Christine

Sadly, I missed Jason Reilly's Desiré, as he danced that role at a time when I didn't go to watch ballet that much, but he did indeed dance both roles (https://www.balletmasterclass.com/pages/faculty-2018/jason-reilly/).

Well, thank you to Ian for the 2 articles on the subject in the links section today – a great read which did put the incident and the artist/critic relationship somewhat into perspective for me... However, I will never be very keen on the style of criticism practiced by W. Hüster (and others, no doubt) which, so it seems to me me, at any rate, often tends to be more about aggrandizing herself and her powers of judgement than on critiquing her actual subject. Having said which, nothing could ever justify a dog-poo facial, to use The Times’ phrase or excuse this “moment of madness” as LinMM kindly put it above.

Agree. Sadly, it seems to be true. He has now been suspended.

It is too sad! I agree with Angela that he was probably seriously offended by this ciritic's review. Yes, his behaviour was inexcusable and needless to say he has done himself absolutely no favours. The criticism by the way did not just say that the audience was "maddened and murdered by boredom". As I read it, it also accuses him of making no effort to produce meaningful choreography, or, in other words, of being a brazen lazy bum -in the German original the piece was a "Blamage und Frechheit" /"profoundly embarassing and an outrage". Which is criticism levelled straight at the person. And there are more demeaning descriptions. Nevertheless, it is such a shame he felt he had to stoop to this, an artist of this calibre! I, too, attended the NDT II performance of his piece last Saturday. Having seen it before as a live stream, it was great to see it performed live, and it was breathtaking.

Thank you for this, Angela. Do you know who is dancing? I haven't been able to find a progam or detailed cast sheet in the announcement.

Yes, fascinating. Just heard about it this morning when I listened to BBC 4's Today Show . There was an interview with Carlos and Tony Iommi. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hxs6. (1:22:00) No, I am not a fan of Heavy Metal music and find it quite hard to bring ballet and HM music together in my mind. Yet I do find the idea, actually the whole project intriguing, So, iif I lived in Birmingham I'd probably give it a go just to see what they make of it. A pretty bold decision of Carlos Acosta which deserves some applause for trying out a new and unlikely avenue.. There is a brief reference to the "story" of this ballet in the above interview, basically saying it would be a "rags-to-riches" sort of story. That is not saying much, of course.

It may just be a matter of personal taste - some of the critics loved it.

I would have liked to write sooner but just couldn’t find the time, so I am writing this on a train from India where we are currently for a friend’s wedding. Before Christmas I took a very spontaneous decision to attend the premiere in Munich. I should perhaps say for a start that I had never seen any original Ratmansky choreography before and haven’t got nearly as much ballet viewing experience as other BF members. Also, my tastes are probably very much shaped by Stuttgart ballet performances. I am writing this as since my comments will, of course, be very subjective. Tchaikovsky Overtures comprised three thematic parts - Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo & Juliet - the first and last consisting of 2 sections. Shale Wagman opened the evening with the Hamlet Elegy (before the Ouverture to Hamlet) beautifully, lyrically - this type of music suits him probably down to the ground. I should add though, that this piece of music was used by John Cranko in his Swan Lake where it is inserted after Siegfried has discovered his mistake and dances his regret with Odette - for me always the most heartrending moment of the whole of Cranko’s SL. So with this memory permanently cross-registering, I was missing some context or meaning behind all the admittedly beautiful “emoting” of Shale’s dance. As the reviews say, TO is neither abstract ballet, nor storytelling but sits somewhere in-between. The Hamlet for the group with Osiel Guneo as the chief protagonist was good to look at, for me the focus was too much on firework display. It was, in fact, physically so demanding that you could see Osiel visibly running out of steam so it became more and more a mere exercise. Synchronicity wasn’t great & parts felt a bit under rehearsed. The last theme, Rome & Juliet, for me suffered from similar problems & far too many steps for my taste; probably I also failed to see & appreciate all the ballet clues and cross- references alluded to in the reviews, so it became a bit tiring in the end and felt a bit like: please not another pirouette, another jump… The unflattering costumes didn’t help either. This part began with the beautifully sung Romeo & Juliet aria with Shale Wagman as the only dancer sharing the stage. This, sadly, did not work for me at all - sometimes Shale danced around, sometimes through the dancers and I found it just irritating & completely distracting, to the point where you wish that either the dancer or the singers had better disappear. (Unsurprisingly, in this case, I’d keep the dancer). However, and this is strictly personal, not even Shale’s charisma and consummate artistry could have saved it for me. I found his talents a bit wasted on this evening. By contrast, the middle part, The Tempest, could not have been more different and seemed a complete success on all fronts. Costumes, dramaturgy, choreo and dancing worked brilliantly for me. An exhilarating mix of effervescent group dances with the frothy blue and white tutus emulating the sea and stunning solo work, especially from Madison Young, Yonah Accosta, Jinhao Zhang and Antonio Casalinho. For some reason, the whole thing was much more from one piece, consistent, and, more than that, convincing, with the bravura passages seamlessly tied in & used to great and meaningful effect. Apart from the gorgeous duets with the sineously flowing Madison Young there was the breathtaking variation danced by Antonio as the Ariel sprite. Execution and characterization in total harmony and the longer it went on I found myself thinking I cannot believe he is doing this. The audience seemed to share this view and this was the only part during the evening to receive a spontaneous but thunderous ovation. No wonder, Antonio got promoted to soloist that night! So, in conclusion, with some exceptions, Ratmansky new choreo is probably not for me. I will try to see some of his classical ballet restorations, though. Please excuse the spelling and a syntactical errors - I typed this into my mobile.

