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Waspe
The guest appearances of Galina and Valery Panov with Festival Ballet have not been all , sWeetness and light. The Russian dancers had decidedly strong views on what they should wear, what they should dance, and what the scenery should look like, and few of them coincided with Festival's ideas on the same Subjects. Beryl Grey was so disturbed to see what they were doing to Giselle during rehearsal that when the time came for curtain-up on the first night, she decided she'd had enough and was driven home in a large black car with 'diplomatic' stomach cramps. I am told that the unfortunate Mary Skeaping, to Whose lot it fell to try and fit the Panovs into her own rather good production of the same ballet, took to her bed with nervous exhaustion When it was all over. So when Beryl Grey received a haughty letter from their agent, Gorlinsky, saying that his stars had not been treated with the reverential deference he felt to be their due, and they would therefore not be dancing with Festival again, all that was heard in the company office was a massive sigh of collective relief.
Socialist realism
Princess Margaret attended a Panov perforMance of Petrushka, and was not over impressed. She was heard to remark that she herself would make a better Petrushka than Valery (words fail me). Nevertheless, she met the great stars afterwards and made the usual Polite noises. Imagine Galina Panov's delight the next morning when an envelope was delivered by hand with an interesting coat of arms on the back. An invitation to Kensington Palace for tea at the very least, or maybe a Command performance at Windsor Castle; either way, the gallant little ballerina felt that she had finally arrived in the decadent, class-ridden West. Alas the communication turned out to be from the Inland Revenue, who were showing healthy interest in the huge and as yet untaxed earnings that the lady had been Pocketing.
Round and round
When the National Theatre management knew that they would not be moving into the South Bank this spring and were not altogether confident of extending their tenure of the Old Vic, they planned and signed up a summer season at the Round House as one way of keeping all those actors (what actors?) employed. Of course, this came to nothing — well, almost nothing. Hying signed on the dotted line, the National is now contractually obliged to pay the Round House £2,000 for every week that that theatre is 'dark'. Put another way, that is £8,000 a month. Or another way around E300 a day. Or yet another way, how much longer do we have to sit and watch taxpayers' money being squandered with this lunatic prodigality?
Tough -luck
I am sorry to hear that the financial crisis is catching up with the world of opera. First there was the postponement of Covent Garden's new production of Siegfried, and now the English National has been obliged to cancel one of their new productions for next season, Benjamin Frankel's operatic version of Whiting's Marching Song. One of those least pleased at this news is Colin Graham, who was to have directed the new opera. But as his own new company is starting up next year and he will be directing all their new productions himself, perhaps we needn't feel too sorry for him.
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