The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, Autumn 2018

[bridiem]

3 minutes ago, Tony Newcombe said:

If you want a spin off ballet, it must surely be Larisch in Exile. Banished from the court she took up with an opera singer

who became persona non grata because of his relationship with her. They had a son. The relationship ended.In reply to an article in she placed in a newspaper she found herself in the USA married to an abusive husband. She died in Nazi Germany the year I was born. Her son died in 1977, the year before Mayerling was performed at The Royal Opera House. What a woman!

 

That's fascinating! I wonder what her son would have made of the ballet?!

[Bruce Wall]

20 minutes ago, Tony Newcombe said:

If you want a spin off ballet, it must surely be Larisch in Exile. Banished from the court she took up with an opera singer

who became persona non grata because of his relationship with her. They had a son. The relationship ended.In reply to an article in she placed in a newspaper she found herself in the USA married to an abusive husband. She died in Nazi Germany the year I was born. Her son died in 1977, the year before Mayerling was performed at The Royal Opera House. What a woman!

 

Agree, interesting.  Whilst MacMillan's ballet is one with an operatic interlude ... the above sounds to me more like an opera with, perhaps, a balletic segment.  It covers such vast corridors I should think an actual libretto would be a boon (assuming it is a quality one of course.)  

 

[alison]

From this week's links, and specifically the review of the cinema broadcast here:

http://seenandheard-international.com/2018/10/sarah-lamb-is-a-revelation-in-the-40th-anniversary-revival-of-macmillans-mayerling/#more-82726

 

"I heard couples say they had given up on the story – based on real historical events – and were just going to watch it all unfold."

 

I'm guessing they had the same cut-down version of the "synopsis" which is now provided on the ROH cast sheets?  If so, who can blame them?  (But if that's the reaction of the cinema audience, what must it be like for newcomers to the ROH?  "I didn't understand any of it, but ..."  Another of those things, along with the - unexplained - mime in Swan Lake, that puts people off from their first taste of ballet?)  Was the first 15 minutes of the relay used at all to explain the important parts of the story/background, and who the people were, beyond just showing "cameos" of the main characters and their names?  If not, then why on earth not?

[zxDaveM]

as an aside to Alison's post above - with the 'open up' in mind - I was idly wondering to myself if it would have been better to start the season off with something like Sleeping Beauty (or swap scheduling of Mayerling and Bayadere); entice the punters into the open building, then tempt them into buying tickets with something they'd know. (and/or could easily follow)...

[Douglas Allen]

I agree strongly with Alison's post.

If the Opera House really want to extend the audience then it is stupid at the same time to make so-called economies (how much money is actually saved by not providing sufficient numbers of cast-change slips, adequate short synopses of ballets and advance information about future cast changes) which could adversely affect the quality of experience a new attender at performances might have?

All the puffed-up boasting about opening -up the building and extending the range of the performances through cinema streaming become just that- shoddy boasting with no substance attached to them.

Having said that, I don't blame the Royal Ballet  for this. I think it is absolutely crucial to distinguish between the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet. All of the absurd ideas mentioned above come from departments which are part of the central administration of the Royal Opera House and not from the Royal Ballet. I  think we should begin to make our feelings known, relentlessly, to the Opera House and that we expect a better performance of their work for us.

[Saodan]

1 hour ago, alison said:

I'm guessing they had the same cut-down version of the "synopsis" which is now provided on the ROH cast sheets?

 

As difficult as this may be to believe, the synopsis in the cinema cast sheet was more detailed than the one provided in the ROH cast sheets, but less detailed than the one provided in programmes and cast sheets last run. Incredible, isn't it? Three different synopses! How do they expect the audience to understand this complicated ballet if they can’t even decide which synopsis to use?

