RB - Romeo and Juliet, Autumn 2015

[Anna C]

Luke Jennings is in a tiny minority re 'the rest of the cast'.

I think I'd rather go with Kevin O'Hare and Lesley Collier - and the vast majority - before Luke Jennings.

He made some interesting points though, particularly how McRae's emotional weighting of Romeo (or lack of it) affected Lamb's characterisation. He wasn't too brutal about the rest of the cast; in fact he praised several dancers - and nice to see Gary Avis' fascinating and brilliantly acted Tybalt getting such well deserved high praise.

[aileen]

I object to your rude comment, Dave. I feel that your work, which gives you a great deal of access to (and therefore allows familiarity with) the dancers and to rehearsals at the ROH, has rather coloured your views. You seem to take it personally when anyone says anything less than enthusiastic about your favourite dancers and, now, the value for money aspect of a performances. I think that you're a bit 'close to the action' to be able to appreciate (or respect) the views of a fully paying audience member who has no particular loyalty or allegiance to the dancers that s/he is seeing. You remind me of a father who won't hear any criticisms of his children.

[aileen]

Nevsky, it's fortunate for you that you enjoyed the performance last night. I didn't see the performance in the same way at all. For me, Lamb danced all the steps with great finesse but acted rather than inhabited the role and there was no warmth there. It's a shame about the orchestra; I hope that it's not a sign of things to come.

[Nina G.]

Aileen, yes the comment sounds a bit direct but the gentleman is only expressing his own feeling/thought isn't he.  He only suggests, and some people are more passionate than others...

[capybara]

I have a feeling that Sarah Lamb is one of those dancers who one 'feels' more if one is close to the stage. I certainly 'got' her more last night than on some occasions in the past.

 

As for Vadim Muntagirov as Romeo, I thought his dancing was beautiful and his portrayal ardent and true. Following on from what is said above about him having to change partners, I believe that Francesca Hayward spoke of rehearsing with him as well. But one would never have known that his preparation was far from ideal.

 

I did have a few reservations about the show overall, however, which I can't quite put my finger on - apart from the orchestra which was untypically out of sorts..

[aileen]

I'm happy for Dave to express his opinions but not to insult me or to suggest that I will experience mental illness if I keep going to performances at the ROH. If his comment was meant to be a joke (which I doubt ) it wasn't funny and was in poor taste.

[Balletfanp]

I'm glad you wrote that review, Nevsky - I haven't yet seen Lamb/Muntagirov (Thursday is my turn), so have been withholding comment, but I have to say that the negative reviews above were contradicted by many comments in the social media, which were in general very complimentary about them.

 

Having seen the cinema relay on Tuesday, and seeing her live on several occasions, I don't find Sarah Lamb at all cool/cold - except where the role demands it. I guess it shows how different people see different things.

 

However, I find it rather unfair that a performance can be dismissed after one act, and if I were a dancer reading that about my own performance, would feel quite dismayed. After all, regardless of anyone's opinions, a lot of hard work goes into these performances, and seeing that (who knows who reads this forum?) would be soul destroying.

 

I won't be returning my tickets for Thursday - wouldn't, whoever was dancing - as I like to make up my own mind about a performance.

[Ian Macmillan]

Just back from a catch-up screening of Tuesday night's show, and I certainly didn't feel there was a McCrae/Lamb mismatch or that neither was up to the task.  I thought she did particularly well, especially in close-up.  And I'll add a word of Congrats to Ryoichi Hirano for his Paris - for once it looked as if he really fancied Juliet, instead of just carrying out some dynastic duty as others have seemed to me in the past.  Oh, and Gary Avis - impressive.

[Fiz]

I wonder if it will come out on DVD? It might be too soon after the Cuthbertson/Bonelli version but I would like it for Gary Avis' performance of Tybalt.

[Fonty]

Just got back from the encore performance at my local cinema.  A few thoughts while the performance is fresh in my mind. 

 

First of all, like a lot of people, in the past McRae has not been one of my favourites at live performances.  Fabulous technique, but there is just something about his characterisation that is not to my taste.  Well, on this occasion, I changed my mind.  I thought he was excellent, and I had no problems at all with his acting. 

 

I am trying to remember if I have seen Lamb in any lead roles before.  If I have, it was some while ago. It is not that I have avoided her,  just that I have always booked someone else.  I really enjoyed her performance.  Her dancing was fabulous, and the pas de deux with McRae were amazing.

