Jamesrhblack

Scheherezade, Geoff, MAB:  It's taken time, but we now have an Opera and Music area on a trial basis - so use it or possibly lose it!

Being an agent for opera singers, although dance was my first love, I'll definitely be looking in ;-)

How very sad. I still remember the excitement generated by her 1981 debut in Swan Lake (not withstanding slipping over as she rushed too hastily to protect her Swans in Act 2) and then being chosen to partner Nureyev, despite the fact that she was rather too tall for him, in Bayadère. Im also sure, unlikely as it might seem from the size perspective, that she was partnered by David Wall in his last few weeks as a full time member of the RB in Beauty, don't know if anything else quite lived up to those thrills and a difficult run in Ballet Imperial apparently affected both her personal confidence and managent's confidence in her but relatively late in her Covent Garden career I did see her as a memorably affecting Giselle, capturing an intriguing mixture of fragility and vitality in Act 1 and a really other worldly delicacy in Acr 2. She certainly had a magic about her and even if eariy promise wasn't entirely fulfilled she will be remembered fondly by many who saw her dance who will also mourn her untimely passing.

Was anybody at last night's performance? I do hope Roberta had a good send off - it seems to me that there's something very unpleasantly disrespectful about the way this situation has evolved and the ROH's confirmation of what many of us has suspected late on a Friday afternoon less than a week before her final performance seems only to emphasise that.

I'm sure it must be.  I remember when Tamara Rojo returned as a guest for a final run of performances as a Royal Ballet farewell she danced on those occasions with a performer who had himself very rudely abandoned the Company (not that I'm in any way suggesting that is the case with Pennefather - not at all) and yet was still allowed the privilege of a public farewell by the RB's powers that be.  Perhaps Ms. Marquez might dance with Mr. Pennefather during her farewell 'guest' appearances should such happen to be within his current personal sights.

 

I'm sure I'm not the only person who hopes she will be dancing with Alexander Campbell....

Well, I don't think anyone's going to be surprised given the company's scheduling this season and how underused she's been - although the lateness of the announcement is perhaps a bit surprising. Was she not down to do Sugar Plum Fairy? I can't say I'd looked that closely. I wish her all the best, whatever she's going to do.

No, she wasn't cast in Nutcracker (nor n Pigeons or Giselle) so the situation seemed very clear from management perspective; I just wonder why it has taken so long to become official. One could speculate but one has learned not to do so ....

Everyone I've passed this news on to has been dismayed. I wish her well in the future.

 

I think the dismay is occasioned, quite as much as anything else, by the way n which she has, seemingly, been side lined....

She wasn't always one of my favourite dancers but I thought her Lise was outstanding and, perhaps unexpectedly, her Manon. I also think it's a great pity that her partnership with Alexander Campbell, which was so delightful in Don Q and Fille, wasn't extended into Two Pigeons.

 

Looking at the 15/16 casting this news is scarcely a surprise though and I too am surprised that the ROH has left it so late officially to confirm what so many of us were, perhaps improperly, speculating on several months ago...

Slightly modified rapture this evening possibly because of jet lag (I flew back from NYC overnight in Tuesday) and a vertiginous seat (front row of the very steep Grand Tier) but more, I think, because of my feelings about Nureyev's production.

The sets and costumes are very handsome and I thought that the English National Ballet Philharmonic played really well under Gavjn Sutherland (no squally brass), a fact acknowledged by the seemingly grateful dancers.

I'd not seen this particular choreographic text since the early '80's and still remember the astonishing power of Juliet's breakdown as portrayed by Patricia Ruanne. Unfortunately, nothing this evening registered as true or as strongly as that memory, possibly embellished by the rose tinted memories of yesteryear. This evening, too much of Nureyev's choreography seemed over busy, even fussy and the emotional temperature on stage seemed low, although I'm absolutely willing to blame some of that on my own physical condition.

Some seems inept too. The inclusion of Father John's murder scarcely registers and given that Juliet has established no relationship at all with Mercutio, why does his ghost come to her to persuade her to take the potion? Nureyev might have shared the Soviet distrust of mime but the dancing out of Friar Laurence's instructions to Juliet te the potion by a singularity unconvincing double just didn't work for me, whilst the rush to stage out Shakespeare's reconciliation and bring back the figures of fate from the start in the closing bars registered as messy.

I also struggled to feel any true stage chemistry between Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernandez, however technically accomplished their dancing. For me, the best performance came from James Streeter, dangerously feline as Tynalt, and Fernando Buffala, elegant and roguish (despite some embarrassing choreography - the bottom wiggling, the mincing around in the Nurse's veils) as Mercutio. No some ways the most sherry involving emotional rise seemed to be that between Romeo and Benvolio after Juliet's supposed death and I don't think that's quite the right emotional arc.

