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The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, Autumn 2018


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  • Jan McNulty changed the title to Royal Ballet - Mayerling - Autumn 2018
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I'm sure you're correct Penelope - there are some rave posts about the Bonelli/Morera performances from last time and I'd recommend having a read of the thread (which I hope is attached).  I think the performances were early May so around page 10 in the 2017 thread.

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Penelope - yes, yes, yes and more yesses to Bonelli/Morera! Totally different to Watson,as you would expect. I've even got a weird hunch that McRae was probably nearer to the historical Rudolph but that's not what the ballet is about. My two in this run are Watson and Bonelli. Incidentally, the Sunday Times,Culture section described it today as the Kama Sutra of classical works. No comment from me!

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Bonelli/Morera was such a success mainly because of their partnership, I felt.

I also greatly enjoyed McRae who brought out something appropriately twisted in the role; and he always has the technical strength in abundance.

 

Surely Rudolf-one of the toughest male roles in the repertoire - is an enormous challenge to both McRae and Watson to come straight back into after injury. McRae, on crutches very recently I  believe,  is being filmed on his first night too.

 

I wish them both good luck, with much admiration for their courage.

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1 hour ago, nycitybird said:

The Bonelli cast was electric, and I'm gutted they didn't give them the cinema relay. Who knows if Bonelli and Morera will still be dancing next time it comes round. I wonder if Morera is well now.

Bonelli and Morera, with a glorious Olivia Cowley, gave one of the most memorable performances of any ballet that I have ever seen. I cannot fathom why they have not been allotted the broadcast...

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2 hours ago, nycitybird said:

The Bonelli cast was electric, and I'm gutted they didn't give them the cinema relay. Who knows if Bonelli and Morera will still be dancing next time it comes round. I wonder if Morera is well now.

I so agree nycitybird. I too thought they were terrific last time around and fully deserved a cinema broadcast this time.  I'm sure Mcrae is young enough to be recorded next time around whereas Morera/Bonelli may not be. Laura especially doesn't get the cinema broadcasts she deserves.

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I agree too.  The Bonelli/Morera cast outshone all the others by a country mile in 2017.  I have just been re-reading our comments from that run, and they clearly bowled us over. Such a shame that the wider audience should be deprived of the chance to see these deeply moving and almost perfect interpretations of these roles.  

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9 minutes ago, Sim said:

I agree too.  The Bonelli/Morera cast outshone all the others by a country mile in 2017.  

 

Totally agree. And, in my view, McRae 'undershined' the other Rudolfs by an ocean. It almost seems as if he has a clause in his contract which gives him so many cinema broadcasts. He has had more than his fair share for years and years. 

 

Let's not forget, also, that cinema relays expose dancers to a huge international audience, thus enhancing their worldwide profile, guesting opportunities and earning potential. All the more reason to share the broadcasts around. But I think that we've been here before in relation to the younger ballerinas....................

 

 

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31 minutes ago, Sim said:

I agree too.  The Bonelli/Morera cast outshone all the others by a country mile in 2017.  I have just been re-reading our comments from that run, and they clearly bowled us over. Such a shame that the wider audience should be deprived of the chance to see these deeply moving and almost perfect interpretations of these roles.  

 

Me also. I went along not expecting anything special, although I love them both I just couldn't imagine they were suited to those roles. How wrong I was, they completely blew me away, not only the best performances of that run but IMO by far and away the best interpretations I've seen for years. Utterly baffling that the ROH has given McRae the live relay. 

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1 hour ago, Sim said:

I agree too.  The Bonelli/Morera cast outshone all the others by a country mile in 2017.  I have just been re-reading our comments from that run, and they clearly bowled us over. Such a shame that the wider audience should be deprived of the chance to see these deeply moving and almost perfect interpretations of these roles.  

 

Especially when both must be closer than naught to their retirement points .... and both have had more than their own fair share of injury.  

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10 hours ago, capybara said:

 

Totally agree. And, in my view, McRae 'undershined' the other Rudolfs by an ocean. It almost seems as if he has a clause in his contract which gives him so many cinema broadcasts. He has had more than his fair share for years and years. 

