Don't feed the fish

[hmmm_tea]

I keep hearing about events/performances/sport matches/etc which are being shown in cinemas via live satelite links, but I'd never been to one before, so when Greenwich Picturehouse offered me the chance to see last Wednesday's performance of the Royal Ballet performing Ondine at the Royal Opera House for £10, I obviously jumped at the chance.

OK, it's obviously not the same as being their in person, but you do get to see it live and get good views of the whole performance. It does leave you in that bizarre state of not knowing whether you should be eating popcorn during the performance or ice-cream during the interval though.

The performance itself was excellent. I loved the choreography, particularly the underwater scenes in act 1 which clearly showed the flow of the water, the way they captured the movement of the boat in act 2, Ondine who was just gracefully nymphlike and Tirrenio in general who just swished and flashed past like the most amazing storm.

Oh, what it would be to be bendy enough to leap around a stage like that...

Comments

[adaese.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for someone to build me a time machine, so I can see Fonteyn in it - Ondine's choreography was so clearly a Fonteyn vehicle. I agree about the depiction of water - chap behind me in the Opera house on Saturday complained about feeling sea-sick. And I was amused by the nods to Sleeping Beauty, particularly the Act III Grande Finale Wedding scene, with happy couple sitting to one side watching divertimenti, the bridegroom clearly having second thoughts and dreaming about his lost fairy bride, and finally the outraged fairies completely trashing the place. Carabosse is avenged!

[fluffle.livejournal.com]

That was the one with Edward Watson - I missed it, though they were showing it here on a BP Big Screen. I was gutted though, cos I thin he's a gorgeous dancer!