Sadly, for me, as a choreographic expression of Prokofiev's ever thrilling score it fell rather flat. I'd be interested to know what others may have felt and want to emphasise that this is a purely subjective response under less than ideal physical conditions.

Corrected below as couldn't edit for some reason ....

 

In some ways the most sheerly involving emotional moment seemed to be that between Romeo and Benvolio after Juliet's supposed death and I don't think that's quite the right emotional arc.

Slightly modified rapture this evening possibly because of jet lag (I flew back from NYC overnight in Tuesday) and a vertiginous seat (front row of the very steep Grand Tier) but more, I think, because of my feelings about Nureyev's production.

 

The sets and costumes are very handsome and I thought that the English National Ballet Philharmonic played really well under Gavjn Sutherland (no squally brass), a fact acknowledged by the seemingly grateful dancers.

 

I'd not seen this particular choreographic text since the early '80's and still remember the astonishing power of Juliet's breakdown as portrayed by Patricia Ruanne. Unfortunately, nothing this evening registered as true or as strongly as that memory, possibly embellished by the rose tinted memories of yesteryear. This evening, too much of Nureyev's choreography seemed over busy, even fussy and the emotional temperature on stage seemed low, although I'm absolutely willing to blame some of that on my own physical condition.

 

Some seems inept too. The inclusion of Father John's murder scarcely registers and given that Juliet has established no relationship at all with Mercutio, why does his ghost come to her to persuade her to take the potion? Nureyev might have shared the Soviet distrust of mime but the dancing out of Friar Laurence's instructions to Juliet te the potion by a singularity unconvincing double just didn't work for me, whilst the rush to stage out Shakespeare's reconciliation and bring back the figures of fate from the start in the closing bars registered as messy.

 

I also struggled to feel any true stage chemistry between Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernandez, however technically accomplished their dancing. For me, the best performance came from James Streeter, dangerously feline as Tynalt, and Fernando Buffala, elegant and roguish (despite some embarrassing choreography - the bottom wiggling, the mincing around in the Nurse's veils) as Mercutio. No some ways the most sherry involving emotional rise seemed to be that between Romeo and Benvolio after Juliet's supposed death and I don't think that's quite the right emotional arc.

 

Sadly, for me, as a choreographic expression of Prokofiev's ever thrilling score it fell rather flat. I'd be interested to know what others may have felt and want to emphasise that this is a purely subjective response under less than ideal physical conditions.

There have been several changes to the originally advertised casting for Romeo and Juliet in Manchester. It is now showing on the ENB website as follows (in the order Juliet/Romeo/Mercutio):

Thurs 26^th Nov: Cojocaru/Hernandez/Bufala

Frid. 27^th Nov (mat 2.30): Cao/Forbat/Lapetra

Frid 27^th Nov (eve) : McWhinney/Westwell/Corrales

Sat 28^th Nov. (mat 2.30): Takahashi/Acosta/Bufala

Sat 28^th Nov. (eve): Summerscales/Westwell/Corrales

Oh dear. I booked a trp to Manchester specially to see Max as Romeo on Friday afternoon and cannot switch to the evening performance :-(

As far as the Royal Ballet is concerned the kindest thing would be to give Carmen a decent burial as quickly as possible regardless of the money it cost. I can see nothing worth salvaging in it. But we now know that not only Muntagirov but both Matthew Ball and Tierney Heap are well worth watching out for in other things.I would like to think that if management finds that it needs replacements during the run of Two Pigeons that Ball would be in the running to dance the Young Man and Heap would get a chance as the Gypsy.They have both earned the opportunity to appear in something better after giving Acosta's choreography a much better performance than he was entitled to expect given that he has failed to create credible characters and the choreography is like other people's choreographic off cuts.

Matthew Ball is cast as The Young Man on 23 and 28 January as it happens .....

Hi Imogen, and welcome to the forum.  Yes, I saw their performance the week before last.  I am a big admirer of Marquez;  she is my favourite Lise and Titania, and I very much like her Giselle.  The same goes for her Juliet;  last time I saw her dance this role it was with Steven McRae.  As a much more established partnership at the time, that performance worked much better than the one she did with Kish.  She was lovely, but a bit like what some people said above about Hayward/Golding, the height difference did affect the way it looked.  More to the point, Marquez totally out-acted Kish.  He did the steps perfectly ok, but there was nothing else there;  nothing inside, nothing that gave any indication of Romeo's character or feelings.  She didn't have anything to feed off, so to me looked like she was dancing alone most of the time.  With a partner with whom she had some kind of affinity or connection, this could have been a superlative performance.  With Kish, there was just nothing to connect to.

 

Good to read that Marquez did well. I like her very much in many things and find the current casting attuned towards her very frustrating....

It is always interesting to see a company that one doesn't know so well as it concentrates the mind on what is much being danced, quite as much as on who is dancing.