My copy just arrived yesterday. I had ordered it many months ago and now am really looking forward to reading it. The ISBN number btw is: 9781803132 570. By mistake I just began a new thread on the book because I overlooked the "Ballet Reading" thread here. I expected to find a thread on new books, publications etc. under "Ballet News" rather than "Performances and general discussions", I have to admit, but with time some threads morph into different categories I guess.

"Dance On" the documentary on arte shedding some light on the subject of ageing and when to retire from the stage for dancers is now availabe with English subtitles, too (if you have the chance to watch arte) https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/106183-000-A/dance-on/ It provides some fascinating insights and interviews with dancers, some famous, some less so.

Oh no! Not that I don’t like Yasmine, quite the contrary! But I was so much looking forward to seeing Laura Morera live tomorrow!

Not sure whether this will work in the UK - it's a new documentary now streaming on arte for the newt 4 weeks on the complex subject of dancers and ageing. Among others it features Polina Semionova, Friedemann Vogel, William Moore (now retired from Zurich ballet), Gesine Moog. At the moment it's available in German or French only. https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/106183-000-A/dance-on-zwischen-applaus-und-abschied/ More information on the documentary in English can be found here. http://www.bfmi.at/documentary_dance_on.html

Here's the link to a making-of video teaser Stuttgart Ballet posted of their new Nutcracker production with choreography by Edward Clug.It will premiere on th 25th next week. https://www.instagram.com/p/ClG6O6yInkA/

Same for me: Thank you!. Just went searching for the link:

So far I have no concrete plans to see the other casts, but perhaps Reilly/Su or Fernandez/Aleman next week. If so, I'll report.

Yes, thank you, Anna, for sharing this great report of your ballet tour to Germany. Actually, Elisa and Jason did not just repeat it once: when they began the repeat of the PDD, there was a hiccup and the (by now) playback music played two tracks simultaneously: Lenski's solo from the previous night and the final PDD music. Both continued to dance a good three minutes before breaking off and then doing it all again ... Heroes! I also attended the last performance with this cast on Sunday night which was not filmed for the Cranko movie and it was even better - perhaps, simply, because it was the third time and had gelled even more or because dancing knowing that the filming is over can be a liberating expierience.. . Anyway, I found Jason even more convincing technically, Elisa for me was outstanding in all three shows. The sheer amount of dramatic action she packs into her turns, twizzles and ballet steps is literally mind-boggling, On Thursday night she was so immersed in her role that she did not even manage to smile during the applause. By Sunday, probably routine kicked in and she recovered more quickly. On that night, too, they finally got the deserved standing ovation. The exact thought that crossed my mind when they announced last week that the role was going to be given to an international movie actor... True, what Angela said about age though. So it will be interesting to find out... By the way, I heard that in the movie Friedemann Vogel will be playing the German dancer Heinz Clauss. Cranko cast the role of "Onegin" on him the the second and final version (1967) that we know today.

