The Royal Ballet "Unknown Soldier" Triple Bill November 2018

[Rob S]

Edited November 23, 2018 by Rob S

[bangorballetboy]

2 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

I find this a tad strange.  I agree she was lovely in the SiC - as she was on the opening night - but she did not appear - as far as I am aware - in INFRA on 22.11.18.  

 

 

Then who is this?

 

 

[Bruce Wall]

4 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Then who is this?

 

 

My error.  Forgive me.  She was, as ever, compelling. 

[capybara]

Who was the Telegram Boy in Unknown Soldier, please?

 

If the young people in the Amphi were, indeed, students with teachers, not staying for Symphony in C was a real pity - unless transport issues  made that impossible.

Edited November 23, 2018 by capybara

[Richard LH]

7 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

There was also applause on Tuesday night when the curtain went up on S in C. Understandable!

 

Indeed there was - it is a wonderful, bright sight and would have lifted everyone's spirits after the rather dark end to Infra.

 

By the way, I was wondering  how the dancers and orchestra coordinate, so exactly,  the striking of that first  chord of music  with the girls' opening  move  (from  - I think-  5th position into croisé devant with arms in high third). My theory, looking at the NYBC DVD,  is that  the two girls in the front of the two groups can see the conductor and follow (with the orchestra) an indication from him/her to start the move off, with the other girls behind almost imperceptibly following on. Does this make sense? 

[Richard LH]

I notice that in SIC a young Artist, Isabel Lubach, stepped into a role otherwise danced by First Soloists.  Good for her !

[nycitybird]

9 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

Choe & Sambé the stars of Symphony in C tonight.

 

I'd have loved to see them tonight, as they were originally scheduled 😣

[Bluebird]

27 minutes ago, capybara said:

Who was the Telegram Boy in Unknown Soldier, please?

 

Joseph Sissens

[graemew]

My wife and I went along last night (22/11), I with some trepidation following all the negative comments about "Unknown". We both found it far better than we had been led to believe and wondered what the fuss was about in the final scene. The dancers had to wear something and to be in their uniforms would have been inappropriate,  We found the whole thing appropriately sensitive and enjoyable, taking into account the subject matter. I thought Anna Rose gave a good account of herself both here and in Concerto.

 

As commented elsewhere,  there did seems to be an unusual number of groups of teenagers in the audience. Perhaps this was  because it was a very mixed programme with three diverse styles which I guess would make it an apprpriate study opportunity. At least unlike other parties, the girls near us stayed for all three works. Surely every piece has something to give so why sit out? As McGregor once said (paraphrasing)  'I like the audience to leave my work with a strong feeling; even if it is dislike, they have gained something emotional from it'. 

 

 

[Esmeralda]

Really can´t wait for tonight! May I ask if at the Unknown soldier the second cast is the same group as the first cast (except for the Principals of course), just with different roles (at first night the Telegraph boy was Leo Dixon, I think, second cast it is Sissens)? Or are there more different dancers?

 

Also I noticed that there doesn´t seem to be a real second cast for Symphony in C, except for the Principal roles. The smaller solos are the same dancers aside from the dancers who got a promotion to a Principal solo in the second cast. They are replaced by someone new (except Hamilton who didnt get principal solo but also doesn´t appear in the second cast with a small solo - weird). Was it always like this?

[alison]

The Unknown Soldier cast was largely, but not entirely, the same.  As was the named support in Symphony in C - I couldn't speak for the "corps" dancers, who are now unnamed, unlike previously, although where I looked I noticed significant overlap with the first night.

 

I'm pleased to say that the scrims in Unknown Soldier didn't have such an adverse effect as I'd expected: whether any tweaks had been made to either the staging or the choreography since the first night, I don't know, but I could see most of the dancers clearly enough, except the women on their first(?) entrance.

[Rachelm]

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

I notice that in SIC a young Artist, Isabel Lubach, stepped into a role otherwise danced by First Soloists.  Good for her !