 

Theme and Variations is musical and choreographic joy and I must state how very well the Royal Ballet Sinfonia played all afternoon under Paul Murphy’s sympathetic baton. Sitting in the Circle, the stage seemed very noisy. In my performing days, I did sing in this theatre and I don't recall it as having been a clunky place and the shows in which I was involved with the English Bach Festival did include a lot of dancing. The corps was neat even decorous (Celine Gittens, with that old fashioned quality of glamour and a wonderfully languorous manner was an exception) and I also wanted more sense of danger and glitter from the principals. Momoko Hirata is evidently exquisitely schooled and very musical but it looked just a little small scale (has Nunez danced this? A memory seemed to stir at one point of her rising vertically into the air with her feet tucked under her mid pirouette) and Mathias Dingman had smiling grace and lovely stage manners without quite the technical panache to make that horribly demanding solo really speak.

 

Enigma Variations continues to look ravishing and it seemed to me that the most evident strength of BRB was displayed, each dancer having a very strong sense of character projection in this more dramatic context.Dominic Antonicci as Elgar and Wolfgang Stollwitzer were particularly impressive as with little actual dancing to do they effortlessly dominated the stage and when joined by Ana Albutashvili’s Lady brought wonderful poignancy to Nimrod. That wonderful moment when they run forward at the climax in pursuit of their individual dream and then, slightly embarrassed at such a show of feeling, return to formality seems to be truly Edwardian in feel.

 

Is it heretical to find that some of the ballet, particularly in the earlier episodes, hasn't worn well. Perhaps there were exaggerations in the performance but HDS-P and RBT seemed almost out of the Monty Python School of Silly Walks. *** doesn't really work either, however beautiful the solo, as her presence in the Finale makes no sense. True she flits away before the photograph but she is still acknowledged by, amongst others, The Lady.

 

It is also struck me watching Troyte (a splendid Joseph Caley) and Dorabella, how much of the original dancers is in the choreography. I didn't see a lot of prime Sibley (although I was at her first ROH Giselle in 1970, one of those matinees which ended with the stage ankle deep in flowers as well as her last Manon and Natalia Petrovna) but saw a lot of her mature post comeback work and also saw a lot of Dowell. Their ghosts haunt the solos: his extension, elegance, cool panache, her swiftness, her bending, her love of movement, and I sense that if we watch truly carefully we will also, from that point of vantage, learn much of the movement quality of the other dancers on whom this work was created, so many now, sadly, gone to Terpsichore’s Dance Temple above.

 

The raison d’être for my visit was David Bintley’s The King Dances, which I had enjoyed very much in television a few weeks ago. In the theatre. It looks magnificent, from the flaming torches at the start to Louis XIV’s revelation as The Sun King. For me, it's not perfect. The episode with La Lune has a pleasing resonance (Sun King dancing with the Moon) but seems overlong and there is the risk of the Nightmare scene turning into almost comically camp grotesquerie,

 

Nevertheless, the opening and closing Watches with the grandeur of Stephen Montague!s trumpets and drums rising from the pit and the ever more thrilling images of the gorgeously costumed men moving from contained Baroque formality to virtuoso brilliance will long resonate with me. Of course, William Bracewell is terrific as The King, but I thought Tyrone Singleton as Cardinal Mazarin absolutely magnificent in power, presence, technique and style.

 

It was great to see a new ballet drawing on the art form!s own historical heritage and, in programming terns, the contrast of Balanchine's “Ballet is Woman” stance with the male dominated choreography from Bintley'produced a very satisfying afternoon.

Delighted to have managed to get a last minute ticket for today's matinee. BRB isn't a company that I see at all often so I am looking forward to seeing some new dancers but, above all, to seeing The King Dances, which I loved on the television.

Yes, the contrast between McRae & Kish in the same role has me intrigued too.

Likewise Muntagirov and Dyer - very different physical "types...."

 

After an excursion as Gremin which suggested a certain line of managerial development, Hirano seems to be getting lots of principal role opportunities now suggesting he may be in line for promotion...

There's a very positive review of the Ball / Naghdi cast in today's Sunday Times.

What's happened to Roberta Marquez has she left?

No, she remains in the artist list but apart from two Juliets has not otherwise been cast so far this season.

I wish ENB were bringing this production to London. :-( I would love to see Max Westwell as Romeo.

I managed to make a work trip to Manchester fit with being able to see Max as Romeo and now can see Alina as Juliet too the night before as my train gets in with time to check in, eat and get to the theatre. Hurrah!

Great to see the universal acclaim for Alexander Campbell. For me, he is one of the most interesting and accomplished of the men at the Royal Ballet.

Disappointing review in The Telegraph that confirms my fears about Sarah Lamb in this role.  I will be returning my October 1 ticket.  I wish Mr. O'Hare had substituted Hayward and Cuthbertson for the sadly injured Osipova.

