YSmith

I believe amour is always portrayed by a man in this production, kind of like Cupid I guess. And sancho panza is portrayed by a man except for in Salford when they had a few down due to covid and injuries Laura Day stepped in.

I managed to watch three shows in Sunderland, opening night and Friday matinee and evening. All brilliant shows! Opening night was quite well sold- where I was sat there were no empty seats. I think Audience very much enjoyed it, lots of laughs and chuckles- a very responsive group! Lachlan Monaghan was a brilliant Basilio, very charming and suits the role very well. I believe it was Yu Kurihara’s debut as Kitri, she had a bit of a tumble in the first act maybe due to nervousness, she felt like a very “careful” Kitri onwards. I thought that the duo maybe were not as in sync as they could be compared to some of the other lead roles I’ve watched! Friday matinee was superb as well, Max Maslen an astonishing Basilio! He shone like the brightest star along with Yaoqian as his Kitri. Both brilliant to watch, both with some enjoyable explosiveness to their characters. Haoling feng a lovely espada and Emma Price sensual as Mercedes. Not as full as opening night, but still quite well sold I would say. Friday evening was the most enjoyable for me. Beatrice Parma is the perfect Kitri, she is so explosive without it getting in the way of her technique still. Tzuchao was also an enjoyable Basilio, although I would not have imagined him in that role he is great in it, brought me much joy with much cheek to his character not to mention his very refined technique. Alexander Yap as Espada again (as opening night) and he is and will be my favourite matador. He has some fire to his moves and the portrayal of the popular bull fighter is impeccable. I think he may have added two extra double double tour (is that the right term?) in act 3 on Friday night (unless I missed it on opening night..) it truly gave me some chills. all in all some very enjoyable performances and although I believe there were some reductions in parts due to either covid or maybe smaller stage (4 matadors instead of 6, 2 guitarists instead of 4 that I was used to seeing in Birmingham) the dancers’ energy didn’t make it feel it so! Bravo BRB

I see, I understand that makes more sense. Thank you for correcting me. Thank you very much! Excited to be here. So I’ve seen! I wonder why they have not moved him up higher yet seeing as he’s done splendidly and seems to be doing many soloist/principal roles. Am I correct in saying he has also done Benvolio in R&J? Gutted to have missed that! Interested to see where he goes.

Absolutely agree with this! Watched both nights of Vadim/Marianela shows, I think cast was same for both. It goes without saying that the two guest principals were phenomenal, but I was most shocked by the sheer presence and attitude of Alexander Yap's Espada. I go to see his profile on the programme and he is only an artists! How is this possible, I would've thought he was at least a Soloist if not higher- any one know who this rising star is? I'll definitely be interested to see where he goes.... The rest of the cast were phenomenal too, Kit Holder makes the perfect Gamache, and Rory Mackay makes just the perfect amount of strict but loving father. I must say, I was shocked to see the collision of the two matadors, they recovered from it professionally but I hope they were ok. The set is absolutely gorgeous, the windmill is a clever play with the colour changing sky a gorgeous addition. I do think the costumes are alright, not sure why the revamp especially as did someone say they spent over 800k? Is that right? Not sure they do the spending justice but that is just imo...