The Royal Ballet: Ashton Triple Bill, June 2017

[Mary]

I disagree strongly with Luke Jennings.

The reference to academic taxidermy is clearly not accurate as a little research- and posts above- soon show. But in any case it is surely right to preserve the entire vision and modify it carefully only when really necessary.

 

It is not necessary to have been to a posh school ( as he implies by talking about an earlier audience having a classical education) to know a little about, and appreciate an ideal of Greek beauty. It is a reference that is just as relevant and widely understood today as ever was.

But mainly,  his sneering asides about  'camp', drag-queens, men's 'tiaras' ( they are not tiaras), Oberon's flamboyant makeup etc reads rather unpleasantly to me- I thought we had all got beyond using such terms as put-downs and I am really very  surprised at him.

 

Why should not men be beautifully arrayed and show off their looks?

 

What nonsense!

[Fiz]

I thought Oberon's make up and general outfit design was superb. It made him look eerie and other worldly.

[Fonty]

1 hour ago, Fiz said:

I thought Oberon's make up and general outfit design was superb. It made him look eerie and other worldly.

 

Me too.  And not a hint of the drag queen about it.  I thought Oberon looked wholly and completely masculine.  

Edited June 12, 2017 by Fonty

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Mary said:

I disagree strongly with Luke Jennings.

The reference to academic taxidermy is clearly not accurate as a little research- and posts above- soon show. But in any case it is surely right to preserve the entire vision and modify it carefully only when really necessary.

 

It is not necessary to have been to a posh school ( as he implies by talking about an earlier audience having a classical education) to know a little about, and appreciate an ideal of Greek beauty. It is a reference that is just as relevant and widely understood today as ever was.

But mainly,  his sneering asides about  'camp', drag-queens, men's 'tiaras' ( they are not tiaras), Oberon's flamboyant makeup etc reads rather unpleasantly to me- I thought we had all got beyond using such terms as put-downs and I am really very  surprised at him.

 

Why should not men be beautifully arrayed and show off their looks?

 

What nonsense!

 

I agree very much with Mary - 'to preserve the entire vision and modify it carefully only when really necessary' expresses it exactly. I preferred the original designs for The Dream but at least the existing designs did seek only to modify rather than transform, even if they didn't do so with great success. And I also agree about how men are presented; presumably LJ has no problem with men in skirts, so it seems a bit odd to object to other theatrical ways of presenting men on stage.

[ninamargaret]

Funny, I've never thought of the men in SV as wearing tiaras. Just seems to me to be part of the design of the ballet. Incidentally, I did wonder if the original backcloth was so yellow; seen to remember it used to be a little more grey/green, but memory is notoriously bad when it comes to colour.

[bridiem]

I wasn't aware of any change in the lighting of SV; but then I haven't seen it often/regularly enough to be able to compare. All I can say is that it was like sunlight (after the dusky forest of The Dream) and I found it pure and beautiful.

[Johnpw]

I was curious to find out what a contemporary made of the designs for Symphonic Variations, so turned to a copy of Arnold Haskell's "Ballet" (Pelican Books).

After describing the piece as "visual music", he commented: "This type of work also requires perfect costuming and decor; costumes and decor that suggest nothing concrete. Sophie Fedorovich...provided these. Indeed, no work of musical interpretation has been better dressed, and Miss Fedorovich has avoided the semblance of hygienic underwear so distressing in some of the great symphonic ballets. Her background is completely abstract and so skilfully designed that it fits with the movement of the dancers and acts, so to speak, as a sounding-board for the music".

 

Sage observations. The work was conceived all of a piece - music, choreography, set, costumes - and should be appreciated (or not) accordingly. Similarly, I wouldn't want to change the modern equivalent of "hygienic underwear" in parts of the new Symphonic Dances.

 

It's true that Haskell was a posh bloke with a classical education. But then again, not so long ago, it wasn't so unusual for the son of a postman to have one......For some, the costumes might evoke Ancient Greece but, like all good designs, they can operate on the eyes of the viewer in lots of different ways, perhaps suggesting purity, light, simplicity with the head caps suggesting an element of fantasy.

 

From comments overheard at performances, not everyone appreciates the music. Shall we change that?

[zxDaveM]

14 minutes ago, bridiem said:

I wasn't aware of any change in the lighting of SV; but then I haven't seen it often/regularly enough to be able to compare. All I can say is that it was like sunlight (after the dusky forest of The Dream) and I found it pure and beautiful.