 

Thinking about it, it is difficult to see the incredibly short synopsis provided with ROH cast sheets as anything other than an attempt to encourage people to buy programmes. There is enough blank space for at least the mid length cinema synopsis to have been included.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Saodan

[alison]

Thanks, Saodan  

[alison]

42 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

as an aside to Alison's post above - with the 'open up' in mind - I was idly wondering to myself if it would have been better to start the season off with something like Sleeping Beauty (or swap scheduling of Mayerling and Bayadere); entice the punters into the open building, then tempt them into buying tickets with something they'd know. (and/or could easily follow)...

 

Possibly.  But don't forget they have the Ring Cycle to contend with, which limits their options.

 

Anyway, Open Up is a long-term goal - they don't need to achieve everything at once.

[Richard LH]

36 minutes ago, alison said:

From this week's links, and specifically the review of the cinema broadcast here:

http://seenandheard-international.com/2018/10/sarah-lamb-is-a-revelation-in-the-40th-anniversary-revival-of-macmillans-mayerling/#more-82726

 

"I heard couples say they had given up on the story – based on real historical events – and were just going to watch it all unfold."

 

I'm guessing they had the same cut-down version of the "synopsis" which is now provided on the ROH cast sheets?  If so, who can blame them?  (But if that's the reaction of the cinema audience, what must it be like for newcomers to the ROH?  "I didn't understand any of it, but ..."  Another of those things, along with the - unexplained - mime in Swan Lake, that puts people off from their first taste of ballet?)  Was the first 15 minutes of the relay used at all to explain the important parts of the story/background, and who the people were, beyond just showing "cameos" of the main characters and their names?  If not, then why on earth not?

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/your-reaction-what-did-you-think-of-mayerling-live-in-cinemas

https://www.facebook.com/royaloperahouse

 

Alison - and others- I haven't seen the cinema screening but going by the reactions that can be found on the ROH website and Facebook, (see above links)  it has received overwhelming praise from those that attended. I doubt  that many people would have been put off ballet just because they did not necessarily understand all the plot intricacies in this one production.

 

I don't think  the RB should be expected to spoon-feed people all the story details - if customers are  interested in filling out the  historical background, there is plenty of readily available information out there about the ballet, the Crown Prince, and the Mayerling incident. 

 

I am myself a relative newcomer to the ROH and to serious ballet watching. Whilst I appreciate anything by way of background the RB or other companies can provide (on the cast sheets or elsewhere) I do not expect (or indeed necessarily wish) to  have to rely on the RB itself for all the background details on a ballet. Part of the delight, I find, is researching  the details from a range of sources, each providing different perspectives. If I don't immediately follow something, I would put that down to me, rather than the RB/ROH.

 

In fact no other ballet or production company that I know of gets anywhere near the ROH  in terms of its wealth of  useful background material,  with its  very informative website, You Tube videos, filmed rehearsals, studio Insights, its (free) cast sheets, its (priced) performance programmes etc.

 

I got a free cast sheet at the Coliseum for ENB 'sThe Sleeping Beauty, but there were no details of the story whatsoever. The ENB website, and its other media output,  bears no comparison to the RB.

 

As for the "unexplained" mime in Swan Lake -  the RB has actually given plenty of very helpful exposition - see examples below.

 

Sorry to go on a bit, Alison, but I just think we here on BCF are getting into a bit of a bad habit where we seem  to be  criticising the ROH about anything and everything (and I don't exclude some of my own posts over the last few weeks).  OK there are a few ongoing issues discussed elsewhere, but I for one wish to get back to talking about  the ballets themselves, rather than noises off.

 

By all accounts Mayerling looks like becoming a great success this run and that should be celebrated, and the ROH and RB afforded  all due credit for staging such a fantastic production.

 

 

 

[Jane S]

16 hours ago, Tony Newcombe said:

If you want a spin off ballet, it must surely be Larisch in Exile. Banished from the court she took up with an opera singer

who became persona non grata because of his relationship with her. They had a son. The relationship ended.In reply to an article in she placed in a newspaper she found herself in the USA married to an abusive husband. She died in Nazi Germany the year I was born. Her son died in 1977, the year before Mayerling was performed at The Royal Opera House. What a woman!

