English National Ballet - Le Corsaire, 2013/14

[aileen]

To give Ms Sulcas' review some context, she was pretty cool about the RB's new Don Quixote. Even Marienela Nunez failed to win her over although, interestingly, she did like the re-orchestration of the score.

 

It's really amazing how differently people can view a performance. When I read (most of) the critics' reviews of the Bolshoi's opening night Swan Lake this summer I did wonder whether I had been at the same performance or, alternatively, whether I had suffered some temporary critical facilities malfunction.

[LinMM]

Have just read the Roslyn Sulcas review to see how awful it might be but actually it's not that bad and she ends on a sort of positive note!! A slight hint that she felt Cojocaru was holding it all together but she did say it was early days yet.

I haven't read any of the other reviews yet though so they must be pretty over flowing!!

[MAB]

I haven't respected a ballet critic since John Percival died and this Sulcas woman appears from an online biography to be a general hack with a bit of ballet writing on the side.  No mention of any professional link to the dance world at all.  She just provides an opinion - no more no less. 

 

The snide comment about Milton Keynes will hardly win her admirers outside of London:  Taxi for ballet has a valid point.

[aileen]

I'm pleased to see that a couple of reviews have been very complimentary about Erina Takahashi's performance as Gulnare. Slightly off-topic, I like Classical Source's practice of listing the whole of the cast in its reviews.

[annamicro]

The snide comment about Milton Keynes will hardly win her admirers outside of London:  Taxi for ballet has a valid point.

 

Does this mean that England outside London looks like Milton Keynes??? Really???  I've never seen anything like that place (but the theatre was excellent). Having been in London dozens of times but outside London only two times (both in Reading) I'm scared about what I could find going around more!

 

[LinMM]

Annamicro we need a thread to tell you where to go outside London!! A diet of Milton Keynes and Reading is not enough nourishment!!

 

Milton Keynes does look a bit soulless but Ive been told by some people who live there it's actually quite lively and has a reasonable cultural life in fact!

[annamicro]

Annamicro we need a thread to tell you where to go outside London!! A diet of Milton Keynes and Reading is not enough nourishment!!

 

Milton Keynes does look a bit soulless but Ive been told by some people who live there it's actually quite lively and has a reasonable cultural life in fact!

 

The thead will be welcome, thank you. :-) Of course I was joking but one cannot really complain because the venue has not been appreciated by visitors: I even slept there, but some friends based in London just REFUSED to go. :-)

Edited October 24, 2013 by annamicro

[MAB]

They probably refused because you can't get back to London and then make an onward journey if you travel by train, if you don't have a car it means staying over.  If you have a car though it's easy - straight up the M1 and a left turn at Junction 14, I was back in time to be dropped at Victoria to catch my train home.

[Jane S]

I haven't respected a ballet critic since John Percival died and this Sulcas woman appears from an online biography to be a general hack with a bit of ballet writing on the side.  No mention of any professional link to the dance world at all.  She just provides an opinion - no more no less. 

 

The snide comment about Milton Keynes will hardly win her admirers outside of London:  Taxi for ballet has a valid point.

 

I believe it was actually John Percival who gave Roslyn Suclas one of her first big opportunities, taking her on to write for Dance and Dancers sometime in the 1980s, so she has been watching and writing about dance for at least 25 years. And of course John Percival himself - and most other critics I can think of - started in the same way, with no other professional link to the dance world. All criticism is just opinion, isn't it? ( John Percival just happened to be right more often than the others!)

[MAB]

But he also had a certain prose style that the present bunch lack.

[taxi4ballet]

I was hugely surprised by your initial comment. It's not if you know much about ballet or writing but about doing at least a little research before dishing out a slur about anything in life, or in this case a v well respected critic writing for the best dance newspaper in the world.

 

 

It was not, and was never intended to be a slur; it was an off-the-cuff casual remark which has somehow been taken terribly seriously. Perhaps her comments about Milton Keynes are being viewed in the same light!

[aileen]

Bruce, I think that the tone of your remarks to taxi4ballet was unnecessarily abrupt. As has been said many times before on this forum, we are all entitled to express our opinion of a performance even though we are not experts, whatever that may mean, and I find your comment that taxi4ballet does not know much about ballet rather rather sneering. As for Ms Sulcas, her opinion is at odds with that of almost everyone else who had seen this performance, critics and non-critics alike.