 

Its a joy watching something you can actually see in detail, without having to peer through the gloom

[zxDaveM]

 

as for 'updating' the costumes - as soon as you do, in 5-10 years they'll be out of date again! (and then will either have to be updated once more, or go back to the originals)

[Jamesrhblack]

Late to the party on this as I'd hoped to catch the third cast on Saturday. A back injury put paid to that (and thanks to the ROH Box Office staff who quickly and efficiently took details of my tickets and managed to resell them too), so this will be, essentially, a concotion of memories and responses to other posts.

 

I'd like to start with a tribute to the orchestra playing so beautifully in a musically rich, whatever one's reservations about the orchestration of the Liszt, programme under Emmanuel Plasson. 

 

The Dream is a brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare's original minus the Theseus / Hippolyta frame. The only essential thing that seems to be missing (have I been looking the wrong way?) is Titania being restored to seeing clearly. As Oberon in Britten's opera, I vividly remember singing "Be as thou wast wont to be, See as thou was wont to see" (or the German equivalent, the performances were in Magdeburg) and in neither performance did I see a reference to this. I'd concur with those who feel the Rustics have become more like village idiots but thought that the lovers (same team at both performances I saw, 2 June and 3 June mat. plus the cinema broadcast) were beautifully balanced between comedy and feeling, with Mendizabal (captivatingly beaky, bossy charm) and Ball (who knew he could be such a natural comedian?) particularly fine. 

 

If you've not done so, I'd strongly recommend watching the Sibley, Dowell, Ashton Masterclass on the pas de deux still to be found on YouTube.

 

https://youtu.be/ZvZAtu6BmL0

 

To watch the Master coaching yet further expression from two already beautifully expressive dancers is a masterclass indeed and to watch the mirror at "Now you and I are in accord again" with identical extension through the music of the high arabesque is to see the celebrated partnership's famed musicality at its most magical. 

 

Not just before of their age in this film, there's a maturity in their approach to Oberon and Titania that I thought slightly missing from the two couples I saw. (Incidentally, why does Titania get the final call? I appreciate Sibley was considerably more established than Dowell in 1964 but Oberon is surely both the central role as he influences everything and also the most physically demanding dancing role.) McRae is a technical wizard as we know and Oberon seems a role well suited to his strengths as dancer and stage personality. It's becoming a "tic" and I continue to find his stage personality unappealing but both as Rudolf and now here that seemed less a problem than I have found it in other works and his dancing in the Scherzo dazzling. I did need to do further research on alterations made by right turning Oberons (I understand that Ashton agreed this for Wall) and will try to find time properly to watch the 1983 ROH video now on YouTube and read further in David Vaughan's book. Is it simply his more junior status that makes one regard Sambé as a less authoritative stage presence. He has had a great season and his technically fleet dancing seems to be becoming neater. Experience will I think bring more sense of character. Both Titanias make a pretty stage presence but I think the characterisation is wrong. Bussell (who had a bad time with the autocue) cooed at Takane's "innocence" but Titania is not "innocent." Ashton wanted a wild, farouche character in thrall to her sensuality and I didn't feel that either Takada or Hayward really conveyed this. The former's fleetness, her dizzying assurance in spins, her remarkable elevation all delighted. Is it just because we know of Ashton's obsession that we want her to bend more? Perhaps my distant seat at the back of the Balcony can be held responsible for Hayward seeming delicate but a little small scale. She's a dancer I like very much indeed though and both these new principal ladies have shown their worth, their achievement and, even more important, their potential during this taxing first season of full responsibility for them both. Goodness, the corps de ballet ladies worth hard in this piece, their feet matching the shimmering delicacy of Mendelssohn's delicious score. Zucchetti I found slightly annoyingly arch as Puck but shared the general enthusiasm for Yudes; Gartside was bluffly charming as Bottom; I'm not sure that Howells' more fey stage presence quite suits the character but he was deliciously fluent en pointe.

 

Symphonic Variations is a work that seems to me richer each time I see it, a wonderful response to Franck's beautiful score that is non specific in its emotions yet never cold (was it Balanchine who said words to the effect that dance can never be entirely abstract as it is being performed by living people?). The first cast seemed wonderfully matched with Muntagirov a shining first amongst equals. In many ways, this seems to me the role that has suited him most absolutely of those in which I have seen him, technically Apollonian yet warmly human too. Kudos to Dyer and Hay who matched him so well (and, in contrast to when I saw them in 2014 were fully in command to the end) with the luminous Nunez (who can sometimes suggest that she is on a hotline to something from another sphere), the freshly fluent Choe and Naghdi, whose musicality seems to drive every moment that she takes. 