 

Fascinating - and it was only in investigating further on Google that I learnt - what everyone else maybe has known all along - that Larisch and Rudolf were actually first cousins.

[Beryl H]

I have to smile sometimes when I hear audience comments, especially about the 4 Hungarians

[alison]

Maybe, Richard, but I doubt your average cinema audience is going to do internet research in advance on what they are about to see.  After all, they're unlikely even to download the electronic programmes (if such still exist?) in advance, given that their attention won't even be drawn to them until they are in the cinema, and you really can't download and read while the broadcast is in progress.  I just thought a few choice snippets about e.g. Rudolf's apparent sympathy for the Hungarian separatist movement and resultant conflict with his father, his syphilis (I think this is a 12A, isn't it?) and medication, his enforced marriage and anger at his parents' dalliances while he's not allowed the same, might have made some of the situations a bit clearer for the cinema viewer.

[Fiz]

With the greatest respect to Macmillan, he did get a few things wrong in “Mayerling”. He is deeply unsympathetic to Elisabeth who actually begged Rudolf not to marry Stephanie. She knew they were not suited. His reply was along the lines of “I have to marry, my wife must be a Catholic and she’ll do”. She did love her children but she had been told that her son belonged to the State and that she must not interfere in his upbringing. She was also unhappy and wrapped up in her own sadness. I’m not sure if Rudolf had actual syphilis or not. He certainly had gonerrhea which made his wife infertile after their daughter’s birth and it was after this that their marriage faltered. I know there is a lot of dramatic license in “Mayerling” but a clearer programme would help people who know very little or nothing about the period and incident to understand better.

[bridiem]

I agree with much of your post above, Richard LH, but Mayerling is an exceptionally confusing ballet for newcomers, and the cast sheet synopsis is exceptionally and unnecessarily unhelpful (in fact I thought it was very funny, until I realised that it really shouldn't be). And unless you know this in advance, you won't know that you have to do 'homework' beforehand (and if you did, that may well put people off from going at all). Having said that, I do get quite irritated by people who turn up knowing nothing whatsoever about the ballet they've come to see, and often getting to their seats too near curtain up even to be able to read the cast sheet...

 

The ROH does provide a lot of information if you're looking for it (far more than when I started going to ballet), and often more than other companies; but it is far better resourced than other companies, so that should be the case.

[Bruce Wall]

32 minutes ago, bridiem said:

I agree with much of your post above, Richard LH, but Mayerling is an exceptionally confusing ballet for newcomers, and the cast sheet synopsis is exceptionally and unnecessarily unhelpful (in fact I thought it was very funny, until I realised that it really shouldn't be).

 

I remember when I first saw Mayerling ... when the RB brought it to the MET yonks ago ... There was a full page synopsis in the free programme (every patron gets one with the price of their ticket ... and the MET has 4,000 places).  I went back the next day to see a second cast ... and there was a paper insert calling itself:  'A Guide to Understanding the Synopsis'!!! 

 

It was, as they say, 'a different world'.  

 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Bruce Wall

[Mary]

I am not making this up- overheard at the end of the cinema screening as the curtain came down with the muffled drum rolls-

'So who died?'

 

I do think a very clear precis is needed with Mayerling and is not too much to ask.

Bolshoi screenings have clear summaries on the screen ( in multiple languages) before each Act- very helpful.

[Fiz]

Wow! Mind you, in the cinema where we saw it, an elderly female couple were busy dividing meal costs at the beginning of Act III and a man was sounding off about something a bit later. I was very restrained. I didn’t kill any of them. 😂

[Richard LH]

1 hour ago, alison said:

I doubt your average cinema audience is going to do internet research in advance on what they are about to see. 

