David

Good features: opportunities for younger dancers (Jewels); Morera getting Mary Vetsera; the Watson/Yanowsky axis in Mayerling

 

Disappointments: Muntagirov and Nunez not cast for Rudolf and Mary; some less than starry casting across the piece in Jewels

 

Relief: that Polunin (for all his reputed excellence in the role) has not deprived the home team of being cast as Rudolf

 

Disbelief at one or two aspects of the Mayerling casting

 

Uncertainty as to whether or not the range of talent in the RB (at Principal as well as other levels)  is being exploited and developed via this casting

 

Really liked this post, terse and to the point, share your "Relief", but I'm intrigued - could you expand on "Disbelief" and "Uncertainty" please?

 

P.S. Now there's a thought. If Glenda Jackson can do King Lear...

Yes - and I'm really looking forward to Derek Jacobi as Father Courage and David Tennant as Cleopatro!

Unlike the much later Woolf Works and the Human Seasons Mixed Programme that give casting details in full, there are still no indications regarding additional casting for Sleeping Beauty - not even for the Lilac Fairy. Does anyone have any idea when we might hear more please?

I (very easily) booked SB for 3rd Jan Lamb and Golding yesterday. Are we their only fans on here?

Certainly not. I've also booked for them, alongside various other pairings. It will make a great start to the new year!

According to Pathe Live the casting for Bright stream is: Svetlana Lunkina (Zina); Mikhail Lobukhin (Pyotr); Maria Alexandrova (the Ballerina); Ruslan Skvortsov (the Ballet Dancer); Denis Savin (the Accordionist); Alexei Loparevich (the Old Dacha Dweller)

A timely reminder. Thank you Tatiana.

Back to Swan Lake ideas...

OK  -------

For me the biggest problem in all the various productions of Swan Lake that I have seen centres round the unexplored role of Rothbart and the failure to recognize how he is at the very core of the story.

In all fairy tales there is the dark side. Just as Cinderella is ultimately about child abuse so Swan Lake is about this vile predator who preys on young women. We don’t know how or why Odile came to be ensnared (though one production I have seen uses the opening orchestral prelude to enact her abduction) or Rothbart’s intentions or what use he makes of her and the other women he abducts. These are places it seems we don’t want to go. We only know that she is utterly in his power and that she deliberately destroys herself to escape his toils.

This is where the greatness of Tchaikovsky’s music lies. He understood the dark places of the soul only too well. Dowell created Rothbart as a brooding presence, very effective with a dancer actor like Gary Avis who can command a stage by his very stillness and I appreciate that but in the main productions rely on Odette to reflect her father’s evil nature, leaving him as a two-dimensional figure whose motives are unclear.

Every dramatist knows that a play requires an effective baddie. I felt that Scarlett proved his skills as a dramatist in Frankenstein, for example in the way he switches our sympathies from Frankenstein himself to his creature, as Frankenstein stands silently by while the girl he knows to be innocent is hung for his creature’s crime. So …. I am wondering whether Scarlett may find ways to re-balance the work with new insights into the Rothbart role and his relationship to those he has ensnared, ie. the WHY  behind the tragic love story?

"I hope they put in on in the cinema allowed to be watched by outsiders, as I will not be applying for a visa to watch it in person."

Gosh SwissBalletFan - does that mean that it will be a bit like the rest of us popping over to Geneva or Zurich to see the ballet or the opera there? Oh dear, oh dear.

As long as the new SL doesn't involve a vomiting tutor with an unhealthy interest in young girls, or a maypole, I'll be happy. Oh, and please don't make Siegfied wear tights the same colour as the stage/backgound. We want to see his legs!

Don't worry - judging by modern day theatrical and operatic productions he's more like to be in fatigues. Oh yes, and with the mandatory Kalashnikov instead of a cross bow!

...If you were given Liam Scarlett's new task of creating a brand new Swan Lake what would you do/how would you do it?

Is he tasked with "creating a brand new Swan Lake"? A chance to out-Bourne Bourne perhaps? If so no problem and it can run alongside the familiar and brilliant Dowell reconstruction much like Khan's Giselle at the ENB. Or is he embarking on an evolutionary process looking at the minor issues which annoyed some people over the years - costume details, a bit of fussiness, too many people - perhaps alongside new designs and so on.

Over the years we came to take for granted one of the finest and most iconic productions in the RB repertoire. I have an enormous respect and liking for Liam Scarlett's work and I look forward to his production eagerly. I so wish him well. But I mourn the passing of the Dowell Swan Lake which had challenged so many generations of their finest dancers. And I wish Scarlett had been offered the chance to follow his Frankenstein with another entirely new narrative ballet, just as I am hoping and praying that one day Chris Wheeldon will return to the RB with another full-length original narrative work. 

Just a reminder about The Golden Age tomorrow!

I've seen very mixed reviews  - very undecided about whether to go!

I think that it is high time that choreographers left the classics alone. After all we don't rewrite Dickens, Shakespeare or Pushkin, so why all these "new" versions of Swan Lake . etc etc. If choreographers really want to prove themselves they should be looking for new subjects and new music. I think that Scarlett would do well to look at Ratmansky's reconstruction. OK for new costumes and sets and for filling in those bits that are missing from the notation, but otherwise can we please have as much of the Petipa/Ivanov choreography that survives. If the 19th century classics really are the masterpieces that they are claimed to be, why does the ballet world handle their choreographic texts in such a cavalier fashion?

Hear, Hear!

 But of course your alternative is the version with Macauley Culkin

Too twee for my taste I'm afraid - and I think I'll give this new one a miss as well! Thanks for your comments.

