English National Ballet, She Said, April 2016

[SPD444]

Really enjoyed the first two. Tamara and Irek where wonderful in their respective roles. What an amazing woman Frida must have been and how fantastic did Tamara present her.

 

Again M-Dao tackled a story with a strong woman and it came across really well, again helped by a brilliant score. I recently watched a play at the National about Medea so did have the benefit of being familiar with the story. Brilliant dancing by Lauretta.

 

Like others on here I do like a bit of storyline, which was lacking in the final piece. I found nothing in Fantastic Beings that I enjoyed. I thought the music was awful, and the choreography repetitious. I am sure I watched the pas de six at least three times. The back lighting just seemed to be twinkling stars throughout, and it was far, far too long. Sorry.

 

One final small point, if I may. It was noticeable that the choreography by these ladies contained much less of the girls adopting the spread legs contortions that male choreographers seem to employ. Well done ladies, and well done all the dancers, you did brilliantly.

[VickyPage]

 

Regarding M-Dao, I don't think that a ballet has to follow the exact story of a fairy tale or myth. It's my understanding that there are various versions of the Medea myth anyway. 

 

I admit that, as a Hellenist, it is hard for me to take away my knowledge of the source text and just appreciate a new version of the story of Medea. However, one of the reasons I approached it through a Euripides based lens is that Tamara Rojo said in an interview that in putting together the programme she wanted the choreographer to use 'a Greek play'. In referring to the play specifically, she makes it clear that the ballet is not based on a vague myth. The use of Euripides' Medea as the basis for the ballet is also presumably why she kills Jason/Creusa/her children behind the curtains, rather than directly on stage, as in Seneca's later version of the story.

[Coated]

Vicky, I didn't see her kill Jason, even when looking out for it the second time watching it. Was is fairly hidden?

 

Broken Wings was right up my alley, including the wonderful music. I feel a purchase coming on. The visual imagery of the piece was stunning and I loved the skeletons, at time insouciant, threatening or comical, with their costumes an inspired mix of bones and mariachi trousers.

 

I though Tamara Rojo was heartbreaking as Frieda and the world of circus was robbed when Irek Mukhamedov decided to turn his talents to ballet - he has the makings of a world class clown.

 

My favourite visual was probably the deer, I loved that the dancer was tall, thought the costume exquisite and adored the stylised animalistic movements. I'd be more than happy if Broken Wings finds its way into the ENB repertoire.

 

M-Doa really took off for me when danced by Erina Takahashi, her performance was incredibly intense. The jealousy and anguish pulsed through the auditorium, and I felt that I could literally see the moment her Medea decided to kill her children. When she lifted up her 'curtain' children at the end, they seemed real to me. There were a lot of things in the choreography that I liked, some of the hand movements were amazingly intricate and the depiction of Medea's jealously was Watson-worthy, though the overall impression I'm left with was 'pretty dancing' - not bad, but not necessarily memorable.

 

Fantastical beings was even less fantastical the second time around, though I used it to play spot-the-Corralles so I managed to entertain myself reasonably well. There were some pretty nifty moves by Hernandez as well, though most things were lost in the crowd and over in the blink of an eye. The thing I really had a problem with was how the dancing ignored the music. Occasionally the choreography referenced what was happening in the score, but most of the time it seemed at best incidental or even counter intuitive. Based on this piece, I'd probably not chase down work by Aszure Barton with zealous vengeance...

[alison]

Vicky, I didn't see her kill Jason, even when looking out for it the second time watching it. Was is fairly hidden?

 

Okay, now I'm confused.  Based on my one viewing of it, I first thought Medea killed Jason and the Princess, which seemed odd to me - but the girl's silhouette looked very much like that of the princess.  Shortly after, I realised that both "victims" had been on their knees, and therefore assumed that they were actually representing her children, especially once the curtains had collapsed and she gathered them up so tenderly.  Any other thoughts?

