Balletfanp

Well, I wasn’t sure he could improve on his debut performance but by golly he did. I feel completely wrung out with emotion! What a performance!

I would imagine the “dancing outside London” bit is more to do with the fact that he (or other RB dancers) doesn’t dance outside London in the UK, so most UK fans, unless they can travel to London or are in a position to travel abroad, are unlikely to see him outside cinema broadcasts. The only other time I can think of was when he and Marianela danced as guests of BRB in Birmingham last year. As someone who lives in Plymouth and is fortunate enough to be able to travel up to London on occasion, I certainly never thought I would ever see Vadim dance in my home town (it’ll make a nice change not to have to travel for once!). I can vouch for the fact that the news of him dancing down here has created a lot of excitement, not least among BRB fans - one of my friends can hardly contain herself as Vadim is her favourite dancer and she never thought she would ever be able to see him live. It was a mad rush to get tickets when the news came out as there weren’t that many left and I had 6 friends wanting to go on different nights - so BRB are more than capable of selling tickets on their own merit! It’s just nice that Vadim is able to guest with them (two nights only, so he’s not exactly taking over the whole tour!) and make some fans down here who wouldn’t normally get the chance to see him very happy. The phrase in the publicity about “one of the world’s greatest ballet dancers” is one that is frequently used when one sees any of the publicity for him guesting in countries all over the world - and other similar phrases are used for other dancers too. It’s not unusual for companies to blow the trumpet of their guest stars very loudly to attract attention and I don’t see that BRB is doing anything different from other companies.

I’m not really seeing anything sycophantic about the Facebook post - nothing more than the usual publicity one sees when a guest dancer is joining a company for a few dates.

I’m quite sure that Vadim doesn’t think he is “doing them a favour” by performing with them. There is a lovely video with him on YouTube currently up on Theatre Royal Plymouth’s webpage where he talks about what an honour it is to work with Carlos because Carlos is his idol. And really, most companies bring in guests from time to time - and shout them from the rooftops. BRB is no different in that respect.

I’m booked - Plymouth being my home town! 😀 But not many seats left, for anyone thinking of travelling down….

I would absolutely love to be there, but I live in Plymouth, so the strikes definitely affect me. Plus I already have two trips up in November (Mayerling and Diamonds), so simply cannot afford another.

This, exactly. She might have been sexually precocious, but emotionally mature, at 17? I doubt it. The fact that she allowed herself to be drawn into the suicide pact at all argues that. I’ve often wondered if, being a bit of a dramatic character, she got caught up in the romantic idea of “dying with my lover,” but never really expected it to actually happen and simply went along with the idea because of that. I know she wrote a suicide letter but that could have been part of the play acting. I sometimes wonder if, even up to the point where the gun was pointing at her, she never quite believed he would actually go through with it…..a disturbing thought….

Well. I’m not sure I even know where to start with a full review. And that’s when I haven’t been able to stop thinking about last night’s performance since. To start with individual performances - with so many debuts there were a lot of question marks, but in the event all the debuts delivered in spades. Fumi Kaneko as Larisch was brilliant. Manipulative and scheming, but at the bottom of it all deeply in love with Rudolf - probably the only woman who really loved him - and introducing her young protégée Mary probably in the hope that they would both be grateful enough to her to allow her to retain some influence with him and a small piece of his affections. Her grief when she found him in a state of collapse was palpable. Itziar Mendizabal made a wonderful Empress - cold, repressed and unable to feel any love or affection towards her son. The combination of her and Vadim made for a heartbreaking encounter in Act 1 and made one understand Rudolf’s desperation for some maternal show of affection. Her fastidious recoiling from Rudolf’s neediness was beautifully portrayed. Isabella Gasperini’s Stephanie was a bit of a fighter! She did not just succumb to Rudolf’s brutality, she fought back - to no avail, of course. It was very well portrayed. I loved David Yudes as Bratfisch. I knew he was a brilliant dancer but, having never seen him in any acting roles, didn’t know how that side of the character would pan out. In the event, he was excellent. i think Yasmine Naghdi’s Mary was a work in progress. She really caught fire as the performance went on but possibly the slip in Act 2 shook her a little - sad, as the stage looked slippery so it wasn’t her fault; she slipped, almost recovered, then slipped again. However, she got past that and delivered a fantastic performance, different from others I have seen but great nevertheless. I’m going again on the 11th and I’m looking forward to seeing her again as I think her second outing will be worth waiting for. However - the evening belonged to Vadim. I was a wreck by the end. His was such an incredibly impassioned performance - as he says in his Instagram post, “I gave it all” and he most certainly did. Being almost continuously on the stage, the characterisation never slipped for a moment, and always convinced. We saw Rudolf develop from the frustrated, imprisoned by royalty Prince, through grief and anger, cruelty and lust, and the devastating portrayal of Rudolf’s complete and utter mental and physical breakdown in Act 3. Just incredible. Even the drug taking looked completely realistic, especially the tapping of the forearm and the clenching of the fingers to get a vein…. The final pas de deux was desperate, visceral - he was going through hell and it showed. His interaction with Larisch was wonderful - as others have said, bags of chemistry with Kaneko and I second the suggestion that they should be paired for Manon - they would be fantastic together! The encounter with his mother was heartbreaking. His desperation to wring from her some sign of affection, her disgusted rejection, and his complete dejection when he got nothing from her, meant that the anger he displayed towards Stephanie, going straight to her after that, made complete sense. He was taking out his anger against his mother on the nearest person, his unfortunate wife he hadn’t wanted to marry in the first place. As to that - this episode was possibly the most brutal version of this pas de Deux I’ve seen. His depraved enjoyment of her terror, and the way he flung her about was the most extreme I have witnessed. And at the end, the ripping open of his shirt and his menacing approach on the bed were no holds barred. Who would have thought it of the lovely Vadim?? Likewise, the pas de Deux with Mary at the end of Act 2 was incredibly sensual and erotic. There was no real love there on his part, just lust. His expression at the end as she forces his head back to kiss him….😲 There were so many little details of his performance that I could write about at length, but suffice to say that it all added up to an extraordinary tour de force of dancing and acting and a complete and sympathetic portrayal of a man crying out for love and help. Bravo, Vadream.

