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Royal Ballet 2018/2019 Winter Season Casting


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8 minutes ago, JennyTaylor said:

The website is a disaster - really, they need to get their act together.

 

Agreed. They sent out a survey about it a few months ago, which asked among other things whether the respondent would be up for doing some user testing. I said I would and made some specific and usable comments about necessary fixes to recent "improvements" which should be easy to implement - I have some background in application and website development, so I know that things can be more complicated than they appear, but these were simple things related to User Experience and design, the kind of thing that should be ironed out without any difficulty.

 

Anyway, I've never heard back about the user testing and the issues I highlighted are still there. I wonder why I bothered!

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My position on the Ashton repertory is very clear. I have the eccentric idea that if you say that the work of a particular choreographer is central to your company's artistic identity then you ought to consistently stage a good swathe of that key choreographer's work every season. But  that was not the point that I was making in my last post. What I said or thought I had said was that programming a run of performances of one of MacMillan's popular narrative works can have an adverse effect on the corps' technical standards. The limited technical demands which the MacMillan ballet places on the corps was not a problem when the company danced a wide range of repertory during the course of the month or six weeks during which the MacMillan narrative work was performed but it is when there is very little contrasting classically demanding work programmed along side it .In abandoning the conventions  and the stylisation of the Petipa style classical ballet MacMillan may have given himself greater artistic freedom but in doing so he eliminated the structural features which provide  development opportunities for junior dancers and help maintain a company's technical standards. His  chosen expressive style of choreography and his desire to infuse his narrative with realism does not provide much opportunity for divertissements or technically exposed sections of choreography for large numbers of dancers to perform in unison. It is the  more artificial and stylised form of the Petipa classical ballet which provides them. Something which Ashton recognised and emulated, albeit sometimes in disguised form, in the structure of his own ballets.  If you look at Romeo and Juliet. Manon and Mayerling and look at what the corps dance  rather than what the leading dancers are given to perform you will find that while the choreography for the bulk of the corps may be theatrically effective it rarely provides any great technical challenges or exposes them to close scrutiny.

 

 

Please  bear in mind that Kevin can't give everyone what they want for their favourite dancer or dancers without being" unfair" to someone else's favourite dancer. So he can't win. For those of you expressing concern that Hayward was not given Odette / Odile this season  I would simply point out that she has got a very nice selection of roles in the Royal Ballet's core repertory. I don't think that anyone who at the age of twenty six has Lise, Titania, Manon, Juliet, Giselle, SPF, Aurora, Alice, Perdita the ballerina role in Rhapsody, and who dances Vera and Princess Stephanie, which was created as a Principal role, has anything to complain about and nor do her ardent fans. Perhaps we should all be grateful that the company no longer treats dancers as the "flavour of the month" flinging as many new roles at them as possible for a short time, with no time to consolidate anything, only to drop them like a hot potato in favour of the next "flavour of the month" a short time later.

 

 I would ask those of you who seem to  think that Naghdi has been given preferential treatment to stop and consider just how many core RB  repertory roles she has been given. Juliet, Mistress, Aurora, SPF, Giselle, Perdita  and Odette/Odile as well as a lead role  in Emeralds a side dancer in Symphonic Variations, plus Tarantella and the tricky classical pas  de deux in Anastasia. She is to dance Gamzatti and Kitri for the first time this season while so far the only new role announced for Hayward is the Young Girl in Two Pigeons,  acquiring yet another plum Ashton role this time one created for Seymour. Personally I think that management is being remarkably even handed.

 

Remember as far as all the recently promoted dancers are concerned getting promotion is the easy part. The hard work begins after promotion when a dancer has to prove that they deserve their position in the company every time they go on stage. A Principal dancer has to display total command of the repertory they have been given and the ability to make it their own. All of the new Principals need the opportunity to consolidate and develop their interpretations of the roles they have been given. The ability to give consistently good performances is far more important than the number of new roles a dancer is given in any one season. In a programme shown at the time of Fonteyn's death Moira Shearer said that the true secret of Fonteyn's greatness was not her artistry although she was a great artist but the consistently high quality of her performances. She said that while other dancers might have been able to dance as well as Fonteyn and on occasion surpass her but their performances were far more variable in quality her strength was that you were guaranteed  a high quality performance whenever you went to see her.

