barton22

They've had it in the repertoire since the 70s.

I think their version is pre-Bournonville isn't it?  I have a dvd recording of them dancing it (Aurelie Dupont and Mathieu Ganio) but have never got around to watching it.  There's a Laura Capelle/FT review from what was probably the last time they staged it, back in 2013.

Also my magazine seems to always turn up so much later than others? Still haven't got it... So didn't realise friends booking opened as early as March. Hoping to see Lantratov & Alexandrova in particular.

 

Any ideas whether taming of the shrew is worth watching? I won't be able to see the upcoming broadcast. No idea what it's like at all, not really familiar with the choreographer.

I think that the ROH probably stages mailings of the magazine depending on the recipients' "booking from" dates.  The date on which you receive it likely relates to the booking deadline for your friend/patron member level.  There is such a wide spread of booking dates that I'm sure it makes sense to stagger the mailings.

There are very substantial chunks of the Bolshoi Taming of the Shrew on YouTube.  If you search "bolshoi taming of the shrew" they will come up.  There is a 33 minute video of a performance posted by "fiordililia n", for example.  There was also 30 minutes or so of footage of the company rehearsing the piece with Maillot himself on World Ballet Day 2014 and the video of that is still up on YouTube (just make sure you get the 2014 one and not last year's) - starting at around 3 hours and 6 minutes in; that is on the Bolshoi's own YouTube channel.

I wonder whether he has got Lady M's permission not to perform one of her late husband's three act works in that season? 

I am not sure whether she would be that worried, but I think KOH may have clarified that this plan could relate to calendar year 2020 rather than a whole season; so it could be the last six or seven months of the 2019/20 season and the first four months of the 2020/21 season and so avoid issues with what some might feel would be a very unbalanced season.

I haven't looked back at records of what KOH actually said, but if it is the case that this would be limited to works created while he has been AD I am not sure Alice should be on your list. 

I've never seen anything by Crystal Pite, but have heard lots of enthusiastic reports.  What sort of style is her choreography?  Classical, or modern?  Vest and pants, or more elaborate costumes?

Modern; generally not particularly elaborate costumes.  There are quite a few videos of her work on YouTube.  A piece she created for a ballet company is Emergence and Pacific Northwest Ballet's channel has an excerpt from that.  There are several examples of her work with NDT and Kidd Pivot, including The You Show, an excerpt of which was performed at Sadler's Wells last year or the year before.  Also Polaris, the large group piece she created for the Thomas Ades programme at Sadler's Wells last season and then took to the Lincoln Center (the Lincoln Center's channel as an excerpt from that).  

Has McGregor used Nyx before, or am I getting ahead of myself and thinking of some previous statement he's made about the piece - like saying he was going to be choreographing something using the music?

I don't think he has used Nyx before.  He has been talking about this for a while, though.  He used another Salonen work (Foreign Bodies) for Yantra, the piece he created on Stuttgart Ballet in 2010.

Very disappointed that a male choreographer appears to be doing an all male piece.  At a time when we're looking for more female involvement at all levels of the artistic spectrum, this looks like a couple of steps backwards.

I am not sure I'm convinced that women get a particularly raw deal compared to men when it comes to the number and quality of roles for them in ballet.  I can't think of another work in the RB rep that is devoted to male dancers (even if there is one, the balance still seems to be more than fair between the sexes) and this could be really interesting.  I think there is definitely an issue with a lack of use of women choreographers and it would be good to see that corrected over time.  Based on a New York Times article back in November, it sounds like we have Crystal Pite creating something for the company in the near future (something I am very excited about as I love her work), but that's not much given the resources the company devotes to a small clique of exclusively male choreographers.

You are a star, Pulcinella.  Have found a cinema (Salisbury) and booked a ticket.  Many thanks.

 

Oh to have been there that night in Italy!

For those interested in this but unable to see at the cinema, there is also a dvd/blu ray of this concert that is available for pre-order on Amazon with a release date of February 26th.  (Bizarrely, my pre-order of the blu ray placed in October was delivered to me at the end of November, but they seem to have taken it off the market and scheduled a new release date for the end of Feb; perhaps they rethought the timing when they decided to have a run of this in cinemas.)

