Word: shearer
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Despite such voices as Robert Rounseville's in the title role, the impeccable playing of Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic, and a charming first act in which Moira (The Red Shoes] Shearer dances as Olympia, the lifelike doll, the bulk of the picture is slow, obscure and pretentious. The script and direction, which borrow from Dali, Cocteau and Cecil B. DeMille, compound the vague symbolism of the Offenbach opera, leave the story line frayed and dangling. Whenever they are audible in the upper operatic range, the English lyrics sound banal. And the much-touted spectacle of Tales...
...clear voice that is excellent for the role. Most of the other voices are dubbed in, however, with generally good results. The dancing in "Tales of Hoffmann" is all good, but it suffers by being fragmented; Frederick Ashton's choreography consists chiefly of short interludes, beautifully danced by Moira Shearer, Leonide Massine, Ludmilla Tcherina, Robert Helpmann, and the Sadler's Wells Chorus. Miss Shearer's best work is shown in the "Dragonfly Ballet" of the prologue, and in the automaton's dance of Act I. Helpmann appears successively as Lindorf, Coppelius, Dappertutto, and Dr. Miracle--Hoffmann's magnificently sinister enemy...
Tales of Hoffman, a new film with dancers Moirs Shearer and Leonide Massine, moves into the Bijou Wednesday...
...brief Act III pas de deux from "Sleeping Beauty," the true meaning of Sadler's Wells' fame crystalized. The undisputed pinnacle of the evening was Moira Shearer. In this, the only pure classical part of the program, her magnificent body control, intense yet delicate, was completely over-whelming...
...British Ballerina Moira (Red Shoes) Shearer, who after listening to a frantic chorus, asked Muggsy: "Tell me, do you find ballet dull...