 

Do you know if she was originally cast, or filling in as a replacement?

[Bluebird]

Just now, Rachelm said:

 

Do you know if she was originally cast, or filling in as a replacement?

 

She was on the cast sheet and these are normally printed in advance so it certainly wasn't a last minute replacement.

[LinMM]

I saw her dance  as a student with RBS a couple of years ago now in their school studio and thought she was a lovely dancer ....one of the ones have circled on my programme notes back then! 

[Nogoat]

A Triple Bill can be a heady, intoxicating mix and, just like a Biblical wedding party, it will leave its best wine until last. So it turned out last night - though I imagine the hosts were somewhat embarrassed to start off the proceedings by unscrewing the ballet equivalent of a bottle of Blue Nun.

 

The word ‘unsophisticated’ smacks of elitism, but that’s the best word I can think of to describe The Unknown Soldier. There are so many levels at which this didn’t work for me that it’s difficult to know where to start (and I have to qualify that remark with ‘for me’ because I fully recognise that anyone’s response to anything is completely determined by their unique mix of nature and nurture; to paraphrase the usual get-out clause, “other responses are available”).

 

The title of the piece is ‘The Unknown Soldier’, so why name him in the cast sheet? How does that add more than it detracts? That might sound a bit pedantic, but it can be the little things that jar and make one question the integrity of the whole.

 

The timing also jars. If I ever reach 100 years of age, I would like to think my Nursing Home will hold a little party at which I’ll get some cake, cards, and a telegram from the Queen (I would not be in the least surprised to find her still on the throne!). But it wouldn’t mean the same if her telegram arrived a couple of weeks too late; hang on, I’d think, the Queen has had 100 years to prepare that telegram! Timing is everything; the moment has passed. This tribute doesn’t sit well on this side of 11/11/2018 - it appears more tardy than timely.

 

Unfortunately, for a work of art, it also came across as rather tacky; to stretch my '100th birthday telegram from the Queen' analogy a bit more, it was like getting one of those generic, ‘everything but the kitchen-sink’ greetings cards - with a spray of flowers on the front (with the card embossed to match the flowers), a sprinkle of glitter glued around the flowers, a hint of cheap perfume suffusing the card, and with a cloying, Patience Strong ‘inspirational’ verse in it, printed in a cursive, handwritten font. It tries desperately to press all the buttons, but ends up pressing none.

 

Let’s start with the music; the words that spring to my mind are 'unsubtle, literal and derivative'. Perhaps as a result of commissioning a score from a film composer, we ended up with something trying to have a direct effect on the emotions by being literally tied to the action (like a score for a blockbuster/action movie). In terms of being derivative, the repeated, three-note brass motif reminded me of a similar one used to great effect by Lowell Liebermann in Frankenstein (to denote the monster, if I remember rightly). The opening section (once the intro was over) reminded me of Alice (the White Rabbit?). The music for the PDD between Feltham and Billington also sounded a bit too similar to that used for the PDD between Victor and Elizabeth in Frankenstein. Finally, there was a section that seemed pure Bernstein - which for me didn’t sit well with the 1914-18 period.

 

Then there’s the visual effects. Use of projected video can be risky, probably because it’s so common that we all have experience of it (think Powerpoint presentations!). When done well it works well; an example would be the first and last sections of Woolf Works. However, simply projecting vastly magnified talking-heads (with a bit of vertical rasterisation thrown in) did nothing for me. Keeping the scrim partly in place, and continuing to project vertical lines on it just annoyed me by interfering with my view (and I was at the front of the Amphi; I presume the sight lines were even worse for those towards the back). Did the creative team pay any thought to those not paying an arm and a leg for non-Amphi seats?

