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The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, London, April/May 2017


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3 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

In the PDD between Rudolf and Louise, Romany Pajdak twice, in quick succession, got her foot caught in the folds of material in the bustle of her skirt, lost her balance as a result and took some time to free herself. She must have been mortified - hope they adjust it in some way before her next go at it.

Poor thing...Thank you for filling me in.

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22 minutes ago, RuthE said:

A question I posted on Twitter earlier but which hasn't been answered... apologies if I've missed it being mentioned on this forum before. Are all four of the Mary Vetseras this run (Osipova, Morera, Cuthbertson, Lamb) making their role debuts? I hadn't seen Mayerling until the last run, so I'm not too familiar with whether any of them had done it previously.

 

I think so.  Cuthbertson had been scheduled previously, but was injured, or possibly ill.  Benjamin, Galeazzi, Rojo and Cojocaru no longer being with the company, obviously new ones were needed.

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Thanks, Alison. Yes, the last Mayerling was during Lauren Cuthbertson's last-but-one long injury absence. I'd booked front row seats for her and everything - I'm so looking forward to her debut tonight.

 

We had already lost Tamara Rojo by then, but Melissa Hamilton also danced it last run.

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1 hour ago, Jane S said:

 

And can he juggle?

 

 

all this and he can juggle and I hear makes a very nice cup of tea.....

 

Yes he juggled- did drop the hat, but made that a part of the characterisation very convincingly.

 

 

 

 

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I've seen so many Mayerlings since 1978 and have never been at a performance that didn't work, especially at the end, I think the music and choreography are so strong and it's about real people, I will say I felt a bit subdued last night at the end of the first act, thought something was missing, don't know what, the 4 Hungarians didn't look as forceful as usual (impossible to convey political plots through ballet I think, the audience must be baffled by them). Alexander Campbell's Bratfisch solo seemed to wake me up and from then on I was totally enthralled as usual, the Osipova/Watson partnership was as expected, possibly better, they are both on the same wavelength in their willingness to push everything to the limits, and their bendy bodies made wonderful shapes together! Edward Watson seems to have incredibly improved, might be Natalia Osipova! Sarah Lamb was outstanding as Larisch, one of my favourite scenes is the one with the 4 women, the music when Larisch cheats with the card gives me shivers every time, love the costumes here.

 
Hope to see them again on the 11th, and have all the other casts booked, so Mayerling fever has started for me again

 

Did anyone buy the programme, are there photo's of the new casts, I kept trying to peep over people's shoulders to see!

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Apologies in advance for random observations! Osipova even better than I'd hoped - detail plus commitment plus bravura. And that was just the first night - it will deepen even more by final "fling". Of course the final act pdd were superb, and the first was great, but...I was enthralled with the card scene - sometimes it can pass blandly by but the combination of her and Sarah Lamb's tour de force of acting as Marie Larisch revealed depths and clever plotting I'd missed before. As for the other cast - all without exception were superb - stunning. One last thought - I was there on the opening night back in 1978. The magic trio - particularly the duo of Seymour and Park was always my perfect combo. Well Osipova and Lamb matched them - what a double act! And as for Wall and Watson - connected by the stars...

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No wardrobe malfunctions yet at today's matinee. The skirt looks a bit shorter on Emma Maguire.

 

Pleasantly surprised by Bonelli thus far; he's bringing a lot more presence and authority to it than I imagined he might.

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1 hour ago, CHazell2 said:

I can't wait for Tuesday night - given all that I have read about Watson and Osipova. Only thing is I will be in the Amphi - row H - Will I get a good view up there?

I was sitting in row C in the centre block and had a perfect view although you lose much of the facial expressions but you make up for that seeing the patterns created by the dancing.

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A brilliant opening night with, as others have said, a stellar cast, although the Royal Ballet is now so hugely talented that there's so much to look forward to in every performance.  

 

I thought Natalia was incredible throughout, from her wonderment in the opening scene as she witnessed Rudolf's wedding ceremony to the awful, demonic shared suicide where she was so clearly committed to the pact.  She seemed as if she were in effect taking Rudolf's morphine as Ed injected himself.  