 

She was also notable at the matinée (replacing, I think, Magri although there was no comment on the cast sheet) this time with a sweetly efficient Stock. Again, I'll ascribe the reduced impact to my seat although I note that another poster had also flagged up that Cuthbertson both here and in Diamonds seemed reticent and lacking in projection. Clarke (surely he must be due promotion) was a superb presence and moves with panther like grace (and at one point nipped off stage to remedy an awkward costume malfunction) and matched his dancing superbly to his more compact colleagues, here Ella and in a debut of dazzling speed and impact Sissens.

 

Are responses to Marguerite and Armand informed by the fact that Ashton wished it it to die with Fonteyn and Nureyev? Certainly, the emotional impact of those early shows must have been based not just on Margot - Rudi mania but the casting with Somes as the Father figure emphasising the unsuitability of the liaison with the younger man. I've not seen it very often and I have to say that it has tended not to do much for me, the orchestration of the Liszt Piano Sonata seeming often bombastic and the general feeling almost as over wrought as silent cinema. Of course, the emotions attendant on the retirement of a much loved principal informed the performance on 3 June and Yanowsky's beauty and elegance touched us all, although the accidents of timing mentioned by an earlier poster, were there and had been corrected by the broadcast. I had a certain agreement with what was nevertheless a rather grudging review on The Arts Desk that her height did mean that Bolle was having to make compromises in the partnering angles, especially at the end, just to get her high enough off the ground. They obviously enjoy dancing together and happy memories were rekindled of their astonishing Manon together.

 

Saturday's matinee didn't do so much for me I'm afraid. Of course, the idea of the more mature Marguerite is built in to the original Fonteyn casting but one is also constrained by the knowledge that the original Lady of the Camellias, Marie DuPlessiss, was only 23 when she died. Of course, Ferri's is a remarkable achievement in dancing a full role at a mature age but I thought (again I would add the caveat that my viewing point was distant) her dancing seemed rather brittle. Bonelli, after a slow start to the season (Anastasia was not good and he looked laboured in The Nutcracker broadcast) has seemed rejuvenated with wonderful performances in Woolf Works and Mayerling and now as Armand. He is a dancer whose elegance and clean line gives much pleasure and there now seems greater projection of emotional intensity too.

 

I was sorry to miss Campbell as Oberon: I'm not sure he would have been naturally suited but his intelligence and technical aplomb are always worth watching and perhaps Osipova and Shklyarov might have brought Marguerite and Armand to fuller life for me.

 

All in all, a fine end to the Royal Ballet 16/17 season which has provided much enjoyment, stimulus and enhancement. I'm not sure I'm looking ahead so optimistically to 17/18 but let us see what developments time brings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MAB]

14 hours ago, FLOSS said:

The right's holders have a long and seriously inglorious history of redesigning Ashton's ballets. None have been an improvement on the original versions. I much preferred the original Dream designs. The current ones were devised for SWRB because the original sets were not suitable for touring. However that does not explain why it was felt necessary to redesign the costumes as well. The original designs succeeded in evoking the golden age of Romantic ballet and the world of Victorian fairy painting but the costumes also had a certain stream lined simplicity in them for example Oberon did not have puff sleeves. 

 

 

Costumes get changed for very prosaic reasons and Oberon's costume has changed a lot over the years, perhaps the wardrobe staff needed to replace a costume in a hurry without access to original designs or materials?

 

In 1964, the year of the ballet's premiere and the year I first saw it, Oberon's costume was quite beautiful, a renaissance styled tunic, with ruched sleeves, over time the sleeves become more puffed.  By 1976 Dowell had a costume that was a kind of body stocking with applique work, a huge change in twelve years for a ballet now 53 years old.

 

Make up is used to give Oberon an other worldly look, he is not human and must therefore look different, how anyone can fail to understand this, particularly a critic, is difficult to comprehend.