 

From a purely practical point of view unless everyone writes to Kevin pointing out who should be dancing with whom he will have no idea what his casting should look like after all he is only the Artistic Director. Personally I think that Kevin is being very canny with some of the pairings in the casts announced. I can't help wondering whether he is hoping to generate more ticket sales. 

 

Finally a general point about height. Wayne Sleep once said that if he had been taller he would have got into the company with a decent technique. But when he asked what he needed to do to get into the company he had been told that because of his height he would need to jump  twice as high and be twice as good as anyone else so he took extra classes and worked really hard. Being short is generally far more of a problem for male dancers than for female dancers.  Remember  you need to add a few inches onto a female dancer's  to take account of the her height when on pointe . For a short male dancer the difficulty is that he is likely to be far less adaptable and useful as a dancer as there will inevitably  be female dancers who are too tall for him to partner and a company may find it difficult if it has to make special arrangements to find suitable partners for  several short men.The company made arrangements to secure a petite dancer as a partner for Ivan Putrov. It did  something along the same lines for McRae. It is not clear that it has done the same thing for Campbell and while some may wish to see him dance with Hayward there are probably some who would prefer to see her dance with Hay or Sambe. That not everyone can be satisfied is one of the basic facts of ballet going.

 

 

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2 hours ago, JennyTaylor said:

For me the highlight is the casting of the Two Pigeons, but agree with everyone about the Campbell/ Hayward partnership, which for me is the ultimate "must see". Really frustrating when it's clearly what the audience (the paying public) want to see. [...] There seems to be no recognition of this exquisite partnership with the RB management - or what the public want to see. 

 

Posters on this site are, of course, only a very small - albeit vocal, in some cases - proportion of the RB's audience.  There is no guarantee that the rest of them even care about who they're seeing, or want to see specific casts.

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6 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Posters on this site are, of course, only a very small - albeit vocal, in some cases - proportion of the RB's audience.  There is no guarantee that the rest of them even care about who they're seeing, or want to see specific casts.

 

Some do. Some don't.  A theatre which sits 2000 will always have a mixture. I would warrant a quarter to see that cast, a quarter who are seeing many casts, a quarter because it is the Opera house, and a quarter just to see a ballet. 

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32 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

From a purely practical point of view unless everyone writes to Kevin pointing out who should be dancing with whom he will have no idea what his casting should look like after all he is only the Artistic Director. Personally I think that Kevin is being very canny with some of the pairings in the casts announced. I can't help wondering whether he is hoping to generate more ticket sales. 

 

Finally a general point about height. Wayne Sleep once said that if he had been taller he would have got into the company with a decent technique. But when he asked what he needed to do to get into the company he had been told that because of his height he would need to jump  twice as high and be twice as good as anyone else so he took extra classes and worked really hard. Being short is generally far more of a problem for male dancers than for female dancers.  Remember  you need to add a few inches onto a female dancer's  to take account of the her height when on pointe . For a short male dancer the difficulty is that he is likely to be far less adaptable and useful as a dancer as there will inevitably  be female dancers who are too tall for him to partner and a company may find it difficult if it has to make special arrangements to find suitable partners for  several short men.The company made arrangements to secure a petite dancer as a partner for Ivan Putrov. It did  something along the same lines for McRae. It is not clear that it has done the same thing for Campbell and while some may wish to see him dance with Hayward there are probably some who would prefer to see her dance with Hay or Sambe. That not everyone can be satisfied is one of the basic facts of ballet going.

 

The Ballet of Canada would get complaints when the lovely Guillaume Cote did not dance with his frequent partner and wife. Whose name I think is Heather. It is not so unusual I think. We are narrative creatures and a dance partnership with many roles and a couple partnered regularly arc feeds into this need and especially of you believe the narrative they create on stage.

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1 hour ago, John Mallinson said:

There’s a list of the so-far-announced casting for the Winter season on the Ballet Association website. Hope it’s accurate. 

