Xandra Newman

16 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

 

I agree with this.  Osipova is many things but she is never boring.  You can tell that she has spent hundreds of hours on stage and is a thoroughly theatrical animal.  Although for anyone who has seen more than a couple of Rose Adagios it was evident how much she was struggling in Act I  (shaking and at times off the music and what on earth was going on with the hand gestures on the supported attitude turns and constant hand fluttering in her solo?) she delivered it like the pro she is and most of the audience roared their approval.  I was then amazed to see her come out and deliver an immaculate and rock steady Act II.  I don't know what she took in the interval but it worked.  I also agree with Tebalise that Hallberg, although his line is undeniably beautiful, was the weaker of the two in Act III - I thought that skipping all the overhead lifts was shocking - although they sold it with such aplomb that anyone not familiar with the pas de deux would never have known.

 

BUT, and it is a big but, I was not bored at any point in the proceedings.  And this is by no means my favourite ballet, even when immaculately performed.  Totally agree with everyone that this was not an evening for lovers of pure classicism but as a spectacle it was entertaining!

I understand some people enjoy watching a spectacle and feel entertained as such, I have nothing against that.

When I attend a Royal Ballet performance I expect the highest standard of dancing, certainly in the great classics I expect the principals to respect the choreography and execute the choreography as notated. I am not attending in order to watch a spectacle but to see superb execution of the classical ballet technic. I also expect principals who dance the title role in the classics such as Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake for example to have the highest standard of technical command, facilities, control and artistry. Technical weaknesses in dancers are easily exposed when they have to dance the great classics, and not every dancer is suited to perform those ballets. No dancer is good at everything, some are great in MacMillan, some great in Ashton, some great in McGregor, and a few are truly great in the classics. 

Thank you both for your correction (must check my eyesight!).

I didn't attend (frankly I have no desire at all to see Natalia Osipova dance in any of the tutu classics) but friends of mine did and they were greatly dismayed and shocked to see such a low standard of classical dancing at Covent Garden. 

To me this explains why the Bolshoi seemingly only ever allowed her to dance soubrette roles and not the great classics (I say this based on  articles written about Natalia Osipova when she left the Bolshoi).

If Naghdi, the youngest RB principal, can rake in 5*star and 4* star raving reviews on Opening Night, I wonder why Osipova is allowed to dance the great tutu classics (resulting in a 2*star review. Thank goodness she didn't dance the Opening Night!) 

The only 3* review Sleeping Beauty has received this run...after Natalia Osipova danced Aurora on Wednesday. 

I wondered why so few had commented on her Aurora. 

Mark Monahan explains it all. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/dance/what-to-see/sleeping-beauty-review-royal-ballet-royal-opera-house-schlepping/

I really hope Takada and Hirano will be able to dance Sleeping Beauty on Saturday night. Fingers crossed!

If not, the temptation to ask Yasmine Naghdi to dance her 3rd Aurora this week will be high (but wouldn't that be too much for a ballerina?) Perhaps Kaneko and Clarke again?

I read the Observer review by Bidisha again. It is an unbelievable, shocking, infantile, schoolgirl's review (teenage jokes coming from an adult, educated women, really? Hard to believe she has such an impressive media background). She demonstrated a total lack of understanding of, and respect for Sleeping Beauty, for the Principals and all artists involved.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/uk/culture/arts/a29823773/royal-opera-house-sleeping-beauty/

Well, what more can we say about Yasmine Naghdi's glorious Aurora, so much has been said already...and her performance tonight is a truly unforgettable and memorable one. Whilst holding her last balance in the Rose Adagio the audience started clapping and it went over and above the music...and she still held her balance, beautifully and delicately done without any air of showing off. 

Whenever you think Naghdi has given her very best performance she surpasses herself yet again. It was, as others have said, a special night. Her grace, amazing control and technic, combined with her artistry, delivered an Aurora which was out of this world. As Geoff rightly said there was a new found freedom visible in Naghdi's dancing and it was very beautiful to watch, she really shone tonight, it was her best Aurora! Alexander Campbell was an accomplished partner and I also enjoyed watching him. 

Mayara Magri and Cesar Corrales the best Bluebirds I have seen in this run, both danced with so much conviction. I loved Claire Calvert's Lilac Fairy, she gets it just right. Romany Pajdak as Fairy of the Crystal Fountain, Mayara's Fairy of the Enchanted Garden and Anna Rose O'Sullivan's Fairy of the Golden Vine stood out amongst all the Fairies.

An unforgettable Sleeping Beauty tonight, well done to ALL the artists.

27 minutes ago, JNC said:

I agree she was lacking in respect of Naghdi (and the whole production including dancers and the orchestra)! 

