barton22

I think that for many regular ballet goers Kevin O'Hare's reasons for signing Golding remain a mystery I think that the idea that people buy tickets for performances in which he is dancing with an air of resignation because they want to see other members of the cast is a pretty accurate one.

I am not a Golding fan at all (and unless he is partnering a particularly compelling woman like Hayward I do, as you suggest, avoid those performances in which he features), but I assume KO'H felt that he had to do something about maintaining sufficient numbers of men in the company capable of dancing principal roles given the age/retirement profile of his male principals and the likely lead time on his most talented junior men being ready to assume full principal status without being unduly rushed or pressured.  It is really hard to see where you source new dancers at true principal level.  If you look at the great companies (which i would say are the Bolshoi, Mariinsky and perhaps Paris), it is really hard to see why any of their principals would consider a move to the Royal, so you have to look at the next tier or two of companies and try to find someone who is both competent (and I'd concede that Golding generally meets that criterion, leaving the truly ropey London Oberon aside) and capable of being dislodged.  I suspect this is how the acquisition of Kish went.  At least the company struck gold with Muntagirov.  

Now he is losing Pennefather and Acosta I do hope he will not feel the need to replace them in a rush and leave some principal level casting slots open for the up and coming company men and will just hold those principal rank slots/salaries open for them to move up into in good time.  If he brings in more principal men he isn't going to be able to make room in the casting schedule to give Matthew Ball and others opportunities to tackle major roles and develop as home grown leading men (and we could do with another British principal man now we are down to just one, and he will turn 40 in this coming season).  

At least David Bintley has not jumped on the current bandwagon and gone for performances if Marguerite and Armand. We don't have the dancers to do that work full justice. Yet.

I think that M&A is very much second tier (at best) Ashton, so I don't blame Bintley for passing it over.  

I have always been an admirer of Rupert's dancing, but I feel that I have often been in the minority when I recall the quite savage reception he has often had from critics and ballet enthusiasts. "Can't act, can't dance", "Bland and blank", are some of the many unfair comments that I have seen in the press and on the web. Now that he is leaving, nothing less than a chorus of praise from a fickle public.

 

But he has been unfortunate with injury and has had to cancel many performances as a result. For example he had to withdraw from a performance of Month in the Country with Zenaida in Cuba, which led to Jonny Cope being brought out of retirement. Whether he will wish to continue dancing in the light of his physical problems remains to be seen, but whatever he chooses to do I wish him well.

I think he could be very good when he was "on", but he so often seemed checked out; like his heart wasn't in it anymore.  His 30th birthday Des Grieux got people very excited, and it was good, but I think the main reason was that it was so unusual for him to put in such an involved performance in a dramatic role.

Is his height an issue, Janet?

Yes.

Looks much more expensive than in past years (at least in the stalls and dress circle), or am I just forgetting how high the prices have always been?  And most of the stalls and the front of dress circle is all blocked out as unanvailable.  I think I will pass this time.  I usually go, but it is a bit variable in quality and I'm not sure it is worth this year's prices.  I don't blame them for hiking the price as it always sells out.

I thought her performance on Sunday afternoon was superb, but rather wish I had not seen it and treated her first "last" London show on May 31st as my last viewing of her dancing.  The atmosphere of that show was more electric (partly, I suspect, because so many participants in the London dance world had turned out for what they had been told was her London finale) - I felt that while she got a great response from the Coliseum audience on Sunday, it just didn't feel anything like the same as the response at Sadler's Wells.  I also thought the pieces worked better on the Sadler's Wells stage and, especially, the lighting really wasn't well done at the Coli whereas it was great (noticeably different) at Sadler's Wells.  It was still a great performance, but just a bit of a let down after the final one at Sadler's Wells.

I'd also say that while they were not bad, the new works by Khan and Maliphant really weren't their best work and she deserved better from them (especially for her final shows as a dancer).

Apologies if this has already been posted about, but I just noticed that Ivy House has an event at 3pm on Sunday October 11th "exploring the daily life of a Royal Ballet dancer" with Gerald Dowler and it looks like Ball and Naghdi will will showing excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and other ballets (this is just a week after their matinee performance of R&J on the 3rd).  Tickets are on sale now (I just grabbed a couple).

https://www.jw3.org.uk/event/ivy-house-music-dance-afternoon-royal-ballet-dancers?pid=16250#.VavV0Hjsuyk

Well, apart from hardcore fans of the dancers featured, many people are a bit wary of this type of fare, myself included, based on previous bad experiences with short programmes (and sometimes excessively long intervals), unsatisfying choreography and frequent cast changes. I'm glad that people enjoyed this particular programme.

I completely agree.  I took a chance on this one and it was actually OK.  It really wasn't better than OK, though; I am really surprised how many very positive reports there are.  The Marriott was extraordinarily dull and derivative and set to such predictable music (Philip Glass's violin concerto being used again).  Yes it is thrilling to see Osipova performing some spectacular jumps and hyper extensions (they were Connectome's only saving graces), but to me it was choreographic drivel.  The Gomes was more original and interesting and it was great to have a chance to see these super dancers who appear in London far too little.  I thought Facada was more effective when first shown, but it may just be that it is rather insubstantial and just doesn't bear repeated viewing.  Vasiliev made much less impact on me this time and I had forgotten how little he does in it.  The lack of audience members made the whole thing rather low energy - the dress circle was half empty at best and the bar area almost deserted in the intervals.  Tickets were terribly expensive for what you got.