 

http://www.balletassociation.co.uk/Pages/news.html#Winter19

 

Thank you, John, for your hard work in doing this.  At least somebody cares about casting!  The ROH website is not fit for purpose in this respect.  I've just printed off the autumn casting off the ROH calendar in preparation for tomorrow (having previously copied and pasted into Word for greater clarity and got 9 pages of garbage!), and the result is appalling: no indication of what the ballet is (although thankfully if it's October it's Mayerling, November it's Bayadere etc. ..., which helps), all the Drosselmeyers missing from the Nutcracker casting, and no indication of who's conducting what, either.  If they've abolished the booking booklets the least they can do is to produce a properly printable version for (those of) us (who have internet access) to use as a replacement.

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4 hours ago, alison said:

 

Thank you, John, for your hard work in doing this.  At least somebody cares about casting!  The ROH website is not fit for purpose in this respect.  I've just printed off the autumn casting off the ROH calendar in preparation for tomorrow (having previously copied and pasted into Word for greater clarity and got 9 pages of garbage!), and the result is appalling: no indication of what the ballet is (although thankfully if it's October it's Mayerling, November it's Bayadere etc. ..., which helps), all the Drosselmeyers missing from the Nutcracker casting, and no indication of who's conducting what, either.  If they've abolished the booking booklets the least they can do is to produce a properly printable version for (those of) us (who have internet access) to use as a replacement.

 

The easy to print casting for the Autumn season is here.  No need to thank me, or for producing the list of the winter casting that has been announced so far, posted earlier in the thread.

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Does anyone know when R&J casting is out? I'm worried about emptying my pockets next booking period, only to realise I've no money left for all the R&Js I want. Will it be out before public booking opens for the next booking period on 31 October?  

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7 minutes ago, RHowarth said:

Does anyone know when R&J casting is out? I'm worried about emptying my pockets next booking period, only to realise I've no money left for all the R&Js I want. Will it be out before public booking opens for the next booking period on 31 October?  

 

It should be. Casting for full lengths is normally announced before patrons booking starts, though sometimes it's just before premium 2 friends booking.

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4 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

The easy to print casting for the Autumn season is here.  No need to thank me, or for producing the list of the winter casting that has been announced so far, posted earlier in the thread.

 

Thanks, BBB.  I must have missed it, 3 1/2 months ago.  Fortunately I'm not aware of any cast changes in the meantime.  But as far as I'm aware, this isn't available on the website anywhere?

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9 hours ago, alison said:

 

Posters on this site are, of course, only a very small - albeit vocal, in some cases - proportion of the RB's audience.  There is no guarantee that the rest of them even care about who they're seeing, or want to see specific casts.

 

True. But I would hope that KOH et al would care even more than we do, and would also want to see specific casts. Even given FLOSS's very interesting comments above, I find the unwillingness to allow partnerships (except, for some reason, Nunez and Muntagirov - which I don't actually think is a natural partnership although they are both brilliant) to develop a little strange, and sad.

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The mishmash of partnerships seems rather odd to me too but on the other hand it creates certain excitement and curiosity.

 

Since the R&J/Naghdi-Ball partnership (many of us absolutely adored), we have seen them rarely together except in Sleeping Beauty a while ago, and during the past season as Sugar Plum/Prince and Giselle/Albrecht (one performance only). Next season they dance nothing together, hopefully they'll dance R&J in June 2019. They were paired in Swan Lake in Madrid only because Naghdi had to replace Osipova. Ball is more and more partnered with Cuthbertson and Osipova. There are others such as the Hayward/Campbell partnership? and yes why is Nunez always with Muntagirov (I agree with bridiem: not a natural partnership at all)

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11 hours ago, Bluebird said:

 

For each date, scroll down for the Two Pigeons cast:

 

Jan 18 https://www.roh.org.uk/events/3vlgy

 

Feb 5 https://www.roh.org.uk/events/4vk2p

 

The casts you mention are for Asphodel Meadows

 

Thanks very much for this, Bluebird; now I know which date to go for! Of course if the ROH had it on their website in a clear fashion as they have for Don Q there wouldn't be a problem.

