The Royal Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty performances, 2016-2017

[MAB]

Yesterday afternoon I saw Salenko and McRae in the leading roles, it was the first time I had seen Ms Salenko's Aurora and she was an absolute joy. She has a wonderful rapport with her partner which gave the afternoon the romantic edge over the other couples I've seen. Her portrayal of the teenage princess was sparkling and convincing and her balances in the Rose Adage were the steadiest I've seen in quite a while.
The elegant McRae cast off the aristocratic demeanour of his entrance to become an ardent lover in the vision scene and in the third act his virtuosity was impressive. A beautiful rendition of the grand pas and good support from what I assume was largely a matinee second cast. Deafening applause at the end, hoping the many children in the audience will cherish the memory and return as adults, they certainly saw something special.

[alison]

I ask this because I have been pondering also what it is, at several places in The Sleeping Beauty, that causes the audience to burst into applause before a solo or pas de deux has ended. Yes, there are poses which look like 'finales' but there is also something about the cadences in the music which seem to signal 'endings' more than in any other ballet.

 

I've concluded that some people just tend to respond to visual cues rather than auditory ones (not just in Beauty). I'm often left thinking "Why on earth are you applauding there when the music is clearly indicating that we're not finished?", and it's usually because there's something visual which seems to prompt it - the end of the pdd in The Nutcracker being a case in point. 

[billboyd]

Tchaikovsky's music has many emotional/dramatic pauses. Unfortunately, some tend to applaud at these points which kills the drama - especially in Swan Lake.

 

- In Romeo and Juliet some applaud every time the lights dim and/or the music stops - even in the last act - which kills the drama. 

[FLOSS]

I have noticed an increase in applause at odd places at ballet performances in recent years.The applause near the beginning of the Garland dance seems to be prompted by the dancers standing still after completing the manoeuvre which brings them to face upstage in parallel lines. This is merely the weirdest manifestation of this phenomenum.It does not only occur when the audience has misread the choreography or there is a "false ending" in a ballet, as there is in Emeralds, it has crept into recent performances of at least one other Balanchine ballet where it had a disruptive effect on performances as the dancers hesitated and then broke the flow of movement to acknowledge applause rather than simply dancing through it.

 

I have assumed that the phenomenum of "misplaced applause" is attributable to the presence in the audience of a significant number of ballet novices and people whose theatre culture is one in which the audience applauds when an individual dancer or a group of dancers have completed their pas even where this occurs midway through a ballet and there is another group of dancers who are obviously about to dance.My impression,which may be totally wrong, is that the Covent Garden audience now contains more tourists than it once did. As always the proportion of local regular ballet goers present in the theatre varies greatly depending on the ballet and who is dancing in it.I suspect that the audience for the Naghdi,Ball matinee contained a far higher proportion of local balletomanes and far fewer tourists doing their London experience ballet visit than the Salenko McRae one did.

 

It seems to me that as this run of Sleeping Beauty has progressed the composition of the audience has gradually shifted from audiences containing significant numbers of  experienced ballet goers to ones containing very few. It will be interesting to see whether there is an increase in "misplaced applause" and a further deterioration in audience behaviour as we come to the performances by the last cast in the run. 

Edited March 6, 2017 by FLOSS

[Jan McNulty]

I'm a ballet tourist and I hope I have behaved appropriately during performances!

[Bruce Wall]

Attended the last Osipova Aurora and the progression that I suggested in my earlier posting on this score might occur - certainly as it had in the case of her vivid depictons in Oneign and Month in the Country - majestically came to pass.  

I have come to believe that - as with Shakespeare - threes are very important to this fascinating artist.  All of these hallmarks (i.e., her leading performances in the works referenced) were significantly marked in their third outing.  Certainly this Aurora was a much more comfortably calibrated dramatic portrayal - rough edges having been smoothed without denting any of her character's enticing spontaneity - than in her first outing in this run.  This etching now rightly sits (at least in my own experience - I can't speak based on anything else) aside those glorious Auroras of Semenyaka, Seymour, Kirkland, Peck and Kain.  

 

From the zealous exhuberance of sursprise of her cosseted 16 year old on the occasion of her birthday to the assured authority of a princess readied to take on her empowered mantle Osipova led her audience in the potentially thrilling telling of this story.  The draining of life from her mind and body at the end of first act will long live with me ... as will the surging wave of her awakening and certainly her first variation in a newly restrained vision sequence which was - in every sense - world class mesmeric.  