 

It was truly painful to watch Rudolf's treatment of Stefanie (and his and Mitzi's mocking in Act 2) but Francesca's portrayal was wonderful.  I very much liked Sarah Lamb's Countess: she'd already danced Mary at the Rehearsal so an incredibly challenging day on stage.  Zen was great - she'll be much missed though I'm really looking forward to seeing Kristen again.  Alex's Bratfish was stunning - brilliant dancing and real pathos when trying to entertain Natalia and Ed but realising his efforts would not prevent the suicides.  Have the Hungarian Officers been more strongly cast with Ryoichi leading them?  Wonderful dancing with Mitzi - a lovely performance from Marianela. 

 

One or two slips and very sorry for Romany Pajdak getting her foot really caught up in her costume.  Natalia, firing on all cylinders, but not her pistol?  And did Ed's moustache get a little dislodged at the end - just hoping this wasn't a case of Natalia biting off more than she could chew.

 

And let's hear it for the brilliant corp - ladies at Court, chamber maids, and whores, sometimes all three.  Great support from the men in their roles including Bennet Gartside, almost Falstaffian padding, as Philipp.

 

But Mayerling's success is contingent on Rudolf and Ed was astounding: a truly great performance and a fantastic privilege to see him so live the role.

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3 hours ago, Mary said:

 

 

all this and he can juggle and I hear makes a very nice cup of tea.....

 

Yes he juggled- did drop the hat, but made that a part of the characterisation very convincingly.

 

 

 

 

 

Doesn't Bratfisch always drop the hat in the end? I thought it was choreographed, i.e. he stops trying when he realises he's not going to get through to them. Or maybe they do generally just drop it eventually?!

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56 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Natalia, firing on all cylinders, but not her pistol?

 

I'd forgotten about that (a backup pistol was fired from the wings when the one onstage didn't go off) until it worked correctly at today's matinee!

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3 hours ago, Beryl H said:


I've seen so many Mayerlings since 1978 and have never been at a performance that didn't work, especially at the end, I think the music and choreography are so strong and it's about real people, I will say I felt a bit subdued last night at the end of the first act, thought something was missing, don't know what, the 4 Hungarians didn't look as forceful as usual (impossible to convey political plots through ballet I think, the audience must be baffled by them). Alexander Campbell's Bratfisch solo seemed to wake me up and from then on I was totally enthralled as usual, the Osipova/Watson partnership was as expected, possibly better, they are both on the same wavelength in their willingness to push everything to the limits, and their bendy bodies made wonderful shapes together! Edward Watson seems to have incredibly improved, might be Natalia Osipova! Sarah Lamb was outstanding as Larisch, one of my favourite scenes is the one with the 4 women, the music when Larisch cheats with the card gives me shivers every time, love the costumes here.

 
Hope to see them again on the 11th, and have all the other casts booked, so Mayerling fever has started for me again

 

Did anyone buy the programme, are there photo's of the new casts, I kept trying to peep over people's shoulders to see!

There are studio rehearsal photos in the programme taken by Alice Pennefather of the four different Rudolf/Mary partnerships with a page devoted to each (2 - 4 photos per couple). You'll find them on pages 24 - 27! There are also photos from the 2009 and 2013 revivals of Watson, Soares, Campbell and the 'ladies' from the tavern.

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2 hours ago, CHazell2 said:

I can't wait for Tuesday night - given all that I have read about Watson and Osipova. Only thing is I will be in the Amphi - row H - Will I get a good view up there?

 

Yes, I think so - I was in Row J last night and it was fine. (But I do use opera glasses.)

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I have been so much looking forward to these performances and last nights was not a disappointment. Fantastic cast, but as mentioned above, the talent in the RB is so great that any cast will deliver. I must admit that I much prefer "narrative" ballet over abstract, to so many Jewels was the bees knees but it left me cold. Beautifully danced I am sure but not for me. This is narrative in spades, so many story lines and characters its hard to keep up. This is only my second viewing and my first with Ed Watson as Rudolph, my previous experience of Mayerling was the final performance by Alina and Johan at the RB so the ballet was almost secondary to the emotion of the evening. I digress. All the cast delivered. Natalia and Ed were everything you could wish for and I cant wait for Tuesday. Regarding poor Romany, how many time would she have danced the role with that dress on, because it was obvious to me, and what do I know, that it was too big for her. I can't believe that Sarah had danced the role of Mary in a matinee performance and then Larisch in the evening, how do they do that. The whole cast brought something to the evening and I loved it.

