Irmgard

4 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

May I ask how gruesome the current H&G production is? I saw the previous one when it was new & barely made it through Act III. When I saw the pdd from Fille at the Diamond Celebration I was surprised to recognise the music. I imagine most people on this forum encountered Fille first but I first saw L'elisir back in 2005 & have yet to see Fille (I want to see it, it's just the RB doesn't seem to want to do it at the moment).

I don't remember it being particularly gruesome but it is very cleverly done.  

18 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Yet another ENB cast change announcement. I did find myself wondering last night why Fernanda Oliveira hadn't been cast in the triple bill & evidently it can't be because she's injured as she's jumping in tonight.

 

 

Oliveira has been rehearsing Four Last Songs but danced in a gala in Brazil last weekend and was unavailable for performances before today.  Therefore she did not appear on the casting schedule but now, with Hawes still off, Oliveira will be performing with Arrieta. 

@LinMM McWhinney is not back onstage yet.  The white girls (Demi Soloists) last night were Otani, Suzuki, and Keneally and Velicu both making their debuts.  It was probably Keneally, who is the tallest of the group, who caught your eye. 

3 hours ago, capybara said:

I see that Rupert Christiansen in The Spectator (today’s links) believes that Les Noces was commissioned by Aaron Watkin, when it seems generally known that the impetus came from Tamara and he inherited it.

One wonders whether it will prove to be a bonus or a noose.

It was definitely commissioned by Tamara Rojo, who attended the opening night.

18 minutes ago, alison said:

Thanks, Irmgard, that's what I'd suspected - it's the two lying down at the end of the previous song.  I liked her very much.

Yes, she's quite special. 

I thoroughly recommend "Hansel and Gretel".  I saw this new production before lockdown and it is slightly subversive but also utterly enchanting - and the music is gorgeous throughout.  If you go to Elisir, you will realise that you recognise a lot of the music as John Lanchbery used it (and bits from Barber of Seville) when putting together the score for La Fille mal gardee 😊.

42 minutes ago, alison said:

And for that matter, the couple in the third song, the name of which escapes me at the moment.  I was struggling to see with that lighting.

Unless I've got the wrong song (difficult to keep track as the couples interchange so much), it was Ivana Bueno and Lorenzo Trossello in the roles created by Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta.

2 hours ago, LinMM said:

Can anybody tell me who was there tonight in the last Piece Four Last Songs who was the male dancer to last leave the stage. He had very dark hair and wasn’t sure if it was Aitor Arrieta but might have been Daniel McCormick? Whoever it was caught my eye all the way through the Piece. 
The singer was the real star tonight though such a beautiful voice she really drew me in and so I found myself watching her on several occasions….not that the dancing wasn’t good …I loved this work but definitely my favourite music of the night. 

Daniel McCormick

On 20/07/2023 at 17:30, LinMM said:

I agree and what are they doing between Dec2nd and 14th 

Surely at least one extra venue north of Watford could have fitted in with a slightly later start of the performances in London. 

I can tell you that the first week of December is dedicated to rehearsing Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" as we only have two days to get it onstage between the end of "Nutcracker" and opening night.  Such are the issues of a ballet company without its own theatre.

55 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Sat 23 Sept matinee:

Theme and Variations -Julia Conway (replacing Shiori Kase), Daniel McCormick

Angela Wood, Skyler Martin, Eireen Evrard, Junor Souza, Anna Nevzorova, Vsevolod Maievskyi, Minju Kang, Rentaro Nakaaki

Les Noces- Breanna Foad, Alice Bellini, James Streeter, Rentaro Nakaaki, Henry Dowden, Francesca Velicu

Four Last Songs- Sangeun Lee, Gareth Haw, Ivana Bueno (replacing Emma Hawes), Lorenzo Trossello (replacing Aitor Arrieta), Erina Takahashi, Francesco Gabriele Frola

Minju Kang, Eric Snyder, Precious Adams, Rhys Antoni Yeomans, Angela Wood, Miguel Angel Maidana

 

Sat 23 Sept evening: 

Theme and Variations- Katja Khaniukova (replacing Emma Hawes), Aitor Arrieta

Ivana Bueno, Eric Snyder, Precious Adams, Edvinas Jakonis, Emily Suzuki, Ken Saruhashi, Haruhi Otani, Erik Woolhouse 