 

This was my last SB in this run; my tenth.  If I had to pick one artist out of oh, so much excitement amongst the young - it would have to be Anna Rose O'Sullivan.  She is the very personification of balletic joy; her eyes opening the door of their most generous welcome and her smile boasting its hello.  Her beautiful feet only ever enhance the music.  On Saturday night she danced four different assignements.  Has a RB dancer ever danced MORE in an extended run?  I somehow doubt it.  We - well, certainly I - have so much to thank her for.   

 

I was also happy to see the return of Ms. Stix-Brunnell on Saturday night as one of Aurora's friends.  She looked to be well and truly recovered and entirely ready for the Jewels to come.  

Edited March 6, 2017 by Bruce Wall

[Tony Newcombe]

She danced The Fairy of the Enchanted Garden on Friday evening

[billboyd]

.I suspect that the audience for the Naghdi,Ball matinee contained a far higher proportion of local balletomanes and far fewer tourists doing their London experience ballet visit than the Salenko McRae one did.

 

 

 

 

I find this comment rather nasty and uncalled for.

[bridiem]

I'm a ballet tourist and I hope I have behaved appropriately during performances!

 

But very far from a ballet novice!!!

[bridiem]

 

.I suspect that the audience for the Naghdi,Ball matinee contained a far higher proportion of local balletomanes and far fewer tourists doing their London experience ballet visit than the Salenko McRae one did.

 

 

 

 

I find this comment rather nasty and uncalled for.

 

 

Surely it's just an observation; it's perfectly possible to get a sense of what kind of audience it is at each performance (whether or not the sense is actually correct).

[MAB]

I'm a ballet tourist and I hope I have behaved appropriately during performances!

 

I could do with a definition of "ballet tourists'', as someone who's travelled the length and breadth of both the UK and Europe to watch ballet, I suppose I must come under that category as well as Janet.  For the record the audience on Saturday afternoon was composed of a large number of families with children (always the case at matinees) and if there were any obvious tourists I didn't spot any apart from a group of Japanese girls whose appreciation of the permanent ROH exhibition behind the stalls suggested they weren't ballet novices. 

 

It isn't tourist season in London anyway.

[Saodan]

Whilst I agree with everything regarding superfluous applause, I can’t help but be a little concerned about the tone as well. If ballet is elitist this is why. As a relative novice, it does feel sometimes that there is an ‘in club’ with certain rules that one is disdained for not following. This may create an atmosphere of exclusion where individuals feel they cannot enjoy a performance in their own way, but have to follow rules of etiquette that they don’t know and don’t understand. If people feel like this, they may be put off from attending as they don’t know the rules and are too afraid to learn. 

 

To be clear, all the things mentioned in the Audience Behaviour thread (eating, drinking, using mobile phones, picnicking, fornicating, talking etc) are general rules, manners if you will, that everyone should follow. When it comes to talking during the ‘pause’ I don’t like it, but understand that some may come to see dance and, when no dance is happen, feel like there is a break in performance. Music is just background. 

 

As for applause mid performance, I have found that sometimes, particularly in classical ballet, awkward moments can be created when dancers ‘strike a pose’ to the audience. To someone unfamiliar with the choreography it seems to say “look at me, aren’t I clever?” so people clap. Case in point is the finale of Sleeping Beauty: the dancers who performed the diverts renter the stage, dance a little, pose, then take their place. To me it feels like one should clap the cast of each divert as they take their place, and not to would leave them expecting applause, but not getting any. I don’t clap, incidentally, because I hate clapping mid performance in anything, but it does leave me feeling a little uncomfortable. 

 

I can see how those unfamiliar with the production may become confused. Unless we wish to exclude newcomers, or insist that audience members complete an introductory course in etiquette for ballet-goers before being admitted, we may have to be somewhat tolerant of accidental miscreants. Flagrant disregard, however, should earn the culprit a tarring and feathering onstage at the end of the performance.