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I won't say it all again! I agree with nearly all the posts about the power and drama of all members of the company. Osipova didn't quite do it for me, I remember Rojo so well with Watson and the effect it had on me as the audience. Spine tingling. Osipova was very convincing and technically very strong, I don't really know why I was a bit disappointed. 

I was in Elizabeth's bedroom at the Hofberg last Autumn and seeing her wall bars on set reminded me of her character and the sort of woman the history of the palace led us to understand. Yanowsky gave us a truly powerful performance. I do wish I had a ticket for her Marguerite! 

Watson gave a powerful performance and he is an amazing partner as well as fine actor and technically strong dancer. Years ago at his first Romeo with Cuthbertsons first Juliet I feared partnering might be a problem, how wrong I was!

Can  anybody tell me, or did I imagine it, if he did Remanso with Cope and possibly Maloney before he became well known? My memory plays tricks with me these days. I think I have said before how much I am looking forward to him In Conversation.

Friday was another treat, thank you to all the talented dancers,coaches and musicians who make the performances possible.

 

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13 minutes ago, Jillykins said:

 I remember Rojo so well with Watson and the effect it had on me as the audience. Spine tingling.

 

I thought that all Watson's performances as Rudolf were with Galeazzi or Benjamin?

 

I think that I recall Rojo with Cope, Harvey and Acosta.

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23 minutes ago, Jillykins said:

..."Watson and the effect it had on me as the audience.

Can  anybody tell me, or did I imagine it, if he did Remanso with Cope and possibly Maloney before he became well known?" 

 

 

I don't remember Watson in Remanso but I'm pretty sure I remember Cope, Acosta and Inaki Urlezaga having a whale of a time in this piece.

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40 minutes ago, Jane S said:

There was a later Bolle/Cope/Watson cast in Remanso I think. And Cervera/Stepanek/Whitehead who were much better, for my taste.

 

AAAAAAGH!  Now I think I remember this - but I was such an ardent fan of Jonny Cope and Inaki Urlezaga (although I was in a minority there, I think) that my memory for other casts is clouded.

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1 hour ago, annamk said:

Sensational performances, sizzling chemistry on stage this afternoon - Bonelli & Morera were the most moving & convincing Mayerling partnership I've seen since Kobborg/Cojocaru in their prime. 

 

Wow!  I'm afraid we had to miss this performance as engineering works north of Crewe meant it virtually impossible to get back to Cumbria tonight and we can't make the other performance.  One of the disadvantages of living so far away but there are so many compensations!  I'd rather hoped this cast might have danced the rehearsal as we have tickets for the final Saturday performances and so will see the McRae cast in any event.  Will be fascinated to read what others have to say about Bonelli/Morera and all the other performances: from what I've seen so far, I'm sure there will be many memorable performances.  Again congratulations to all at the Royal Ballet.

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1 hour ago, capybara said:

 

I thought that all Watson's performances as Rudolf were with Galeazzi or Benjamin?

 

I think that I recall Rojo with Cope, Harvey and Acosta.

In an interview, he has said that all his performances thus far were with Galeazzi...

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On train home after truly memorable matinée with some terrific debuts. WIll try to formulate coherent thoughts but I can honestly write that I have never seen anything quite like Laura Morera's performance this afternoon: truly extraordinary.

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I have loved both casts so far (although I'm very much in the pro Mayerling camp - I find that whoever is dancing I am always drawn into the story - and I find it genuinely amazing the way that MacMillan has put a whole royal court on stage). Watson has long been the king of the princes but I also really enjoyed Federico this afternoon - he was one of those Rudolfs I felt really sorry for. That's another thing I really like about this ballet because, for me, being moved is not a prerequisite for enjoying it, it's just one of many reactions I can have to how the dancer presents the part, and how the others interact around him. Endless nuances and permutations!  As well as being staunchly pro Mayerling, I am also very firmly pro Osipova - I just find her endlessly interesting and I loved the way she was such an incredible driving force in the relationship. I'm sure she must be a real challenge to partner but for me the physical risks she took in the pas de deux made them seem a bit messy and therefore more real. But great performances all round from Laura, Sarah, both Bratfisches and so on and so on. Really looking forward to the next two casts.

