AnneL

Yesterday evening’s Dornroschen (Sleeping Beauty) in Dresden featured debuts from Susanna Santoro as Aurora and Rodrigo Pinto as Florimund. I thought they both did a fantastic job, no debut nerves were visible to me. Santoro’s Rose Adage was beautiful, she encapsulated the youth of Aurora but was ever so slightly regal with it, as befitting a princess. 
overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and it was good to see a slightly different ‘take’  on one of my favourite ballets. 

11 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Please tell us about it afterwards!

Will do!

On 10/03/2024 at 19:06, FionaM said:

I like how Dresden announced debuts on their social media.   Tonight Milda Luckute debuts as Lilac Fairy amongst others 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4VGIPUoCnu/?igsh=MXNyM3Bnb2I4NWFlNA==

Thank you, @FionaM for posting this! I am going to see it on Thursday. can’t wait! 

23 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Thanks for your research, Jane S! About the piece for the soldiers- are you referring to the group dance they do with the smartly dressed respectable-looking women (who look like their wives) just before the ship arrives and Manon and other disgraced women get off the ship? Or is it a different dance just for the soldiers with no partners? 

Since the opening scene of Act III has been mentioned, I would just like to say (as someone who has taught, and therefore researched criminal justice history) that I always sit there thinking that there are WAY too many women on the stage at that point. The male-female ratio in penal colonies was much in favour of the male.  Subsequently, the new women getting off the boat would have been snapped up pretty quickly by the men ( soldiers first, then possibly any convicts who had achieved the status whereby they could take a partner), rather than doing their little misery dance by themselves. They would most likely have done that BEFORE embarking on their ship. On arrival, they would probably have done a happy dance, having actually survived a dangerous voyage.

But then, as someone else said, we shouldn’t expect much logic, or indeed realism, in ballet plots. 

1 hour ago, PeterS said:

BRB have Luna scheduled for 22/10 and 23/10 and then Fille for 24/10 & 25/10. Nothing is scheduled as yet for Saturday 26/10 which gives the possibility to play the “sold out in record time,  extra dates added by popular demand” ruse for either production.

That said, last time I saw BRB dance Fille at Sadlers Wells (Nov 2018?), it was in a half empty theatre so although popular among Forum members, perhaps it’s not the show to attract big London audiences. It may well be in competition for ticket sales with the RB too who has yet to declare its hand for 2024/2025.
Hats off to Carlos for bringing it back to the stage.

The performance I went to in 2018 seemed very well attended. Perhaps we were at different ones, or maybe because I was in the cheap seats!! 
I do remember it being a lovely performance.

I really think it’s one of the best ballets for children and I hope it seems well in all venues. A better starter ballet than Nutcracker, in my controversial opinion. 
Agree re ‘hats off’. Carlos’ own Colas was great, so he will coach well, I suspect. He and Mukhamedov are my all-time favourites in the role. 

47 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Evdokimova Makarova Cojocaru Osipova Hayward 

Im sure there are other super Giselles of course but these 5 are associated with particular performances I attended which particularly stayed in the memory. 
Naturally I’ve not seen every single dancer who has ever danced the role in performance ……most regrettably Fonteyn ….whose pictures of her in the role plus the Chopin music to Les Sylphides inspired me to take up ballet all those years ago when I was seven!! 

I did see Fonteyn’s Giselle (with Nureyev) in 1969 and will never forget it, especially the end of Act 1. 

19 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Loved your recollections, @AnneL! The first time I ever heard of or saw anything about Nutcracker the ballet (as opposed to the music, which was a big perennial favourite on the airwaves) was an old ballet book owned by a relative with gorgeous black and white photos of London Festival Ballet in their production of Nutcracker. I was very small then and I believe the Prince was credited as John Gilpin but I don't remember Clara being credited. There was a stunning picture of the Snowflakes and Clara/Nutcracker post transformation scene pas de deux, and other eye-catching pictures of the Kingdom of the Sweets. but I don't remember pictures of the Sugar Plum Fairy or who danced her, or if she was credited. 