 

My memory for detail is quite good, but it does no harm to double check and I pulled the following books off the shelves for pictures of Oberon's costumes:

Ballet: Covent garden Books 15 dated 1964

Frederick Ashton a choreographer & his ballets by Dominic and Gilbert 1971

Sibley & Dowell by Spatt and Dromgoole 1976.

[penelopesimpson]

4 hours ago, Fonty said:

 

Me too.  And not a hint of the drag queen about it.  I thought Oberon looked wholly and completely masculine.  

Me, too.  The whole ensemble was wonderful and powerfully masculine.  Having said that, I am not sure that this is Mr. Campbell's best role, excellent though he was.

[LinMM]

Exactly Bidiem It has that quality of being a midday early afternoon ballet so I thought the lighting was fine reflecting a sunny day to me anyway.

i do wonder though that as so many ballets have such dark lighting these days whether SV may have seemed much brighter just by contrast. 

 

Going back to a post by Sim ages ago now( there are no post numbers any more it seems) I haven't brought proper programmes for ages now for ballets I've seen before ....I usually just get the cast list .....but maybe if I haven't seen a ballet for more than a good number of years I should start buying them again!!

This is my excuse anyway for misunderstanding that Marguerite did not have a husband in this ballet!! I would never have got all that info about Armands sister etc though ....just from watching the ballet....I guess that was in the programme notes. 

I had always thought she "rejects" Armand because of her illness .....eg she knows she is going to die so doesn't want to encourage him for that reason ....not for bringing the family into disrepute! Somehow the former seems more of a sacrifice to me but maybe that was why I was picking up from Ferri a slight more mature air of resignation of the inevitability of her position ......it always seemed much more of a tragedy for Fonteyn at this point .....or as my memory tells me .....memories are not always accurate of course!! But I was always reduced to tears watching her dance this role whereas I felt all the drama and sadness of her situation when Ferri danced but was always in control of my emotions in the end. It was still a wonderful performance though I love her as a dancer still.

But anyway the lurking around of Armands father makes a little more sense now I know it isn't her husband!! Thanks for the info Sim. ? 

I love the costumes for SV .....always have ...so cannot see a good reason to change them......and dancing the piece in the nude  definitely not an improvement ........though Im

ike your sense of humour Vanartus!! ..........

Likewise the Dream. I must have seen the original version but cannot remember whether Sibley wore a long blonde wig or not ...but Oberon looks very similar to the original. He is not supposed to be human so a little license with the makeup to give that other worldly look is in order I think! 

Im not a great fan of changing costumes etc for the sake of it but I think if they are they have to at least respect the spirit of the original designs.

[penelopesimpson]

15 hours ago, capybara said:

 

I do so agree, Darlex. So many dancers were 'relaxing' too soon on their exits.

 

 

It's all in this thread, Penelope: 

Oh lucky Queensland.  Two of my favourite ballets.  Not there for very long, though.

 

[LinMM]

Err sorry Bridiems post is now miles away already!!!

[LinMM]

Whoops have just now read the previous posts which appeared as was still typing mine and seen that MAB says Oberons costume HAS changed a lot. I would absolutely say that her memory on this will be better than mine. I only saw what seemed to be more longish bits attached to the arms ...the colour seemed very similar though but I've not a great eye for detail where costumes are concerned so had no idea it's changed so much over the years.

[alison]

31 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Going back to a post by Sim ages ago now( there are no post numbers any more it seems)

 

No, afraid not.  You either need to use the "share" button or quote page no. and time.

 

As for the "longish bits attached to the arms", don't forget that Oberon loses the longer version of his train sometime before he starts either the Scherzo or the pas de deux, I think.  Still doesn't necessarily stop the draperies getting caught on his crown, of course, but I assume it makes the dancing easier.

[alison]

On 11/06/2017 at 23:19, FLOSS said:

 The 1978 recording to which Petunia has provided a link will show you all sorts of essential  detail which you don't see in performance today. The recording it seems to me reveals the Dream to be a ballet whose choreographer was more concerned with effective story telling and creating character than the performance of unmodified classical steps. Somehow over the years some of the clear narrative details have been lost and a smoother more obviously classical ballet has been created

 

Thanks, FLOSS.  Again, I think this is why I have tended to be a bit lukewarm at best about many of the performances in recent years (except perhaps Marcelo Gomes').  I also wonder how many of the dancers have actually read the play before taking on the main roles - I suspect that it may not be that many, given that they often don't seem to realise that they're embodying Shakespeare's words in their dancing.

