic administrator since 1990 - i.e. Mason has decided to appoint someone who will assist and support her, rather than a potential successor.

[Alexandra]

That's what I thought Thanks!

[Kevin Ng]

It is noteworthy that the Royal Ballet will give an all-Balanchine programme next Jan. - Agon, The Prodigal Son, Symphony in C - to mark Balanchine's centenary. I saw Nureyev in The Prodigal Son in the early 1980s, and I don't think it's been revived by the Royal since then.

[Petra]

There's not much Ashton though - just 1 full length ballet and 1 short ballet, much less than MacMillan and Balanchine.

British posters, do you think Cinderella needs a new production? When does the current production date from?

[Lynette H]

Originally posted by Kevin Ng

I saw Nureyev in The Prodigal Son in the early 1980s, and I don't think it's been revived by the Royal since then. [/b]

It was certainly performed in the early to mid 90s with Kumakawa as the Prodigal, and Bussell as the Siren.