I just realised that McGregor has been resident choreographer for almost 10 years now.  Here's a question for everyone.  Which of his existing creations do you think the RB will be dancing 10 years from now?  Of the one act ballets, which ones do you think will be regular items on triple bills for years to come? 

 

I am genuinely interested in people's opinions here, as I am not familiar with a lot of his work. 

I find it hard to see anything other than Chroma and Infra surviving (and I really feel they deserve to survive).  I have always felt they were in a different league to his later pieces, and it is also telling that these are the only pieces (of which I am aware) to have been taken on by other companies of the highest calibre (the Bolshoi has Chroma and the Mariinsky Infra).  I know others have a different view, but for me everything after Infra has been pretty uninteresting and some have just been painfully boring (especially Tetractys).  I think perhaps the first and last segments of Woolf Works deserve to survive but they are saddled with the ludicrous central segment.

Indeed, we all know by now how poorly the RB Press Office handled such a big and important debut, a double debut that has marked so many people, except the absent/uninvited critics. Their combined debut deserves to be nominated as a RB highlight of 2015, not to forget their Onegin performance earlier on in 2015.

 

There were of course other memorable performances by other dancers but the Ball/Naghdi R&J was just something so special, something we had not seen at the RB for a long time.

It could be that it could have been better handled, but it may be that KOH didn't want to put more pressure on this young pair by creating an even bigger publicity splash than there would already be dancing their first public performance of these demanding principal roles.  We have seen where putting too much pressure on very young dancers has got the company in the past.

I know that we are all entitled to our own opinion but for the record, I think that that dismissing Bonelli as merely "okay when he is with Cuthbertson" is a great disservice to a beautiful dancer. Not only do Cuthbertson and Bonelli have wonderful chemistry - the reason they are my favourite R&J of the modern era - but Bonelli has beautiful technique and has worked well with other partners, not least with Lamb in Afternoon of a Faun, according to reports.

I agree, and he is arguably the best all rounder among the male principals.  He dances classical ballets beautifully and is very good in the more contemporary repertoire and regularly chosen by McGregor and Wheeldon to dance their new works.  Looking at the list of principals I don't see another male principal dancer who can match him when you consider the whole spectrum of the company's repertoire.  

I am not sure whether this has been mentioned elsewhere, but another recent (October) DVD release is of Le Tricentenaire de l'Ecole francaise de Danse on the Editions Montparnasse label.  I bought it on Amazon France but it seems to be available through third party sellers on Amazon UK.  It is region free and has an English subtitles option.  It is interesting, although not quite as amazing as I hoped it would be.  There is a little bit of documentary content and some performances by the school (with some principal roles taken by company dancers such as Mathieu Ganio and Ludmila Pagliero).

I caught this programme yesterday. I intended to watch it unless the Liverpool v Bournemouth game was particularly good. It wasn't, with a predictably bland and stereotypical commentary, so I switched to Sky Arts for the film which, alas, I thought to be also somewhat bland and superficial. It was nicely shot with an interesting use of deep focus but it neither informed me about Peck's motivation or ideas nor did it convey any clear impression of what the completed ballet looked like. It was all bits and pieces and somewhat incoherent to boot. The process of the creation of a ballet was better conveyed, but the motivation and the ideas were not. Simply to observe without commentary is inadequate for comprehension unless the editing process is sufficiently sophisticated.

 

It looked beautiful, though, with lots of nicely composed shots. It was also good to see Albert Evans in action during the rehearsals - a brief, but touching, reminder. 

I agree it is disappointingly bland and could easily have been so much better.  I got a dvd copy from the US a while ago.  I'd say it is worth watching but just don't expect too much!

I can't see O'Hare planning a whole season without any nineteenth century works so he may well include Acosta's Don Q and the new Swan Lake whatever that looks like. 

 

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that he planned to include Acosta's Don Q in what he would count as 21st century for this purpose.  He may well do the same with the new Swan Lake.  I think that wherever I read that, I also read that he felt he had been misunderstood on his plans and that potentially the "whole year" of these works could be a calendar year and so span two seasons.  I may not be recalling correctly what I read, though.