 

 

I have a feeling that Sarah Lamb is one of those dancers who one 'feels' more if one is close to the stage. I certainly 'got' her more last night than on some occasions in the past.

 

 

  You can't get much closer than a cinema performance, and I thought that both Lamb and McRae came across extremely well on screen. especially in their joint scenes.  I thought they really gelled together, which did surprise me given the rather negative comments that some people have made.  The dancing was stunning. 

 

I have to say, though, that if I had been Juliet, I would have defied my parents and gone off with Campbell's Mercutio.  His cheeky chappy personality and dark good looks are much more to my personal taste!  Oh, and his dancing was rather special as well.  And I agree with everyone else about the Tybalt of Avis. 

 

The downsides for me were more to do with the production itself.  I didn't realise that the three harlots were on stage so much.  Maybe it was the fact that the camera was continually closing in on them, particularly the one with the red hair, rather than panning out a bit to see the whole of the action.  And why do the "decent" girls have wigs or headdresses that make them look bald?  This was particularly marked with Rosaline, whose hairstyle reminded me a bit of Elizabeth I. 

 

I wish the RB would go back to the original staging for the last scene in the Capulet's cypt.  If I remember correctly, Romeo meets Paris at the entrance, when they bump into each other, and draw their daggers in self defence.  This makes Romeo's killing of Paris a lot less cold hearted.  Then he goes through the entrance, into the crypt itself, which contains not only Juliet's body, but that of Tybalt as well.  This adds to Juliet's horror when she wakes up and realises where she is. 

 

Finally, can someone please explain to me why the nurse, having just witnessed Juliet's official marriage to Romeo, then comes cheerfully in with a wedding dress for her marriage to Paris?  Surely she knows Juliet is about to commit bigamy. 

[aileen]

Balletfanp, only two posters left before the end. Three others who found the performance lacking stayed until the end and so their opinions were based on the whole performance. As for dancers being upset by comments, if you come onto this site you take the risk that you will read something that you don't like; this is supposed to be a discussion forum, not a fan site. I believe that the dancers themselves know when a performance is flat; they don't have to be told.

[Sunrise]

Lamb isn't one I'd normally have picked to see as Juliet but it took the camera closeups in the cinema relay to make me go from "she's a lovely dancer" to "wow, she's Juliet!", particularly in act 3. I feel like I'd seen so many casts of R&J by now, there was not much new to see, but she had many moments that I felt made her Juliet quite unique and I was very moved by her act 3 family scenes and her agonising silent scream at the end. Maybe her dancing/acting doesn't register for everyone, especially if when sitting some way back.

[aileen]

Luke Jennings (I think that it was him) wrote recently that high foreheads, which were accentuated by shaving the hair, were the fashion for noble women at one time. I don't know whether he was referring to England or Italy / Verona though. I assume that having loose hair was regarded as very vulgar in Elizabethan times. Are the costumes for this production supposed to be historically accurate (both time and place)?

[capybara]

 

I have to say, though, that if I had been Juliet, I would have defied my parents and gone off with Campbell's Mercutio.  His cheeky chappy personality and dark good looks are much more to my personal taste!  Oh, and his dancing was rather special as well.  

 

 

 

Love this comment (and so wish that Campbell had been given a shot at Romeo).

 

There are, of course, many occasions when Paris seems infinitely more luscious than Romeo.

[Sunrise]

 

 

 

The downsides for me were more to do with the production itself.  I didn't realise that the three harlots were on stage so much.  Maybe it was the fact that the camera was continually closing in on them, particularly the one with the red hair, rather than panning out a bit to see the whole of the action.

 

I felt the same about the harlots! I usually quite enjoy them, but I felt I was seeing the red harlot flash her knickers (or lack of??) rather too often!

 

Finally, can someone please explain to me why the nurse, having just witnessed Juliet's official marriage to Romeo, then comes cheerfully in with a wedding dress for her marriage to Paris?  Surely she knows Juliet is about to commit bigamy.

[/quoted]

 

I can't remember exactly, but in the play her attitude is along the lines of Romeo's banished and is no good to Juliet now, may as well forget the whole thing and start over with Paris!

[Fonty]

There are, of course, many occasions when Paris seems infinitely more luscious than Romeo.

