Proms and the ENO at Printworks London
I felt morally obliged to publish my thought on this. It was very much a "happening" and also outside my usual budget at £28.50 - with booking and transaction charges included.
I attended the second (non broadcast) show at 8 pm.
The whole experience was moderated by the ambience of a rock concert (I imagine) where the bouncers were more ultra-assertive on the queue - letting posh people through and making the riff-raff like me wait. Not sure whether the posh people were performers mind - there was no separate stage door it seems.
Upon entry to the Ukrainian reactor (sorry ex-Daily Mail print works) at 7 pm one truly appreciated the size of the place. And no windows. There were search arches in case we had knives or guns, seemed to go quicker than a Ryan Air queue, maybe because they wanted us into the bar - which was a mega student union type place with seating for at least 500. Beer prices were stated to be 3.5/6.5 which I guess means £6.50 a pint. I'm a Wetherspoons real ale type - and prefer my beer to cost less than £2.50 a pint (guest ale was £1.99 a pint in the Peckham Wetherspoons I called into after the concert).
The programme was online tonight - nothing printed
I thought it was enjoyable. Actually the layout of the performing space was such that it must have been less safe (in my opinion) than in the Albert Hall. But there were plenty of emergency exits.
If anyone can recall The Southbank Show on Philip Glass back in 1987 - this is the flavour we had
none of the pieces seems to be later than 1988 - and the Handel arias were presumably castro pieces.
There were dancers - like superior Pan's People. They writhed continuously all through the show. Some of the moves looked as difficult as double-yoga.
A recurring feature was PROCESSION. The soloist Anthony Roth Costanzo did a lot of processing - heralded and trailed by acolytes in red sweatshirts carrying vertical fluorescent tubes - quite effective in clearing a way thought the crowds. The dancers sometimes processed too - they performed on mini-stages at each end of the shop floor as it were, watched by watchers again clad in red and black.
There were also continuous images screened up on 3 screens - sometimes close-ups of the performers, sometimes weird Monty Python like cartoon images and sometimes surreal cgi modified animals and fishes.
Impossible to rate the performance as this is a one-off. "You've all done very well!" as young Mr Grace would have said.
I attended the second (non broadcast) show at 8 pm.
The whole experience was moderated by the ambience of a rock concert (I imagine) where the bouncers were more ultra-assertive on the queue - letting posh people through and making the riff-raff like me wait. Not sure whether the posh people were performers mind - there was no separate stage door it seems.
Upon entry to the Ukrainian reactor (sorry ex-Daily Mail print works) at 7 pm one truly appreciated the size of the place. And no windows. There were search arches in case we had knives or guns, seemed to go quicker than a Ryan Air queue, maybe because they wanted us into the bar - which was a mega student union type place with seating for at least 500. Beer prices were stated to be 3.5/6.5 which I guess means £6.50 a pint. I'm a Wetherspoons real ale type - and prefer my beer to cost less than £2.50 a pint (guest ale was £1.99 a pint in the Peckham Wetherspoons I called into after the concert).
The programme was online tonight - nothing printed
I thought it was enjoyable. Actually the layout of the performing space was such that it must have been less safe (in my opinion) than in the Albert Hall. But there were plenty of emergency exits.
If anyone can recall The Southbank Show on Philip Glass back in 1987 - this is the flavour we had
none of the pieces seems to be later than 1988 - and the Handel arias were presumably castro pieces.
There were dancers - like superior Pan's People. They writhed continuously all through the show. Some of the moves looked as difficult as double-yoga.
A recurring feature was PROCESSION. The soloist Anthony Roth Costanzo did a lot of processing - heralded and trailed by acolytes in red sweatshirts carrying vertical fluorescent tubes - quite effective in clearing a way thought the crowds. The dancers sometimes processed too - they performed on mini-stages at each end of the shop floor as it were, watched by watchers again clad in red and black.
There were also continuous images screened up on 3 screens - sometimes close-ups of the performers, sometimes weird Monty Python like cartoon images and sometimes surreal cgi modified animals and fishes.
Impossible to rate the performance as this is a one-off. "You've all done very well!" as young Mr Grace would have said.
Comment