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Royal Ballet Casting for Autumn Season 2018/19


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2 hours ago, Coated said:

 But to substitute a very different dancer for all 3 performances? Not a brilliant move. 

 

1 hour ago, loveclassics said:

But has he had enough time to rehearse with Osipova?  Those pdds look very  dangerous ...

 

Very sad not to see Edward in his possibly farewell appearances as Rudolf. 

Osipova and Hirano have 4 days to rehearse, which is difficult enough. And it would be unfair if the ballerina is offered to start rehearsing with 2-3 different partners.

My best wishes to Edward, Natasha and Riochi.

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Given the long-term nature of Watson's absence, I would speculate that in fact Hirano has already had some "just in case" runs with the "Watson" cast, and that Ball may have had some basic learning too.

 

As regards Gartside, I remember wondering why he wasn't dancing Leontes in last season's Winter's Tale and being reminded that he is a Principal Character Artist, by which I think he meant that the PTB don't like to cast PCAs in actual principal dancer roles. By extrapolation I'm suggesting that's why not him as Rudolf. 

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But surely he was that when he took over last time?  The fact remains that he is extraordinarily good in the role and it is a great pity, given the fact that the chief Rudolf is injured, not to let the audience have another great performance.

 

Also, like NinaMargaret, I can't understand why the cast changes are not featured on the Mayerling page.  Nutcracker changes are on the respective page, why is the Mayerling one which is fairly major by any standards, not mentioned?

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10 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

But surely he was that when he took over last time? 

 

Actually, no. Gartside was promoted PCA in July 2017. Just after pulling the company's nuts out of the fire in Brisbane after Soares was injured, by dancing (with Nuñez) two shows of Leontes (and Hermione) in one day.

 

PCAs are fine for Empress Elisabeth and Bay Middleton, but not for Rudolf it would seem.

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29 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

 

Actually, no. Gartside was promoted PCA in July 2017. Just after pulling the company's nuts out of the fire in Brisbane after Soares was injured, by dancing (with Nuñez) two shows of Leontes (and Hermione) in one day.

 

PCAs are fine for Empress Elisabeth and Bay Middleton, but not for Rudolf it would seem.

he was my first Leontes, and I would love to have seen him as Rudolph. I have a feeling that Ball will make an excellent Rudolph. Was impressed by him in the Unknown Soldier Insight and at the time thought we might have a Rudolph in the making. Hope I'm right, for everyone 's sake!!

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7 hours ago, capybara said:

I searched everywhere for this thread before posting the news of Watson's injury in the other section.  So I must apologise.

The search engine on here offered no help, I'm sorry to say.

 

Getting it to search on the tag "casting" would presumably have worked?  (That's why it's helpful when people use tags :) )

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4 hours ago, Sim said:

Yes, very sad for Ed but spare a thought for Ryo and Matt:  as mentioned, poor Ryo makes his debut to open the season, in front of the press, with one of the world's most famous ballerinas!  

 

Matthew Ball has exactly two weeks to learn this role (he only began on Monday).  It will be an amazing achievement to do it with one Mary, let alone any more. 

 

Yes kudos to both of them but no male dancer in his right mind would throw away such opportunities. Hirano mentioned at the Insight that he's been dancing roles in Mayerling since the early noughties and will have had ample opportunity to study many interpretations. Ball has also been in the two most recent runs, I think, and will  have elements of the ballet in his bones too.

 

Both of them will have a lot of us rooting for them. "Go Ryo". "Go Matt" I say....................:)

 

 

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3 hours ago, Texan said:

Will Matthew Ball become the youngest dancer to perform Rudolf at ROH?

 

My guess is yes.

 

Doesn't leave much time for half of Liverpool to arrange a trip down for his debut, does it? :) 

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1 hour ago, Sophoife said:

 

Actually, no. Gartside was promoted PCA in July 2017. Just after pulling the company's nuts out of the fire in Brisbane after Soares was injured, by dancing (with Nuñez) two shows of Leontes (and Hermione) in one day.