[Bruce]

It was not, and was never intended to be a slur; it was an off-the-cuff casual remark which has somehow been taken terribly seriously.

I responded, as did John originally, because it is a serious notion. But I do accept what you say and that you didn't mean your words as a slur. Having said our stuff, hopefully we can return to what unites us, and nearly everybody on this thread: being very happy that ENB have a winner and the audience great dance to see. We need more of that.

 

 

Bruce, I think that the tone of your remarks to taxi4ballet was unnecessarily abrupt. As has been said many times before on this forum, we are all entitled to express our opinion of a performance even though we are not experts, whatever that may mean, and I find your comment that taxi4ballet does not know much about ballet rather rather sneering.

I set the original tone for Balletco and fully believe that this is a place for all to talk freely about performances. What sparked my post (and others before) was not an observation on performance as such. I was actually taking issue with the point made about the "absentee reviewer". I didn't actually say that taxi4ballet doesn't know much about ballet. It was taxi4ballet who said they were not an expert in ballet and I neither agreed or disagreed. Anyway long may we all say our thoughtful stuff on what we see, and seeing ENB in Corsaire is certainly a jolly good thing - as Clement Crisp might say!

[aileen]

ENB has posted a nice clip on YouTube showing Alina, Vadim, Yonah, Junor, Dimitri and others (the opening night cast, I believe).

[victoriapage]

Hope putting it here is okay?

 

[Bruce Wall]

It's more than OK Victoria ..... I think if Sky Arts has their wits about them .... they will be filming this during the London run .... for broadcast on Sky Arts 2 pronto.  The release of the DVD will, I think, far outstrip the Alice sales for the chaps down the street.  

[alison]

You reckon?  It'd be nice to have something from ENB on record again after, what, 25 years?, but I'm not convinced. 

[Bruce Wall]

I do actually, Alison.  I think if you filmed the production that would be grand ... with the heady and now noted combo of Alina and Vadim ... and the glowing contribution of so many key ENB players ... but I'd also include a bonus track, hosted by Tamara (to ensure depiction of her overall vision - crucial - and showing hightlights with her dancing with Matthew Golding .... Within that element I would bring in Anna-Marie Holmes (to again emphasise the Canadian takeover- LOL .... well, Tamara, Matthew and Anna-Marie!!!) ... but also include interviews with, say, Osipova and Vasiliev who could both talk about dancing both the Bolshoi's version and Holmes' take for ABT ... as well as some others who have graced this production's boards ... including Marcello Gomes and one Johan Kobborg .... even Steven McRae to appease the local set for that matter ..... and, of course, have Michael Coleman talk about the Nureyev / Fonteyn effect.  Bob Ringwood could probably have a very decorative track all to himself.  All will be in London certainly by March.  This could be ready for broadcast I'd imagine by end June ... or certainly September.  The production broadcast on Sky Arts 2 should I think be limited .... but the documentary bonus could play for years on repeats such as Sky is wont to do.  It could - with agreements in place - in support of ENB - be fiscally light - as these things go.  Of course I realise this is probably in the realm of fantasy ... still one can but dream, huh.   It would be nice if ENB could capitalise on the carpe diem effect.  Such doesn't come along all that often.  Here you (to be read 'I') have a sense that the Corsaire effect travels in spades in the entertainment stakes and could potentially last for generations in behalf of Tamara's ENB.  The latter gives EVERY indication (at least to me) of being a very worthy cause..  

Edited October 25, 2013 by Meunier

[Fonty]

I find myself smiling about all the good comments going towards ENB.  I have always really enjoyed their performances, and frequently found in the past their triple bills more lively and exciting that those down the road in the Posh Place.  And I have often been startled at the numbers of empty seats in the theatre. 

 

I am just counting the pennies in my piggy bank, and see which performances I can afford in London, the coming January being rather an expensive month for me as far as theatre going is concerned. 

[aileen]

I've just booked tickets for Le Corsaire for our family Christmas outing. My husband is searching his massive book collection for a copy of Byron's poem! He's quite enthusiastic about going after seeing the YouTube clip and learning that the ballet is based on a work of literature (although he's not particularly keen on Byron). My 15 year old grunter... I mean son... was playing a game on the computer and agreed just to get me to leave him in peace.