 

 

Oh dear, I won't press you to name names, capybara! 

[Sunrise]

 

Oh dear, I won't press you to name names, capybara!

 

I'll name one - David Pickering ;-). Edited September 27, 2015 by Sunrise

[Balletfanp]

As for dancers being upset by comments, if you come onto this site you take the risk that you will read something that you don't like; this is supposed to be a discussion forum, not a fan site. I believe that the dancers themselves know when a performance is flat; they don't have to be told.

True, Aileen, and I take your point, but speaking personally, it would take a really terrible performance to make me leave at the end of the first Act, and given the cast I would find that hard to believe. But maybe I'm wrong.

 

And of course everyone is entitled to an opinion but all these posts are just that - individual opinions - and what doesn't do it for one person may be the best performance ever for someone else.

[capybara]

Well, I'll stick to three more Parises (although there are many more) but I won't risk 'pairing' them with any Romeos  :

 

Jeremy Sheffield (RB what seems like a long time ago)

 

Ryoichi Hirano (RB currently where there are others!!)

 

Daniele Silingardi (ENB currently)

Edited September 27, 2015 by capybara

[MAB]

A couple of historic things, loose hair was not considered vulgar, note this coronation portrait of Elizabeth I.

 

http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/queen-elizabeth-part-2/

 

The Georgiadis costumes suggest the earlier, renaissance period though, where high foreheads were very much admired.  Scroll down on this Wiki page and there is a good example on the right.  Note also this Italian lady's blonde hair.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alesso_Baldovinetti

 

By the way as knickers weren't invented until a few centuries earlier, it wouldn't have been their underwear the harlots were flashing.

[Jan McNulty]

Well, I'll stick to three more Parises (although there are many more) but I won't risk 'pairing' them with any Romeos  :

 

Jeremy Sheffield (RB what seems like a long time ago)

 

Ryoichi Hirano (RB currently where there are others!!)

 

Daniele Silingardi (ENB currently)

 

Alexander Sombart LFB (now ENB)

 

Royce Neagle (NB)

[Fiz]

Talking of Paris, was anyone else upset for him after Juliet's initial shyness turned to disdain and then repulsion? You could see and feel how hurt he was.

[Sunrise]

Well, I'll stick to three more Parises (although there are many more) but I won't risk 'pairing' them with any Romeos  :

 

Jeremy Sheffield (RB what seems like a long time ago)

 

Ryoichi Hirano (RB currently where there are others!!)

 

Daniele Silingardi (ENB currently)

I like Hirano too, but I didn't like the mustard yellow costume on him. In fact I think it's a fairly unflattering costume on anyone except Pickering who has blond hair and somehow manages to pull it off, and is probably why I'm so partial to his Paris :-)

[Fonty]

Talking of Paris, was anyone else upset for him after Juliet's initial shyness turned to disdain and then repulsion? You could see and feel how hurt he was.

 

 

Yes, that came across really well on screen.  I always feel so sorry for poor Paris.  After all, he does nothing wrong, and he is just another innocent victim in an ongoing feud.

 

Which is why I hate the way in which Romeo dispatches him so swiftly at the end.  If anyone has a copy of the Fonteyn and Nureyev film, perhaps they can confirm my vague memory of that scene from a clip of the film I saw several years ago.  I may have got it completely wrong, but if so, I do think this needs to be rethought.  The current production makes me dislike Romeo for that, which is not how I am supposed to feel. 

 

And also, there is the practical aspect that the body of Paris is left lying prominently on the floor (his boots kept coming in to shot in the film.)  On stage, does the lighting place him in dark shadow? 

[Balletfanp]

Talking of Paris, was anyone else upset for him after Juliet's initial shyness turned to disdain and then repulsion? You could see and feel how hurt he was.

I always felt that poor old Paris got a bit of a rough deal!

 

And one of the things that always gets me is that there is no attempt to explain why Romeo never gets Friar Lawrence's message explaining that Juliet isn't really dead! It's explained in the synopsis but there's no hint of it in the ballet itself. It might be quite difficult to do, I suppose.

[MAB]

Other versions do include the 'Mantua scene' where we see a yearning Romeo in exile and the messenger coming to grief.