[Geoff]

Might I just clarify, as my post on Audience Behaviour started this diversion to mid-number applause? My query was specifically as to why the whole of the rear amphitheatre - but no one else in the auditorium - applauds at a certain point during the SB garland dance. Is it because they are seeing something the rest of us are not, or maybe, based on subsequent comments, perhaps this is because tickets in this area of the house are sold to particular groups?

 

I would not ask if it just happened once, but I have been to a fair few SBs this run, and it keeps happening.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Geoff

[bridiem]

I could do with a definition of "ballet tourists'', as someone who's travelled the length and breadth of both the UK and Europe to watch ballet, I suppose I must come under that category as well as Janet.  For the record the audience on Saturday afternoon was composed of a large number of families with children (always the case at matinees) and if there were any obvious tourists I didn't spot any apart from a group of Japanese girls whose appreciation of the permanent ROH exhibition behind the stalls suggested they weren't ballet novices. 

 

It isn't tourist season in London anyway.

 

I don't think a ballet tourist is someone who travels to see ballet; it's a tourist who includes 'going to a ballet' (or 'going to an opera' or 'going to a play') as part of their trip to London (or wherever else they may be). And, as someone who works in central London, I don't think there is now such a thing as a 'tourist season' in this city; it is full of tourists all year round.

[Sim]

 And, as someone who works in central London, I don't think there is now such a thing as a 'tourist season' in this city; it is full of tourists all year round.

 

Yep, totally agree;  I work in Central London and spend much of my spare time there and it is indeed full of tourists all year round. 

[MAB]

I base my assessment of tourist numbers on the difficulty/ease of finding hotels for visiting academics, often at short notice. In the months November - February, relatively easy, in July/August, well nigh impossible.  Anyway, how do you differentiate between tourists from the massive numbers of migrants living in London?  More to the point. how does FLOSS?

[penelopesimpson]

I base my assessment of tourist numbers on the difficulty/ease of finding hotels for visiting academics, often at short notice. In the months November - February, relatively easy, in July/August, well nigh impossible.  Anyway, how do you differentiate between tourists from the massive numbers of migrants living in London?  More to the point. how does FLOSS?

I can't answer that other than  to say that I have more or less given up going to see the Marinsky or Bolshoi at ROH because the audience annoyed me so much.  Okay, I may have been unlucky but people taking pics, selfies, fiddling with their phones so they could take surreptitious shots, etc. just got my goat.  It is expensive to go to ROH and, for me, with a long commute, my visits are special occasions which I treasure.  I know I shouldn't let it get to me but it does.  I also realise that I can't dictate who goes (!) but ...  All of which is a convoluted way of saying that IMHO the audiences for the guest companies are completely different to that which RB has.

[alison]

Oh, it's very easy, MAB.  The masses of migrants don't tend to string themselves out in large groups across the entire width of the pavement   And I wouldn't have thought they spend that much time wandering around central London, though I could be wrong about that.

[Mary]

...or taking 153 photos of themselves every 6 paces on expensive phones....

 

There is a sub group in the roh audience, consisting of 'tourists with phones' who do seem to be there mainly to take photos of themselves in the theatre, rather than really wanting to see the perfomances. They are not ' ballet tourists' who do really pay attention of course to the ballet.  It would be cheaper and more convenient for the TWPs  and nicer for us all if they just booked one of the excellent theatre tours, as they would have more light and better condiitons for the taking of an album of photos....  :-)

[MAB]

I can't answer that other than  to say that I have more or less given up going to see the Marinsky or Bolshoi at ROH because the audience annoyed me so much.  Okay, I may have been unlucky but people taking pics, selfies, fiddling with their phones so they could take surreptitious shots, etc. just got my goat.  It is expensive to go to ROH and, for me, with a long commute, my visits are special occasions which I treasure.  I know I shouldn't let it get to me but it does.  I also realise that I can't dictate who goes (!) but ...  All of which is a convoluted way of saying that IMHO the audiences for the guest companies are completely different to that which RB has.

 

Seeing as visiting companies come at inflated prices and the cheaper seats are sold to balletomanes months in advance, I'm surprised you can identify some sub species of low life attracted to Russian companies.   In my experience there is absolutely no difference in standards of behaviour displayed at Russian performances and there is a good deal of overlap with ROH regulars.  Although clearly others disagree with me, July/August is the height of the tourist season so probably more in the audience than at other times.  They must be well heeled tourists though as nothing cheap available by the time the companies arrive.

