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Royal Ballet 2018/2019 Winter Season Casting


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38 minutes ago, Saodan said:

Casting for Espada and Mercedes is up on the site.

 

Given who is cast in these roles I presume they must be significant ones but neither is mentioned in the character list for the ballet on Wikipedia. Did Acosta invent additional characters for his production?

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@Dawnstar

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

Given who is cast in these roles I presume they must be significant ones but neither is mentioned in the character list for the ballet on Wikipedia. Did Acosta invent additional characters for his production?

 

@Dawnstar the roles named in that Wiki article are from the very earliest productions - Petipa and Gorsky.

 

You will see one called The Street Dancer, as portrayed by Preobrajenska in 1902 and introduced for that production. She is known as Mercedes in many productions.

 

Espada is the lead toreador, who is named in some productions, not in others.

 

Juanita as listed in that Wiki cast, also introduced in 1902, and danced by Pavlova, is a Friend To Kitri and sometimes simply listed as that.

 

Generally speaking, there's Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Basil or Basilio, Kitri (who usually also dances Dulcinea), Lorenzo (Kitri's father), Gamache (Kitri's rich suitor), Mercedes/the Street Dancer, Espada/lead toreador, Gypsy leaders, Queen of the Dryads, and Cupid/Amour. Also Friends To Kitri, who may or may not have names - much as some productions of Giselle name the lead Wilis Moyna and Zulma, others do not.

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9 hours ago, Sophoife said:

You will see one called The Street Dancer, as portrayed by Preobrajenska in 1902 and introduced for that production. She is known as Mercedes in many productions.

 

And sometimes they are different characters ... :) 

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19 hours ago, Sophoife said:

@Dawnstar

 

@Dawnstar the roles named in that Wiki article are from the very earliest productions - Petipa and Gorsky.

 

You will see one called The Street Dancer, as portrayed by Preobrajenska in 1902 and introduced for that production. She is known as Mercedes in many productions.

 

Espada is the lead toreador, who is named in some productions, not in others.

 

Juanita as listed in that Wiki cast, also introduced in 1902, and danced by Pavlova, is a Friend To Kitri and sometimes simply listed as that.

 

Generally speaking, there's Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Basil or Basilio, Kitri (who usually also dances Dulcinea), Lorenzo (Kitri's father), Gamache (Kitri's rich suitor), Mercedes/the Street Dancer, Espada/lead toreador, Gypsy leaders, Queen of the Dryads, and Cupid/Amour. Also Friends To Kitri, who may or may not have names - much as some productions of Giselle name the lead Wilis Moyna and Zulma, others do not.

 

Thank you very much for the clarification. It sounds like I might have to fork out the £8 for a programme for this one to get a proper synopsis specific to this production.

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There's an interesting New York Times article from 1978 about Baryshnikov's Don Q and how he chopped and changed the ballet. His changes might have been more drastic that the average new production, but it gives a nice flavour of how ballet develops over the years

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/21/archives/dance-view-ballet-theaters-new-don-quixote.html

 

There's also an excerpt from the Don Q program on the ROH site

https://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-spirit-of-don-quixote-a-history-of-the-ballet

 

The Petipa society also has a fair bit on Don Q history

https://petipasociety.com/don-quixote/

 

 

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11 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Thank you very much for the clarification. It sounds like I might have to fork out the £8 for a programme for this one to get a proper synopsis specific to this production.

 

And with Don Q in the cinema, the programme will most probably be available for free download.

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22 hours ago, alison said:

 

And sometimes they are different characters ... :) 

This ballet explaining stuff is tricky! 😉

 

The production I've seen the most is naturally Nureyev's for The Australian Ballet, in which there is a Street Dancer, but no character named Mercedes at all. Cast list for the last time the company performed it, in April 2013, listed Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Kitri, Basilio, Lorenzo, Gamache, two Friends of Kitri, Street Dancer, Espada, Queen of the Dryads, Amour, Lead Fandango Couple, Chief Bridesmaid and Gypsy Boy. Dulcinea was danced by the Kitri.

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13 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Thank you very much for the clarification. It sounds like I might have to fork out the £8 for a programme for this one to get a proper synopsis specific to this production.

 

I've scanned the synopsis page from the 2013/14 programme.  The Forum website won't allow me to upload both pages to this posting so I'll put the second page on another posting.

I hope this doesn't break Forum guidelines.

Don Q synopsis 1.GIF

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Just managed to upload the second page.  I'd be grateful if a Moderator would remove the post I made when I was having trouble uploading it. 

 

As you can see, there's no mention of Mercedes or Espada in this synopsis.  Maybe somebody with a programme from the revival could check if the synopsis was updated at that time?

 

Don Q synopsis 2.GIF

Edited by Bluebird
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17 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

It sounds like I might have to fork out the £8 for a programme for this one to get a proper synopsis specific to this production.