Sorry, this is just to tell you that I got the date wrong when I wrote here that my German Stuttgart Ballet friends would come to see Mayerling with Stephen McRae at yesterday’s matinee performance, in fact they saw it the week before and caught two performances, one with Stephen & co and another one with Ryoichi. Having talked to them during a performance (break) of Onegin in Stuttgart today – and with their permission - I can let you know that they absolutely adored the McRae/Lamb pairing (the best!), and also Marianela’s wonderful Mizzi. The Royal Ballet Corps, they said, has no rival! They also liked the other cast, especially Laura Morera, but preferred McRae/Lamb.

Watched the repeat cinema relay of Mayerling today, luckily they are still transmitting ROH performances, what a treat. I do hope German cinemas will keep this up as there were hardly more than 20 people attending. Really enjoyed it and having watched Mayerling multiple times in Stuttgart it was great to discover many new things in the ROH rendition of Mayerling. I had read some reviews here beforehand, so I did expect so see a Rudolph that would really take off towards the end of the evening and so it was. In the past I had seen snippets of Ryoichi's Rudolph and was not really able to connect, tonight this was very different and thought that he particularly excelled in the final variation and PDD especially. But I did enjoy his whole performance much more than than anticipated. The real eye-opener for me, not having seen her in this role before was Laura Morera's Larisch. We had some very good "Larisches" in Stuttgart (Amatriain, in particular) but with her I felt I understood so much more about MacMillan's brilliant retelling of this tragic story. In those cinema close-ups, several times she looked positively frightening and dangerous, sending chills down my spine As SIM wrote above, an incredible interpreter of the role. I am so pleased if, as was written here, Yasmine Naghdi shows promise of following in these huge footsteps. All the other roles were great, I particularly liked Francesca Hayward as Princess Stephanie, even if for me she was occasionally, a little too much on the adoring side. Loved the moment when Mizzi Caspar (Marianela Nunez) first meets Rudolph but found that towards the end where she dances with the officers and Rudolph, the great sweep of the melody and festive mood did not show as much as it could or should have in the dance. I did admire the perfection paid to details though. Osipova's Mary high-spirited and unpredictable approach worked very well for me. One highlight tonight, largely due again to Morera, too, was the card-laying scene which i found totally mesmerising. The contrast between fiendish indtrique-spinning manipulator Larish and Osipova's complete besottedness with the portrait & prince was wonderful, let alone the worried mother was just wonderful, The PDD with Elizabeth I found beautiful, but her appearances could have been a touch more glamorous for my taste. Bay Middleton, however, was everything one can only wish for in this role, of course. The same goes for Franz Joseph. Very much liked Luca Acri's Bratfisch and after what I read about James Hay would love to see him, too. So, overall, a total treat to be able to watch the Royal Ballet in the cinema and I do hope these showings will continue in the future against all odds! By the way, if I am not mistaken, next Saturday my ballet friends and ballet regulars at Stuttgart Ballet, Margit and Annegret, will be watching Mayerling with Steven McRae. They have seats in the front row stalls, so say hello to them, should you overhear some German accents there...

Oh, these are good news!