Les Noces - (same as matinee)

Four Last Songs - (same as matinee)

 

Firstly, some great news: bouquets are back at ENB! There’s “flower parity” too- both men and women receive bouquets! Matching ones. However, it looks like bouquets are only given to those making debuts in lead roles. Hence at the matinee, Conway (making an unscheduled last minute role debut!) and McCormick both received identical bouquets for T&V, then in Four Last Songs, Bueno and Trossello (both making earlier debuts than expected) received bouquets that looked like long stems of gladioli. (Both times they were delivered by an elegant petite young lady with long hair, who looked like she might be from ENB- I’ve never seen theatre employees so slender and who walk with such graceful deportment! Perhaps the flowers are from the company leadership?) 

 

 

The petite young lady is Jennie Harrington, stalwart of the corps de ballet for many years and now Artistic Scheduling Manager for the company.  I believe the flowers she is presenting to all those making their debuts are from the company as there were masses of bouquets at the stage door, at least on opening night, which were not presented onstage.

20 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Can anyone hazard any sort of explanation as to why the Mother suddenly vanished into the rock steps? Most of the rest of the choreography I could vaguely understand, even though I disliked it, but that moment had me completely baffled.

My take on it was that the Mother's grief is so overwhelming that she kills herself by throwing herself into the 'pit'.  There was actually a 20-minute Q&A session with Andrea Miller, Gavin Sutherland et al after last night's performance but, as you didn't catch the opening announcement, you would not have known about it.  I didn't stay for it but that certainly would have been a question for Miss Miller!

Yesterday evening saw the triumphant début of Katja Khaniukova as the ballerina in “Theme and Variations”, generously accorded a solo bow by her partner, the phenomenal Francesco Gabriele Frola, also making his début, and applauded by all her colleagues onstage.  I have long admired the quiet elegance of her dancing and her exquisite footwork, qualities which were on display in abundance in Balanchine’s fiendishly difficult choreography which she made look effortless, and all with that megawatt smile of hers which outshone all the sparkling jewels on her costume and tiara.  Perhaps most breathtaking was the moment when she performs a series of développés en pointe, finally turning into arabesque penchée, supported only by the ladies on each side of her, also en pointe, holding her hands in an open 5th en haut.  The way she serenely and slowly unfolded her leg, reaching the final position of each développé with the last millisecond of the musical phrase was a thing of rare beauty.  She absolutely nailed the solo, with her quicksilver footwork in all the tricky petite allegro steps and virtually flying across the stage in her châiné turns.   This led into the ravishingly beautiful pas de deux, in which Frola partnered her to perfection, again making it look effortless.  Throughout the whole ballet, there was Khaniukova’s glorious use of the upper back and the most regal of ports de bras.  Frola’s début was also a triumph, especially the solo, in which the height of his jumps was astonishing, as was his impeccable series of double tours en l’air, all landing in perfect 5ths. His exceptional partnering skills were evidenced by the height which Khaniukova reached when he threw her into the air, catching her in picture-perfect positions. This was a tremendously thrilling first performance from both of them (and demonstrated yet again that Khaniukova’s promotion to principal is long overdue), and they received sterling support from everyone onstage. This being the same supporting cast as the previous evening, not to diminish that spectacular performance, they seemed to be even more at home with the choreography and its style, with the ladies vivacious in everything they did and their cavaliers, who do not appear until the last section, bringing a joyful exuberance, especially to all the jumps. Sitting closer to the stage than the previous evening, I could definitely see that there was not one forced smile.  They were all smiling with genuine delight at performing this challenging piece.    And what a joy it was to hear Tchaikovsky’s glorious music with no amplification!

Likewise, with “Four Last Songs”, the music was allowed to float freely throughout the auditorium, as was the singer’s voice.  Picking up the tempo even a fraction made such a difference to the flow of the music and, for me, to the flow of the movement, giving the many runs around the stage an extra impetus, as if leaves blown by the wind, very apt for the second song, “September”. Seeing it for a second time, I was able to marvel at how effortlessly the dancers changed partners throughout the piece, involving some very complicated lifts.  I was also more struck this time by the sculpted beauty of positions in the moments of stillness. This is definitely a work in which there is something new to discover at each viewing.  I am not particularly enamoured of the flesh-coloured costumes although I suppose it might be following the idea that naked we come into the world and naked we leave it, but I would have loved just a little contrasting colour for the costumes, as appears on the poster and programme cover. 

