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The Royal Ballet: La Bayadère, London, November 2018


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14 minutes ago, Fonty said:

An interesting audience at my Odeon in North London.  This is in what used to be a rather poor area of London, although recently it is starting to get trendy and fashionable.  There were about 25 of us in total, and all bar 3 of us looked like OAPs.  Ballet obviously doesn't appeal to the younger generation round here.  

 

It has been many years since I have seen it live on stage. I think Cojocaru played Nikiya the last time I saw it.  After seeing this at the cinema, I have a few questions which I am sure all the knowledgeable people on here will be able to answer.   

 

1.  Who were the chaps with the dreadlocks and the streaks on their bodies supposed to be?  And who played the lead "savage" (for want of a better term)?

 

2.  Does anyone know the names of the 4 ladies in pink in the first act?  My eye was caught by the one second from the left as we looked at them.  She was so musical.

 

3.  Who was in the portrait that the two ladies kept pointing at?  I just didn't get who that was supposed to be. 

 

4.  In the Shades scene, when the dancers come  down the ramp, they all do the arabesque on the right leg.(I think?)  But when they get on the flat, each alternate girl is on the opposite leg.  I was trying to see how they adjusted, but the camera angle wouldn't let me.  How do they manage the swap without it jarring visually?

 

4,  And finally:  Did the tiger die of terminal moth?  

 

 

 

1. They are Fakirs.

 

2. From left to right (as looking at the stage): Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Anna Rose O'Sullivan, Romany Pajdak, Elizabeth Harrod.

 

3. Solor

 

4. That's the secret... 

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I agree with Sim about last night's performance.

 

There was no chemistry between Nikiya (Cuthbertson) and Ball (Solor) - well none which reached me - and I, too, could see Cuthbertson offering a strong Gamzatti, whereas her Nikiya didn't chime with my idea of the character at all. I thought that Ball did well (he has a lot on his plate at the moment and some strain showed in his face and in a bit of fumbled partnering) and, as stated last night, I really liked Magri in her debut (and her first really big role?).

 

I'm with posters on here who simply loved Takada's account of Nikiya - just beautiful in every respect. I'd have to choose Osipova's scheming Gamzatti although I liked very much the different, more emotionally vulnerable interpretations offered by Naghdi and Magri. It's Muntagirov as Solor for me (by a mile) with Corrales and Ball way ahead of McRae and Hirano.

 

The RB possibly saved the best Bronze Idol until last; but even Sambe didn't quite nail it.

 

..............and the corps every time, of course.

 

[Edited to add that I did like Nunez's Nikiya, where she found a rare softness, and Lamb's as well. It's just that Takada seemed to encapsulate everything the role should portray.]

 

 

 

Edited by capybara
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28 minutes ago, Fonty said:

 

5,  And finally:  Did the tiger die of terminal moth?  

 

 

 

I thought it was a delivery from Carpetright. 🙂

 

In the dvd of La B the painting actually looks like the Solor of that performance, Acosta 

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22 minutes ago, Rob S said:

 

I thought it was a delivery from Carpetright. 🙂

 

 

If it was, I would have sent it back!

 

I assumed the portrait was meant to be Solor, but my practical mind was wondering when a noble warrior would have found the time to sit for a portrait.  Wouldn't he be too busy "warrioring"?

 

Thanks for the names of the ladies in pink.  I can see why Anna Rose O'Sullivan's name is being mentioned so often.  She really did stand out.

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1 hour ago, Fonty said:

 

4.  In the Shades scene, when the dancers come  down the ramp, they all do the arabesque on the right leg.(I think?)  But when they get on the flat, each alternate girl is on the opposite leg.  I was trying to see how they adjusted, but the camera angle wouldn't let me.  How do they manage the swap without it jarring visually?

 

This is a question that has fascinated me for years but I think after 30 years I have finally figured it out!  When they come off the ramp one dancer takes three steps forward and the one behind takes four so they are then on alternate legs.  (It took me years to figure that the dancers also change legs when they turn at the end of a 'row' by only taking three steps instead of four). The whole thing is so clever and totally magical, especially when it is performed as well as our excellent ladies of the RB corps have done this run. 

Edited by Mummykool
answer displayed as part of question!
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1 hour ago, Fonty said:

 

1.  Who were the chaps with the dreadlocks and the streaks on their bodies supposed to be?  And who played the lead "savage" (for want of a better term)?

