loveclassics Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 (edited) If you're in London, and you're not going to see it, then WHY ON EARTH NOT???!!! In my case I was due to be in West Sussex today because the London performances clashed with my father's 90th birthday. Then I oome down with a cold and I'm not allowed to go & see him in case I spread my germs around the nursing home - grrr! I've only seen this production danced by the Swedish Royal Ballet (hope that's the correct title) and like all Sir Peter Wright's classic productions it is wonderful. Beautifully directed and designed it is, IMHO, the perfect interpretation of the music and choreography that creates a lucid and intelligent work to appeal to newbie and balletomane alike. Quite the best Swan Lake I have ever seen and I would love to see it again particularly with the wonderful young stars of the BRB. I'm now debating whether to go to Birmingham or Southampton in January. Any recommendations? Both would take about the same journey time from London but I'd like to know more about the theatre in Southampton. Am now going to scour YouTube for some clips from the Wells performances. Linda Edited October 15, 2015 by loveclassics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Rail travel (provided you specify your trains) tends to be a lot cheaper to Birmingham than to Southampton The Mayflower is a huge theatre: think the London Coliseum, but I think it's actually bigger - similar sort of layout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Hirata was gorgeous as O/O last night. Her fouettés were spectacular and she is one of the few ballerinas for whom the pirouettes ending in an attitude (I hope I've got that right) in the black swan solo present no problems. There was something very classical about her, if that doesn't sound stupid. Caley didn't have the soulful and aristocratic quality that Singleton had but he danced very well. BRB have got two really lovely ballerinas in Gittens and Hirata. I hope to see more of them. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) Dropped into the divinity that is BRB's achingly rich SL again last night and was heart drenched by the delicate artistry and glistening technique of Momoko Hirata as O/O, a TRUE prima and one fully deserving of that title. How at moments she reminded me of Yoshida in terms of her graceful musicality. I well recall the first time I really registered this fine artist. It was during a mid-week matinee (vastly underpopulated) at the Coli [i wrote here about it at the time] and Ms. Hirata was dancing Aurora in Sir Peter Wright's equally exquisite SB -- (would that the Royal currently had productions of these major classics which were as tastefully dynamic in terms of their emotional intelligence) -- opposite our beloved Janet's favoured dancer. Both artists were supreme on that occasion ... but Ms. Hirata even then joined a list of great Auroras that I have been privileged to see .. and there have been quite a few. I agree, Aileen, that Caley was not perhaps in the same league overall but he was certainly more than competent and Matthew Dingman - as had the rapturous William Bracewell been on Tuesday night - was an inspired Benno. Indeed it was wonderful to see Bracewell in this performance as one of the prince's companions. The ease of that exquisitely pointed extension; the precision of each of his position's placement sung. This is a rare find. As Campbell understandably is for Janet now at the RB, Bracewell I think may well become for me at BRB. I too loved Brandon Lawrence's ever so slightly theatrically fey matador in the Spanish dance .... It, too, was rich in his detail's flourish and finish - as had so much been throughout - as well as in its chiming assonance of dance. This company - as a whole - is a thing of great joy ... We share in their relish; nay, revel.. ... They are just so rich with the freedom of individual colour and that - in and of itself - coalesces them unto a single purpose of rightful pride which we can ALL share. (Bless you Mr. Bintley and your obviously oh, so very fine production team.) Another grand evening ... Another cheering - and capacity - crowd. Bless you BRB ... and a special note of thanks for keeping the intervals to time. I know another company that might well profit from your respectful exactitude. Edited October 16, 2015 by Bruce Wall 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I haven't seen any other reviews of the Shang/Morales performance, was anyone else there on Wednesday night? If I hadn't already seen Gittens and Singleton on Tuesday, I would probably have enjoyed it hugely. As it was, I felt that Wednesday evening was a very slight let down. Shang was very good as Odette, but she didn't convince me that she was a swan queen in the same way that Gittens had, nor did she have the same seductiveness as Odile. With Gittens, you could feel the evil shimmering just underneath the surface, and this conveyed itself right up into the roof where I was sitting. With much better seats on Wednesday in the stalls, I just didn't get the same feeling. Morales danced wonderfully, but again I felt there was something missing, a slight sense of aloofness in his partnership with Shang. Regarding the other parts, I enjoyed Chou's relaxed and smiling Benno as much as Bracewell's the night before, and I thought the two Courtesans were better (Baselga and Brill). However, I did miss the haughtiness of Downs' Polish princess, and there was no outraged expression from Albutashvili as she lined up with her competitors. Shame; it made us all laugh on Tuesday. Everyone else was excellent, and the corps were great. It was great to see the swans rise up from the mist in Act IV. When you are up in the gods you can see them clearly before they move, so the effect is not as good. Some other thoughts generally. Watching groups of dancers, I find there is always one person who catches my eye. On Wednesday, one of the Prince's companions really stood out for me. Casting my eye over the dancers' photos, I think it might have been Luke Schaufuss. Shang didn't manage the fouettes in Act 3, losing her balance near the start attempting to insert double pirouettes into the sequence, and giving up half way through. She covered it well, and managed to do something else without losing her composure, but it made me think yet again as to why the trend now seems to be to try and make it even more difficult than it already is. The trouble is, if it goes wrong it is like forgetting the words half way through the To Be or Not to Be speech in Hamlet. Everyone knows what you are supposed to be doing, so the mistake is obvious. And I still live in hopes that someone will come up with a different party piece to show their own particular skill. Still, she obviously had a large group of fans who whooped and cheered at every possible opportunity as if they were staching Strictly Come Dancing, and gave her a standing ovation at the end. But for me, the whole thing never reached the heights of Tuesday's performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 I suppose all dancers have performances where something does''t quite work - her fouettes at both the Lowry and in Birmingham were impeccable. Having seen her in various roles now, I would say she is definitely a young lady to watch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Thanks to all the detailed notes on this forum I am now so much looking forward to spotting some of these dancers in the triple bill on Saturday- what a treat! The forum is certainly humming these days. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickwellings Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Having seen three Lakes from BRB, I am still thinking about Delia and Brandon. I would travel to see them again! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton is lovely, a proper old fashioned one as large as any in West End. The station is only a few minutes walk away and I usually go by train rather than try to find parking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webfoot Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I suppose all dancers have performances where something does''t quite work - her fouettes at both the Lowry and in Birmingham were impeccable. Having seen her in various roles now, I would say she is definitely a young lady to watch! Sorry Janet, I have to disagree. At the Saturday evening performance in Birmingham (Yoaquin) Shang's fouettes went wrong after the first 2 doubles and she gave up half way through. I agree that dancers will have an "off" day every so often, but not managing to complete most of the fouettes, especially at the expense of throwing in extra turns, is a definite no-no in my book. I have to say that technically the rest of the performance was accomplished, but she didn't move me as had Delia Matthew's on the Thursday evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMM1 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I'm now debating whether to go to Birmingham or Southampton in January. Any recommendations? Both would take about the same journey time from London but I'd like to know more about the theatre in Southampton. Just want to point out that your choice of seeing BRB Swan Lake in January is limited to just Southampton. They were in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) Still, she obviously had a large group of fans who whooped and cheered at every possible opportunity as if they were staching Strictly Come Dancing, and gave her a standing ovation at the end. But for me, the whole thing never reached the heights of Tuesday's performance. I suspect that there are a lot of ballet fans in London, as well as Shang's friends, who have been waiting for her to be cast as Odette/Odile at SW. And who can blame them for wanting to cheer encouragement? Edited October 16, 2015 by capybara 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Sorry Janet, I have to disagree. At the Saturday evening performance in Birmingham (Yoaquin) Shang's fouettes went wrong after the first 2 doubles and she gave up half way through. I agree that dancers will have an "off" day every so often, but not managing to complete most of the fouettes, especially at the expense of throwing in extra turns, is a definite no-no in my book. I have to say that technically the rest of the performance was accomplished, but she didn't move me as had Delia Matthew's on the Thursday evening. I wasn't at the Saturday evening performance in Birmingham so wasn't commenting on that performance. Perhaps she is not pacing herself so well as that was her third performance and she had been dancing in the corps at all the other performances I saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Newcombe Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Having a problem with the fouettés hardly invalidated a beautiful performance. A friend attending the performance with me feels that she is the real deal. This friend is a teacher who taught Miyako Yoshida in Japan. Some of the enthusiastic support came from her real life Romeo who was present with his stage Juliet and a group of exciting young RB dancers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) Having a problem with the fouettés hardly invalidated a beautiful performance. A friend attending the performance with me feels that she is the real deal. This friend is a teacher who taught Miyako Yoshida in Japan. Some of the enthusiastic support came from her real life Romeo who was present with his stage Juliet and a group of exciting young RB dancers I agree that it didn't, and it was indeed a lovely performance. I am not bothered by fouettes anyway, and I certainly would not mark down a dancer because they didn't complete the full set. However, I just thought the performance on the previous night was better all round IMO. The only reason I mentioned the audience was because it is very unusual to get that sort of whooping and shouting throughout the evening at a ballet performance. I've only experienced something like it at sports events. Maybe I was sitting behind her real life Romeo? Edited October 16, 2015 by Fonty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 That friend was none other than our very own Alison! What a shame...you could have met us both! You must have been sitting near the lady having the coughing fit! I offered her cough sweets but she had her own medication. And yes, it was me who climbed over the seats in the interval to avoid making everyone get up for me! Ah what a shame indeed! Oh well another time! Yes poor lady was coughing quite badly but recovered before the curtain up thankfully! I don't mind that so much it can't be helped but that plastic rustling drives me potty and is SO avoidable! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) Actually, there was something else that was distracting me on Wednesday night. Sitting behind me was a mother with her two small daughters, who looked about seven or eight. As soon as the curtain went up, they started to ask questions. "What's happening?" "Why is that man looking sad?" "Who are those ladies?" The mother kept explaining in a whisper, as they passed a large crackling bag of crisps back and forth. Eventually I turned round and shushed them very loudly, and to be fair they did quieten down, but I could still hear the occasional query being answered. Most annoying. I don't blame the children, but what was the mother thinking, not giving them the outline before they came? When Von Rothbart steps on stage and you hear "Who is he?" coming from behind you, you do wonder what on earth they were making of it all. Edited October 16, 2015 by Fonty 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Shang was a young lady who shone brightly at the RBS student show a couple of years ago so she is still very young but in my view extremely talented Perhaps nerves got to get for some reason but she may not be even 20 yet so will learn from what happened I'm sure!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Having seen three Lakes from BRB, I am still thinking about Delia and Brandon. I would travel to see them again! And I will be following close behind you, Nick!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coated Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 And I will be following close behind you, Nick!! Let's make that a caravan, shall we? There was something about their interpretation that really grabbed me and Southampton doesn't look that far right now. Personally I feel that the RB shouldn't bother with a new version of Swan Lake. Just invite BRB to bring theirs to Covent Garden every few years... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Excellent suggestion! Or alternatively, just borrow it when BRB don't need it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 It would have to be suitably expanded, of course. I remember thinking the other night how much better it looked on the SW stage than on the old ROH stage, where I first saw it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 25, 2015 Author Share Posted October 25, 2015 (edited) You know how sometimes you see a performance and something about that performance has just clicked and it transcends exceptional. Well I saw TWO performances that fell into that magical category in Sunderland this week! All four of the performances I saw were excellent. I finally caught up with Samara Downs and Jamie Bond on Friday afternoon. Jamie is an experienced and absorbing Siegfried. He is a great partner and he and Samara looked great together. Samara was utterly magnificent in Act 3 - I think hers is probably the most marked contrast between Odette and Odile and you can see exactly why Siegfried is held in her thrall. She was even better in Act 4, incredibly moving. Lewis Turner was Benno in this performance and brought a lot of warmth to the role. Mathias Dingman made his debut as Siegfried on Saturday afternoon with the lady I now think of as Superwoman (Nao Sakuma) as his O/O. Mathias really inhabited the role. His Act 4 was very moving and I have to admit to having to wipe away the condensation that had appeared on my cheeks. In this performance Fergus Campbell made and excellent debut as Benno too - very well matched with Mathias. And so to those super-magical performances - on Thursday evening Nao Sakuma and Yasuo Atsuji just swept me away. I can't really think of anything else to say. Equally on Friday evening Yaoqian Shang and Cesar Morales transported me to heaven with them. They got a huge, and well deserved, standing ovation at the end. All praise due to the entire company too - all the dancers have been terrific throughout. Huge kudos to all the swans who have provided such a magnificent framework for the performances. Edited October 25, 2015 by Janet McNulty edited to identify Superwoman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Sounds great Janet...who was Mathias' O/O? Have to say I have enjoyed Nao Sakuma as O/O in the past she is great. BRB just keep getting better and better. I see Alina Cojacaru is dancing in SB with Chi Cao for Queensland Ballet in Australia this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 25, 2015 Author Share Posted October 25, 2015 Sounds great Janet...who was Mathias' O/O? Have to say I have enjoyed Nao Sakuma as O/O in the past she is great. BRB just keep getting better and better. I see Alina Cojacaru is dancing in SB with Chi Cao for Queensland Ballet in Australia this week. Oh sorry, it was of course Nao Sakuma aka Superwoman! Yes, Alina is a very lucky lady to be partnered by Chi (who is a superlative Siegfried too but sadly he can't be in two places at once!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted October 25, 2015 Share Posted October 25, 2015 Thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Due to Janet's extreme enthusiasm about the Delia Mathews / Brandon Lawrence cast, I have now duly acquired an additional Swan Lake for the Sadler's Wells performances. Hopefully I can just waft out of the office around lunchtime for what is now a double Swan Lake day... Janet recommended this cast to me too. Although I can`t wait for the Saturday night [in Belfast i`m talking about] when Gittens and Singleton will be taking the leads. So even though I will already be seeing the Thursday 5th Nov matinee as well, after Janet said about seeing Delia and Brandon [who will be dancing the Saturday 7th matinee] i`m really tempted to buy myself a ticket for that too. It will just mean getting into Belfast a few hour`s earlier than planned. But not too much of a big deal. I reckon I can handle two Swan Lakes in one day,and three within two days. I`m already going to be "all fancy" on the Saturday night and have a room reserved for myself next door to the Grand Opera House; at the Europa Hotel .Paying an extra £30-odd pounds for another ticket isn`t going to be too much when I compare it to what the overall cost of the hotel will be.[£80 for the night,not including breakfast. The breakfast is an extra £20. Forget that; i`ll grab something quick and cheap in the bus station next door before getting my bus home] !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 after Janet said about seeing Delia and Brandon [who will be dancing the Saturday 7th matinee] i`m really tempted to buy myself a ticket for that too. It will just mean getting into Belfast a few hour`s earlier than planned. But not too much of a big deal. I reckon I can handle two Swan Lakes in one day,and three within two days. Well, I managed the former all right - although now I think of it I did say I was starting to wilt a bit by the second one! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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