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The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, Autumn 2018


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7 hours ago, miriskusnik said:

I have a new blog post up about the Soares/Cuthbertson cast of Mayerling - well, mainly about Soares but I couldn't resist discussing some of the other dancers as well.  It's here if anyone's interested (warning: it's quite long).

 

Fascinating blog, miriskusnik! Really makes me wish I'd seen Soares too. Thank you so much for sharing it.

 

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On 06/11/2018 at 18:37, alison said:

 

Thank you, miriskusnik - I'm amazed at the amount of detail you managed to remember!  I'd need a filmed version and to go back to it again and again to produce anything like that.  You're making me regret even more that I had to watch that cast from the amphi, without binoculars, because most of that passed me by.

 

On 06/11/2018 at 20:08, bridiem said:

 

Fascinating blog, miriskusnik! Really makes me wish I'd seen Soares too. Thank you so much for sharing it.

 

 

Thank you so much for your kind words, and thank you for reading!  I was very, very lucky to see this cast twice from front row center in the stalls, which is I guess ideally placed to catch the details.  It really helped to have two lengthy intervals to take notes during, too!

 

I thought Soares' take on Rudolf was really interesting and different from what I've seen from other dancers in this role, and I've seen very few reviews of this cast compared to others, so I was really keen to capture what I saw as best I could and get it out there into the conversation.

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Can't quite believe it but it turns out my local cinema is saving me a 7-hour round trip to watch Mayerling. Have rounded up as many as possible to come with me or meet me there in order to reassure the cinema peeps that there is a market for it!

 

As I didn't see Steven McRae as Rudolf last year, I am interested although would've happily seen Matthew Ball or Ryoichi Hirano - but would really have loved to have seen Bonelli and Morera or Soares and Cuthbertson again ..

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On 26/10/2018 at 10:05, Fiz said:

I was reading the 2017 book Twilight of Empire by Greg King and Penny Wilson. It is the book to get about Mayerling if you are interested in the subject. They have uncovered so much new information including letters which were thought to have been destroyed previously. Nearly everything I have read and quoted here is wrong. It’s a fabulous book.

 

Thank you so much Fiz for pointing to this book. It has had next to no attention in the UK to date (no reviews, so far as I know) and I didn’t know about it. As someone who spends several weeks every year near Mayerling, has a collection of books on the subject and indeed is a close friend of one of the last people left alive to have seen Mary Vetsera’s remains (those who know the various theories will appreciate the importance of, for example, her skull) I was eager to get a copy as soon as you posted about it. 

 

Having now read the book I completely agree with your assessment. I urge anyone with an interest in the historical subject to ignore what has been written previously - which is anyway well summarised in the book, the authors seem to have read absolutely everything - and jump to this easy-to-read, short yet scholarly work. Probably the last word. 

 

Incidentally, although it is no great secret, I am always amused that Countess Larisch later became friends with T S Eliot. In fact she turns up in his poem The Waste Land. 

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Well what an experience! Village Cinema Albury advertised it on their website only plus one newspaper ad, had no cast sheets, and called it the Royal Ballet instead of Mayerling, as in when I asked for a ticket for Mayerling they looked blank.

 

There were 12 of us, one person under 50 (that's not me btw).

 

Darcey keeps saying "wiv" which is very distracting, and wanting to tell us about her Mitzi.

 

The stage looks very dark - I don't remember it quite that dark? And the whole-stage images were at a funny angle - looked like the stage sloped down from the front to the rear! Director's choice of close-ups is never going to please everyone, certainly not me.

 

McRae was better than I'd feared, certainly in the third act. Lamb was really very good, as was McNally - in fact she was wonderful. Standout for me was Morera as Larisch. Magri as Mitzi was also pretty good. 

 

Wish the second interval coaching had gone on for longer.

 

I took a large pile of flyers for the rest of the season and will personally deliver them to dance schools in the area as we must encourage the cinema chain to keep showing these events, and bums on seats is all they understand.

 

PS why Kish as Bay Middleton? Is Kish not dancing principal roles any more??

Edited by Sophoife
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1 hour ago, aliceinwoolfland said:

 

Kish had a few performances as Siegfried in the new Swan Lake this summer so I wouldn't worry too much. He's also going to be in Frankenstein. 

Although hie isn’t cast in La bayadère, The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet this time ...

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I’ve just been watching some of the 1978 South Bank Show Mayerling on YouTube. My goodness, David Wall and Merle Park are good. He says at one point that he doesn’t want just to be a monster and he isn’t: he is charming, even romantic, yet also vulnerable and ultimately damaged; she is glamorous, chic and manipulative but also evidently in love with Rudolf. What dancers (she was a famous technician, but he is no slouch) and what dance actors (he is famous for that, she less so). I don’t dispute that great things have happened since then, but this was absolutely thrilling to revisit.

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1 hour ago, Jamesrhblack said:

I’ve just been watching some of the 1978 South Bank Show Mayerling on YouTube. My goodness, David Wall and Merle Park are good. He says at one point that he doesn’t want just to be a monster and he isn’t: he is charming, even romantic, yet also vulnerable and ultimately damaged; she is glamorous, chic and manipulative but also evidently in love with Rudolf. What dancers (she was a famous technician, but he is no slouch) and what dance actors (he is famous for that, she less so). I don’t dispute that great things have happened since then, but this was absolutely thrilling to revisit.