 

I just wanted to alert people to the fact that tickets for children (5-16 years old) seem to be half price for all performances, and not just for mid-week matinees. They were certainly half price at the evening performances which I looked at. If booking online just make sure that you click on the little circle for children's tickets (whereupon the prices will change) before you select the seats for the children.

[Shmendrick]

If ENB don't get their act together soon and release the Manchester casting I might cover all my bases and just book cheap tickets for every performance after reading all the good reviews.

[alison]

Oh great.  They'll probably hold off on it now

 

Maybe waiting to see if Daria is fit? (she says, hopefully)

[Pas de Quatre]

Have just come back from Southampton and loved the production!  Excellent dancing, beautiful costumes, jolly music and very clever use of frontcloths, backcloths, lighting and scrims to make different scenes.  Doesn't matter who is dancing (although we all have our favourites of course) - just go and see it!

[Shmendrick]

I already have tickets for the first night so I'm already going, I would love to see Daria though so I want to get tickets for her, if she's dancing of course.

[Jan McNulty]

I'm in Manchester on the first night too!

 

Currently got the 2 matinees booked too and am thinking of another couple of evenings!

[capybara]

Those of you who are keen to know the casting for Manchester might wish to write to info@ballet.org.uk (which is ENB's website) to see whether it is possible to stir something up. However, since It seems likely that, by the end of this coming week, ENB will have fielded seven different Medoras, the Company may feel the need to take time to weigh its options.

[aileen]

Who are the seven Medoras, capybara?

[capybara]

Who are the seven Medoras, capybara?

 

Alina Cojocaru

Tamara Rojo

Daria Klimentova

Fernanda Oliviera

Erina Takahashi

Ksenia Ovsianick

 

plus another currently shown on the ENB website as tbc.

[aileen]

So, have Fernanda and Daria both recovered from their injuries?

[aileen]

Pas de Quatre, did Matthew Golding dance this afternoon? I thought that I saw him at the ROH this evening.

[Valentino]

So, have Fernanda and Daria both recovered from their injuries?

Ksenia still did Daria's show this past week, but I believe Daria is promising to be back next week.

Fernanda has recovered and did her premier last Thursday.

[aileen]

Fingers crossed that Daria is fit again soon. It's a long run and the company needs everyone to be fit. I'd love to see both Daria and Ksenia as Medora. It's a demanding schedule for Vadim as I understand that, in addition to his many performances as Conrad, he is also dancing the role of Ali. Ditto Yonah who is dancing the roles of Conrad and Birbanto.

[Bruce Wall]

ENB's Corsaire is a lint brush for depression.  It rolls over one leaving a feeling of unblemished optimism.  Its lucky audience shares in this Company's new-found and heady aspiration.  (I, for one, couldn't resist.  I returned to see it again at the matinee yesterday afternoon - and yes, Aileen, Golding did dance - BRILLIANTLY - in this Brad Pitt of a production. (Please know were he to have dashed out the stage door, Golding could easily have made it to Covent Garden for the evening performance.  Your eyes may well NOT have been deceived.)   The Canadian's partnering skills in the central second act pas de deux (as opposed to the pas d'action - although they were fine there as well) were here but and object of romantic thrill.  Matthew's corn-fed fingers tenderly guided (or is that guilded?) the romantic lust of each of his audience's hearts. ALL present left, in fact, in ship shape.  We watched the entire company grow with glee before us.  Tamara, herself, led from the front.  She did so with a fully conscious and rightful pride.  Has there ever a better 'ballerina' than this NOW?  I think not.  Certainly the challenge of the absurd mime - sorry, storytelling - required at the end of Corsaire's third act has NEVER in my experience been more clearly and lovingly etched.  Rojo's overall message resounded with a clear ballast:  'We're on our way!  JUST WATCH:  THERE WILL BE MORE!'  There was no way THIS ship could ever REALLY sink: That the bejeweled wonder of ENB's glorious whole might perish under the baton of this life-force.  Here IS a leader.  We have not seen her like since Madam.  The force of our very real joy at that prospect WILL as it MUST float. 

 

In my experience ENB has not worked together as such a rich team (and here they blissfully are) at least since the Company's days under Schaufuss. Here they don't just kick, flick and tick together; they sail; skim; soar and steer.  As they do so each member swoops us up in the gratifying counterbalances of their dance.  The fresh faced front of that alone - as well as the life enhancing vigor found in the pounding of the musical ballasts - pilots ALL hearts in in its heady rapture.  

