Jump to content

Royal Ballet - Don Quixote - Spring 2019


Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, jmhopton said:

Romany Padjak was also terrific as lead gypsy at short notice. Why isn't she used more? 

I wonder that as well, and why she hasn't had further promotion. A lovely dancer and true stalwart of the RB over a good few years.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 594
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

26 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Sim IMO curtain calls part way through disrupt the whole sense  of a narrative ballet, particularly if all take part as I have seen with the Russians. And if it were only just for selected dancers who are not the leads and  won't be there at the end, I think it would look incongruous and  somewhat embarrassing, in highlighting they have no further part to play...sort of " Sorry, we are just off, so can we take a curtain call now, please, before everyone else.......hope you enjoy the last Act"!.....

Such dancers  get their usual deserved applause immediately after their solos or PDDs without too much interruption of the flow of the performance.

 

 

The thing is, I don't think there's much "sense of a narrative ballet" to interrupt in Don Q.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

The thing is, I don't think there's much "sense of a narrative ballet" to interrupt in Don Q.

Really? I would have thought it clearly a "narrative" ballet in the accepted understanding of the term, with an understandable  story, recognisable settings  and characters, and a conventional time line. I see no reason to exclude Don Q from the normal conventions we have here about taking all curtain calls at the end.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Richard.  I’ve been much more taken with DonQ in this run in part because I’ve found DonQ and Sancho Panza shaping the narrative and not being a bit of an irritant, preventing the dancing from flowing.  Perhaps I’m finding more to admire in DonQ’s good natured whimsy and how he deserves his vision of the Dryads, particularly when performed by Anna-Rose, Fumi et al.  And at the end of the day his interventions have proved effective, despite his occasional tilting at windmills.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

Sim IMO curtain calls part way through disrupt the whole sense  of a narrative ballet, particularly if all take part as I have seen with the Russians. And if it were only just for selected dancers who are not the leads and  won't be there at the end, I think it would look incongruous and  somewhat embarrassing, in highlighting they have no further part to play...sort of " Sorry, we are just off, so can we take a curtain call now, please, before everyone else.......hope you enjoy the last Act"!.....

Such dancers  get their usual deserved applause immediately after their solos or PDDs without too much interruption of the flow of the performance.

 

Well the lead dancers also get applause after their solos, but then they also get to have applause at the end, be given flowers, etc.  I don't see why it's embarrassing to highlight that they have no further part to play.  It's the story, they play their part, it finishes, and perhaps they should be given the chance to be appreciated by us.  Whoever doesn't want to do this can rush out to the bar, rather like many people rush out at the end when the curtain calls start.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

I wonder that as well, and why she hasn't had further promotion. A lovely dancer and true stalwart of the RB over a good few years.

 

I also have wondered that over the years. I remember first spotting her when she won the silver medal in the Genee competition when it was held in Birmingham (this was the year in which Joe Caley and Alex Campbell won bronze medals). I thought then what a beautiful quality her dancing had, very understated but more impressive to me than the showy dancing of some of the other candidates. I have always been disappointed that she just disappeared into the ranks with just the occasional featured role.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, Sim said:

Well the lead dancers also get applause after their solos, but then they also get to have applause at the end, be given flowers, etc.  I don't see why it's embarrassing to highlight that they have no further part to play.  It's the story, they play their part, it finishes, and perhaps they should be given the chance to be appreciated by us.  Whoever doesn't want to do this can rush out to the bar, rather like many people rush out at the end when the curtain calls start.  

 

Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Mitzi Casper in Mayerling are the few roles appear at curtain call.

There could be more?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Apologies I have misunderstood your post, but I can't agree that a dancer whose character has just been killed should be brought on for his own  curtain call part way through.

I shoudn’tve quoted Sim’s post.

I meant Mrcuitio and Mitzi Casper the ones appear at curtain call.

 

I also don’t agree with curtain call at each end of act. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Richard LH said:

So it seems the RB is having to cope with Morera, Stix-Brunell, Magri and Heap all ill or injured at the moment ☹️

 

Also Corrales, Bracewell, ?Edmonds. ?Zuchetti. And Reece Clarke also seems to have 'disappeared' from the stage.

Morera is still listed for Frankenstein.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03/03/2019 at 22:30, capybara said:

 

Also Corrales, Bracewell, ?Edmonds. ?Zuchetti. And Reece Clarke also seems to have 'disappeared' from the stage.

Morera is still listed for Frankenstein.