I think. given the wealth of talent there is now in the RB, it is sometimes easy to forget the marvellous days of Park. Seymour, Mason, Dowell, Wall etc. I feel so.lucky to have seen and enjoyed all of these, and delighted that so many of the current company are worthy successors. 

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  • 1 year later...

Hope it's OK to post on this ~18th month-old thread because I've just seen the recording of this 2018 RB Mayerling on BBC iplayer with Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb leading, broadcast on BBC4 last week (March 2020). 

 

Just wanted to comment on how impressed I was by this beautiful, dark, troubling work of art and can't get it out of my head. I've never seen Mayerling before and am fairly new to MacMillian ballets, thanks mainly to English National Ballet's touring productions of Manon and Song of the Earth in the last ~4 years. The atmosphere and human intensity is extremely powerful. I had already appreciated this quality in the ENB live MacMillan performances I saw, but the level in this recorded Mayerling just seemed so much more intense and in some ways more disturbing than what I'd seen before.

 

The creative genius in this ballet was quite evident. The capturing of the Belle Epoque in the designs and costumes, the morbid sense of corruption, constraint, desperation really strongly brought out in the choreography, music and the brilliant delivery and acting of the dancers. After my recent ballet-going to classics Giselle and Swan Lake, I particularly appreciated the marvel and power of the male dancing. 

Just a quick mention that I watched (thanks to balletforum which mentioned it) the 1970s South Bank Show on Mayerling on YouTube, which was just superb in explaining the detailed set of characters (particularly the females) and their importance, and also expressing the mood and genius of the ballet. Thanks balletforum! 

Edited by northstar
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Glad you enjoyed it, northstar.  Scottish Ballet are supposed to be doing a version of it next year - but who knows, with things as they are now?  There are also two videos available: one of the Irek Mukhamedov/Viviana Durante cast from the early 90s, and another of the Edward Watson/Mara Galeazzi cast from 2009, if you're interested.

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northstar - I for one am very glad that you have resurrected the thread. I adore Mayerling and have DVDs of both of the performances that Alison mentioned.

For reasons I can’t put my finger on I have never warmed to Steven McRae, so tuned in without high expectations - however it was a bit of a revelation and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. There were lots of subtleties and nuances that I just didn’t expect (that’s a reflection on me, not McRae!).  I’ve been converted! 
I’ve dipped into iplayer on and off since to re-watch....and will doubtless keep doing that in the coming weeks.  Although I will likely have to alternate between Mayerling and La Fille Mal Gardee to maintain some balance......

 

 

 

 

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I saw his first performance as Rudolph, and while the dance element was superb, his acting and interpretation was pretty basic. However, the DVD shows that his interpretation had really been worked on and refined, and in fact I think he gets closer to the character than other current interpreters. Not to say it's the interpretation I most enjoy but that's another matter!

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For me no one has ever matched Merle Park and I have seen a number.

 

I have to revise that opinion now I have seen Laura Morera.  I am a big fan of her anyway but I thought she was an utter triumph.  I cannot remember being so riveted by the card scene for years.  She and Sarah Lamb were so well matched and both told the story so clearly.

 

I am someone else who finds Steven McRea a bit marmite.  However, credit where credit is due, he really impressed me with this.  I don't think it was entirely down to the fact that he had such a fabulous list of ballerinas to act against.  He had really thought about the part and approached it with real intelligence.  I very enjoyed the whole thing.

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I saw this in a live screening at the time, and the atmosphere in the cinema was absolutely electric- the most exciting screening, certainly, I have been to.

People were gasping as they staggered out to the bar in the intervals.

(Oh happy memory...)

I agree it is a really excellent perfomance by McRae and indeed Sarah Lamb, and they are superb together.

I do hope we see him back in the autumn.

As for Laura Morera- agree with every word, Two Pigeons.

 

 

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7 hours ago, Balletfanp said:


Any chance it can legitimately be reproduced here? With Joan Hopton’s permission, of course?

 

Hi Balletfanp and JohnS I was just going to do it. hadn't realised people had already seen it.

 

Well done the BBC! 
Last Sunday night (15th March) it was wonderful to settle down and watch the incredible ballet Mayerling danced and acted impeccably by the fabulous Royal Ballet. In these uncertain times it was such a treat to switch off from the everyday depressing reality and be transported to another world and another time. It was a wonderful tonic for the soul and the senses; you could really engage with the struggles and problems of the characters and forget your own problems. The two ballet documentaries that followed were really good as well; a remarkable evening of tv heaven. I hear too more is to come when the BBC launch their Dance Season a little later this year. It's just what's needed in these uncertain times when visits to the theatre to see the 'real thing' will become just a memory. Returning my Swan Lake tickets won't seem such a hardship if I can rely on evenings like this on the television. Long may they continue!
 
I've only ever written 3 letters to the Radio Times; all were about ballet and all were published. the first one got Letter of the Week as well. Perhaps someone who works there is a ballet fan.
Just realised this was a copy of the actual letter I wrote. Not sure if it's exactly what the Radio Times reproduced. Sometimes they alter things a little. Yes they cut out the bit about engaging with the struggles and problems of the characters and also the last sentence which i thought was rather important!
Edited by jmhopton
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