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