[penelopesimpson]

Seeing as visiting companies come at inflated prices and the cheaper seats are sold to balletomanes months in advance, I'm surprised you can identify some sub species of low life attracted to Russian companies.   In my experience there is absolutely no difference in standards of behaviour displayed at Russian performances and there is a good deal of overlap with ROH regulars.  Although clearly others disagree with me, July/August is the height of the tourist season so probably more in the audience than at other times.  They must be well heeled tourists though as nothing cheap available by the time the companies arrive.

I don't think I mentioned 'sub species of low life.'  I simply said that I found the audience different and with other priorities than mine which is to see exceptional dance.

 

My worst experience which was the last visit of the Marinsky, I was in the Stalls Circle and the parties of ladies who particularly irritated were all British.

[LinMM]

I don't know whether it's because I have now (incredibly) been living out of London for 16 years but these days I do find it almost at any time immeasurably busier than when I lived there( for 30 years previously)

 

It now seems to feel like the pre Christmas weeks almost any week on Oxford Street ...but can't all be to increased tourism I think the general population has just quadrupled it seems in the last 16 years!!

 

Actually thinking back to our trip to St Petersburg I'm sure the group of us going to all the ballet that week ....decades ago now back in November.... were not that "well behaved" in the theatres we went to in the intervals and pre performances as were guilty of taking piccies all over the place. I was with a younger crowd is my excuse .....and piccies are the order of the day....but they were really such good fun to be with ....and got me posing in a way I wouldn't dream of at the ROH!!

That was a mixture of us being tourists to the city ......and not knowing when or even if ( in my case at least ) would ever get to lovely St Petersburg again!! We were of course exemplary once the performances started.

 

So perhaps cut a bit of slack for excited tourists whether true balletomanes or not.

 

Back to real thread thanks Bruce for that last review of Osipova's performance such an exciting and totally unique dancer.

 

I only went to ONE performance but even from this one have got to know three dancers I wasn't so aware of before in Isabella Gasparini Anna Rose O Sullivan and Gina Storm Jensen.....I'm mentioning her because although she was not the lilac fairy the night I went my eye is often drawn to her when in a group and was very impressed with her at some student performances at the RBS senior school a year or so ago now.

It's going to be so difficult to book performances now as do you go and see established favourites or the young coming up from the middle and lower ranks of the Company!!

[ToThePointe]

I was at Osipova/Hirano cast on Saturday Night and I'm still speechless. I hope my thoughts below don't give me too strong a scolding!

 

For me, Osipova just didn't capture the nature of Aurora. Of course every dancer is different and every dancer interprets roles in their own unique way. This is why most of us see so many different casts - so that we can get almost a full circle of sides to that character. What frustrated me on Saturday night though was that Osipova was playing Osipova - I didn't get an ounce of courtly duty, princess elegance, sheltered naivety or longing for her prince. From the moment she leapt onto the stage, I thought to myself, and here is Osipova giving the audience all of the tricks she knows they will applaud her for. And this is exactly what happened. More fouettes, more leaps and the audience went wild. This type of dancing doesn't impress me at all. I'm interested in the feeling, what is this dancer telling me through their body? What can they convey? Is there any depth here? My dad is a guitarist and he always says that the musicians who get onstage and perform wild tricks always get rapture of applause, but the true geniuses are those with feeling, with something else, that elevates the performance and takes you somewhere else. This is how I felt on Saturday night. I was longing for Nunez or Naghdi - for the dancers who were Aurora, who gelled with the rest of the company and danced every move with beauty and grace. Using my binoculars also didn't help as I found Osipova's expressions very distracting and almost comical. She also made it look like work, focusing on her balances during the rose adagio and nodding when she was ready to let go of her partners hand. There wasn't the same effortless display as with the others I have seen. I was told it got better during the rest but for me nothing changed. What also really frustrates me is when dancers add extra choreography. We all know what Osipova is capable of. She's an incredible talent and has fabulous technique but the crazy turns weren't appropriate here. In the Rose Adagio when Aurora receives each rose from her suitors, she does a pirouette to mimic the amount of flowers she has received. She does one turn when she receives the first rose, two when she receives the second, three and then four. The music is building up to do her fourth pirouette and it's supposed to be slow and moving towards a crescendo. For Osipova, the number didn't matter, and she added many more pirouettes. She does the same in the final pas de deux, adding more turns, more leaps but for me this at the cost of the classical style and it looked too much. The choreography is so challenging and difficult and you want to see every element of it but here there wasn't enough precision or even respect for the choreography.