 

Has he, really?  I know he was in Woolf Works, last year, and presumably in Jewels - as were a lot of other dancers - and he has an inordinate number of Nutcracker DVDs to his name, but apart from that?  I'm trying to remember what has been broadcast in the past couple of years.  Not Manon, not Giselle, not Swan Lake ...  He did get The Dream last year, and Rhapsody a while before that, and he has a whole lot of broadcasts coming up, certainly.

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Hello, everyone 

This is my first post.

 

Here in Asia, I'm almost entirely dependent on the ROH cinema relays to keep up with the company, and I don't usually have the luxury of seeing multiple casts, so the casting announcements for the cinema relays are always a big event for me.

I've not actually seen Mayerling the ballet, so I may not appreciate the full extent of the disappointment expressed here over McRae being filmed instead of Bonelli, but I do share it, because of the raves I've read here, and because I generally prefer Bonelli's subtlety as a performer to McRae's style, and most of all, because there are only so many cinema relays a year and I don't know when or if I'll get to see Bonelli (and Morera) again before they retire.

 

Still, I think it's fair to point out that if McRae has had "more than his fair share" of cinema relays, then so has Bonelli.

 

From notes on cinema casting that I've kept over the years:
 

-----------------------------------------

2011-12 season
Romeo and Juliet - Bonelli
La Fille mal gardée - McRae

 

2012-13

The Nutcracker - McRae
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Bonelli

 

2013-14

The Nutcracker - Bonelli
The Sleeping Beauty - McRae
The Winter’s Tale  - Bonelli (Polixenes) and McRae (Florizel)

 

2014-15
Manon - Bonelli
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Bonelli and McRae (Madhatter)

 

2015-16
Romeo and Juliet - McRae
Tchaikovsky pas de deux  - McRae
Rhapsody - McRae
Frankenstein - Bonelli and McRae

 

2016-17

Anastasia - Bonelli (act II pas de deux)
The Nutcracker - Bonelli
The Dream - McRae
Rubies - McRae
Woolf Works - Bonelli and McRae

 

2017-18
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Bonelli and McRae (Madhatter)
The Nutcracker - McRae
Yugen - Bonelli


----------------------------------------

Incidentally, in the last season, McRae would have had two more relays if he hadn't been injured - The Age of Anxiety and Winter's Tale - so it's understandable that there's a sense that he's dominating the cinema casts. But that's not quite true, and in the upcoming seasons, not just the next, I expect to see as much of Muntagirov and Ball.
In any case, for the coming cinema season, I'm hoping against hope that I'll at least see Morera and Bonelli in the Pite/Wheeldon/Cherkaoui triple bill.

 

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On 28/08/2018 at 01:08, Fonty said:

Well, it makes a change that the female lead isn't Nunez.  Not that I have anything against her personally, but she seems to get the lion's share of the live broadcasts I think?

 

I won't go into too much detail as this a Mayerling thread, but the relays have generally been more evenly distributed among the female principals.

 

Nunez appeared in only one out of the eight ballets shown the last cinema season, and she was absent in the first two cinema seasons (there have been seven so far). Since then, in seasons with four or five ballets, she has never appeared more than once, and in those with six or more ballets, never more than twice.

 

But it's true that as and when she's been filmed for the cinema, it's often been in the biggest roles in the classic repertoire - Odette/Odile, Aurora, Giselle, Kitri, Manon, which may explain why she seems disproportionately prominent.

 

In fact the next season will only be the first time she's filmed for the cinema as the Sugar Plum Fairy - even Morera has been filmed before her, in 2012.

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Back to Mayerling and I've been a little snookered by booking for the 4th Ring Cycle which means I really can't fit in a Morera/Bonelli Mayerling performance.  I also rather took the view that with similar casts to last time, I'd only go to the performances on 13 October - Hirano and Watson casts, plus the cinema relay.  Had there been a more radical change of casting, I'd have booked more performances, particularly if Francesca Hayward had been dancing Mary Vetsera.

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15 hours ago, Mary said:

I am sure there are very good reasons why some Principals are chosen more often for the filming. 100% rock solid reliability perhaps.

 

Unclear what you mean - whether they will turn up or give a good performance?  I am a fan of Macrae but I have no hesitation in saying that Rudolf is not his role.

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On 29/08/2018 at 06:51, Mary said:

I am sure there are very good reasons why some Principals are chosen more often for the filming. 100% rock solid reliability perhaps.