 

PCAs are fine for Empress Elisabeth and Bay Middleton, but not for Rudolf it would seem.

Surely it was Hirano who replaced the injured Soares on those occasions .

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1 hour ago, Tony Newcombe said:

Surely it was Hirano who replaced the injured Soares on those occasions .

 

I was in Brisbane, having booked to see Watson Friday, Soares Saturday afternoon and Gartside  Saturday night.

 

Soares and Calvert were scheduled to début in their roles on the Thursday.

 

I went to the Insight Friday afternoon at which Campbell and Takada were taken through the first part of the act II pdd, and Calvert the trial scene. At this Insight it was explained that Soares had been injured on Wednesday so Calvert had not danced Thursday, but that the "cover" Hirano was working (being worked?) extremely hard in order to be ready for the Saturday matinée.

 

I understand there was, in fact, a possibility that he wouldn't be and that Gartside and Nuñez would have to double up on the Saturday as well. Speaks volumes for the work ethics of all three, doesn't it, that Gartside and Nuñez were willing if necessary, and that Hirano was in fact able to do it (he'd had one rehearsal as Leontes prior to Soares' injury).

 

Bonelli danced Polixenes in both the Saturday shows; in the afternoon it should have been Hirano with Soares, so an interesting side-effect in that he'd had to re-learn all the Leontes/Polixenes moves from the other side!

 

Wednesday was as scheduled, Watson. Thursday both shows were Gartside/Nuñez. Friday was as scheduled Watson. Saturday matinée was Hirano replacing Soares. Saturday night was as scheduled Gartside. Sunday matinée was as scheduled Watson.

 

Given that Soares' most recent Instagram post at the time was a short video of himself, topless, ironing a shirt and boogying to some Latin music, I did wonder if his injury was a burn rather than anything else 😉

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14 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

Not at all amused by the fact that the ROH website does not make any mention of the change of cast either in its News section or on the Facebook page. OK, they list the cast changes against the performance schedule, but not as 'News'. New policy?

 

Not only that, but it's not even mentioned on the Mayerling page.  This is not only highly discourteous to the three dancers involved in the change - or are we expected to believe that all dancers are completely interchangeable, with no individual features of their own? - but to the audiences.  I hope that the company will at least have the courtesy to acknowledge the changes in the cast sheets this season, as they were signally failing to do last season (grrrr ...)

 

At least the ROH has had the decency to send out an email on this occasion.

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13 hours ago, alison said:

 

My guess is yes.

 

Doesn't leave much time for half of Liverpool to arrange a trip down for his debut, does it? :) 

Thank you. I am looking at last-minute flight deals from Houston to London around Oct. 20, before the half of Liverpool buy up the remaining tickets.

 

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Oh, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities in the next run: I'm assuming that at least two of the scheduled Rudolfs won't be dancing next time around :(   And possibly it was easier to move Ball into the role if - as I assume - he was pretty much only dancing Hungarian officers, rather than someone who was dancing Bratfisch as well.  Not to mention the fact that McRae will presumably have bagged a number of the shorter ballerinas required for the role.  It certainly appears to be beneficial to be a taller dancer - and one who seems to be able to learn roles very quickly, as well!

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28 minutes ago, alison said:

Oh, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities in the next run: I'm assuming that at least two of the scheduled Rudolfs won't be dancing next time around :(   And possibly it was easier to move Ball into the role if - as I assume - he was pretty much only dancing Hungarian officers, rather than someone who was dancing Bratfisch as well.  Not to mention the fact that McRae will presumably have bagged a number of the shorter ballerinas required for the role.  It certainly appears to be beneficial to be a taller dancer - and one who seems to be able to learn roles very quickly, as well!