I am more concerned by the fact that the role of Myrthe has clearly been downgraded in the mind of management so that it impacts not only on act 2 but on the ballet as a whole.For some years management has thought that the role of Myrthe is not sufficiently important to be announced in advance of the performance.In 2013 it became clear that it no longer considers it important enough to be cast with any real care.Having grown up with Myrthe being treated as a major role to be danced by Principal dancers like Mason and Bergsma the 2013 performances were particularly disappointing because the Myrthes as a whole were weak and lacking in stage presence.It was not the fact that management was trying out a couple of young dancers, one of whom was Tierney Heap that was the problem. The problem was the experienced dancers cast as Myrthe who did not provide a sufficient technical contrast with Giselle. None of the established dancers were sufficiently steely and strong in dance and stage presence to make a real contrast with Giselle.

I agree with this.  I wish the Royal would cast Myrtle as a principal role and if they are going to cast more junior dancers get them properly prepared for the role.  It was pretty uninspiring to say the least in the last run of Giselle.  (I feel the same about the Royal's approach to casting the Sleeping Beauty fairies - they are generally not cast appropriately and need principals or company members who can dance at principal level.)

Has Gomes already started his performances in Car Man? I thought that his first performance was on 28 July.

Maybe he covered for someone else?  On the Bourne website it says his first show is the 22nd.  http://new-adventures.net/the-car-man/news/car-man-principal-cast-announced-for-week-1-at-sadlers-wells

Does anyone know what the approximate running time of the performance is?

I am sorry to hear Mr. Zamora has departed.  He arrived on the scene with so much promise.  I pray he finds fulfillment in his future endeavours.  

I believe he is joining Joffrey, but I don't see him on their website yet.

After I posted about Simon it struck me that Lorenzo had also not been mentioned in anyone's review (a surprise as he is also outstanding) so I was going to ask about him too! Any news on him?

 

I didn't see Naomi's post before. Thanks for the info, I hope he recovers quickly!

Lorenzo is definitely out for injury.  He came on for the very end of the defile, though.

He is listed as a second year Upper student though.

 

He must be injured I think

I am not sure whether he is injured (certainly is possible, and if so I hope he recovers soon), but as it is rarely feasible to get every upper school student on stage for the year end performances I wonder whether it may just be that there wasn't a suitable role for him in this year's rep.  The noticeable roles for second year men were ones that really needed taller chaps.

Related to Luca, or just a coincidence?

They are brothers.

????  Sadly, Gailene passed away more than a year ago, so I hope this wasn't printed in the programme?? 

I think what was meant here is that Gailene had a lot of input into the current choreography of the defile.  I'm not sure why she should not continue to be credited as a choreographer.

It was a wonderful show and I just loved Sechs Tanze and Chanson. I wondered whether Chanson was part of anything more or just a one off choreographed by Derek Deane.

I believe Chanson is a stand alone pdd that Derek Deane created for television in the early '80s.  There is a video of the TV performance (danced by Alessandra Ferri and David Wall, on whom it was created) on youtube, but it is (incorrectly) attributed to MacMillan there.  

Does anyone know when (or whether) the Royal Ballet intends to release this dvd, announced

some time ago?

I am not sure, but will keep a look out.  They released her Swan Lake only six weeks ago, so I expect they won't rush out another Osipova (or ballet, for that matter) recording before the autumn.

Well I hope it worked out nicely for you and, rep aside, just gotta see them while you can.

I enjoyed it.  The rep could, as several have said, be better; and I hope that given the talent of these two dancers they find some better material and continue to work together over the coming years.  I found it all interesting at worst.  Not sure why the fuss about the "nudity"; you just see Wheelan's bare back (while you know, but don't really see, she is bare chested away from the audience) and Watson's bare bum.  

Now slightly dreading seeing his tonight, but at least it is very short!

Rush fell a bit flat for me but I don't think it was the fault of the dancers. It just seemed rather disjointed. 

I think this is an issue with much of Wheeldon's work.

 

 

BTW, the audience was very varied and very enthusiastic, with many people leaping to their feet at the end.

That seems to happen at pretty much every new McGregor work in London.  I am not convinced it usually reflects the quality of what was on stage, though.

This does sound worth a look, though.  If only to see the Paris dancers.

The School have told me that the matinee on the 12th will end at around 14.15, so if you are attending the Linbury show you should be absolutely fine for that.

Thank you for the replies! Will be eagerly waiting to book tickets to see the Bolshoi! (does anyone know when tickets go on sale?)

They usually go on sale through the ROH box office at the same time as the final booking period for the Royal Ballet opens (in fact they are usually covered by the same booking process).  I suspect that will be February/March/April depending on your booking priority.  (In the new ROH magazine with booking info for Winter 2015/16, Kevin O'Hare has an item on the issue of declaring casting in time for booking of ballet tickets - delayed casting is the new normal, it seems - and gives dates when he will issue casting for each of next season's booking periods - these will be after the magazine is sent out.  They look like they will be a couple of weeks before patrons' booking opens and about three months before public booking opens.  For the Royal Ballet Summer 2016 booking period he plans to announce casting on Monday January 11th, hence the February/March/April estimate for Bolshoi booking.)

Tree of Codes opened tonight (although I hadn't actually realised I had booked for the first night!).  It is astounding!  So astounding that the first thing I did when I got in was book a ticket for Wednesday night!

 

The performance runs for 75 minutes without an interval.

 

More anon...

Sounds promising - I will try to see it when it comes to Sadler's Wells.  Has he done something new choreographically?  I very much like his work up to (and including) Infra, but have found everything since then rather meaningless, repetitive and frankly boring and made palatable only by his penchant for very flashy and expensive staging and lighting.  Given we seem to be stuck with him at the Royal Ballet, it would be encouraging to hear that he has turned a corner and started to be creative again rather than rolling out the same old moves.  (Maybe the Paris dancers inspire him?)