 

Indeed, if a Royal Ballet ballerina of the highest ranking, dancing Aurora, reminds Bidisha "...more of a music-hall sailor than a fragile "pwintheth" (ballerinas are NEVER (physically) fragile pwintheths!) it is an insult to the ballerina's art and it shows Bidisha seemingly is not used to watching Principal ballerinas perform (and for that matter Character Artists and all others), calling the wake-up kiss "a form of sexual assault" ?? (as others have said what would Bidisha make of it all seeing Manon, Mayerling, The Invitation, The Judas Tree,...?).

I guess her disruptive review achieved what she wanted to achieve (?).

15 minutes ago, JNC said:

(although underneath a lot of the comments there does belie some grudging respect that Naghdi is very good), 

Bidisha's comment did not give me the impression it belied some grudging respect. The impression she gave me was that Naghdi - in Bidisha's eyes - seemed to be the only one who could provide her with "high entertainment" which completely blew her away. The ballet is not only about Aurora (yes she is most important) but SB is about the entire company and each artist (from soloist to corps) has vital contributions to make in order to ensure  the overall success of SB. This understanding she seemingly missed.

In this day and age it is all about being disruptive (from politics to the arts) and her review taps into that trend, no?

I am sure Toria, and I know several young people who are highly educated and very well informed!  I didn't mean to say that the entire younger generation is like this and I hope I did not offend you. This was not my intention at all.

Maybe Bidiha's style of review and some of her remarks aim to attract a general more diversified public?

12 minutes ago, Sim said:

Well if this is the kind of thing the younger generation are being fed and reading the ROH is fighting a losing battle trying to entice younger people in to see ballet...

Guess so, they'll come in and watch the ballet seeing it from their perspective...very different to ours, the older generation.

I think Bidisha, looking at her Bio on wikipedia, is no doubt an intelligent woman.

I feel her style of review aims at avoiding elitist, erudite writing as to not shy away the new younger generation.

An overly intellectual review risks alienating those who already think ballet and the ROH is elitist.

Laura Freeman wrote this week about the selfie-generation, more interested in taking pictures of themselves when at the ROH. 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/11/be-more-carthorse-why-we-would-all-benefit-from-a-little-self-loathing/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidisha

I have never heard of her but reading up on Bidisha she's clearly somebody in the media world.

I guess she belongs to a new generation of reviewers appealing to the younger generation. Most of the younger generation would not read Clement Crisp's reviews...

Her review on Naghdi accurately sums up every detail of her exquisite performance but to compare her with a musical hall sailor???

Yes Brandon Lawrence indeed, very deserving. But no, the NDA nominated Kish instead in the category "Outstanding Classical Male Performance" for dancing a minor role. Unbelievable. 

And I cannot get my head around how the critics can possibly nominate a dancer in the "Best Female Dancer" category who didn't even dance most of the Season 2018-19, ignoring many outstanding dancers at RB, BRB, ( ENB  got one) who performed day in day out and delivered outstanding performances to their audience throughout the Season? It's mind boggling.

Not in Mayerling, but Naghdi danced her debut on the Opening Night of Firebird (and according to reviews by the critics to great acclaim), Kitri in Don Q., Irina in Winter Dreams, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Sugar Plum, Unknown Soldier (a role Naghdi took over from Hayward when she took time out from dancing for most of the RB Season), and other roles. Being amazing seemingly doesn't work as a sole criteria Sharon: they only consider dancers they have seen whenever the critics have attended an opening night (at best they may attend a second performance in a run) therefore their nominations include some of the same dancers year after year after year. 

What's the point of those NDA nominations if not all dancers in the UK are being taken into consideration? The nominations are distorted because they are solely based on a certain selection of dancers the critics have seen and therefore they miss out on many superb performances by other dancers be they at it the RB, BRB, ENB, Scottish, Northern and other UK dance companies. Is there really no dancer at BRB worthy of a nomination? 

7 minutes ago, Jane S said:

The Outstanding Performance awards are for a single performance - someone who only appeared once in the whole year could be nominated.

 I was not referring to the Outstanding Performance category   but to the Best Female Dancer category.

42 minutes ago, Sim said:

 I am very surprised to see Nehemiah Kish nominated in the Outstanding Male Classical Performance.  Nothing against him;  he was wonderful in this comic role.  But OMCP???   A slight role in a Jerome Robbins piece?? Really?  I just don't get this one at all.

Nor do I. Surely there are more deserving male dancers at BRB, or ENB, or any other company, or RB, who should have been nominated in the category Outstanding Male Classical Performance!