I'm glad it wasn't just me last night - I too found the whole performance left me cold.  Muntagirov's dancing was beautiful, but that was about the only real positive.  Maybe they will become more compelling with another performance or two but I'm not sure I see that happening.  I was also disappointed by Zucchetti and Hay as Mercutio and Benvolio - I was expecting so much more from these two dancers in these roles (although with them I suspect things will get better will successive performances).

That's great to hear. I've forgotten - were she and Golding dancing a Family Matinee then?

I believe so, although I wasn't there myself.

 To those who are going to buy tickets. The reality is that you will get a pretty good performance whichever cast you see.I have to say that I find the prospect of seeing a cast that managed to secure a full five stars from Clement Crisp but which  only gained muted approval from Mr Monahan of the Telegraph intriguing.Mr. Crisp is usually the critic who expresses modified rapture in response to performance that have exhausted other critics' expressions of enthusiasm.Mr Monahan is usually at the head of the cheerleaders  and I don't always understand his enthusiasms.

 

I agree.  All the casts are going to be good in different ways.  I have now seen the Ball/Naghdi cast twice (general rehearsal and schools matinee today) and they are very promising.  Better today having got their first performance in front of an audience out of the way at the general last Friday.  I have been more engaged by them than other casts I remember.  I heard very good things about Hayward in Saturday's matinee.  Cuthbertson will be great.  Unless you have specific likes and dislikes you can't go far wrong with any cast.

Crisp does tend to adore McRae whatever he does and I find him quite extreme and erratic in his views, so I am not that surprised that he gushed over the opening night performance.  Hard to say whether his enthusiasm for it will translate into one's own.

My friend and I are planning to see this production but I don't know who to see! I have my ideas but I'd love a few opinions. Obviously it mostly depends on ticket availability and dates we are free but if you could choose who would you want to see? I love the truly artistic dancers best so I was thinking Cuthbertson or Nunez as Juliet? Any ideas?

If you are choosing between Cuthbertson and Nunez for acting I would go with Cuthbertson.  Nunez is great technically but always leaves me cold in dramatic roles.  For me, Cuthbertson is the one for this role.  You might also want to consider Hayward and, as MAB says, Osipova.  Tickets for Osipova will be the hardest to obtain, though.

My sense is that if you are considering a handful of performances a year then it isn't necessary to be a Friend of the ROH to be able to obtain decent seats for most performances, even if you need to plan around just a couple of visits to London.  If you want performances in which Osipova features or are focused on a popular seating area it might get more difficult, but even then I am sure there are some seats left for public booking and returns regularly pop up on the website and you just need to invest a little time in checking for them.

I would be surprised if there is real difficulty getting seats for Elizabeth in public booking.  I suppose the fact that Acosta is performing and is heading into retirement from the company may drive sales up (I am not sure he is THAT much of a draw, though); but I'm still not convinced you'll have trouble, especially if you book soon after public booking opens.

In the more contemporary world, Crystal Pite's work was among the most striking I have seen over the last couple of years, and yet other male choreographers got main stage commissions at ROH. They must get her on board soon I hope.

I am pretty sure that Pite will end up working with the Royal Ballet before long.  I agree with you on the quality of her work; it is so rare nowadays for choreographers to come up with something original and not just look like they are channeling McGregor.

What was really weird was that before curtain went up there were loads of people in the wrong seats! Some of the ushers didn't seem very sure where the seats were.

I have found what I call seat squatters more of an issue at the Coli than anywhere else. On a number of occasions I have arrived at the last minute and found people in my seats who were clearly not there by mistake and seemed pretty annoyed at being caught out and turfed out at the last minute and having to run to where they knew they were supposed to be sitting.  Really hasn't happened to me in other theatres.

Same here. Couple of nice bits but mainly unoriginal and dull.

Agreed that this one piece was not terribly successful, but I think his good material is so much better than the new work the Royal has put on recently.