Sorry for the delay – here is my report at long last. I do apologize that it has turned out a bit too gushy and for repeating what Fiona has written already. I wrote this some time last week and only found the time now to do a bit of proof-reading. I saw two performances of LACUNA, the first night on August 4th and the third and penultimate performance on August 6th. Expectations were very high, after all the line-up for this piece was pretty exceptional: 5 top-level dancers from as many companies or free-lancing: Alina Cojocaru, Daniel Camargo (now ABT), Shale Wagman (Munich), Nayara Lopes (Philadelphia) and Derek B. Dunn (Boston). I had seen the former three before – Daniel danced with Stuttgart Ballet from 2009 to 2016. Almost needless to say my expectations were met, if not surpassed, which, I believe, was due not least to the extraordinary venue: as mentioned before, the Julier Tower is a temporary wooden construction that only has a permitted life span of 5 years. There is an improvised bar and foyer on the ground floor, where the Origen Festival organizer Giovanni Netzer and choreographer Juliano Nunes gave a brief intro. The stage is on the first floor with 3 rows of seating on the perimeter of a round platform with a diameter of 10 meters that is suspended from chains so that it can be hoisted up or down. More seating is provided on another level about 5 meters or so above the stage. I sat in rows 1 and 3 on the two nights respectively; row 1 is literally an arm’s length away from the stage/dancers with the head just above platform level, a position which was much better than it may sound and was very close to the action. The Dancers entered the stage from doors of the different staircases in the tower and had to step (rather precariously) across a small gap between the built seating area and the suspended platform. The dancing was very much in the classical style with the ladies in point shoes, but in Juliano Nunes’ flowing and, I find, always highly musical choreography which as you can see from Sabine’s very useful list above consisted of a number of different PDDs, Pas de trois or with all 5 on stage. As a stage as small as this one does not permit much jumping, the focus was more on PDDs with bodies intertwining, some truly spectacular, innovative lifts that were beautifully set and executed to the music and solo work, and very few jumps. Actually, there were more jumps on the first night than on the third night. The evening began with Alina warming up and marking steps to the sounds of an orchestra getting tuned and transitioned into Alina’s solo to the Myrtha entrance music, from where one dance sequed into the next with the recovery pause mentioned by Fiona. (I can only guess the pause was so long to allow the artists to regain their breath). As explained by Juliano during the introductory talk he chose to call the piece LACUNA (which in the Rhaeto-Romance language spoken in this part of Switzerland means gap) because he felt he had reached a phase in his life where he was a bit at a loss at what should come next, a period of indecision perhaps. So rather than the contemporary pieces he had created for the Origen Festival in the past, he decided to invent new dances/steps to a string of classical ballet numbers including some pieces with music by Luke Howard, and developed together with these fantastic dancers. Wonderful, just how the choreography played to the strengths and fitted the personality of the different dancers to a tee – dreamy, introverted, completely authentic (Alina), powerful in its movements and with a very strong stage presence (Daniel), highly charismatic look-at-me, long-limbed and elegant (Nayara), full-of-longing princely & perfect in all his movements (Derek) and the ever-surprising virtuoso creative (Shale). In terms of dance-fireworks that were on display in this small confine there were some incredibly various-speed pirouettes which transformed into arabesques especially from Derek and Shale, and the aforementioned lifts, all brilliantly timed and executed to the music. What I found even more impressive, though perhaps was the dancers’ ability to completely focus on their performance, to get totally absorbed in their dance, express emotions & tell miniature stories as though they were performing on a much bigger theatre stage, casting their magic spell over the audience. Standouts for me on the first night were the Nutcracker pas performed by Nayara & Shale, Derek’s solo to Sleeping Beauty (who really took me by surprise with his immaculately executed, beautifully expressive and in-the-role lyrical dancing(, and the “Dying Swans” PDD danced by Derek and Shale: rarely perhaps have two male swans expired more beautifully and believably than these two, down to the clawed fingers and last breaths exhaled in perfect unison at the end of LACUNA. No doubt, this would make a great gala number. On my second visit everything had fallen into place more and some inconsistencies ironed out, also was also a good deal less stage fog. There was a very impressive statuesque solo danced by Daniel, beautiful pizzicato pointe work by Nayara dancing to Nikya’s temple music, unforgettably musical and heartfelt dancing from Alina and Daniel which flowed so naturally and beautifully, you could see Daniel’s face beaming with joy and pleasure and Alina celebrating her emotional artistry. During the intro Juliano said you never know what to expect from Shale and so it proved to be: incredible pirouettes, indescribable and inexplicable turns all the while with beautifully sculpted hand movements that make you believe that such things as gravity and balance do not exist, at least not for some people. And, of course, again, the Dying Swans at the end… almost a classic already! BTW, I had the pleasure of meeting Fiona whom I recognized from her photo on the London Ballet Circle website and I completely agree that it is probably not only this last PDD of LACUNA that contains material for a gala performance. Thank you Fiona for the information about the lighting which was very effective and made the dancers’ costumes glow. And yes, originally Polina Semionova and Friedemann Vogel were on the cast list. While I do not believe one can say that this might have been better or not, it would certainly have been very different, and it would have been fascinating to see what Nunes would have created with two such charismatic and experienced dance artists and see them perform in such an intimate space.