Perhaps  not  for the more generally known Tchaikovsky ballets,  but otherwise I think most people would do at least some research on a cinema performance of a ballet, before deciding whether to book it - particularly  for a more obscure production (for someone unfamiliar with ballet) such as Mayerling. Else why decide to go at all? I don't know what the cinema synopsis contained, but Saodan reports  it was more detailed than the  fairly brief cast sheet available at the actual performance (where the audience might be expected to be better informed).  I just don't see this as a big problem, or a turn off for the newbie.

[Richard LH]

37 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

A Guide to Understanding the Synopsis'!!! 

Brilliant,  Bruce...a synopsis of the synopsis!

[Richard LH]

21 minutes ago, Mary said:

I am not making this up- overheard at the end of the cinema screening as the curtain came down with the muffled drum rolls-

'So who died?'

Well at least THAT was definitely in the synopsis - so putting more details in would not have made any difference to that person. 

[Lizbie1]

6 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

but otherwise I think most people would do at least some research on a cinema performance of a ballet, before deciding whether to book it

 

I’m not so sure - after all, we’re not in the age of people studying libretti before going to the opera: people now rather wouldn’t have the surprise spoiled. You wouldn’t expect to study the plot of a TV drama or a film before watching; why should a ballet be any different?

[bridiem]

31 minutes ago, Mary said:

I am not making this up- overheard at the end of the cinema screening as the curtain came down with the muffled drum rolls-

'So who died?'

 

Oh dear! That's really sad.

[Saodan]

38 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

I don't know what the cinema synopsis contained, but Saodan reports  it was more detailed than the  fairly brief cast sheet available at the actual performance 

 

To be fair, it is a much better synopsis, including everything you need to know, but it is not the scene by scene breakdown we have had in the past. It is also incredibly dense. I know the ballet fairly well by this point but still felt a bit overwhelmed when reading it. Luckily I didn't read it on the night! I can easily see how a newcomer could get confused and give up on it (the synopsis not the ballet).

 

57 minutes ago, Mary said:

Bolshoi screenings have clear summaries on the screen ( in multiple languages) before each Act- very helpful.

 

I credit on screen synopses with sparking my interest in ballet.

 

The first ballet I saw was a recording of the Royal Ballet’s Swan Lake broadcast on Sky Arts a few years ago. Unusually, as I now understand, there were on screen synopses before each scene. Had this not been the case I think I would have lost interest; just a whole lot of prancing around with no apparent aim. The clear explanation of what I was about to see really helped me, as a newcomer, to catch the narrative thread and see the purpose underlying the sometimes tedious dancing. You will be pleased to know that I now no longer find the dancing tedious!

Edited October 18, 2018 by Saodan

[Ian Macmillan]

Lizbie: Why should ballet be different?  The answer, I'd say, is that ballet is silent - nobody speaks or gives explanation and the form is ill suited to telling a dense story.  

[Richard LH]

4 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

people now rather wouldn’t have the surprise spoiled. You wouldn’t expect to study the plot of a TV drama or a film before watching; why should a ballet be any different?

I would say also that TV dramas and films rely on revealing plots as they unfold and don't bear continual repetition like ballets, operas, musicals and some plays. For ballet, you don't expect to be surprised by the narrative - the delight hopefully will be found in the dancing, music, and staging, and understanding at least the main thrust of the story in advance helps rather than spoils the enjoyment. 

[Lizbie1]

2 hours ago, Ian Macmillan said:

Lizbie: Why should ballet be different?  The answer, I'd say, is that ballet is silent - nobody speaks or gives explanation and the form is ill suited to telling a dense story.  

 

You could be right, but why would a casual ballet or cinema goer anticipate a story of Mayerling's complexity? When a film is difficult to grasp without further background knowledge it's held to be a flaw, after all.

 

(Which leads us back to the debate as to whether the libretto of Mayerling is suitable for ballet in the first place, and whether MacMillan told the story with sufficient clarity.)

[Lizbie1]

3 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

I would say also that TV dramas and films rely on revealing plots as they unfold and don't bear continual repetition like ballets, operas, musicals and some plays. For ballet, you don't expect to be surprised by the narrative - the delight hopefully will be found in the dancing, music, and staging, and understanding at least the main thrust of the story in advance helps rather than spoils the enjoyment. 