 

 I agree that, on this occasion, being fairly tall will have been an advantage where substitution is concerned. However 1) there a 6 Bratfisches ; 2) Mayerling is unlikely to return for at least 4 years; 3) it is every male dancer's dream to be cast as Rudolf;  4) Takada only has two shows as Mary (of which one is a Schools' Matinee) and 5) neither Hayward nor Naghdi is cast as Mary.

I do understand the difficulties the RB is facing but, if I were Alexander...................!!!!!

 

 

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16 minutes ago, alison said:

Well, I might have thought the same about Ball - but am willing to be persuaded otherwise.

 

That was my first thought as well Alison. I am hoping to attend a Matthew Ball performance so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Personally I don't see how Alexander is any more unsuitable as Rudolf than Matthew and I thought Matthew had a lot on at the moment with debuting in Bayadere as well as his Matthew Bourne commitments.

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10 hours ago, serenade said:

 

He isn't...IMO he just gets overlooked a lot.  Would have loved to see him as Rudolf!

 

Me too! Especially after seeing his Lescaut. He's a highly versatile and interesting dancer/actor.

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Interestingly, getting on for 24 hours after I'd emailed the ROH to ask them to put my ticket for Monday night back on sale it was still sitting in my Upcoming Events, so I thought I'd better ring them and chivvy them along a bit :)  After 10 minutes in the queue, I'd finally got down to No. 1 in the queue, and it occurred to me that I might just want to refresh the page.  Ticket had vanished, so it's a good job I checked first!

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On 04/10/2018 at 20:39, annamk said:

Maybe it’s about suitability, not just height  ? Personally I really can’t see Campbell as Rudolf ...... likewise Muntagirov. 

 

I couldn't see Pennefather or Bonelli as Rudolf either but there you go. 😊

 

I have to admit I'm constantly surprised by Mayerling casting. I remember thinking Cojocaru was miscast and too young for Mary Vetsera and Tatiana but the roles changed my perception of her completely.

 

Always looking forward to surprises!

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I used to think a lot about 'suitability' of dancers for roles but now I try not to, or to comment on it speculatively - the only thing to do, is to comment on the actual performance they give- the only thing that counts.

 

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On 04/10/2018 at 00:36, capybara said:

 

Oh YESSSS!  

However, it is a huge thing to get dancers up and running to dance Rudolf (goodness knows how they are managing that with Matthew Ball, especially given that he was away in Plymouth and so actively involved in the Insight and WBD focus on Unbroken Soldier) and having 5 casts will already, surely, be stretching the resources of the RB.

 

Early on in this thread, there were complaints to the effect that Ball was "not doing much" in the Autumn casting, especially for someone tipped (at that time) to be promoted Principal (which he duly was). If I remember correctly, at that time it had not yet been made public that he would be performing in the Bourne Swan Lake as well.

 

I do wonder, did They (you know, the PTB) perhaps decide way back then to have him learn Rudolf, just in case a change was required in the proposed casting? After all, it's pretty clear Gartside isn't going to be cast in a principal dancing role in a full-length ballet again, and with Hirano already making a planned début, and Kish mysteriously almost completely absent, and Campbell not under consideration at this stage, and Muntagirov probably needing at least ten years of living to excess (he'd better start now) to be able not to be utterly charming (and probably to start with dancing Lescaut at least), someone had to be the cover...

 

On 04/10/2018 at 01:02, capybara said:

Didn't Gartside replace Kobborg, Bruce?

 

On 04/10/2018 at 02:09, penelopesimpson said:

Yup, at really short notice and he was amazing

 

I asked him about that when I met him (by arrangement) at stage door last year. He said he had originally learned the role for the 2002-03 season, but as a learning experience only. He was then a cover for subsequent seasons but had not gone on until that 2013 occasion, he said he had been terrified and excited all at the same time, and hugely relieved and happy when the first show was done. I do think They have missed a trick in not casting him as Leontes or having him as an available Rudolf cover, but perhaps it is his own choice? Not knowing, can't say.

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