 

I was really impressed by Hirano though, who I have overlooked a lot in the past. I thought he did really well, beaming smiles in the final act and nice high and graceful jumps. 

 

The rest of the company were lovely and it really made it clear that Osipova isn't gelling with the RB. She dances as if she is a Guest Artist, not a member of the company and for me, this is a big problem. Other Auroras communicate more with those around them on stage, Naghdi, for example, acknowledges her friends and there is a rapport between them all. I didn't see much of this on Saturday night and to be honest I left the ROH feeling pretty bemused. 

 

I will now prepare my head for the beheading that's about to take place for the above treason...!!!

[bridiem]

I was at Osipova/Hirano cast on Saturday Night and I'm still speechless. I hope my thoughts below don't give me too strong a scolding!

 

For me, Osipova just didn't capture the nature of Aurora. Of course every dancer is different and every dancer interprets roles in their own unique way. This is why most of us see so many different casts - so that we can get almost a full circle of sides to that character. What frustrated me on Saturday night though was that Osipova was playing Osipova - I didn't get an ounce of courtly duty, princess elegance, sheltered naivety or longing for her prince. From the moment she leapt onto the stage, I thought to myself, and here is Osipova giving the audience all of the tricks she knows they will applaud her for. And this is exactly what happened. More fouettes, more leaps and the audience went wild. This type of dancing doesn't impress me at all. I'm interested in the feeling, what is this dancer telling me through their body? What can they convey? Is there any depth here? My dad is a guitarist and he always says that the musicians who get onstage and perform wild tricks always get rapture of applause, but the true geniuses are those with feeling, with something else, that elevates the performance and takes you somewhere else. This is how I felt on Saturday night. I was longing for Nunez or Naghdi - for the dancers who were Aurora, who gelled with the rest of the company and danced every move with beauty and grace. Using my binoculars also didn't help as I found Osipova's expressions very distracting and almost comical. She also made it look like work, focusing on her balances during the rose adagio and nodding when she was ready to let go of her partners hand. There wasn't the same effortless display as with the others I have seen. I was told it got better during the rest but for me nothing changed. What also really frustrates me is when dancers add extra choreography. We all know what Osipova is capable of. She's an incredible talent and has fabulous technique but the crazy turns weren't appropriate here. In the Rose Adagio when Aurora receives each rose from her suitors, she does a pirouette to mimic the amount of flowers she has received. She does one turn when she receives the first rose, two when she receives the second, three and then four. The music is building up to do her fourth pirouette and it's supposed to be slow and moving towards a crescendo. For Osipova, the number didn't matter, and she added many more pirouettes. She does the same in the final pas de deux, adding more turns, more leaps but for me this at the cost of the classical style and it looked too much. The choreography is so challenging and difficult and you want to see every element of it but here there wasn't enough precision or even respect for the choreography.

 

I was really impressed by Hirano though, who I have overlooked a lot in the past. I thought he did really well, beaming smiles in the final act and nice high and graceful jumps. 

 

The rest of the company were lovely and it really made it clear that Osipova isn't gelling with the RB. She dances as if she is a Guest Artist, not a member of the company and for me, this is a big problem. Other Aurora's communicate more with those around them on stage, Naghdi, for example, acknowledges her friends and there is a rapport between them all. I didn't see much of this on Saturday night and to be honest I left the ROH feeling pretty bemused. 

 

I will now prepare my head for the beheading that's about to take place for the above treason...!!!

 

Not treason at all, TothePointe! I actually agree with much of the above, but in the end I just allowed myself to be swept away by Osipova because of her incredible dancing and vivid personality. It was however like watching an exotic orchid amidst a bed of roses - no insult intended to either; just not a convincing blend and so for me not a convincing performance as a whole. But I'm still very glad to have seen it!

[Sim]

You shouldn't be preparing for a beheading, ToThePointe!  You are simply stating your own opinions and perceptions, which is what this forum is all about.  You state them lucidly and clearly.  I have spoken to many people who agree with you but sadly refuse to write their opinions here because they are scared of the venom that they might get!