 

It's your decision whether or not to buy a programme, Dawnstar, but not if your reason is to discern the plot of Don Q! The only full length ballet lighter than Don Q on plot is Jewels. Lots of people have come out of a Don Q performance wondering "what on earth was that all about?" but no-one ever came out of a performance wanting to find out more about the intricacies of the plot.

 

The plot can be summarised as follows: A couple want to get married. Her dad isn't happy and wants a richer husband for her. A visiting knight comes by, mistakes her for an inamorata, gets a blow to the head and has a dream, the lovers trick her dad and get married. The end.

 

There's a lot of dancing (hopefully, good quality) around the story.

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4 hours ago, Bluebird said:

As you can see, there's no mention of Mercedes or Espada in this synopsis. 

 

1 hour ago, Tony Newcombe said:

The cast sheets from previous run include Espada, Mercedes and Kitri’s two friends

 

That was my point,Tony.  Espada and Mercedes have substantial roles in this production but the above synopsis fails to take account of them. 


Edited to add that I suppose it could be argued that they don't contribute much to the main story line.  Maybe that's why they've been left out of the synopsis?

Edited by Bluebird
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9 hours ago, Bluebird said:

As you can see, there's no mention of Mercedes or Espada in this synopsis.  Maybe somebody with a programme from the revival could check if the synopsis was updated at that time?

 

5 hours ago, Douglas Allen said:

 

It's your decision whether or not to buy a programme, Dawnstar, but not if your reason is to discern the plot of Don Q! The only full length ballet lighter than Don Q on plot is Jewels. Lots of people have come out of a Don Q performance wondering "what on earth was that all about?" but no-one ever came out of a performance wanting to find out more about the intricacies of the plot.

 

The plot can be summarised as follows: A couple want to get married. Her dad isn't happy and wants a richer husband for her. A visiting knight comes by, mistakes her for an inamorata, gets a blow to the head and has a dream, the lovers trick her dad and get married. The end.

 

There's a lot of dancing (hopefully, good quality) around the story.

 

It looks like the Wikipedia synopsis of the second version isn't actually too far off the RB's one then. I guess I'll just have to hope I recognise Mercedes & Espada when they enter & can work out what they're doing in relation to the plot while watching!

 

I'm interested to see Sarah Lamb pictured on the first page of @Bluebird's scan. I wonder why she isn't dancing Kitri in this run given she's evidently done the role before.

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Looks like Daniel Camargo, Principle with Dutch Nation Ballet, is replacing William Bracewell as Basilio on 23rd and 27th Feb. 

 

I was really hoping Reece Clarke would get the chance if needed, but am sure Camargo will be great. Incidentally, anybody know anything about him?

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54 minutes ago, Saodan said:

Looks like Daniel Camargo, Principle with Dutch Nation Ballet, is replacing William Bracewell as Basilio on 23rd and 27th Feb. 

 

I was really hoping Reece Clarke would get the chance if needed, but am sure Camargo will be great. Incidentally, anybody know anything about him?

 

He's a fine dancer.  We saw him here in London briefly with Stuttgart Ballet at Sadler's Wells.  

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17 hours ago, Saodan said:

Looks like Daniel Camargo, Principle with Dutch Nation Ballet, is replacing William Bracewell as Basilio on 23rd and 27th Feb. 

 

I was really hoping Reece Clarke would get the chance if needed, but am sure Camargo will be great. Incidentally, anybody know anything about him?

 

Mr Camargo danced as a guest (with Elisa Badenes) at the Australian Ballet's 50th anniversary gala in 2012 and blew us away. They performed a contemporary pas de deux by Demis Volpi set to Elvis Presley songs called Little Monsters and were the hit of the evening (the most frequent comment was "sex on legs"), then in the second half came out and gave us the Don Quixote pas de deux which was delightful and explosive. He was certainly the most popular guest at the knees-up following the gala! Poor young man, everyone wanted to meet him, and both men and women were flirting - it was amusing to watch, but my "date" for the evening did tell me that half the flirters were plumb out of luck.

 

He was still at Stuttgart at that time, having joined them in 2009 and two years later with Miss Badenes won the Audience Choice at the Erik Bruhn Prize. He was promoted Principal in 2013 and it was only a couple of years later that he joined Het Nationale Ballet as a principal.

 

Although Brazilian and trained at the John Cranko Schule, not Russian and trained at the Royal Ballet School, I find him similar to Mr Muntagirov in his technical facility, charm, and ever-improving artistry. I've been lucky enough to see him dance a couple of times since that first performance, and although I'm sorry for Mr Bracewell, I can assure you Miss Kaneko will be in safe but exciting (for the audience) hands.

 

I will be interested to hear what regular Royal Ballet watchers think of him.

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Thanks for this info!

 I asked the same question as Saodan on the Don Q thread as am going on the 27th so will see Mr Camargo....as long as he can remain injury free for another two weeks!  This day seems particularly jinxed it seems! 

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