 

Pleased to be able to report sightings of Zuchetti, Edmonds and Clarke at today's General Rehearsal, all of them looking on good form.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Just reviving this thread as phase 2 of DQ has started.  

 

Did anyone see the Ball/Cuthbertson cast on Friday night?

 

 I just saw on Claire Calvert’s Instagram that she and Reece Clarke have an “unexpected “ performance of Mercedes and Espada tonight.  Can’t wait!  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Sim said:

I just saw on Claire Calvert’s Instagram that she and Reece Clarke have an “unexpected “ performance of Mercedes and Espada tonight.  Can’t wait!  

 

Well Morera and, especially, Hirano have been rather busy of late and the latter is not only cast for Espada but also, now, for Romeo as well as Paris. And there could well be more changes afoot!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks Capybara although a bit worried by your ‘more changes afoot’ note.  I do hope Laura Morera and Ryoichi Hirano make Saturday night as I think this might be Laura’s last Royal Ballet performance this season.  She is of course dancing ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ at Wilton’s.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Many thanks Capybara although a bit worried by your ‘more changes afoot’ note.  I do hope Laura Morera and Ryoichi Hirano make Saturday night as I think this might be Laura’s last Royal Ballet performance this season.  She is of course dancing ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ at Wilton’s.

I am sad as I had booked for tonight's Don Q in part to see L Morera and R Hirano again. Maybe tonight's change of cast for the Mercedes/Espada partnership is the result of today's pre-general rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, as mentioned by Beatriz Stix-Brunell in her (public) IG post:

 

Edited by Josephine
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sim said:

Just reviving this thread as phase 2 of DQ has started.  

 

Did anyone see the Ball/Cuthbertson cast on Friday night?

 

 I just saw on Claire Calvert’s Instagram that she and Reece Clarke have an “unexpected “ performance of Mercedes and Espada tonight.  Can’t wait!  

The Don Quixote performance page on the ROH website does not yet show this cast change (as at midday on Mon 25 March). Very grateful for Instagram!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Josephine said:

The Don Quixote performance page on the ROH website does not yet show this cast change (as at midday on Mon 25 March). Very grateful for Instagram!

 

And why would it?  They're only "minor characters", don't forget!  Nobody needs to be told about those, do they? ;)  And yet the Romeo casting has already been changed.

 

Presumably Hirano is rehearsing for his now somewhat earlier-than-expected Romeo debut.  Sorry to miss Morera, though :( 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BeauxArts said:

Not strictly Royal Ballet news, but Osipova has pulled out of her DQ at the Mariinsky on Thursday.... to great consternation and disappointment.... so not only the RB afflicted by last minute changes...

 

 Well, that was not exactly the best plan given that she is dancing Kitri both tonight and on Saturday at the ROH.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite: pulling out of the Mariinsky Festival with barely 3  days' notice is not impressive. Her scheduled DQ with Shklyarov was the only sold-out performance of the Festival, with many Muscovites  (and a few people from the UK!) attending.... The message seems to have been conveyed to the Russian fanbase  that Kevin O'Hare declined  to release her because of her RB commitments this week. All in all very unsatisfactory.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, BeauxArts said:

Quite: pulling out of the Mariinsky Festival with barely 3  days' notice is not impressive. Her scheduled DQ with Shklyarov was the only sold-out performance of the Festival, with many Muscovites  (and a few people from the UK!) attending.... The message seems to have been conveyed to the Russian fanbase  that Kevin O'Hare declined  to release her because of her RB commitments this week. All in all very unsatisfactory.

If true, O’Hare is quite right. She is a member of the Royal Ballet and will have known about her RB commitments months ago

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tony Newcombe said:

If true, O’Hare is quite right. She is a member of the Royal Ballet and will have known about her RB commitments months ago

 

But presumably the St P DQ was scheduled quite some time ago. Why would the objection only have come at the last minute?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

But presumably the St P DQ was scheduled quite some time ago. Why would the objection only have come at the last minute?

 

We will never know a) when Osipova asked permission, b) whether it was given initially or c) when the refusal was issued. But I don't like the fact that the Mariinsky is pointing the finger of blame at Kevin O'Hare.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

We will never know a) when Osipova asked permission, b) whether it was given initially or c) when the refusal was issued. But I don't like the fact that the Mariinsky is pointing the finger of blame at Kevin O'Hare.

 

I don’t think my post suggests that the Mariinsky are ascribing any responsibility  to  KO’H. That would be speculative. 

I believe Osipova’s name disappeared from the Playbill and Evseyeva’s name appeared instead. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...