 

Wikipedia page on Kahlo is here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo, BTW.  I thought Broken Wings was very effective - could certainly see a correlation between this and Ochoa Lopez' A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet, which I really enjoyed.  If you separate the choreographic content from the overall production, though, I could understand that people might think somewhat differently.

 

I suspect Fantastic Beings may have worked better seen from above than from lower down in the auditorium: I can imagine that the bottle green costumes may not have shown up too well against such a dark background.  The usual what I always call "Sadler's Wells lighting" - looks stunning until you actually try to see dancers' faces and realise you can't: although, having said that, it wasn't nearly as bad as most incidents of SW lighting I've seen in the past, and I probably could have identified dancers if I'd really tried. 

 

A rather belated reminder that not everyone who reads these pages is on first-name terms with the dancers of any company: it would be nice to see people's surnames referenced now and again so that it was easier to work out who was being talked about

[MAB]

.

A rather belated reminder that not everyone who reads these pages is on first-name terms with the dancers of any company: it would be nice to see people's surnames referenced now and again so that it was easier to work out who was being talked about

 

Hear, hear.

[Coated]

Okay, now I'm confused. Based on my one viewing of it, I first thought Medea killed Jason and the Princess, which seemed odd to me - but the girl's silhouette looked very much like that of the princess. Shortly after, I realised that both "victims" had been on their knees, and therefore assumed that they were actually representing her children, especially once the curtains had collapsed and she gathered them up so tenderly. Any other thoughts?

 

That was my interpretation as well, particularly since Medea mourned over the curtain bodies before gathering them up. The last couple of Medea's I've seen went with the son / daughter version of the myth, so seeing the shadows of a boy and a girl wasn't a surprise. I did think it would have helped if the 'shadow children' held some easily identifiable toys like a doll or a hobby horse to remove any possible ambiguity.

 

I just asked in case I completely missed something happening elsewhere, before she murders her children.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Coated

[Scheherezade]

In line with most of the other posters, I found Broken Wings a sheer, effervescent delight. The dancing throbbed with humanity and the costumes and music were fabulous and clearly show the contribution of these elements to the effectiveness and success of a work overall. The contrast with many of the works recently debuted at the R.B. could not be more apparent.

 

Unlike some, I equally enjoyed M-Dao, which I found nuanced and moving. I found the shimmering silk curtain an achingly effective metaphor for the snuffing out of innocent lives and I was particularly impressed by Madison Keesler, whose personality shone through a strong and appealing performance. And I have to say that, once again, I adored the music. Haunting and unforgettable, it shaped and defined the mood of the piece with a heartbreaking intensity.

 

I have little to add to what others have said about Fantastic Beings. Despite some fine ensemble and individual dancing, it was too dark and too long, with a score that did little to relieve the gloom.

 

Overall, though, a triumphant evening for Ms Rojo and ENB. Long may she reign!

[VickyPage]

Vicky, I didn't see her kill Jason, even when looking out for it the second time watching it. Was is fairly hidden?

 

The impression I got - which quite possibly could have been the wrong one - was that the shadows behind the curtains represented both Jason/Creusa ('the Princess') and Medea's children, so that in killing Jason/Creusa, Medea was also killing the children. The problem with that possibly wrong interpretation is that Jason, as I said before, isn't killed by Medea, Medea had two sons etc. etc. The killing of Creusa was perfectly correct though. The only other thing I guess that might have happened, which may have been what you saw, Coated, was the shadows behind the curtains representing Creusa and her father, who is also killed in Euripides' play. But in that case they really should have set up the father as a character, because it looked like it was Jason behind the curtain, and the problem with the gender of the children remains. 

And on that note I'm going to stop arguing, because I really did enjoy the first half of M-Dao, and it seems unfair to focus too exclusively on the negative side of my opinion. Every stubborn thing I say is to uphold the name of Euripides! I apologise. 