 

The Marie/Clara discrepancy comes from the fact that the characters in the original ETA Hoffmann short story were Marie and Fritz, plus an older sister Louise, while Ivanov (or Petipa who did the concept but was too ill to choreograph) and Tchaikovsky called their characters Clara, Fritz and Marianna according to a historical photo of the dancers at the St Petersburg premiere (although Tchaikovsky appears to have named kept Louise as the sister's name in the score). Alexandre Dumas wrote an adaptation of the ETA Hoffmann story which was far more PG rated and innocent  than the Hoffmann original, and it was this version that Ivanov, Petipa and Tchaikovsky used as the ballet libretto (the characters had the original Hoffmann names in Dumas' version). I think a number of American and Russian companies choose to use Marie (or the Russian translation Masha) still.

 

I would have LOVED to have seen those Benois designs and Alain Dubreuil (father of RB's Teo!) as the Prince! We've heard the Mother Ginger music before in a cartoon (haha) and I remember it from the NYCB production. It's very jolly and a great piece of music in its own right but I'm guessing it would make the show even longer for little children (and audience members who need to catch trains although perhaps some would point out that length is no deterrent to those who travel for Swan Lake!). I do agree with you about the big upgrade (though no disrespect to the creator of that version)!

Sadly, I don’t remember the Benois designs, it was such a long time ago. As I mentioned, it was my first Nutcracker and it was in fact my third ballet, after Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the Royal’s Beauty, which I continue to prefer to any version of Nutcracker, despite the latter’s great music -  not to mention the snowflake scene, which always brings tears to my eyes. 
I never objected to the length of the ballets as a child - I distinctly remember never wanting them to end! 

14 hours ago, alison said:

ENB's Hampson/Scarfe production had it - children disguised in presents or Nutcracker heads, I think it was - but it didn't do much with them.

Interesting! It’s a long time since I saw that one.

On 04/01/2024 at 18:53, Emeralds said:

SilkeH, I was a bit puzzled to read that you disagreed with me when we mostly concur, then I realised that the word "version" had gone missing for some reason! It should say "I found this version quite interesting"!

 

This production is interesting because it has not one but three showstopper ballerina solos- Dewdrop, Marzipan (lead) and Sugar Plum Fairy. I don't know if you have seen the 1990 RB production (vastly different to today's version by RB) but the reason why the pace dragged was that all the interesting dancing was squeezed in last. Balanchine placed the Sugar Plum Fairy solo (with the celesta in the score) at the start of Act 2 so that the virtuosity is spread out evenly and not crammed at the end. There's also a showstopper solo for a man besides the Sugar Plum Cavalier- the Russian dance is called Candy Cane in this production and that's a spectacular solo with a hoop that requires a lot of speed and dexterity. In Britain the children's dances in the classics eg Tom Thumb in Sleeping Beauty and Mother Ginger in Nutcracker are invariably cut from British productions but in Imperial Russian ballet tradition - brought to the US here- children's dances were common. I think the children in NYCB's version were hiding under her skirt though- don't think anyone in the audience when I watched it thought they looked birthed. Apollo's birth, on the other hand, does look like a birth! 

 

I suppose I watched it twice because great stars like Kyra Nichols, Margaret Tracey, Wendy Whelan, Damien Woetzel, Peter Boal et al were in the casts. If you think of the first half as a curtain raiser with great music to settle in your seat and the second act as the main event like a spectacular gala with brilliant star performances, it works! Where the 1990 RB version differed was in the pacing and pacing makes all the difference.  However when I saw the NYCB version I'd just seen the BRB production at its premiere season a few years before and regarded BRB's as the most balanced version, even if they fielded fewer principal dancers than NYCB did at each show. I've seen two recordings of it but am still waiting for a chance to watch BRB's Nutcracker live in person again when schedules allow.

I am glad to see this discussion of comparative and historic Nuts!

My first Nutcracker in January 1968 was the then Festival Ballet one with Alain Dubreuil as the Prince! I don’t remember it very well, but the programme tell me that one of the divertissements in Act 2 was called Madam de Bonboniere, which I guess must have been the equivalent of Mother Ginger. This production had some revisions to the Petipa/Ivanov choreography but designs by none other than Alexander Benois.  It was performed regularly in the 1960s at the Festival Hall, which was where I saw it. My programme tells me that ‘the management are indebted to Mme. Tamara Karsarvina for her advice on the production’ . What a lovely link that is to ballet history!

So I have wondered for some time when this Mother Ginger dance - also in the Berlin Staatsballet version I have on DVD - was dropped by Festival Ballet/ENB because as stated in the post I quoted, these children’s dances no longer feature in versions shown in this country, other than of course the party scene.