 

Then there’s the narration. Almost by definition, narration and ballet do not sit well together - though Sitwell’s poems in Facade are an exception (the spoken word also worked well in Woolf Works, in being used prior to the first and last pieces; also in Second Breath, with the rendition of Do Not Go Gentle… by Richard Burton incorporated into the music; and even in Facada with Osipova explaining what the Portuguese word ‘faca’ means). Last night I felt like I was in primary school, with the narration explaining to me what was going on on stage (particularly the very last bit; effectively being told that the group of almost-naked men cavorting around were in the ‘afterlife’ and would always be with us). I didn’t need it, I don’t want it. There was a place for those words, and that was printed in the cast sheet (one of the broadsheet cast sheets, not the new, tabloid ones). I could have read it beforehand and recalled it during the performance. Barking out ‘quick march’ orders on stage was also a step too far for me.

 

Keeping the scrim down for the stage calls was also too literal; OK, we get it - all the people in the ballet, men and women, are now dead and ‘on the other side’, but the whole point of these calls is that they break the invisible fourth wall - we don't want a fifth wall!

 

And on the subject of the see-through netting that is scrim, why did Joseph Sissens’ ‘telegraph boy’ costume appear to be made out of blue scrim? For someone whose appearance was a harbinger of death, the costume appeared rather inappropriate.

 

There were a few positives. Bracewell, O’Sullivan and Sissens made the most of the poor material they were provided with. Through the story of Florence Billington, I am now more aware of the ‘collateral’ casualties of the Great War (though Lest We Forget conveyed the effects of the war on relationships more convincingly). Finally, I can see no excuse - other than, say, the 140th anniversary of the Great War - to revive this work, by which time I will be more focussed on getting a telegram from the Queen than I will be in making the trip to the ROH (assuming I can still remember where it is by then).

 

I do like Infra. The staging, music and some of the choreography work for me; in fact, the section from the ‘moving crowd’ scene with the stationary Munch-like girl to the end of the ballet usually presses a combination of buttons in my head such that I have to surreptitiously blow my nose at the end of the performance. It did that last night, though not as much as it has in previous runs. I think a lot of that is down to the music; it is mournful, soulful (with the interjection of the loud, random noises acting to highlight that feeling through contrast). During the interval I even considered whether transposing the Infra music to The Unknown Soldier would immediately improve the latter!

 

Symphony in C was a joy to watch and a great way to finish off the evening. And what a welcome contrast to the other two pieces (that many in the audience thought the same was evident by the excited response to the curtain going up on a brightly-lit stage with ballerinas in tutus!). I was sat next to a young lady who was seeing ballet at the ROH for the first time; she kept excitedly exclaiming (quietly) every time a wave of dancers appeared - and very heart-warming that response was, too! There seemed to be a lot of teenagers in the audience (at least in the Amphi); I presume they were there for McGregor’s Infra as it is now part of the GCSE curriculum. It would have been interesting to have carried out a survey at the end to find out which they liked the most…

 

Despite my dislike for The Unknown Soldier, I am pleased it was commissioned and performed. To explain why, I’d like to go off at what might seem like a tangent (or even off my rocker). I was thinking on the way home that last night’s Triple Bill is a good example of Darwinism. ‘Selection of the fittest’ requires that variety is introduced, and in ballet that is the commissioning of new works. Last night we saw one new piece, one about ten years old, and one decades old. At one time, all were ‘new’ and were released into the ‘testing ground of Darwinism' that is public performance. Only those that ‘survive’ public approval tend to be shown repeatedly, and the failures fall by the wayside and drift into obscurity. Over time, those that survive are changed ever so subtly in response to the changing environment in which they find themselves (without wishing to open up that can of worms again, the recent run of a staple ballet is an example). The ‘old’ ballets that we see and love are the survivors, but there is a legion of other works that didn’t (what might be called ‘hopeful monsters’ in Darwinian terms). Unless we believe in an omniscient choreographic god (and perhaps only [insert your favourite choreographer here] might aspire to that!), then poor works are inevitable (and in the majority over the long term). Last night I thought The Unknown Soldier was an evolutionary dead-end, Infra a piece that has long-term promise, and Symphony in C a nigh-on perfect creation, ideally suited to its environmental niche.
 