[Ian Macmillan]

Well, if we're into picking apart areas of detail, can I add that something - anything almost - ought to be done to give Escalus, Prince of Verona, a real chance of imposing his will on the opposing Montagues and Capulets in the Act 1 crowd scene?  Ben Gartside did his best, as least as well as anyone else I've seen, in the screened performance, but the choreographed miming really never convinces me that there's a commanding presence at work in that Piazza.

[aileen]

Balletfanp, I just wasn't enjoying the performance and didn't want to stay for two intervals and two more acts. I didn't like much of the choreography in the first act either. In particular, I found some of the lifts quite ugly. Even though my seat was fairly central I found that Romeo and his friends were sometimes too far to the left for me to see their responses to what was going on. The set takes up a huge amount of the stage with the result that the stage looks quite cluttered at times. I put harlots in the same camp as lecherous grandfathers and jesters.

[pasdedeux]

An oddly discombobulated sort of evening  - some magnificent highs and equal lows. Muntagirov didn't quite make Romeo his own in the way that he embraced Macmillan's other great romantic hero (des Grieux), but especially from my spot in the stalls, the refinement of his dancing was most pleasing. Lamb soared quite beatifically in the first act - particularly the balcony pdd, which was much more earnestly convincing than with Mcrae - but faded towards the end. I was particularly disappointed by the crypt scene - I won't go into great detail, but this review seems to echo my discomfort.

 

I'm not surprised the Sarah and Vadim seem so at ease with each other despite short notice, they danced together a lot in galas during the off-season and seem fast friends. 

 

Without trying to wade too deeply into the above debate about choice of cinema cast, I admit that Mcrae has never fully convinced me in any dramatic role. I can appreciate his quicksilver steps and technique but he always seems to skirt superficially around the emotional burden of a role and seems painfully aware of the audience.

 

It is a great shame that the run has had such a mixed start as I find I am already beginning to tire of R&J - although I still have the Naghdi and Ball matinee to go.

[penelopesimpson]

I object to your rude comment, Dave. I feel that your work, which gives you a great deal of access to (and therefore allows familiarity with) the dancers and to rehearsals at the ROH, has rather coloured your views. You seem to take it personally when anyone says anything less than enthusiastic about your favourite dancers and, now, the value for money aspect of a performances. I think that you're a bit 'close to the action' to be able to appreciate (or respect) the views of a fully paying audience member who has no particular loyalty or allegiance to the dancers that s/he is seeing. You remind me of a father who won't hear any criticisms of his children.

Well said, Aileen.  It will be a sad thing is people are not allowed to express their opinions of what they paid to see because people who feel they know better disapprove.  As you so aptly say, this is a discussion forum NOT a fan site.

 

We are all free to express our likes and dislikes and that is what has made this forum so fascinating and educational.  I winced when I saw that guy's comment which was rude.  I rarely leave before the end of the performance - the only time for me was Don Quixote which I found boring in the extreme and full of 'now we will do some folk dancing moments.' However, I didn't comment on it because I felt I hadn't seen it through.

 

The reviews for R&J are not that good and some posters seem to have a hard time accepting that.  Whilst I frequent disagree with the critics, this time around I think they are spot on. There is nothing wrong with the R&J I saw, it just wasn't great.  

[loveclassics]

Fashion note:  Proper 'joined-up' knickers as we know them did not come into use until the 20th Century.  They were originally two separate pantaloons which were connected by a sash tied at the waist and they reached to the knee.  Hence the expression 'a pair of knickers' still in use today and one of the reasons the can-can was so sensational and shocking.

 

Re Paris: I was rather impressed by Valery Hristov in the role 2 or 3 seasons ago.  For the first time I found I was really was interested in the character and his unfortunate end added to the impact of what is essentially a family tragedy.  I thought the white costume he wore for the ball very flattering - when was that changed to mustard?

 

Also, can anyone with a better memory than mine confirm that Sarah Lamb danced Juliet to Slava Samadorov's Romeo in a live transmission quite a few years back?  He was another streetwise Romeo but none the worse for that IMPO.

 

Linda 

[loveclassics]

 I put harlots in the same camp as lecherous grandfathers and jesters.

 

I have to agree and I would add the harlots and 'Keystone Cops' in Mayerling.  God knows what personal demon MacMillan was trying to exorcise but sometimes it feels like ALL his ballets have to feature a scene in a whorehouse.

 

Linda

[MAB]

Tend to agree, only the original three; Mason, Bergsma and Needham were worth watching.