Just back from this evening's performance and am happy to say that the amplification issue has been resolved - there was none, and the tempo was speeded up ever so slightly for "Four Last Songs", which helped the (non-amplified) soprano negotiate the long phrases much better.

Attending the opening night of the first programme curated by Aaron Watkin, albeit crafted around the previously commissioned “Les Noces”, there was indeed something for everyone.  The highlight for me was “Theme and Variations”, not only for the very fine dancing on offer but also for the obvious enjoyment displayed by the dancers.  The ladies in their exquisite, glittering tutus literally glowed!  My eye was drawn several times to the petite Anna Ciriano, new to the company last season, for the infectious joy on her face, something I noticed last season, and to the glamorous, elegant style of Ivana Bueno as one of the Demi Soloists.  Emma Hawes sparkled prettily in the ballerina role.  The standout performance for me came from Aitor Arrieta, for his gorgeous, always elegant technique.  The ease, height, beautifully pointed feet and panther-like landings of all his jumps was breathtaking.  Tchaikovsky’s glorious music received a ravishing performance from the English National Ballet Philharmonic, under Maestro Gavin Sutherland, although I was puzzled by the obvious amplification in so small a theatre.

Andrea Miller’s “Les Noces”, retitled “Le Noces, Ascent to Days”, received some very powerful performances and I thoroughly enjoyed her choreography, especially when it reflected the rhythmic complexities of Stravinsky’s score.  I did not read the brief synopsis until after the performance so I was unaware that the first Chosen One (a tour-de-force performance by the supremely talented Breanna Foad) was actually the ghost of the previously sacrificed girl but that makes everything clearer for my further viewings of this piece.  There was a very strong performance from Alice Bellini as the grief-stricken mother of the sacrificed girl, as well as from James Streeter as the father she obviously blames for it.  I have long felt that Henry Dowden is one of the company’s best dramatic dancers, and he proved this again as the Priest who chooses the next victim, the beautifully vulnerable Francesca Velicu.  The standout performance for me was the visceral, electrifying dancing of Rentaro Nakaaki as the Son. Bizarrely, using the full orchestra version of Stravinsky’s score made it sound more like “Rite of Spring” than “Les Noces” but I did not like it being sung in an English translation, as I missed the forward, bright sound of singing in a Slavic language and I found that the volume of the amplification of the singers at times hurt my ears, but, as with any new production, no doubt the amplification issues will be addressed and resolved.  I am also not keen on the introduction of other pieces of music and lengthy silences not composed/indicated by Stravinsky.  It put me in mind of his famous reply to Billy Rose, the producer of a Broadway revue for which he composed “Scènes de ballet”.  Rose telegraphed him to say the music was a great success but could be sensational if he allowed Robert Russell Bennett to retouch the orchestration.  Stravinsky replied “Satisfied with great success”!

I remember from David Dawson’s “Million Kisses to my Skin” created for ENB under the adventurous leadership of Wayne Eagling, that he favours busy choreography and creating gorgeous shapes with the body, predominantly females while being manipulated by men.  His “Four Last Songs” proved no exception.  When it is as exquisitely danced as it was last night by the whole ensemble, it seems churlish to criticise but I would have liked perhaps just a little bit more variety in the lifts and in the dynamics of the partnering work.  My favourite line in Strauss’s Four Last Songs comes in “Beim Schlafengehen”, just after the ethereal violin solo (beautifully played by Matthew Scrivener).  Freely translated, it is “and the unfettered soul soars up into the magic circle of the night to live a thousandfold” which is the essence of all the songs, that death is transfiguring.  It is perhaps not the fashion to use facial expression very often in contemporary works but I did think more expression would have actually transfigured the ballet for me.  However, there was one moment when the light hit Angela Wood to reveal a radiant serenity on her face which was magical.  I did feel that, choreographing to a recording of the legendary Jessye Norman has its drawbacks, as no mere mortal has her extraordinary power and breath control which made it possible for her to sing them at a speed which I would label as “La plus que lente”.  Taking them at such a slow tempo, which was obviously at times uncomfortable for the soprano, also prevents her from word-painting, which is the essence of German Lied, whether accompanied by piano or full orchestra, and which would have added vocal colours to this sublime music.