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10 hours ago, FLOSS said:

It is not clear that it has done the same thing for Campbell and while some may wish to see him dance with Hayward there are probably some who would prefer to see her dance with Hay or Sambe. That not everyone can be satisfied is one of the basic facts of ballet going.

 

Actually, I like the idea of Hayward with Bracewell as in The Two Pigeons.

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There are so many  interesting possible combinations given the  talents available.

As much as I like the idea of bringing back certain succesful pairings (such as Hayward/Campbell) I wouldn't want any lead pairs to be tied to each other more or less as a matter of course - as now seems to be happening with Nunez and Muntagirov, at least in the main roles, presumably as this  pairing is considered to be a safe bet and popular .

 

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4 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

as now seems to be happening with Nunez and Muntagirov, at least in the main roles, presumably as this  pairing is considered to be a safe bet and popular .

 

Except that pretty much everything the Royal Ballet does seems to sell out without any additional discounts necessary; that applies doubly in the repertoire that Nunez and Muntagirov tend towards.

 

I'm not anti-steady partnerships (nor anti-Nunez!) but like others I'd love to see Muntagirov, in particular, dance more with other partners.

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6 hours ago, RHowarth said:

Does anyone know when R&J casting is out? I'm worried about emptying my pockets next booking period, only to realise I've no money left for all the R&Js I want. Will it be out before public booking opens for the next booking period on 31 October?  

 

6 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

It should be. Casting for full lengths is normally announced before patrons booking starts, though sometimes it's just before premium 2 friends booking.

 

R&J is in the Spring booking period, which opens for Premium 2 friends at the end of November and for general public at the end of January.

 

RHowarth, I think your question was "will I know the Spring casting before I have to book for Winter season?"  (I had to read it a few times before I realised you weren't under the misapprehension that it was in the Winter period.)

 

To which the answer is, possibly (after all, we've just been told some of the Winter season casting the day before the Autumn season went on general sale) but not necessarily.

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13 hours ago, FLOSS said:

It is not clear that it has done the same thing for Campbell and while some may wish to see him dance with Hayward there are probably some who would prefer to see her dance with Hay or Sambe. 

 


Indeed, and while most on this forum seem to enjoy the Hayward/Campbell partnership, I personally don't find it particularly successful. While I hold Alexander Campbell in high regard as a dancer, I think he has little chemistry with Francesca Hayward on stage. I also don't find them physically compatible, for example their heads are very different sizes (this may seem trivial, but as a spectator I believe it matters). In fact I was disappointed when Marcelino Sambé had to pull out of Giselle, as he is such a well-matched partner for Hayward, in my opinion. Though I don't have further evidence, if her Instagram posts are anything to go by, Hayward seems to favour Sambé as a partner, too. 

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49 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

 

R&J is in the Spring booking period, which opens for Premium 2 friends at the end of November and for general public at the end of January.

 

RHowarth, I think your question was "will I know the Spring casting before I have to book for Winter season?"  (I had to read it a few times before I realised you weren't under the misapprehension that it was in the Winter period.)

 

To which the answer is, possibly (after all, we've just been told some of the Winter season casting the day before the Autumn season went on general sale) but not necessarily.

 

Sorry, my misunderstanding

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I am a tad confused.

I see that some casting ( second post) has been given which looks like an official ROH link but which is NOT on the "What's On" ROH list.

If they already have the casting why isn't it under "What's On"

I suppose am trying to say can you trust that casting which has been posted on this thread in the Forum.....I mean is that some sort of "insider" knowledge but it could change? 

I also find it odd that on the "What's On" page there is casting for Don Q etc as far ahead as April but NO casting for some performances in November!! 

Perhaps Ive had too much sun today 🤒

 

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12 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I am a tad confused.

I see that some casting ( second post) has been given which looks like an official ROH link but which is NOT on the "What's On" ROH list.

If they already have the casting why isn't it under "What's On"

I suppose am trying to say can you trust that casting which has been posted on this thread in the Forum.....I mean is that some sort of "insider" knowledge but it could change? 

I also find it odd that on the "What's On" page there is casting for Don Q etc as far ahead as April but NO casting for some performances in November!! 

Perhaps Ive had too much sun today 🤒

 

 

You need to click through onto the individual show pages.