 

2.  Does anyone know the names of the 4 ladies in pink in the first act?  My eye was caught by the one second from the left as we looked at them.  She was so musical.

 

3.  Who was in the portrait that the two ladies kept pointing at?  I just didn't get who that was supposed to be. 

 

4.  In the Shades scene, when the dancers come  down the ramp, they all do the arabesque on the right leg.(I think?)  But when they get on the flat, each alternate girl is on the opposite leg.  I was trying to see how they adjusted, but the camera angle wouldn't let me.  How do they manage the swap without it jarring visually?

 

5,  And finally:  Did the tiger die of terminal moth?  

 

 

 

1. Fakirs - keepers of the flame? Firestarters? Dustmen?

3. Solor - but in the last run I swear it was Carlos Acosta...

4. They are all on alternate legs, but individually the same - until they change leg as they step through the turn at the edge of the stage

5. Who shot Bagpuss????

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Balletfanp said:

I’m afraid the unfortunate tiger did provoke much unscheduled mirth in the cinema audience where I was - not quite the intention, I don’t think, but it did look like something you’d win at a fairground....

 

As do the deer in Mayerling, I noticed the other day.  They look far too Bambi-like.

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5 minutes ago, Fiz said:

Did anyone else really notice Leticia Diaz in the corps? She really stuck out to me as a beautiful dancer and such a vivid face. 

 

Yes, and I said so very early in this thread when she was also one of the 'purple girls' in the Grand Pas while O'Sullivan was in NY.

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The tiger wasn't as funny as the stuffed animals in the Bolshoi's Pharaoh's Daughter, but still funny, and I keep smiling at the posting about Nikiya expiring from hay fever from the flowers! Marianela Nunez did seem to be struggling with the basket and I didn't see a snake! Luckily one of the cinema presenters did say the ballet was a fantasy of India, not historical, I think Kevin O'Hare repeated it!

 

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11 minutes ago, Tebasile said:

I attended the cinema performance live from the orchestra stalls, and I definitely could see a snake (though it was arguably worm-size). 

 

Yes the snake was hardly ever visible, looked more like a worm, they should use a far bigger specimen so the whole audience can see the snake!

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4 minutes ago, Xandra Newman said:

 

Yes the snake was hardly ever visible, looked more like a worm, they should use a far bigger specimen so the whole audience can see the snake!

It can’t be too big, the basket of flowers is rather small as it is

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1 hour ago, Balletfanp said:

I’m afraid the unfortunate tiger did provoke much unscheduled mirth in the cinema audience where I was - not quite the intention, I don’t think, but it did look like something you’d win at a fairground.... 

 

I think they must have 'freshened up' the tiger because from previous runs it was so awful (I always thought of it as an Oxfam reject) it always got a laugh from the audience whereas I haven't heard much laughter from the few performances I've attended this time.

I still feel rather cheated that Solor doesn't make his betrothal entrance on an elephant. Walking under a curtain isn't very warrior like at all. I suppose all the budget went on the last act which doesn't seem to deliver much these days. A lot of dust isn't nearly as dramatic as when the Buddha used to break in half.

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I can't help wondering at the quick change Gamzatti has to do between Act I Scenes 2 and 3 between the more exotic outfit and the tutu.  I always wonder whether everything is actually fixed properly in time, or whether they just do the necessary to get her back on stage, and then do any fine-tuning, so to speak, once she's paraded off-stage again.  After all, the headdress and everything changes, and there's little time to do it in.

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On the subject of bouquets, I would definitely have thrown one to O'Sullivan for her first Shade variation last night.  T'was stunning in the rapture of its articulated speed.  The lady is a star ... and she fascinatingly shone.  

 

Edited by Bruce Wall
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In the absence of a real dead tiger (what a controversy if there was one!), why not simply omit the mirth making substitute? Would that alter the narrative in any way?

 

I suspect everyone on this forum already knows, but if anyone has missed it, the Royal Opera House have put up on youtube some (short) videos on this ballet. In one of them Leticia Dias, mentioned earlier in this forum, is highlighted, along with Romany Pajdak. That video is entitled " What it takes to perform classical dance's most demanding corps de ballet number".

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