CLAP AT THE END

THE ORIGIN · 24/02/2015

LONDON

I can remember perfectly well when, as a child, my twin sister and I used to run around the town theatre; the Ruperto Chapí, while my mum was carrying out the rehearsals with her Ballet students. I can remember falling asleep on the stalls while listening to an opera being rehearsed as my mum was directing the staging. Both the Ballet Academy and the theatre were very familiar places to me, I spent more time around them than at home, and I loved it, I can´t imagine a child having had a better childhood than mine.

Teodoro used to manage the whole place by himself, he was deaf, poor man. But he would take care of that theatre and protect it with his life. An external crew would be hired for every performance, but the whole town would get involved in any of the productions staged at that theatre at some point of the year.

It was an old theatre, which had suffered the insensitive refurbishment from the 70´s which turned a beautiful theatre from the early 1800´s, ROH style, into a dull cinema; but I knew it that way and I could still see its charm. I knew every centimetre of it, I had performed on its stage, I had seen productions from the stalls and from the backstage.

After having lived in London for two years it occured to me that it was about time to go to the Royal Opera House to see a ballet; since I had seen so many VHS at home, where those beautifully embroidered swagged curtains would reveal a Petipa or a Ashton Ballet. It brought me back to those days when theater, rehearsals and my mum´s costume designs were part of my life. This will sound cheese, but I had an epiphany. I felt so blissful. The past years I had felt a void I could´t explain, and I didn´t know how to fill, and that night I understood. I wanted to go back to those theatre times.

Is it too late to realise that what I want to do is work in a theatre? At least I now know where I want to go, and what I want to work towards. It then occurred to me it would be a good idea to keep a record of my future experiences at theatres, wether it is opera, ballet, a concerto or a play, I will give my personal opinion and a review on each piece. I´m obviously not an expert in any of the subjects, and my intentions are far from being pretentious, but it would rather be more of a learning process to me, to help me understand a bit better each performance. I will also provide some background information of each event.

The name of the blog comes from the frustration of having people clapping at all times during a performance, specially during classical ballet, where dancers might have just executed a long set of pirouettes, which is remarkable but I think it draws the dancer from its role, specially when they stop to bow. So I´m of the opinion who prefers just to give a huge applause at the end of every act, and a massive one at the end of the whole performance.

Each category has a colour, which will be specified at the beginning of each reflection, and at the very bottom I will evaluate the piece as an overall by giving it a number of clap icons. My email is just underneath the logo, if you want to discuss any ideas!

Royal Opera House :: image taken from www.live-production.tv