 

 

Incidentally, while I think of it: for people in the London area there is still one Encore showing to go - Wimbledon next Wednesday evening.  That's assuming that no repeat gets scheduled at Beckenham Odeon.

[taxi4ballet]

8 hours ago, alison said:

 

I also wonder how many of the dancers have actually read the play before taking on the main roles - I suspect that it may not be that many, given that they often don't seem to realise that they're embodying Shakespeare's words in their dancing.

My daughter is in vocational ballet training, and recently did just that - and had to write an essay about how the choreographer interpreted Shakespeare's words.

[LinMM]

The Royal opera house has just put some lovely photos out of Fonteyn and Nureyev in Marguerite and Armand on their Facebook page. Some may be interested to take a look.

[MAB]

Remember the days when the applause for it lasted as long as the actual ballet?

[LinMM]

Ha ha MAB yes ....and the crazy flower throwing ....and a lot of foot stomping which rarely seems to happen now!! And Nureyev running to her with his seemingly extra long cloak ....nobody could quite do a "passionate" run like him and nobody could quite convey  that all consuming joy like she could. Happy Ballet days!!! 

 

 

[Fonty]

Anybody know who the young men are gathered round Fonteyn?  They all seem to be genuinely laughing at some joke.

[LinMM]

Yes it does look like that I think probably not taken in actual performances? 

 

I dont suppose anyone is clever enough to know how to post a link to these photos on ROH Facebook website? 

 

[Jane S]

		Admirer of Marguerite   Keith Rosson Admirer of Marguerite   Bryan Lawrence Admirer of Marguerite   Robert Mead Admirer of Marguerite   Derek Rencher Admirer of Marguerite   David Drew Admirer of Marguerite   Jelko Yuresha Admirer of Marguerite   Kenneth Mason Admirer of Marguerite   Anthony Dowell   These were the first cast, according to ROH Collections - sorry about the formatting

[Josephine]

In reply to  LinMM, I hope that this will work:

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155404459122579&id=6597757578

[John Mallinson]

37 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Yes it does look like that I think probably not taken in actual performances? 

 

I dont suppose anyone is clever enough to know how to post a link to these photos on ROH Facebook website? 

 

 

These are they I think.

[LinMM]

Thanks Josephine and John Mallinson those links are perfect and can save a bit of time. There are a couple of real gems in there.

[capybara]

I feel a bit of a fraud simply copying and pasting this but ToThePointe's review needs to be on here:

 

http://tothepointemagazine.wixsite.com/tothepointemagazine/single-post/2017/06/20/Ashton-Triple-Bill

[Sim]

Thanks Capybara.  A great review that encapsulates all my feelings about that marvellous triple bill!

[Balletfanp]

Yes, and especially about Symphonic Variations. I had the same thoughts whilst watching it. I read somewhere that it was created - partly at least - as a piece of pure beauty and joy as a reaction to the horrors of war. It struck me that it fulfills a similar purpose today.

[ToThePointe]

Thank you so much Capybara - not being a fraud at all! 

[MAB]

A little after the event, but something I personally found fascinating was an article about Symphonic Variations written by Clive Barnes in Dance and Dancers in March 1963.  Three pages of critical analysis about a work at that time less than twenty years old.  The most interesting part of the piece concerns a much earlier conversation between Ashton and Richard Buckle about aspects of SV.

 

Originally Ashton wanted to express the seasons and that core idea remains within the ballet today.   The lone woman represents winter and the arrival of the man is spring and the last part of the ballet "represents to a certain extent the fullness of summer and the plenty of harvest".  Ashton goes on to expand on the idea and reveals he originally intended a much larger cast but he goes on to say that he more or less eliminated the complex ideas of this theme that were in his head and he is "willing to let people read whatever they liked into it".

 

Barnes goes on to recall his own reactions to the ballet and I was especially taken with the term 'passionate elegance' that he uses to describe the movements of Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes.  I have on a few occasions detected this myself.

 

As I said, this is a lengthy appreciation written at a time when ballet criticism was a serious business and I urge anyone at all interested in Ashton and his works to obtain a copy of this D&D issue, (I bought mine on ebay),  Also in this March 63 edition is a six page review of MacMillan's Symphony, a ballet still admired by those that saw it.  Sadly we probably won't see that remarkable ballet again, all the more reason to seek out the 3/63 D&D and discover what it was that made it such a satisfying work.