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Lin, I suspect the truth is that the website is something of a shambles at the moment (as they're stuck between the outgoing and new systems) and casting is having to be manually entered in each place, with variable success.

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8 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

You need to click through onto the individual show pages.

 

The trouble is that there is more than one version of each individual show's page, e.g. the one you get to by clicking on a date via https://www.roh.org.uk/mixed-programmes/les-patineurs-winter-dreams-the-concert, which has no casting information; and https://www.roh.org.uk/events/4dy99, which you get to via the calendar, and carries the casting information.

 

It's a real dog's dinner.

 

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When I do click on the individual pages let's say for "The Concert" there is still no casting shown!! On the What's on page I mean which is the page I would book from!

But the casting for it has been given on this Forum!! 

I can't find anywhere else to see this but am wary about booking until it's shown officially .....even though I know for ballet nothing is certain so far ahead 

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13 minutes ago, LinMM said:

When I do click on the individual pages let's say for "The Concert" there is still no casting shown!! On the What's on page I mean which is the page I would book from!

But the casting for it has been given on this Forum!! 

I can't find anywhere else to see this but am wary about booking until it's shown officially .....even though I know for ballet nothing is certain so far ahead 

 

If you go to https://www.roh.org.uk/events/4dy99 then look for Lauren Cuthbertson on it (near the bottom on the right hand side in my browser), you'll see where I mean.

 

Similar pages for each performance can be got to via https://www.roh.org.uk/seasons/2018-19/winter/events?artform=ballet-and-dance&venues=main-stage,linbury-studio-theatre,clore-studio-upstairs&types=performance,rehearsal&days=2,3,4,5,6,7,1&time=all&order=date.

 

Is that at all helpful? If not, I'll try and paste a link to the season casting sheet which they normally issue once it's been put up in the Friends area.

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9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

When I do click on the individual pages let's say for "The Concert" there is still no casting shown!! On the What's on page I mean which is the page I would book from!

But the casting for it has been given on this Forum!! 

I can't find anywhere else to see this but am wary about booking until it's shown officially .....even though I know for ballet nothing is certain so far ahead 

 

Here’s one way to find the casting: 

 

Go to the ROH Home Page. Scroll down and you’ll see the calendar on the right hand side. Go to the month you’re interested in, click on the name of the month at the top of the calendar. All performances for that month should appear. Click on any individual performance and the casting will be there.

 

Having said that, by the time booking opens for the Winter Season, the casting will probably be available in the normal place.

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8 hours ago, RuthE said:

 

 

R&J is in the Spring booking period, which opens for Premium 2 friends at the end of November and for general public at the end of January.

 

RHowarth, I think your question was "will I know the Spring casting before I have to book for Winter season?"  (I had to read it a few times before I realised you weren't under the misapprehension that it was in the Winter period.)

 

To which the answer is, possibly (after all, we've just been told some of the Winter season casting the day before the Autumn season went on general sale) but not necessarily.

I did indeed mean that - apologies to Ruth and Bangor Ballet Boy for not being clear! I'm sure the booking periods used to be numbered rather than autumn, winter etc and I had a mental block about what the Winter and Spring seasons were called (despite being on a thread entitled 'Winter season casting'...) Thanks for the answers and clarification. 

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Thanks all!! Sorry to be so obtuse I usually just book from the What's On page.

I wondered how so many on here seemed to have "prior" knowledge on casting!! 

But I have to say it is odd to have the casting in one place and not in another!! 

 

Its ts going to be quite a feat working out which performances to go to in the triple bills ( because of wanting to see certain dancers who may not go together!) Especially for the Two Pigeons as I like Asphodel Meadows but want to see Hayward in Pigeons which is with a new work for the RBS so will just have to go twice!! Can't make a decision otherwise! 

Also the Symphony in C triple is difficult as that's combined with two different programmes as well!! Just as well I will be happy to see that twice as well!! 

Im one of those who these days mostly goes just once to each production and go with casts I've not seen in them etc but it's getting harder at the moment to decide who to see as I'm starting to want to see all the casts!!.....which I did a lot way back in the 70's but haven't done this for years now!! 

 

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