The Julierturm red tower will be dismantled at the end of August next year as these kinds of temporary installations only have a permit for 5 years. The good news is, there will be one more season! The project that will in all likelihood succeed it is "The White Tower", a cutting-edge 3D-printed concrete structure which is still being developed together with ETH University of Zurich. Nothing is finalised yet as there are still some issues. The audience capacity in this tower will be much smaller, seating only 40 or so. More info: http://www.origen.ch/Der-Weisse-Turm.2028.0.html?&L=4

Thank you very much for the information on the different "numbers" that make up Lacuna, Sabine. Will write more on it asap, but am currently still too busy with other things. So sorry, you couldn't go. It was my first time at the Origen Festival Cultural but certainly not the last time. Origen is fascinating project of which the festival and dance performances are just one element. The two different pieces I've seen, Trümmer by Thiago Bordin and Lacuna by Juliano Nunes were very extra special and could not have taken place this form - no brief from the Festival Direction regarding the new creation but with an exquisite line-up in both cases - anywhere else, probably. Amazingly, and despite the top-notch dance casts and small size of the venues (180 in the Julier Tower), the performances were not sold out in advance which is part of the charm of the festival.

Judging by the date of your post you saw the performance on June 14th. Glad you liked the performance so much, I did, too, by the way. He actually danced with concussion and a whiplash injury that day, following a training accident a couple of days before. Apparently his doctor said that he wouldn‘t dance on Tuesday (14)…, Friedemann Vogel said at a public screening of his film „Incarnation of Dance“ this week. Well, he did, and very impressively, too. On another performance on June 17th he seemed almost fully restored and got a totally deserved very long standing ovation. I agree that Elisa Badenes is perfect in the role of Vetsera, in terms of looks and the incredible abandon with which she throws herself into the role. Her dancing is, of course, top notch. I have never seen Morera live but would love to. No, I wouldn’t know which bits of Mayerling to edit out. As you said, some of it serves to slow the pace down a bit and the only scene which seems a bit long to me on repeated viewings is the one at the home of the Vetseras. But then, the music is so gorgeous, I simply cannot imagine Mayerling without it. Perhaps I‘m lacking in imagination.

Watched it without buffering problems yesterday. So grateful Ivan Putrov decided to offer this gala as a stream and the opportunity to raise funds for a worthy cause. A beautiful gala with a lot of variety, deeply moving moments and some spectacular highlights. Of, course I have seen Marianela dance live in the past but here, once again, I was awestruck by her superb performance: supreme artistry paired with so much joy, finesse and apparent ease - fantastic. And lots of other wonderful moments, too. If pressed for most memorable ones, I‘d say Frola & Magri‘s fireworks display, Fumi Kaneko‘s incredibly beautiful port de bras and her attentive prince, Natalia Osipova including the very poignant ending in the carpet roll… but that is perhaps only because I have read so much about them here. I found all other performances, flawless or not, very enjoyable, too.

Hmm, the next Mayerling performance is scheduled for June, so that’s a whole new ballgame. Only a single Mayerling was performed thus far - it must be a crushing disappointment, most of all for the dancers, of course. On the other hand cancellations because of Covid cases in the company are not unusual occurrence these days… and so far we have been rather „lucky“ in Stuttgart in this respect.