Great review for Alexander Campbell and Gary Avis though....

Well, they've only been back at work 3 days, so perhaps it's a bit early yet.

 

Although one presumes Sarah Lamb is rehearsing Juliet with a Romeo...

What a beautiful dancer. Just been watching some YouTube clips of Giselle (with Nunez) and Beauty and

Quixote (with Rojo). We will be the poorer without him.

This certainly looks like the season when we discover how committed Kevin O'Hare is to developing the company's leading dancers from within the ranks of the company.He may have been calculating on replacing Acosta this year and Watson in the next year or two but I don't suppose that he was expecting Pennefather to leave.Let us hope that he manages to resist the temptation to take out the cheque book and decides to make do with the dancers in the company. An immediate solution to the loss of a Romeo would be to cast Hristov as Romeo. It is in his repertory and it is easier to replace a Paris than a Romeo.It will be interesting to see what sort of balance management strikes between seniority and the need to develop some of the obvious talent in the lower ranks of the company when it comes to casting in the remaining two booking periods.The explanation that we were given for the late notification of casting was that it would enable management to take account of dancers' performances earlier on in the season suggested that there was a plan of some sort in place to develop dancers.It is to be hoped that the plan is not blown off course by this recent development.

I can see the logic of the Hristov suggestion. I thought he was great in Winter's Tale and am surprised, to some extent, that he hasn't progressed further if not in ranking then in terms of more regular principal performances. However, he'd surely not be given the furst night and broadcast so if that is to go to an existing and established Romeo it seems almost inevitable that one Romeo will dance with two Juliets. I really can't see management wanting to take one Romeo out and reassign his performances. Although I think Bonelli the most likely replacement, it has been pointed out elsewhere that he has broadcast this role before and that Lamb also dances well with McRae who has additionally what it is simplistic but perhaps true to describe as name presence and clout. I could see why he might take over although his first performance with Salenko are very close too.

Whilst I would love to see Campbell in the live broadcast (saw him in Song of the Earth recently and he was a real standout for me), I can't see RB management entrusting a live broadcast to a non-Principal and a newcomer to the role (I think? Correct me if I'm wrong!) plus an unknown name to many casual balletgoers.

 

My money is on it being Bonelli (a choice I would be happy with - he is an excellent dancer and good all-rounder) - or maybe they might pull in Watson (equally happy)? Possibly Sarah Lamb may have a say in this.

Scenarios?

 

It's just not going to happen that Campbell (who I like very much) would be asked to do the broadcast and I don't think he'd work well physically with Lamb anyway, who will surely have a say in what happens.

 

1) So, Golding (who management seem to like and trust whatever the thoughts of some on this Forum) promoted to first cast and does broadcast. Watson drafted in to dance with Hayward after Manon success last season. Complicating factor - Watson taken out of R & J this season whether at his or management's instigation.

 

2) Golding promoted to first cast, and continues to dance with Hayward. There seems to be a decent gap between performances to allow fresh rehearsals and he is experienced and a strong partner.

 

3) Golding promoted to first cast and another debutant brought in to dance with Hawyard (Campbell?). Complicating factor, management not over keen, understandably, on too much switching of advertised casts especially as O'Hare now delaying much longer in announcing them to ensure a realistic chance of seeing cast booked. Also, it seems that they want to enhance Hayward's status and boost her security by casting her opposite principals (Watson, Muntagirov, Golding)...

 

4) Most likely, Bonelli does the broadcast as an experienced dancer who works well with Lamb. Other casting unchanged....

Must have come as quite a surprise, their Twitter feed shows they were promoting him as the first night Romeo just a few days ago.

This does seem very sudden. I realise he had had quite a lot of time out with injury and that, despite the kudos, of the cinema Romeo, future casting wasn't looking very inspiring for him, a point on which somebody else commented when the casting was announced. I believe he and Sarah Lamb had asked to work together more after their success in Manon and it had looked as if, despite a seeming resistance to establishing regular partnerships, this was happening as they were cast together in Giselle, Nutcracker and Romeo. I guess, with a cinema broadcast involved, the initial question is whether there will be some juggling around of existing Romeos or if a chance will be taken. If that chance is considered too risky so early in the new season will there be a rethink as the season progresses or will Ms Lamb's senior status preclude a new partnership with a younger dancer (and apart from Matthew Ball and Reece Clarke who else is there?). I'll be sorry to see Rupert Pennefather leave: I still remember that first Beliaev, his first Siegfried with Cuthbertson (and the lovely accompanying masterclass video) and how unexpectedly powerful his Rudolf was. He wasn't necessarily a dancer I would book to see but I was always very pleased to see him and I think his virtues of elegant understatement may well have meant he was a little underestimated too.