 

I watch less television and have seen fewer films than anyone I know, but many people whose judgement I respect who would disagree vehemently with that statement.

 

Personally, I go to the ballet and opera for entertainment, and that can happen on a number of different levels for me. Others enjoy different forms of entertainment; that doesn't make their preference somehow shallower.

[Blossom]

I went to see Mayerling in the last run having been gripped by the final pdd performed by Carlos Acosta and Laura Morera at one of his farewell performances. I found the synopsis incredibly hard to follow, partly because I couldn’t keep on top of who all the women were! It’s taken some serious swotting up - Macmillan website synopsis and dvd purchase - since to feel well prepared for this time! I just think it’s one of those ballets which is incredibly difficult to follow as the story and characters make it so complex...

[Esmeralda]

7 hours ago, Beryl H said:

I have to smile sometimes when I hear audience comments, especially about the 4 Hungarians

 

Now I am curious - I want to smile too😊.

 

Have not seen Mayerling in cinema yet this season because it will be shown in my cinema on Sunday evening so I can´t say anything about the infos which are given to the cinema audience...But I have to say it also depends on the cinema. In one cinema in my city there are no infos available even when they charge a higher price for the tickets than the other cinema who is showing RB!

 

Mayerling is special because it is complicated and with a lot of important roles. And I think there is the biggest danger of confusion, not to know who is who. I have no idea which cinema performance it was and if it was even a ballet performance, but once I saw a performance where they showed profile pictures of every role before every Act. Maybe this would already help a little bit.

When "Romeo & Juliet" and "Onegin" from Stuttgart were shown this summer there were no infosheets available - I hope this is because it was from Stuttgart and not because my cinema stopped to hand the infos out...At R&J there were little summaries on the screen before some scenes but as far as I remember not so in Onegin. I would guess that the latter is not so well known than R&J but maybe they thought Onegin is more self explanatory.

 

About the "Who died?" question: well, at Romeo & Juliet someone asked me after the death of Juliet, if they had died both in this performance...

[ninamargaret]

Mayerling is a complicated ballet, and story. I didn't see it on stage till about 2012 due to many years absence from going to ballet,  but I had seen, several times, the David Wall documentary and the Mukhamedov DVD. Even then, I got totally confused by the various women, not helped at that time by the fact that I couldn't recognize one dancer from another! So I've got sympathy for anyone who flounders a bit. However, I knew the story reasonably well, so at least I knew who had died! I still think a little homework doesn't come amiss when going to a ballet like Mayerling- did this with Frankenstein and Woolf  works and it helped. 

[Sunrise]

I thought Darcey and Ore made a decent stab at explaining some of the plot. 

 

I think some of the difficulty of the similarity of the costumes and wigs - even if you do your research or have a good synopsis, it's really hard to separate all women in Rudolf's life until you get to Mary Vetsera. It doesn't help that on screen the Empress looked about the same age as Rudolf.

[Richard LH]

9 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

I watch less television and have seen fewer films than anyone I know, but many people whose judgement I respect who would disagree vehemently with that statement.

What exactly do you think they would "disagree vehemently with", Lizbie?

 

9 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

Personally, I go to the ballet and opera for entertainment, and that can happen on a number of different levels for me. Others enjoy different forms of entertainment; that doesn't make their preference somehow shallower.

 I totally agree, and haven't suggested otherwise. 

[Richard LH]

7 hours ago, Sunrise said:

I think some of the difficulty of the similarity of the costumes and wigs - even if you do your research or have a good synopsis, it's really hard to separate all women in Rudolf's life until you get to Mary Vetsera. It doesn't help that on screen the Empress looked about the same age as Rudolf.

That is all very true....at Osipova's performance as Mary,  someone I know  thought it was Osipova/Mary  in the  McNally/Empress scene...