Presumably that was the one screened in cinemas at Christmas a few years ago?  I don't think the cinema at Westfield produced anything as fancy as a cast sheet, so I can't check.

How was it - were you impressed? It's a full price disk and I have so many Nutcrackers on my shelves! And I am promising myself that I will splurge if Opus Arte issue the RB cinema relay on 8th Dec with Hayward as Clara and Cuthbertson as the Sugar Plum Fairy.

I see the NYCB performance of Balanchine’s Nutcracker with Megan Fairchild, Jaoquin, Teresa Reichlen and Daniel Ulbricht has been listed for release on 11^th Nov - described as the performance on 14th Dec 2011 at the David H Koch Theatre.

I think Swan Lake is like Shakespeare:  in the right hands, it can be transposed to any time, and with any kind of costumes or messing about with sequence ....

 

Can I just say that over the years I have seen some dreadful regietheater shakespearian productions that completely lose sight of the text and original intention.

I am finding the main thrust of the comments here very reassuring!!!!!

 

 

Having said this....I think that if I were Scarlett I would leave the more 'funky' versions for other companies.  As one of the world's flagship caretakers of the classical repertoire, I strongly feel that they shouldn't mess with Swan Lake.  I am one of those people who really liked Dowell's version, especially the choreographic idiom that was kept.  OK, some of Yolanda Sonnabend's design was a bit over-fussy, but I loved the costumes, including the soft swan tutus.  So in Scarlett's place, I wouldn't stray too much from what they already have, choreography-wise.  One thing I feel very strongly about is that he must keep the mime.  The narrative makes soooo much more sense with it kept in.  As far as 'keeping it classical' is concerned, everybody could learn a thing or two from BRB's version, which has a very clear and sensible narrative, is beautifully costumed and choreographed and makes one want to go back and see it again and again.  

 

 

Thank you Sim for the confirmation. I also am one who really liked Dowell's Production and I totally endorse these comments!

Has it been confirmed that Liam Scarlett has been tasked with the new production? And for the 2017/18 season?

I am drawing the article to the attention of forum members as I have an uncomfortable feeling that if no one responds to it we shall get the redesigns and when no one likes them we shall be told that the lack of response to the article was taken as tacit assent to the view that the current designs are too cartoonish and that new designs are needed. As Ashton has been badly served by earlier attempts to spruce up his ballets by giving them new designs I think that some responses to the article would be helpful.

 

I am drawing the article to the attention of forum members as I have an uncomfortable feeling that if no one responds to it we shall get the redesigns and when no one likes them we shall be told that the lack of response to the article was taken as tacit assent to the view that the current designs are too cartoonish and that new designs are needed. As Ashton has been badly served by earlier attempts to spruce up his ballets by giving them new designs I think that some responses to the article would be helpful.

I've already registered my disgust at the thought of any changes to the designs and I hope that many others on this forum will do the same! Here is the link:

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/how-la-fille-mal-gardee-creates-pastoral-magic-through-marmite-cartoons

Just noticed that "Darcey Bussell Dances Hollywood" is repeated on BBC4 in less than 15 minutes.

Ms Bussell announced on the Jonathan Ross Show that she has been recording a programme on Margot Fonteyn, to be aired "nearer Christmas"!

Janet - I just want to say that I was at the first night in Birmingham and thoroughly endorse, and thank you, for your detailed and spot-on analysis. For me Bintley's Tempest  is a splendid piece, true to the spirit of  Shakespeare's work and one that I will want to see again and again.

HOWEVER ..... that second act! The masque began brilliantly and you are so right about the splendid individual contributions - but it just went on and on and on. It did finally get back on track and finished on a high. I liked Prospero's handing of the crown to Caliban, returning the island to him but the sight of Ariel sobbing at the end struck a false note for me - the essence of Ariel is that he is not human and not subject to human emotions - surely he should have been exultant that he had finally achieved his freedom?

But these are details. This is a high calibre production and should be retained.

I have not been able to get over to see it again so do please tell us if the second act is being tightened up.

You are making a good point, David. I understood FLOSS' comment, however, differently, namely that Lady MacMillan could be the one who made the decision which recent recording of Manon to choose for being issued on DVD. I find this unlikely. This is very different from giving an approval when approached by a party intending to issue such a recording for sale. In fact, denying an approval would require some serious reservations about the quality or integrity of the production that is supposed to bear her late husband's name.

Yes - you're quite right of course.

Since the DVD in question is being issued by the Opéra, there is a completely straightforward explanation here, no need to blame Lady MacMillan. Dupont have been for 2 decades a darling of Madame Lefèvre (to the detriment of some stunning dancers of the company who were never recorded on DVD despite the fact that they were a lot more interesting), and now she is directing the company herself.

The point about the relationship between Madame Levevre and Dupont is interesting and explains a lot. However, my understanding is that Lady MacMillan continues to exercise firm control over what is performed/recorded of the MacMillan works, irrespective of the performing or recording company -  if so Floss's point holds and I'd be surprised if the Paris Opera Performance or the Belair Classiques Manon release could have happened without her approval.

There wasn't - unfortunately.

I think I'm getting confused between the live cinema relay on the 16th Oct 2014 with Nunez and Bonelli and the performance on 5th Oct when Lamb replaced Cuthbertson dancing with Muntagirov. Such details apart I agree with the general feeling that we need a new Manon recording. Presumably we must wait for the next run. If so, while I am a great fan of Osipova, I hope it will be with a different Principal - Either Lamb, Cuthbertson or Nunez though by then it could well be Hayward!