Postings discussion This link allows you to see others thoughts on this piece and contribute to the debate yourself if you want. We look to guarantee this link for a number of years, though after 3-6 months the page may be closed to further additions. Press releases about the new season Thoughts on the 2002/03 season RB Reviews

What a cruel disappointment the newly announced RB season is. It confirms certain suspicions that many have had about Stretton and the direction he is taking. The season is itself particularly over weighted with full-length evenings, a sure sign that the ROH is reverting to its opera first policy; the opera season is particularly glittering, with an array of pieces to satisfy most. The same cannot be said of the ballet.

It is a great many years since all three of the big Tchaikovsky ballets were programmed for the same season… what can that tell us? Incidentally, the choice of Makarova as producer of the new production of Sleeping Beauty could be a mixed blessing… after all, most would agree that the RB text for this ballet is the most ‘authentic’, if you take the museum version performed by the Kirov. But if Makarova removes the Ashton choreography from the RB Beauty, it will be nothing short of a scandal, and ballet lovers in the UK must make their opinions felt. Still, she may not be that foolish… The question of the MacMillan celebrations is also vexed, for while few will criticise the revival of three of his full-length evenings, many will be disappointed at the single one-acter, admittedly a masterpiece. Some will argue that MacMillan’s finest work was in these short pieces and one cannot help feeling that the management of the RB has taken the financially expedient course of action by relying on three-act works. Incidentally, there was a MacMillan ‘festival’ recently in Japan with pieces not seen in London or, indeed, the UK for many a year… shame on you Mr Stretton for letting others steal a march on MacMillan’s own company.

The paucity of triple bills is also a worrying trend and of the three on offer, one contains a revival of an as yet untested piece for the company (Carmen) and the repetition of another, Scenes de Ballet (hurrah for that). The most interesting evenings can be mixed bills and as yet Mr Stretton does not seem adept at creating a balanced menu.

The Royal Ballet is moving away from its old three strand approach: 1. Classics 2. Heritage (i.e. English) repertoire 3. Others, to the new version of 1. Classics (INCLUDING English works) 2. Foreign acquisitions 3. New works. Stretton has given the impression that after this season he will have ‘done’ MacMillan, after the next season Ashton will have been ‘done’ also. This is VERY worrying, given that this is a sure fire way of killing the works of our greatest choreographers – regular performance is the only way dancers can begin to have the pieces and the style in their blood. Look at Royal Danish Ballet, when a disastrous Director threatened the very thread of continuity which has kept Bournoville alive. If Royal Danish didn’t do Bournoville, if NYCB didn’t do Balanchine then there would be an outcry, for, rightly, it is to these companies and their repository of style and knowledge that ballet world turns. But in England, no-one moans if the Royal Ballet doesn’t perform Ashton. If they don’t, then who will? And what is it being replaced with?… euro-pap works or trite pieces of dull yet correct choreography. Le Parc is a yawn which lead one respected ballet-goer on seeing the plans to acquire it to comment dryly ‘they’ve been snoring through that one at the Garnier for six years’.

Finally, the question of de Valois. Is it not time for Stretton to stop invoking the spirit of Madam to justify himself ? – to omit to perform any of her works in tribute (and they are good works in themselves), is nothing short of scandalous, but the claim that the Ashton, Macmillan, Bintley triple is in homage because the three were her ‘chosen’ choreographers is laughably tenuous. For Stretton, Madam’s ‘drive for modernity’ has become a Blairite mantra – he should avoid it before others begin to draw more similarities between him and our Prime Minister… all show and no substance? Some could say that that sums up some of the plans for next season.