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Jamesrhblack

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  1. Jamesrhblack
    Really enjoying the cinema broadcast here in Rye. The lighting seems much better and I’m relishing the mix of old and newer so far. The bar has been set very high, but I thought Calvin Richardson was truly superb as Des Grieux, bringing tears to the eyes with his sheer sense of joy of being alive and in love.
  2. Jamesrhblack
    I wish I could write as eloquently and expressively as you Floss. So much of what you write encapsulates my own thoughts re Morera and Hayward and I love the shape shifter analogy. Like you, I’d not be concerned as to whether Hayward danced Swan Lake again, just as Monica Mason danced only two Auroras in London (although i think she may have done one more on tour).
  3. Jamesrhblack
    interesting to read this. I seem to recall getting some Forum grumbles when I mentioned that I’d thought Hayward struggled with the speed of Symphony in C as well as with some of the technical challenges in Giselle and Swan Lake. I do think she’s an exquisite and very remarkable dancer who is magical in the right thing. Conversely, her limitations such as they are (and very, very few are uniformly blessed) seem exaggerated when she is however slightly out of her comfort zone. That said (written?), I’ve a hunch her Vetsera is going to be superb. I also received some grumbles when I mentioned after Coppélia that Morera’s line in a tutu and classical dancing per se could be disappointing in context, whilst her work in Mayerling, Winter’s Tale (and now Giselle ajd Month) is a fantastic match of dance, theatre and technique. She’s a dancer I adore but not universally perfectly cast and I can understand why she’s not been cast as Odette / Odile or Aurora, although I’ll never understand why she wasn’t cast as Juliet. I also think she should have been one of the Woolf Works casts. Nevertheless, I’ll be booking for her Cinderella. She has so much intelligence, experience and style that I’m sure she’ll find a way through Act 2 whilst the outer acts promise charm, pathos and some feistiness as well as beautiful footwork, expressive arms and glorious musicality. And I’ll ignore any relative maturity. My last Cinderella, many years ago, was Antoinette Sibley, convincingly captivating (and opposite David Wall to boot) whilst Morera’s Vetsera on 29 October projected a more convincingly youthful energy than the other casts I have so far seen this season.
  4. Jamesrhblack
    I thank you:-)
  5. Jamesrhblack
    Just catching up with the RB stream after a very long work day. Pressing thought; what a really exquisite dancer James Hay is.
  6. Jamesrhblack
    Truly sad to read thus. She was one of the dancers I made a point of seeing, surely unforgettable above all as Nureyev’s Juliet. She was also exceptionally beautiful and can, more recently, coaching that ballet for ENB’s Agony and Ecstasy.
  7. Jamesrhblack
    Still processing. He was great, really moving, but she was something else tonight.
  8. Jamesrhblack
    Back in the day, my father woild often determine which performance he would book for us based kn the presence of Anthony Twiner in the pit. Conversely, there was another Maestro whose advertised presence made those performances a definite no go.
  9. Jamesrhblack
    Many thanks for the Haitink recommendation. Will investigate 🎶
  10. Jamesrhblack
    A reminder to anybody who hasn’t seen it, the South Bank Show about the original Royal Ballet production of Mayerling and its genesis is on YouTube. David Wall is, of course, mesmerising as Rudolf (and keen to point out in interview that he tries to find the man not the monster, feeling the key lies in the Crown Prince’s troubled childhood) and Merle Park is a revelation as Larisch. Wonderfully informative to hear Kenneth MacMillan, Gillian Freeman and John Lanchbery discussing the creative process, whilst Lynn Seymour makes her views on Vetsera’s moral and personal failings very clear. Nothing pretty or innocent in her take on the character.
  11. Jamesrhblack
    That was many people’s hope after the astonishing debuts by Bonelli and Morera in 2017 but, sadly, that didn’t come to pass leaving that afternoon to live seared instead into the memories of those who were there.
  12. Jamesrhblack
    yes, it was an interesting and powerful take. For me, it didn’t entirely read (the stumble was incidental), but I think it’s a way forward that works with the choreograph and the Dramaturgie.