 

Here as before just so much new found confidence was on display.  Laurretta Summerscales glowed in her precision as Gulnare.  She made clear her initial distress at capture yet reassured all present as she began to unfurl the gaiety of her ensnaring smile; Ksenia Ovsyanick did - as she always does - dazzle.  This girl IS special.  Stina Quagebeur led as the Lead Villager aside Fabian Reimair's richly etched Birbanto with a fervor in character dance that I had previously thought was only REALLY possessed by the Bolshoi.  It 'knived'.  It was obviously infectious as the entire male ensemble joined in their thrusting zeal.  (Indeed, - and let ME be as clear as they were - especially in the enchanting Jardin sequence:  This company CURRENTLY has a strength in numbers - especially with the women - that could - indeed CAN - easily outflank that other major - and certainly more richly endowed London based company (to take nothing away from the assorted gifts that can therein currently be found - cough, Nunez/Morea, cough ... What is it about Spain????).  One feels ENB will only build under Tamara's steam.  One feels confident she simply won't have it any other way.  She knows this competition can be for the good.  She, herself, has been a product of it and profited from such.   She shows here we can relax in her good taste.  Let there be no doubt: This is a woman of sufficient guts to be a leader. NEVER an easy ride for ANYONE.  We are ALL the beneficiaries of that.  Hers is the courage to be MORE than just popular!  That will, of course, shock some.  Still here we ALL watched in delight as Junor Souza added to the shape of his new found balletic maturity by the consistency of his characterful concern and anger as Lankendem (itself being the best described theatrical role in this piece) and young Joan Sebastian Zamora surveyed the stage from above as Ali, bravely holding his boss aloft when necessary in tender concern.  While acknowledging that Zamora still needs to find a way to shape more immediate theatrical vitality in his relation to his master, Conrad - (the choreography here forces the majority of the dancers to find a dramatic size for themselves - a good thing) - this lad's parents back in Columbia have an ENORMOUS amount to be proud of.  Indeed there is much here present that we ALL - as a nation - can beam at.  We ARE after all a parental part of this picture.  One blessedly that IS to be seen AND heard.  

 

'Daddy, can I see this again?' a little girl squealed excitedly as Bob Ringwood's last magical scrim fell.  I knew how she felt.  I sympathized with her sentiment. (I say this knowing full well that my own dad keeled over when I was nine.  That is now but a few months short of a half a century ago.  My own 'inner dad' cocked a smile back at his embedded infant at that moment saying with delight: 'Sure can, son'.  As we were rising from the very real comfort of our positions in the Mayflower's majestic dress circle, I asked the very present dad in question if he would be honouring his daughter's request.  He smiled saying 'yes', adding: '... and I'll bring my two other children along next time too!  They'll love it').  Clever man. 

 

In a journalistic world where as many predictions as predilections are flown, mine is this:  If ENB has the courage to hold to the electrifying dynamic mast of its current conviction - and I believe under Tamara's leadership it will - THIS production has the capacity to make Le Corsaire become for the UK what The Nutcracker IS for America.  Why?  Because it encapsulates our need for hope ... and it does so through the universal language of dance.  My instinct tells me this gift of THIS joy is critic proof.  Better still, it means that Christmas can come at any point of the year without any need for that aftertaste of seasonal guilt.  

 

As the UK's economy appears for the moment to be cautiously improving many hacks stick out their frazzled thumbs in seeming knowing. Let mine suggest this:  ENB's Corsaire has the capacity to become ITS gold standard celebrating as it does the achievements of the chorus line.  I predict it will be through it's prism of THIS joy that future generations of ENB dancers will be able to test their skills and, yes, ultimately see their promotions rightfully hoisted.  Certainly I think it will help fill the ENB school with a very real inspiration.  This Corsair has the potential to be a yard stick for 'delightful measure' such as Shakespeare might poetically intone.  This is an 'Emerging Dancer's' Celebration in the flesh ... and even better ... in an entirely shared measure.  .

 

'Bravi', I say .... We are ALL the winners ... .

 

Oh, and more please.      

 

(I say that smiling of course ...

Edited October 27, 2013 by Meunier