 

For the record, I agree with much of what you say above.  I love Osipova's Giselle, which ranks among the top five I've ever seen;  I also love her Manon and her recent performance in Woolf Works.  However, her Aurora doesn't work for me either, and for the reasons you state above.  Uh oh, maybe I will be joining you on the guillotine of treason now!! 

[bridiem]

You shouldn't be preparing for a beheading, ToThePointe!  You are simply stating your own opinions and perceptions, which is what this forum is all about.  You state them lucidly and clearly.  I have spoken to many people who agree with you but sadly refuse to write their opinions here because they are scared of the venom that they might get!

 

For the record, I agree with much of what you say above.  I love Osipova's Giselle, which ranks among the top five I've ever seen;  I also love her Manon and her recent performance in Woolf Works.  However, her Aurora doesn't work for me either, and for the reasons you state above.  Uh oh, maybe I will be joining you on the guillotine of treason now!! 

 

Off with your heads!! Unless of course there's a kindly Queen lurking, to plead for mercy on your behalf...

[BMC]

That's what I love about this forum - so many interesting and contrasting views. Many posters have commented so eloquently about Osipova's performance (for and against) that their words rang in my head when I saw her on Saturday night.

 

All I can say is that, having seen goodness knows how many Sleeping Beauties over the years, Osipiva gave me some firsts. It was the first time I genuinely thought her legs might literally buckle under her when she had pricked the needle; it was the first time I believed that Aurora had woken from a deep slumber (as opposed to a light nap) and it was the first time I had thought of her as a person and wondered what happened next. I think if I was Florimund I might be a bit nervous about meeting the expectations of my obviously ecstatic bride and I had visions of him in later life occasionally (only very occasionally) rueing the day he met the Lilac Fairy! And, totally ridiculously, I found myself hoping that Aurora would have a good many years before she turned into her mother and had to sit straight-backed on a bench smiling graciously at everybody. Still I recall my Ladybrid book saying they all lived happily ever after!

 

Seriously, though, in my humble opinion. in a run of 26 performances I think there is room for something a bit different, whether 'correct' or not. I personally love watching Osipova and seeing what she is going to do with her roles - but fully appreciate that a lot disagree!

[LinMM]

Interestingly I've always seen it the other way around where Osipova is concerned ....that you are more likely to get Guillotined as it were for liking her performances rather than not liking her....on this Forum that is.

 

I think Osipova would probably not "blend in" anywhere THAT well not even in Russia as she has a unique style and is one of those "one off" dancers

I love her performances but equally love many dancers in the RB and ENB ....as know those companies best....

One is entitled to ones own opinion on whether you like a dancer in a particular role or not of course.

 

I've never seen Aurora danced as Osipova danced it .....definitely different...but I would disagree with pointe to pointe that she is deliberately going out to "wow" audiences and messing around with the choreography just for the sake of it.

She is a strong technician for sure .....but perhaps she does things that have been in the choreography but not produced as much as its no point in doing something if you cannot pull it off every time with certainty ...which may make some other dancers more conservative ....but which in no way detracts from their overall performance or interpretation etc.

[bangorballetboy]

I agree with some (quite a lot) of  what TTP says, but I have to take issue with the rose-based pirouettes - I saw Osipova dance twice (2nd and 3rd shows) and both times she did the correct number of pirouettes (in fact, in the third show, she only just about managed the fourth pirouette on the final rose).

[billboyd]

Interestingly I've always seen it the other way around where Osipova is concerned ....that you are more likely to get Guillotined as it were for liking her performances rather than not liking her....on this Forum that is.

 

 

 

I agree.

[Sim]

 

Interestingly I've always seen it the other way around where Osipova is concerned ....that you are more likely to get Guillotined as it were for liking her performances rather than not liking her....on this Forum that is.

 

 

 

I agree.

 

I disagree.

[capybara]

I'd like that thank ToThePointe for her observations. As Sim says, they are lucid and well-argued and I appreciate that a lot.

[billboyd]

I'd like that thank ToThePointe for her observations. As Sim says, they are lucid and well-argued and I appreciate that a lot.

 

 

I couldn't disagree more.