[LinMM]

Wow Nogoat that's a terrific review.

im not going to this programme till next Monday but feeling a bit worried about Unknown Soldier now.

I went to the Insight evening and enjoyed that and was looking forward to it .....I felt  the choreographers were genuine etc but of course that was a mere snapshot of the whole ballet so just hope I'm not now going to be disappointed.....especially as I do love the ENB 's tribute.

Marriot did explain why he chose this musician to work with at the Insight so hope he has actually delivered on this score but to be honest probably difficult to be in the same Company as the other composers in this triple!! 

Oh well will see. I've discovered I've never seen Infra before so looking forward to that.....love Max Richter so that should be okay ....was muddling it with Chroma .....which have seen before. 

[Vanartus]

Ah well, at least I’m prepared for next Thursday! But now I’m screaming...GLORIA!!!!

[Vanartus]

...and (cheap comment I know!) think of the money they could have saved...

[Vanartus]

...a new WW1 piece by Cathy Marston would probably have been worth the money though...but sadly Marriot falls into that category of RB dancers turned choreographers (Eagling, Page, Corder...) who weren’t awful but were never first-rate.

[Lindsay]

I would have liked Gloria too Vanartus.  And yes, Cathy Marston would have been a much better choice.  There is a lingering insularity about RB commissioning which can be rather depressing, given the money they have to spend compared to smaller companies who are often commissioning far more interesting work on shoestring budgets.

[bridiem]

I do agree with Nogoat that The Unknown Soldier is unsophisticated, and also that the timing is wrong. It should have been premièred any time between late 2014 and (realistically) late 2017. My other main problem with it (which I don't think Nogoat actually shares, though I may be wrong!) is that I found some of the choreography especially in the early stages rather bland and derivative (though I think it improves quite a lot as it goes along). Oh and that scrim. But I don't object to a lack of sophistication (in fact I suspect I am largely unsophisticated - e.g., I LOVE The Sound of Music, which I understand is held in a certain amount of contempt by sophisticated people!), and I certainly didn't consider it 'tacky'. I don't normally like film projections (because the dancers inevitably look tiny and overshadowed) but I thought these were used beautifully. I also don't normally like voiceovers, but I thought these were used rhythmically and almost poetically. But I do agree that it's very unlikely to be seen again, for various reasons, which I think is rather a shame.

 

I do agree with Vanartus - when you have Gloria, you absolutely should stage it (more than the couple of times it was shown ?last year) when WW1 is being commemorated. For all my sympathy for The Unknown Soldier, Gloria is vastly superior and totally brilliant. But, for me, the very different perspective of The US is also nevertheless welcome.

 

I nearly sat out Infra last night, but then I realised that that would mean sitting outside for an hour and a half, which seemed a bit ridiculous. In the event, I rather wished I had sat it out since it says precisely nothing to me and I could have been reading my book.

 

 

[jm365]

I am quite sure it was not Marriott's intention, but for me the use of the spoken interview extracts was insulting to the speakers in the context of a very mediocre ballet.  It actually made me come out at the interval feeling really angry.  Surely a good ballet on such a theme should be able to convey emotions clearly and movingly without literally exploiting the memories of those actually involved in the war.  I agree with those who found the scrim half way up infuriating - I was sitting half way up the Amphitheatre and could not see the back of the stage.  The moving strips etc seems to have been used in too many other ballets and didn't add anything to this one.  The large panel that was lowered served no purpose other than allowing the

'dead' soldiers to get into position.  From my seat, thanks to the blinding lighting effect, the 'gold lame speedos' came across as all over body tights - or long johns perhaps.  I'm not a fan of Infra, but I was actually looking forward to it after U.S.

 

I'm going again tonight to see another cast in Symphony in C, but have decided not to bother with U.S. again.

 

None of this, of course, is intended to reflect on the commitment and dance standard of any of the performers involved.  They are professionals and obviously give of their best in what they are asked to do.