Wow, just wow. Anyone who thought Vadim was wrong for that role should eat their words. He found his inner Rudolf - and became him. A heart rending and astonishing performance. Wept at the end. He took us on that whole journey of mental and physical disintegration. I’m too tired and emotional to write more now, but there were just so many good performances. More tomorrow when I’ve recovered a bit!

I agree. It’s my main bugbear about the ballet. If you’re a casual ballet-goer and only have a vague idea about the story, you would be completely confused by what the Officers are up to. They aren’t even mentioned at all in the synopsis (not the one they gave us in the cinema, anyway).

Would the coach be an option, at least to travel back? It would take longer, granted, but as a one-off, possible?

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Vanartus. None of us knew the real Rudolf, so any interpretation is valid, and if a dancer’s interpretation doesn’t chime with one’s own, it doesn’t mean it’s a ‘poor’ performance of Rudolf. Think this role - possibly more that any other - polarises people in that respect. Personally, I think I tend towards more subtle and sympathetic interpretations. If you read about the real Rudolf, his problems and shortcomings didn’t define him all the time. He was an intelligent and cultured man, liberal minded and popular. He met and charmed Queen Victoria. He even seems to have developed a bond with Stephanie, to a degree, over their shared love of their daughter. Obviously as his mental health problems progressed, his good qualities would have been overtaken by his ‘madness’, depression and drug abuse and its that progression I like to see. I saw last night’s performance at the cinema and I think Hirano portrayed that pretty well - and the final pas de deux was incredibly intense.

I work at a university and we have been asked to ensure that any lectures we might do over the next couple of weeks do not include any ‘party’ or ‘frivolous’ aspects - fair enough, but I’m not sure what they imagine usually goes on in our teaching sessions! Those party poppers I bought will be completely wasted….🙄🙂 In any case, the Queen was not a killjoy at all, and as others have said, I’m sure she wouldn’t have wanted two weeks of unrelieved gloom across the country. Respect doesn’t have to be miserable.

Me too, JNC - and following today’s news about even further price hikes, I doubt I will manage to see the whole season through as I won’t be able to afford many more trips 😥. But as you rightly say, this isn’t a political forum and certainly isn’t the thread to discuss this

Me too!!

Well, the Telegraph seem to have spoken to them and used direct quotes.

This is totally misinterpreting “decolonising the curriculum.” Working in a university, this is a really big thing at the moment, but the aim is to make sure that, as far as possible, minority groups are represented and visible in lectures, on reading lists, in the library etc. - not to remove anything else that could potentially ‘offend.’ There’d be nothing left if we did! And on another point, the statement that ballet is elitist because some people don’t have access to it - my parents were working class and definitely didn’t have much money to spend on luxuries such as ballet classes, but I attended classes nevertheless for many years. It will remain ‘elite’ if ridiculous ideas like this are promoted.

I’m guessing it might be Moscow City ballet renamed, as you suggest. Ludmila Nerubasheko is named on the Moscow City ballet site as their Artistic Director: https://moscowcityballet.com/directors/ So it could be that in the current political situation they are going under another name. No concrete evidence of that, though.

I’ve been on a couple. They were very interesting with an excellent guide on each. The first one several years ago took us properly backstage - we went into the dancers rest area, although it was quiet (Jonathan Cope did pass by, which thrilled the couple of us who knew who he was!), and I recall going by (but not into) the artists’ canteen, along with the costume department and a window overlooking the huge backstage scenery area. I remember watching a class taught by Maina Gielgud with a number of familiar dancers, including (as I recall), Akane Takada, Sarah Lamb and Roberta Marquez who was just about to retire, amongst others. The second time I took a couple of friends and it was just as good, but we didn’t go near the dancers’ rest area or canteen - they stated that those areas had been taken off the tour for the artists’ privacy, so perhaps that’s what they mean by no ‘backstage’ areas? We did still see the backstage scenery area and - as this was the early afternoon tour - we were able to watch Federico Bonelli rehearsing Manon in the Ashton Studio. As it was lunchtime there was a constant stream of dancers to-ing and fro-ing into the lifts just behind us, including Natalia Osipova, Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov! I’d be tempted to contact the ROH and ask them if no backstage areas means no backstage, full stop, or if they mean just the most private areas. If the tours are currently anything like the ones I went on, they are well worth it (even taking the dancer-spotting out of the equation!), and are a fascinating glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes. If it is just the auditorium and public areas, although the history of the place is interesting, I wouldn’t think it would be so good - it’s the backstage workings that are really what I enjoyed seeing.

Agree! His voice is very weak now.

Very disappointing. The focus was almost entirely on the projections on and around the Palace and the dancers might almost not have been there. A worthy message, admittedly, but the dancers were just incidental to that. Why bother having them at all?

Well, when giving the run down of the programme, it wasn’t mentioned at all, so presumably falls under the “….plus a few surprises” category. It would seem the Royal Ballet isn’t deemed of sufficient interest to get a mention 😠.

😂

I’m not sure it has a name!!

It’s available now. I haven’t tried playing it yet.