Royal Danish Ballet, season 2006-2007

[Estelle]

The repertory for the next season is available there:

http://www.kglteater.dk/site/Forestillinge...oire_06_07.aspx

The season will include only two Bournonville works ("Napoli", and "La Sylphide" paired with Flindt's "The Lesson")... The rest of the season will include four full-length works (Peter Martins' production of "Swan Lake", Flemming Flindt's "Caroline Mathilde", Pär Isberg's "Paper cut" and Tim Rushton's "Requiem"), and quite a lot of double and triple bills, which seem to focus mostly on modern dance (Neumeier/ Rushton/ Laerkesen on some music by the Beatles, Uotinen/ Preljocaj/ Wang, Scholz/ Lander, Elo/ Midjord/ Isberg, Fonte/ Mrozewski/ Dove, Ailey/ Zuska/ Brandstrup, Uotinen/ Cherkaoui),

plus some guest companies (Bolshoi, Forsythe company, some performances for children).

So what do the people familiar with the company think of that season (Alexandra ?) ?

[bart]

I notice that Peter Martins' Swan Lake will have 17 performances ont he Main Stage this winter, and was wondering what the Danish dance audiences think of this version. It's been controversial in NYC -- what does Copenhagen think?

[Alexandra]

Thanks for posting that, Estelle. What do I think? I won't be going :blush: "Caroline Mathilde" was very bad. Some good roles, but I could only sit through it once. I'd be interested in Anna Laerkesen's piece. All of the ballets I've seen of hers are really ballets. But the rest? Even though some are interesting choreographers -- Prelocaj, Brandstrup -- it's hard to see any company identity.

bart, Martins' "Swan Lake" was rapturously received in the press, with one exception, when it was first done, and I have to say I liked it better in Denmark than here (never seen it live; just on tv.) The two Danish performances I attended (in 2000) were sold out and the audience was happy. I don't know if it's aged well.

Jorgen, what do you think about the next season?

[jorgen]

I think there is enough to make next season's programme positive and exciting.

Two important Bournonville ballets, La Sylphide and Napoli, as every season should have. It's good that each of them now are spread out over a 4-5 month period with 2 performances per month, instead of running 10 performances in one month. Good for Bournonville awareness, both for the company and the audience.

Flindt's The Lesson is always good to see, specially with our fine acting dancers.

Even if the Flindt's choreography of Caroline Mathilde is said to be crap I can't complain since we get to see Jens-Jacob Worsaae's outstanding costume design.

Martin's Swan Lake replaces Nutcracker as Christmas box office hit. Good, I think every season should include a Russian classic.

I don't know Schumann's 2nd Symphony, but it sounds promising. Our Etudes always gives you a kick and forces the dancers to be on top.

About the rest of more modern things I don't know, it isn't really my thing.

In any case starting out the season with one week of the Bolshoi Ballet saves any season for me. :blush:

Jorgen

www.ballerinagallery.com

[Norman]

As I live in England it is much more economic going to Copenhagen for two nights than one, so I am pleased that this programme provides a number of possibilities of seeing two ballets on two consecutive nights. Also, advance notice allows me to keep the dates free. Hopefully I will be able to see Napoli and Caroline Mathilde as well as Requiem and La Sylphide/The Lesson.

Last season I saw Ventana and Kermesse in Bruges, followed by The Little Mermaid, so I can add two more Bournonvilles, whilst Caroline Mathilde and Requiem are completely new to me and therefore an exciting prospect!

[bart]

Knowing a little bit about the scandels around the Danish Queen (and English Princess) Caroline Mathilde, I was interested to find there is a ballet on the subject. And curious as to what it might be like.

A quick check of Google turned up this interesting material about the production, with photos:

http://www.maxopus.com/works/carplot.htm

Sounds a bit like a Danish Mayerling.

[Norman]

That's interesting information on 'Caroline Mathilde', bart. And that reminds me that it is useful to research an unfamiliar ballet before going to see it, especially when the programme wil be mostly in a foreign language, where I can only guess what the words mean.

[Dr. Coppelius]

Flindt's The Lesson is always good to see, specially with our fine acting dancers.

If you like "The Lesson" or if you are a fan of Johan Kobborg you can watch Danish Television DR1 this evening when they send a live transmission from the opera house.

Flemming Flind has himself instructed Kobborg and Gudrun Bojesen in this special performance of "The Lesson"

[Dr. Coppelius]

It was a fantastic performance! It was 30 years since I saw The Lesson so I didn´t know what to expect and I had never seen Kobborg before, but he was absolutely fabulous and it seemed that the Queen, who attended the gala, also was exited with the performance.

If you missed it you have another chance to see it next week.

I am gonna watch my recording of it again tonight.

[aspirant]

Has the company stopped the practice of having the free Open-Air performance in August that gives the smorgasbord of the season?

[Rosie]

Are they going to sell tickets to every repertory or just the ones that are due in September?

[Jane Simpson]

Has the company stopped the practice of having the free Open-Air performance in August that gives the smorgasbord of the season?

Apparently they've moved it to the end of the season rather than August - it's on June 2nd next year.