Bonynge as ballet conductor live?

[sejacko]

I think it's beyond dispute that no conductor did more for recorded ballet music than Richard Bonynge.

But what about Bonynge as a live ballet conductor? Did anyone on this board ever hear him conduct fully staged ballet productions (ie. not recordings or concerts)?

In their heyday the Bonynge/Sutherland "package" was sometimes resented: if opera houses wanted Sutherland, (more often than not) they had to take Bonynge. In my opinion Bonynge was a far better ballet conductor (judging from his records anyway), than say a Verdi or Bellini conductor. Having said that, his recordings of the Tchaikovsky ballets do sometimes feature rather extreme tempi (fast as well as slow) -- perhaps if he had more "live" ballet experience that would have been different, who knows.

It seems strange that all those Decca records could've just been a "sideline" for Bonynge whilst furthering his wife's career... or were Decca just indulging him so they could hold on to Sutherland? (If so, thank goodness they did!)

[sejacko]

"Silence is golden..."

I guess that's a no then!