 

 

Any dancer who has attained the Principal rank is supposed to be 100% reliable (but some are more injury prone or pull out of performances and are therefore less reliable) especially when it comes to performing in a live cinema worldwide broadcast. Up until now the older Principals have featured heavily in the cinema broadcasts (fair enough); after all it's only been two Seasons since the RB has added younger Principals to the top rank. I guess their time has now come to be featured (if the R&J poster of the cinema relay in June2019 is anything to go by...)  

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I understand that many would like to see different Principals in the live screenings, and we all have our favourites.

However, I was speculating that, it cannot just be a random choice, but that Mr O'Hare and the management must deliberately choose dancers for the live relays who  they feel to be the most reliable- that is, to give a good and error-free performance. The broadcast being in close-up and watched round the world, and seen by other companies, this would seem understandable. Their choices perhaps show who they consider to be these ultra- reliable dancers.

I am not privy to their thoughts, and could be entirely wrong of course, but it is hard to see what other criteria are operating.

 

 

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Sorry - continuing the cinema theme but it is Mayerling-related.  I think that "giving Principals turns" and the inevitability that some dancers will press harder than others also come into play. 

 

[BTW, the Evening Standard had a big feature on the McRaes yesterday. Missed it myself, as I didn't pick up a copy for once, but others may be interested.]

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The McRae article in the ES is in the Homes&Property/London Life section.

It's the first of a series looking at how busy Londoners with demanding jobs live and raise families. He talks about his home search, money matters and renovating his home in Kew.

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On 29/08/2018 at 03:48, saki said:

 

But it's true that as and when she's been filmed for the cinema, it's often been in the biggest roles in the classic repertoire - Odette/Odile, Aurora, Giselle, Kitri, Manon, which may explain why she seems disproportionately prominent.

 

 

Ah, maybe that's why I seem to have seen a lot of her, then.  Those are the ones I will make an effort to see at the cinema if I am not going to the actual theatre.

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2 hours ago, capybara said:

Sorry - continuing the cinema theme but it is Mayerling-related.  I think that "giving Principals turns" and the inevitability that some dancers will press harder than others also come into play. 

 

[BTW, the Evening Standard had a big feature on the McRaes yesterday. Missed it myself, as I didn't pick up a copy for once, but others may be interested.]

I think Macrae has always paid attention to his publicity which heightens his profile and benefits RB.  I have always thought that more could have been done with Edward Watson given he is home-grown, but possibly its not his bag.  Macrae seems a very switched on guy which will stand him in good stead for the future.

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On 28/08/2018 at 12:56, saki said:

2014-15
Manon - Bonelli
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Bonelli and McRae (Madhatter)

 

My apologies, I left out one relay - La Fille mal gardée - McRae

 

3 hours ago, Mary said:

Their choices perhaps show who they consider to be these ultra- reliable dancers.

I am not privy to their thoughts, and could be entirely wrong of course, but it is hard to see what other criteria are operating.

 

I imagine the ballets selected for the relays play an important part too, as well as where the repertories of the principals overlap, and, particularly for the male principals, who they are partnering.

For instance, we might wonder if McRae would have been filmed a second time as Colas in the 2014-15 season had Campbell been promoted to principal by then (were there any principals other than McRae at the time who also danced Colas?}, or if he hadn't been partnering Osipova. 

To come back to Mayerling - other than Hirano, who is debuting, McRae is the only Rudolph in this run on the right side of 35. Considering that it's the first time the ballet is being shown in cinemas, and, as I've heard, Rudolph is one of the most draining classical ballet roles for men, perhaps McRae is the fail-safe choice simply in terms of stamina. 

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56 minutes ago, saki said:

perhaps McRae is the fail-safe choice simply in terms of stamina. 

certainly when I saw him dance it last year he looked as though he could have done it all over again, but I didn't feel his interpretation was anywhere in The same league as Watson or Bonelli.

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2 hours ago, saki said:

Considering that it's the first time the ballet is being shown in cinemas, and, as I've heard, Rudolph is one of the most draining classical ballet roles for men, perhaps McRae is the fail-safe choice simply in terms of stamina. 

 

It's actually the second time, although I think the first (with Watson) was a recording rather than a live relay.

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