 

Also I was surrounded by what were definitely school parties of youngsters, most of whom were, I should think, having their first experience of a performance at the Royal Opera House.  They were really well behaved - better than many another audience that I have encountered - presumably having been properly prepared by their school staff.  The girl next to me went 'wow' as the curtain opened for Symphony.  I do hope they enjoyed their evening.

[bridiem]

Just now, Lindsay said:

I would have liked Gloria too Vanartus.  And yes, Cathy Marston would have been a much better choice.  There is a lingering insularity about RB commissioning which can be rather depressing, given the money they have to spend compared to smaller companies who are often commissioning far more interesting work on shoestring budgets.

 

I agree with this (and I would include the constant commissioning of Wayne McGregor as part of the problem). Why the RB needs 3 'house' choreographers, especially given the often poor quality of many of the resulting works, I really don't know, but it surely greatly reduces the opportunities for others.

[graemew]

I quite liked Unknown 

I enjoyed Infra

Thought CIC was a bit NY Ballet and too much "let's all duck under this arch made by your arms"

And.....

I think Marianela is wonderful and can do no wrong.

 

Am I still allowed to post here?

[Lindsay]

18 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

I agree with this (and I would include the constant commissioning of Wayne McGregor as part of the problem). Why the RB needs 3 'house' choreographers, especially given the often poor quality of many of the resulting works, I really don't know, but it surely greatly reduces the opportunities for others.

 

For me, the commissioning of McGregor is a breath of fresh air and hardly a symptom of insularity, since he is the only 'house' choreographer who was neither at the school or the company, or even a classical dancer.  I could live without any more Scarlett ever and recent Wheeldon has been underwhelming - although I absolutely love Polyphonia and wish they would programme that more often.    As Monica Mason was heard to exclaim after the premiere of Woolf Works - "thank goodness for Wayne!" and I agree.  He is the only regular choreographer who dares to challenge the audience to think and who sparks an audible reaction (as last night) from younger people, who after all the ROH will desperately need as we, their current audience, fade away.  

Edited November 23, 2018 by Lindsay
typo

[LinMM]

Is Gloria to that wonderful Poulenc organ concerto which I seem to associate Leanne Benjamin with .....probably the last time I saw it .....it's a while since this has been shown isn't it? 

 

[Sim]

Yes it is Poulenc.  I always associate Leanne with Requiem by MacMillan.  Gloria was done about three years ago IIRC. 

[Lindsay]

It is Poulenc, but the Gloria in G Major rather than the Organ Concerto

[bangorballetboy]

Yes, the organ concerto is used for Voluntaries.

[Fonty]

I was just looking up Gloria to check the music, and came across this review for a triple bill in 1981, when Gloria was being shown for the first time in America.  It makes for very interesting reading.  

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/27/arts/royal-ballet-primiere-of-macmillan-s-gloria.html

 

 

[Rob S]

1 hour ago, Vanartus said:

Ah well, at least I’m prepared for next Thursday! But now I’m screaming...GLORIA!!!!

 

And now I’m SINGING Gloria!! I do love a bit of Laura Branigan. 🙂

 

I enjoyed last night, highlight obviously was SIC but found Infra surprisingly interesting once it got going. I have got tickets in the Friday Rush to see it all again on Monday and Thursday.

[Lindsay]

Thanks Fonty, that is very interesting.  And the fact that the reviewer thought McMillan's concept  "slightly more facile than it should be" makes me wonder what the hell they would make of The Unknown Soldier !?!?

[alison]

13 minutes ago, Fonty said:

I was just looking up Gloria to check the music, and came across this review for a triple bill in 1981, when Gloria was being shown for the first time in America.  It makes for very interesting reading.  

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/27/arts/royal-ballet-primiere-of-macmillan-s-gloria.html

 

And I was fascinated by the quality of the 4 supporting men in Scènes de Ballet - but that's probably for another thread