Thanks, Bruce.  Looking forward to seeing the new ballet and the Shostakovich triptych.  I missed that when it was first shown and someone close to ABT had suggested to me a while back that they might not stage all three pieces together again.  Very pleased that turned out to be wrong, as it sounds like it is very good indeed.

 

Regarding  a replacement for Rupert I would like to see Xander Parish invited to guest for his performances. He is, after all, no stranger to the company, is English, and has true danseur noble qualities as well as an impressive record of performances in most of the principal male roles in the ballet repertoire.

I agree with aileen that there is no need to bring in men from outside the company to dance Rupert's few scheduled performances this coming season.  Especially dancers who are not yet at principal rank in their own companies.  I think that, among other things, that could be terrible for morale in the Royal.

The first couple of Romeos are a problem as they are soon and there is not much time to prepare someone who doesn't know the role in the Royal's production.  They are also opening night of the season and a cinema relay and it would send an unfortunate message to broadcast one of the company's key works with an outsider in the lead male role and thereby imply that the company lacks depth in its male ranks.  I think it has to be one of the other male principals and it has to be the same man for both opening night and the relay so he has had a stage performance to work out any kinks before the broadcast performance.

For the other ballets in which Pennefather was cast, there is ample time to prepare one or more non-principal men from the Royal to take those shows.  They have already given several Nutcracker princes to non-principals and could give those same men some more or give another non-principal man a chance.  (Nut prince also seems an odd role to have a guest in as it is such a short role - it seemed so odd that they used Cory Stearns in this role last time he was here.)  I was anticipating that Ball might get a Nutcracker prince or two before the casting came out and it is a role he would do well in.  Zucchetti only seems to have one performance and another wouldn't do any harm and would allow him to get to grips with the role a bit better than the one make or break show.  Hirano, Campbell, and Hristov would probably appreciate the chance to dance another performance.  Pennefather's single Albrecht could be another good opportunity for a non-principal (and there is loads of time to prepare for it) or could surely easily picked up by another of the existing principal men.  I suppose some this will depend on how willing Lamb is to dance with less experienced men.

Please note the following is not a suggestion about who might dance the first night performance and nor was my suggestion that Hristov might be cast as Romeo. In both cases these are suggestions about how the Romeo gap might be filled. Here is a possible solution to the sudden Romeo shortage. Ball is given more than one performance as Romeo. I know that there are problems with this in terms of rehearsal time and so on but it might suggest itself to someone.Mason seemed to have grasped the wisdom of getting away from the single sink or swim debut with no planned opportunity for consolidation. So I was a trifle surprised that Naghdi and Ball were only given a single performance in this run.

 

In the past the only opportunity for a second performance used to come from someone else's injury when a dancer who had made their debut was likely to be flung on with little opportunity to prepare for the performance.Given the way debut performances were programmed last year I had thought that the one off performance might have become a thing of the past.

 

The second suggestion relates to the performances of Giselle next year. It is unlikely but not impossible. Xander Parish is invited to guest as Albrecht.I understand that his performances in this role have been well received.

I agree that to give the Ball/Naghdi pairing another performance would be an excellent idea.  I think they have a schools matinee ahead of their October 3rd general public performance, so they do at least have a full performance ahead of their public debut.

barton 22.

 

All dancers are variable some are more variable than others. It used to be said that there were two Desmond Kellys one who was marvelous and another who was less than marvelous.Someone I know used to describe the latter as "Dismal Desmond", but that didn't stop him buying tickets for Kelly's performances. He took his chance as to which one would turn up on the night. Consistency is a real issue for the performing arts generally and as far as singers were concerned used to revolve around whether you would rather hear Berit Lindholme who was consistently accurate but boring or Gwynneth Jones who was variable but incomparable on a good night.Most people I know, when given the choice, were prepared to take their chances rather than be bored to death.I know that Moira Shearer once said that as far as Fonteyn's reputation was concerned it wasn't just that her performances were outstanding it was that they were so consistent in quality;she did not seem to have off nights like other dancers do.

I know what you mean, but I thought Jones was always compelling dramatically even though she had her off days technically.  We have different views on RP and it has been interesting to read your thoughts on him.