My small niggles aside, it was wonderful to see the whole company rising to the occasion and giving powerful, committed performances of all three pieces, and I look forward to several more visits before next Saturday.

8 minutes ago, Mary said:

Might one ask, is the Gala in aid of anything, or, to whom do the profits (if any) go?

 

No, this is a completely commercial venture.

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Thanks for the information. That's the second female principal who has joined then quite quickly left ENB in the last few years. 

You have to balance that against the female principals who have been with the company a long time: Takahashi since 1996, Oliveira since 2000 and Kase since 2009, and Hawes joined in 2018.  In fact, most of ENB's female principals, even going back to its LFB days, enjoyed long careers with the company.

On 17/08/2023 at 16:35, Dawnstar said:

 

 

No sign of Mair in any of the casts, which seems rather an odd omission. Even if she's injured, with casting being announced through to next June that would have to be a really bad injury to assume already that she'd be out for the entire season.

English National Ballet has just announced that Natascha Mair has left the company to pursue other ventures on and off stage.

26 minutes ago, alison said:

Have you tried Les Noces, Peter?  

BTW, I came in a few days ago to find Gavin Sutherland on BBC Radio 3's In Tune talking about the music for the programme.  He made some comment about four pianos which I didn't quite pick up.

Gavin probably mentioned that ENB is not using the original version of "Les Noces" for four pianos but a later version for full orchestra.  I imagine the intervals before and after "Les Noces" would have to be greatly extended if the four-piano version was used, as the pit would have to be completely cleared to get them in and out and then completely reset for the vast forces needed for "Four Last Songs"! And each piano would have to be retuned after moving them into the pit.  All a logistical nightmare! 

As ENB's Our Voices programme opens this week, I thought I would start a thread for people to comment on the performances but also to give some further information on the casting, which Aaron Watkin has agreed I can make public, and I hope it will help those who have yet to buy their tickets to decide which performance/s to see.  As always, there is the caveat that casting is subject to change.

As well as the principal couples, listed on the website, and the corps de ballet, "Theme and Variations” has four demi-soloist couples.  There are three casts for this.  As they do not always dance with the same principal couple, I will list them by performance:

Bueno, Otani, Adams, Suzuki, Snyder, Woolhouse, Jakonis, Saruhashi (21^st, 22^nd, 23^rd eve, 28^th eve, 30^th eve)

Wood, Kang, Evrard, Nevzorova, Martin, Nakaaki, Souza, Maievskyi (23^rd mat, 26^th, 28^th mat, 30^th mat)

Velicu, Lizardi, Keneally, Choi, Maidana, Durand, Yeomans, Fuchiyama (27^th, 29^th).

I must confess I have never seen a complete performance of this ballet but I was lucky enough to watch Victoria Simon stage it for Royal Swedish Ballet when I was in Stockholm last October and, of course, I attended her very informative masterclass for ENB recently which really whet my appetite. Having seen the stunning tutus being made in the workshop and had glimpses of them in the trailers released by ENB, I think it really will be a glittering opening to the evening!

I have always considered Nijinska's "Le Noces" to be a masterpiece and so it will be interesting to see Andrea Miller's completely different take on the Stravinsky score, linking it to his earlier "Le Sacre du printemps" although not to any particular choreographic version of it.  I had the privilege of seeing a model of the set a few months ago, dominated by an extraordinary staircase designed by the late Dame Phyllida Barlow.  The ballet has a single cast of eight female and nine male dancers.  As well as those listed on the website, this includes Emily Suzuki, Erik Woolhouse and Junor Souza.  

David Dawson's "Four Last Songs" has two casts of six males and six females, with Erina Takahashi, Ivana Bueno and Lorenzo Trossello appearing in both casts.  For anyone who does not know Richard Strauss's song cycle (his last masterpiece, premiered posthumously here in the UK at the Royal Albert Hall in 1950), I would recommend reading a translation of the poems by Eichendorff and Hesse, which can be found at www.lieder.net, to fully appreciate the glorious soundscape Strauss created.