My daughter’s first Nutcracker was the ENB liquorice all-sorts version also mentioned in a post on this thread which I think also included mobile phones! Quite honestly, the current Eagling version is A big upgrade on that. But I think my all time favourite has to be the Wright BRB version especially when I saw Yoshida as the SPF.

As an aside, I find it strange that Balanchine renamed the main child characters- why Marie and not Clara? 

Does anyone have any advice for booking one of these events? I am thinking of arranging a trip for one of the summer 2024 performances. I have looked at the website but it is in Danish, although I do try to figure some of it out. Tickets went on sale earlier this month but there seem to be availability still. Any tips will be appreciated!

19 hours ago, Sim said:

No comments yet on Hayward/Campbell.  Anyone?  

It was a very enjoyable performance all round. Hayward and Campbell gave a lovely performance in the grand pdd and it was very hard to believe Acri had stepped in at the last minute! His partnering seemed very good, as if he’d rehearsed a lot with Sae Maeda and I loved the way he did the mime in the second act. Another highlight was Melissa Hamilton as the Rose Fairy and of course Gary Avis. 

It’s controversial of me, I know, but I am not the biggest fan of the Nutcracker - music apart - it brings out the grinch in me as there are certainly two or three ballets I would much rather see at this time of year. But I had a pleasant evening and was thankful to see it, since last year I had to return my tickets because of the rail strike and had failed utterly to pick up any others in the Friday rushes. 

On 26/10/2023 at 10:42, Jan McNulty said:

@Angela I seriously envy Germany for its theatre culture.  Long may it remain! 

Amen!

I don’t know if this is the right thread to post this, but I just wanted to say that I booked tickets for the Dresden opera house this week and it was one of the most straightforward online ticket purchases I have ever had! Really outstanding even for a non-German speaker.
Now looking forward to seeing Aaron Watkins’ Sleeping Beauty in March, not to mention the city of Dresden. 

14 hours ago, MAB said:

I think the score for Job is superb, but I'm resigned to the fact I'll never see it again. The music is massvely important to me, I'll sit through 19th century rubbish music for the choreography and the dancers, but if I never saw Corsair, bayaderka or Don Q again I could live with that but not ballets to scores of genius, e.g. Stravinsky, Ravel.

I agree 100%. Music is crucial. I have never seen Job but I love the score. Perhaps if the old choreography is dated a contemporary choreographer could use it? Or would that be prohibited? 
Music is the reason that Firebird is a favourite of mine and why I would like to see Daphnis and Chloe again. If the ballets are lost to the rep then the danger is that the music is neglected too (unlikely perhaps for the Firebird). I know it can be played in concerts, but a ballet score needs to be used for its real purpose at least sometimes. There is a rich 20th century musical repertoire  which was created for the burgeoning ballet scene of its day and it needs a chance to live. 

According to my personal performance database, I saw Michael O’Hare in the Nutcracker, Fille, and Le Tricorne, all with BRB, all 1994-5 and in three different London theatres, all presumably the principal roles. I would like to thank him for the entertainment he gave me and wish him a pleasant retirement.

I agree with Jan too! For what it’s worth, the fouettés went well at the other filmed performance, the Saturday before last. 
Our lighting was a bit dark, but it only bothered me when I couldn’t see number two windmill very well.

Also it says 7pm start while my cinema ticket says 7.15 AND it says Thursday 7th November and I could have sworn it’s Tuesday today. How confusing!

11 minutes ago, PeterS said:

Not a single principal dancer on stage tonight…. Is that a first?

Only if you don’t count principal character artists! Some years ago I saw a Fille cast on a Saturday evening led by Choe and Zuchetti, neither of them principals, then or now. 

3 minutes ago, Fonty said:

 

I wonder what criteria are used in order to qualify?  I live in London, and could have got there with very little notice.  I know I am on their mailing list.  I have had 3 emails now offering me a discount for the Cellist double bill.  I have seen it before, and quite enjoyed it, but not enough to see it again unless it was with something I really wanted to see.  

I am absolutely fuming that these tickets were offered at such ridiculously low prices.  If I had received an email offering me a 50% discount for "tomorrow's performance" I would snapped it up immediately, and I am sure I wouldn't have been the only one.  