  13. Jamesrhblack
    And Samantha Price …
  14. Jamesrhblack
    I’d agree with Dawnstar that tonight wasn’t perfect (with so many debuts I guess it was always going to be work in progress) but it was very moving. I’ll be bold enough to state that Fumi Kaneko (even en debut, multi-faceted, glamorous, cynical, scheming, heart-broken), Isabella Gasparini (a Stephanie who fought back), Itziar Mendizabal, David Yudes and Claire Calvert (a MacMillan dancer with Ashtonian épaulement) were about as good as you’d hope to see with a dazzling quartet of Officers led by William Bracewell too. Yasmine Naghdi had an unfortunate stumble in Act 2 which, understandably, seemed to throw her and I didn’t think her Vetsera achieved lift off, although her brooding, obsessive intensity suggested a different take on the character that will reap richer rewards on another evening. Vadim Muntagirov was more Slavonic melancholy than monster which made for some memorably moving moments. His sheer physical agony became ever more palpable and there’s a thrill to seeing the sheer splendour of his physical execution of choreography created for a great dance actor who was also in his day no technical slouch. The whole of the last Act gripped me and tears were shed more than once.
  15. Jamesrhblack
    Indeed she is 🌺
  16. Jamesrhblack
    Am in a huge state of excited anticipation: the pictures of this cast on Flickr are so beautiful and, in addition to the announced principals, I am so pleased that Hannah Grennell is Louise, as well as looking forward to my artist’s debut as Katharina Schratt.
  17. Jamesrhblack
    I’m not entirely sure that Aurora, Lise or Titania work as “pretty” either. Petipa’s choreography for Aurora shows her growing into a woman; Lise is headstrong; and Sibley has been very clear in interviews that Titania is a very sensual, wilful being, all borne out in the choreography. I can’t buy into the notion of Vetsera as a young innocent either historically (she was apparently known as the “Turf Angel” and Rudolf was not her first lover despite her young age) or in MacMillan’s ballet. Yes, the choreography shows her being “groomed” by Larisch, but she turns up for a first private assignation with a coat thrown over her nightdress (which is, apparently, historically accurate) and pulls a gun on her new beau fairly early on in their encounter for a start…
  18. Jamesrhblack
    Not at all. Each artistic response has its validity. Indeed, a fresh one may have more validity than that of an old lag. There are a couple of interesting books around the scandal at Mayerling. Greg King and Penny Wilson’s Twilight of Empire is very well researched and reaches conclusions that may surprise those of us whose greatest awareness of this part of history had hitherto been via the ballet. As with Anastasia, I think MacMillan isn’t necessarily looking for historical accuracy but is using episodes with an historical origin more widely to explore themes that interested him, such as identity and the outsider. Shakespeare and Schiller have similar approaches in their own history plays.
  19. Jamesrhblack
    Why apologise? As my first sentence makes clear, I find it interesting to see the completely different reactions of people to the same performance. And I acknowledged that I was probably in a minority.
  20. Jamesrhblack
    It’s always interesting to see how different people react to a performance. I was impressed at Steven McRae’s partnering (the Stephanie pas de deux was gasp inducing) and I thought his world-weary, brooding interpretation much more nuanced than the 2018 broadcast but with Sarah Lamb I felt he was operating in a vacuum. She is, of course, an exquisite dancer but everything seemed too safe, too controlled, even calculated. I’m probably in a minority here as the audience cheered them to the echo but for me it was the least moving Mayerling I have ever seen. I’d agree with the praise for James Hay, a most beautiful dancer and stage presence, and was also very taken with Annette Buvoli’s Elisabeth. However, this afternoon the only moment that tugged at my heart strings was Larisch’s realisation that Rudollf was lost to her, danced with passionate abandon by Yasmine Naghdi in a role that suits her onstage sophistication and elegance very well indeed.
  21. Jamesrhblack
    In case anyone remains interested, Naghdi not only wore gloves to the Emperor’s birthday party, but made a point of pulling them up as she entered…
  22. Jamesrhblack
    I can’t properly speak for Steven McRae’s Rudolf as I’ve not seen him dance the role live, other than that I found his cinema performance in 2018 rather one-dimensional. However, such a huge role can only grow with further performances and it’s good to read the positive words above. More importantly, I have nothing but the highest admiration for an artist of relatively slight stature and build coming back from major injury with the sheer strength and stamina to master a role that makes such enormous physical as well as emotional demands of the dancer.
  23. Jamesrhblack
    Good to read these positive words about one of the artists I represent. The other mezzo, Samantha Price, is also JBM 🎼
  24. Jamesrhblack
    Also, worth remembering that Larisch was created by Merle Park, a real virtuoso, or virtuosa, of a dancer, still dancing Giselle and Aurora at Mayerling’s premiere. Later, she did a few performances as Vetsera.
  25. Jamesrhblack
    But very sad not to be seeing Arestis…
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