A minor role in Robbins gets Kish a nomination for OMCP

A dancer who hasn't danced at all for most of the year gets a nomination for Best Female Dancer

(enough said, at least I had a good laugh).

Just like our politicians, many of the UK critics have gone bonkers and are too narrow minded, frankly the NDA just made a laughing stock of themselves and I am not really encouraged to take them serious nor their nominations.

Yes keeping my fingers crossed for Laura Morera in Best Female Dancer category, a very well deserved nomination.

30 minutes ago, capybara said:

I am shocked by some omissions.

 Me too (and a nomination for somebody who was absent on stage for most of the Season? and barely danced anything at all?) How to take those nominations serious? Some nominations are fully justified and well-deserved, others simply subjective....

9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Hope this isn’t a daft question but can the general public vote in these awards? 

I wish! We'd get a much more balanced and correct result instead of nominations only going to those dancers the critics decide to see.

Claire Calvert was such a beautiful Lilac Fairy tonight. I loved Fumi Kaneko as the Lilac Fairy on Opening Night but Claire Calvert outshone her as she is an absolute natural in this role. Great portrayal and well done to her! Romany Pajdak was also gorgeous as Red Riding Hood, as were Sambe and O'Sullivan. 

What amazes me most is whenever I feel Naghdi has given her best performance (as on Opening Night) she surpasses herself and ups her game yet again. It really is testing for any ballerina and there is nowhere to hide, the slightest technical mistake is noticeable. Naghdi's supreme technical command and refined portrayal of Aurora, partnered by the gorgeous Matthew Ball (such a beautiful stage couple they are), combined with several outstanding soloist performances made tonight an unforgettable one. 

Bravo to the entire cast for a superb evening!

41 minutes ago, Sim said:

You beat me to it, Xandra.  I am so pleased about this.  Maybe it's a slow burn for the critics as it was for me;  I never liked it much, then all of a sudden I seem to have seen the light, and this run and the one before have really changed my mind.  Maybe it's because of the universally high level of talent throughout the company at the moment;  they make it a different prospect for me.  I even enjoy the Prologue, whereas in years past I used to kick myself for not spending it in the pub having a glass of something nice!!

 

I was also very pleased to see universal praise for Yasmine Naghdi's gorgeous Aurora, as this was a first first night for her and finally the critics got to report on her in a full three act ballet. 

Same for me. When the current run of SB was announced last Season I really did not intend on seeing another SB but once the casting was announced I changed my mind.

Much praise for Mr.O'Hare for putting on his youngest principals Naghdi/Ball to dance the Opening Night, adding his best first soloists and soloists, their performance was unanimously praised by the critics (and I don't think they are biased .... ). 

The dancers blew new life into this Sleeping Beauty and made it very exciting again to watch!  

So much so I have bought another ticket. 

Having just read all of last week's Opening Night rave reviews I cannot recall the last time Sleeping Beauty was awarded multiple 5 stars by the dance critics (usually the critics are not all that enthusiastic about The Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty). 

18 minutes ago, capybara said:

If Akane Takada was nursing an injury from the outset, it would have been normal for there to be another Aurora on 'standby'. Sometimes, this arrangement applies until 'curtain up' only but, so far this season, there have been occasions when other dancers have been there and ready to take over throughout a ballet.

Very best wishes to Akane and Ryo for good recoveries.

"Standby", as far as I know, applies to thirty minutes before curtain up so if Takada at 7pm confirmed she was fit to dance Aurora, available Auroras go home I assume. Who else would have been available? They couldn't ask first soloists O'Sullivan or Magri who are yet to dance their own debut and may not have sufficient experience to take over last minute with a partner they never rehearsed with (or in the case of Kaneko who is too tall to dance with Campbell). Clearly Mr O'Hare judged that Naghdi was the only possible last-minute replacement, even as she never rehearsed Aurora with Campbell (why didn't Hayward take over? She had all of Sunday to recover from her Saturday evening performance ). Since Naghdi has danced other roles with Campbell, and they are now seasoned and experienced Principals  (it's not the first time in her career Naghdi takes over a role at the very last minute), it seemingly was the only workable option.  

My very best wishes to Takada and Hirano for a speedy recovery!

I am not surprised she found it a tough one as prior to last night Francesca Hayward has only ever danced one performance in a full-length classical tutu ballet in her career, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (she got indisposed after her first Aurora a few years ago), and last night her nervousness was palpable and technical slips showed. Dancing classical tutu ballets is a totally different ball game compared to dancing Ashton and MacMillan, and demands much more of a ballerina. Some of her contemporaries have danced the classics much more frequently so I think she has some catching up to do here but there's Swan Lake to look forward to.