I have not even received one discount offer for any ballet, just Opera ☹️

Some random observations:

I have seen the RB Les Noces twice, the first time with Svetlana Beriosova and Derek Rencher. It was unforgettable. I would love it to be dome again with the memorable Stravinsky score. Its link to the RB is because of Ashton, who asked his mentor, Nijinska to stage it. So as with the Firebird- another masterpiece - it links to the Ballets Russes via the RB. The RB is therefore part of these works’ histories, in a similar way to - say - Swan Lake. 
I agree the programming is currently uninspiring for regular fans like me and I admit to not being a big Nutcracker enthusiast. Yes, it’s bums on seats, but there are plenty of other productions in town, and the RB is in receipt of public subsidy, so why is money such an overwhelming consideration? ( I am not denying its importance). In earlier decades the RB would mount different ‘family’ ballets at Christmas - maybe Coppelia or Cinderella. I think this would be a healthier approach and would be very surprised if they didn’t sell out at that time of year. As traditions go, endless RB Nutcrackers is a recent one (unlike for NYCB). ‘Everyone wants Nutcracker at Christmas’ has become a self-fulfilling prophecy when people are only offered Nutcracker at Christmas.

Re Alain, the part was created by Ashton for one of his favourite dancers, Alexander Grant, so how can it be anything but an affectionate portrait?

Finally, I would love to see Sylvia again- one of the greatest yet most underrated ballet scores! 

I think Canterbury is new, and it’s very welcome. 

18 minutes ago, OnePigeon said:

We saw Mukhamedov’s final performance of Mayerling way back when and found it incredibly powerful:  it’s one of the most memorable ballets I’ve ever seen and I must confess I wasn’t as bowled over when we saw it again last year, though I still founds lots to admire - unlike my mum!  Perhaps it’s all to do with the production and casting.   She has seen and loved Manon in the past, I was just agreeing that perhaps as we age some of us can’t tolerate the more dramatic and dark stories as well as we could.
 

 

I don’t like Mayerling and don’t book for it when it’s on. Twice was enough for me - in 1979 and the late 2010s. But I must admit to some regret not seeing Mukhamedov in it! I prefer Manon and although I do find the characters hard to empathise with, they are not quite as repellent as the Mayerling ones. Hopefully I will see it once or twice in the upcoming run. 

I am sorry to inject a note of dissent into the conversation, but I saw the Nunez-Bolle pairing during each of the last two Manon runs, and thoroughly enjoyed their interpretations. Personally I find Bolle’s interpretation of the role more convincing than many others I have seen, as evidenced by the Paris Opera Ballet dvd he is in, and he and Nela work together well. It remains to be seen whether he is now too old, given that one has to suspend disbelief with these characters for any dancers beyond their early twenties! 

I still remember the shock when I heard of Cranko’s untimely death. I was a ballet obsessive in my early teens and had read of his work in Stuttgart in the Dancing Times. (Still to this day I haven’t been there to see the company, but hopefully there’s still time! ). Many years later I saw BRB perform Pineapple Poll and the RB Onegin and loved them both. I have only seen his Romeo and Juliet on film, but I liked it very much. This is a sad milestone to mark, but a chance to remember Cranko’s great talent. 

38 minutes ago, alison said:

 

We certainly don't, but then all three mentioned were "one of a century" rather than "one of a generation".  It's not surprising that the RB doesn't have anyone currently as good.  (Ratmansky was mentioned: he was scheduled to be reviving/reworking "24 Preludes" last season, but had to cancel, I seem to recall due to schedule clashes.  I'm assuming that he couldn't fit it into this year's schedule).

 

 

That does, though, rather miss the point that Anastasia was originally a one-act ballet, with the preceding two acts being tacked on some years later.  I never saw it as a one-acter, and wonder if that would have worked better rather than having a (now amended) Act III excised from the full-length ballet.  As I indicated upthread, I felt it was watered down somehow, or something.

 

In fact, it's a bit of a shame we've had so little discussion of that part of the bill.  It would be nice to hear from those who have seen both as to whether anything has been lost.

Not forgetting that the 20th century also gave us Fokine, Massine, Nijinska, Petit, Tudor…. I could go on (and I am not suggesting this is an exclusive list, or that everything they did was great, but it was a pretty special century). When I was younger, my favourite contemporary choreographer was Christopher Bruce - I have fond memories of his work. There are a fewer of today’s choreographers who interest me, but perhaps it is not such a rich period? Hopefully that will change and I understand completely that things move on.

I would also love to see some of Ratmansky’s work.