As I always say, mixed bills are excellent value for money because they provide a chance to see almost all of a company's leading dancers in one performance, and this is certainly the case with this triple bill, which will also probably be the biggest musical feast since the days of the company’s Ballets Russes programmes.  Playing works by three titans of classical music will give the English National Ballet Philharmonic a chance to shine, complementing the starry line-up onstage, and I cannot wait to experience this fascinating programme.

1 hour ago, Richard LH said:

Decided to drive down to London for the Don Q season opening night on 30th Sept, and park at Urban Parking, Shelton Street, which is close to Covent Garden 😬. Is this complete madness? Any tips/advice greatly appreciated.

 

I drive into Covent Garden from outside London frequently and it's fine.  Just be aware that the congestion charge is in operation from 12 noon until 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as weekdays, so that will add to your cost if you enter it during those times.  Also best to check there are no demonstrations in the area which add time to the journey due to road closures.

17 hours ago, MAX said:

What about Natacha Mair ?  She does not seem injured if I referred to her instagram account.

From her Instagram account, it appears she is currently guesting with the Shanghai Ballet in Amsterdam and therefore has not been cast for Sadler's Wells.  Posted at the same time as LACAD!

23 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

 

Sorry, one more question. Can anyone remember exactly where the front row of the First Circle hangs over the stalls? I'm thinking somewhere around H but can't recall for sure. I don't want to turn up & find I've misremembered & it's a lot further from the stage than I thought. While I imagine there won't be too much acting going on compared to narrative ballets, I'd still like to be able to see the facial expressions just in case (and I'm pretty short-sighted).

 

 

@Dawnstar.  I would go for the slightly restricted First Circle seats at either end of Row A.  Sadler's Wells is a relatively small theatre, and Row A does not feel that far from the stage so the restricted view price is good value.

16 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Now the casting is finally out, I'm looking at ticket availability for the performance I now want to book for. I don't want to pay the higher prices for this, given from the rehearsal footage I'm pretty sure one of the three ballets isn't going to be to my taste, but I also don't want to be right at the back. So does anyone have an opinion about the £35 seats at each end of row A of the First Circle? I'm wondering exactly how what is wrong with the view from them, given they are £10 cheaper than the slips seats nearest to them which I would have expected to in theory be cheaper.

I have sometimes sat in the first seat in row A and the view is only slightly obscured.  However, sometimes if the person in the nearest slip seat leans forward too much, this can also obscure your view, but I have found most people who sit in that slip seat are quite considerate and don't obscure your view.

Like some other contributors to this thread, I do not have any ‘definitive’ performances of artists in roles but I do have some I use as benchmarks for their sublime artistry, at least one going back almost fifty years, including (artists in alphabetical order):

Giselle:  Evelyne Desutter, Eva Evdokimova, Natalia Makarova, Fernanda Oliveira

Albrecht: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Estéban Berlanga, Cesar Corrales, Yosvani Ramos

Myrtha:  Manola Asensio

Aurora: Jurgita Dronina, Eva Evdokimova, Karen Kain, Agnes Oaks

Odette/Odile:     Begoña Cao, Jurgita Dronina, Margot Fonteyn (Act II), Evelyn Hart, Karen Kain, Natalia Makarova

Lise:       Marianela Nuñez, Karen Paisey

Tatiana:   Marcia Haydée, Natalia Makarova

Onegin:   Richard Cragun

Lensky:    Mark Silver

Natalia Petrovna:   Natalia Makarova, Marguerite Porter, Lynn Seymour

Belaiev:   Anthony Dowell, Vadim Muntagirov, Mark Silver

Vera:    Denise Nunn, Karen Paisey

Raymonda Act III (Nureyev): Elena Glurgidze

Juliet:   Begoña Cao, Jurgita Dronina, Alessandra Ferri

Romeo: Cesar Corrales, Wayne Eagling

Paris:  Julian Hosking

Manon:  Jurgita Dronina, Alessandra Ferri, Jennifer Penney, Fernanda Oliveira

Des Grieux:  Wayne Eagling, Francesco Gabriele Frola

Lescaut:  Cesar Corrales, Stephen Jefferies, Fabian Reimair

La Sylphide:         Eva Evdokimova

James:                  Mikhail Baryshnikov

6 hours ago, LinMM said:

 

It was the word tribute which worried me …..it sounded a bit like a farewell!! 
 

Most definitely not a farewell, thank goodness!!!!