Edited April 18, 2016 by VickyPage

[Coated]

I think one thing that has become clear is that the last scene of M-Dao could do with a bit or clarification for future runs

[RuthE]

The impression I got - which quite possibly could have been the wrong one - was that the shadows behind the curtains represented both Jason/Creusa ('the Princess') and Medea's children, so that in killing Jason/Creusa, Medea was also killing the children. The problem with that possibly wrong interpretation is that Jason, as I said before, isn't killed by Medea, Medea had two sons etc. etc. The killing of Creusa was perfectly correct though. The only other thing I guess that might have happened, which may have been what you saw, Coated, was the shadows behind the curtains representing Creusa and her father, who is also killed in Euripides' play. But in that case they really should have set up the father as a character, because it looked like it was Jason behind the curtain, and the problem with the gender of the children remains. 

And on that note I'm going to stop arguing, because I really did enjoy the first half of M-Dao, and it seems unfair to focus too exclusively on the negative side of my opinion. Every stubborn thing I say is to uphold the name of Euripides! I apologise. 

 

That was exactly my interpretation, too, and I personally didn't feel it lacked clarity at all, though my sightline wasn't ideal (I was in the front row, so I had trouble seeing the bundles of white silk on the floor).

 

I was there on Saturday night and so it was Erina Takahashi I saw in M-Dao.  She is not a ballerina I was really familiar with, as I haven't been attending ballet for that long, don't see as many multiple cast combinations at ENB as I do at the RB, and when ENB does a full-length and the principals are split across several casts I always shamelessly pick Tamara! Anyway, on the basis of Saturday night I was blown away by the emotional intensity of Takahashi's performance and massively fell in love with her, even if the piece itself isn't one I'd go out of my way to see again.

 

Absolutely loved Broken Wings and wish I could have seen it more than once - preferably once more with Tamara and once with Begona Cao who is a dancer my eye is always drawn to - as others have said, she has the most amazingly expressive face and eyes.  I thought she was great in the supporting role in the first cast, but I can't actually visualise her in the lead role (just because she's so physically different from Tamara) so I would have liked to go along and fill in that gap in my imagination - I'm certain the deficiency is in my mind, not in her dramatic range!

 

Fantastic Beings was very enjoyable too - the low lighting levels didn't bother me as much as they did some, but I didn't really understand the animal costumes - I thought it would have worked just as well if they'd all just continued wearing the shiny petrol-blue unitards.

Edited April 18, 2016 by RuthE

[Quintus]

Has anyone seen the full length Jocelyn Pook score for M-dao online?   I was trying to explain to my music producer son what I would call, using a technical musical term , the 'scary growly bit', to see if he could tell whether the effect was natural voice or electronic pitch-bending.  There are short clips from rehearsals on ENB's Youtube channel, but those feature the earlier 'waily bit'.  Can't find it among the soundcloud clips on JP's website; maybe she doesn't have the rights to publish it. 

[aileen]

One of the critics mentioned 'basso profondo' in his/her review. There is a Wikipedia entry for this which has links to some video clips and those clips have links to other clips. I don't know whether a 'natural' voice was used in the score or whether a singer's voice was remastered or altered in some way. I'd be interested to know the answer to your question, Quintus.

[jm365]

I really  want to see this programme again.  Does anyone know if it will be presented later?  And if so, where.

[Quintus]

One of the critics mentioned 'basso profondo' in his/her review. There is a Wikipedia entry for this which has links to some video clips and those clips have links to other clips. I don't know whether a 'natural' voice was used in the score or whether a singer's voice was remastered or altered in some way. I'd be interested to know the answer to your question, Quintus.

 

 

Aileen, Jocelyn Pook's team just answered the question:

 

Yes, that was indeed a basso profundo, and was not pitch-changed but natural. It is the voice of Voya Zivkovic who Jocelyn met at her local café which he used to run! He’s not classically trained but has a naturally low-pitched singing voice. His voice has featured in many of her projects including the soundtrack to Julio Medem’s film Caotica Ana and on her latest CD, King Charles III.