 

Incidentally - does anyone remember the Hollywood film with Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve and Ava Gardner as the Empress?! Let's just say a far cry from the ballet (and the facts!!)...

 

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2 hours ago, Jamesrhblack said:

On train home after truly memorable matinée with some terrific debuts. WIll try to formulate coherent thoughts but I can honestly write that I have never seen anything quite like Laura Morera's performance this afternoon: truly extraordinary.

 

Yes she was "truly extraordinary" I just can't find the words myself so I'm looking forward to reading yours. 

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Friday evening was my first live experience of Mayerling. I was gripped by Watson and Osipova and, in the last Act, fully felt that cathartic excitement which tragedy is supposed to provide. The whole cast seemed to inhabit their roles, no weak links. 

At today's matinee, Bonelli and Morera moved me more, especially Bonelli, who somehow seemed to evoke a more pitiful quality. 

As between the two, I don't consider either reaction or performance "better" than the other. Just different. I feel immensely privileged to have seen both. 

Alexander Campbell was a brilliant Bratfisch but so, in his own way, was James Hay who seemed to be having a whale of a time in the tavern scene. 

Full of admiration at John Lanchbery's genius in compiling this score which matches so well the action and mood. 

 

 

 

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So, I'm home and trying to compose my thoughts which may be even more rambling than usual as I'm still rather knocked out by this afternoon.

 

Were expectations set too high last night? Don't get me wrong, it was as it developed a powerful and moving performance of a work that I think has great merit for all the perceived weaknesses of construction and choreography. To sit through two performances in less than twenty four hours attests to that, or at least to my own response and perception.

 

The first scene seemed slow to catch fire and not just because of the appalling costume mishap suffered by poor Romany Pajdak which completely knocked the stuffing out of any initial dramatic build up. Edward Watson seemed tense (understandably on the first night of a much anticipated revival in a key role of ferocious difficulty) and his dancing by no means impressive. However, one of the strengths of the ballet is its construction (so it seems to me) and the fact that each act builds in its own arc that eventually becomes a powerful triptych in recollection. The arrival of Sarah Lamb, glamorous yet slyly observant, began to lift the tension and her and Watson's experience in dancing these roles together over what must be nearly ten years paid dividends as did the arrival of an almost unrecognisable Natalia Osipova as Mary Vetsera as a Child (does anybody know when the principal dancer took over this role which was originally for a younger dancer). Those early signs of Larsich grooming Vetsera became ever more disturbing as the ballet repeats such moments and this led to the Empress' bedroom scene where Zenaida Yanowksy's glacial beauty almost slices into Rudolf's face except when, more often, she turns away from him. Things were improving now and the Wedding Night scene was as upsetting as it meant to be with Francesca Hayward's unusually feisty Stephanie actually trying to fight back until over powered.

 

MacMillan's whores have their critics but the change of tone and energy at the start of the Second Act is always a lift and when Alexander Campbell's Bratfisch erupted in to his Show Dance the thrill was palpable. I'll not repeat the econiums I and others have expressed for him above (and on other occasions) other than to repeat that he is a truly special artist as well as dancer. With Hirano leading the Officers with thrilling panache (good to this role as well as Stephanie, Mitzi and Bratfisch cast at principal level as in 1978) all was set for a thrilling Mephisto Waltz with Nunez at her most insouciantly seductive (does anybody know why she isn't cast as Larishc this time round?). 

 

Rudolf then emerges for what I find one of the most thrilling scenes in the ballet, his meeting with (slightly more) grown up Vetsera. That moment when the women set off across the stage still moving as one raises the temperature every time for me. Rudolf may be in charge through his position but these ladies are determined to find their own way to dominate him too.

 

This sense of mirroring returns for a final time as Larish visits the Vetseras and sets the tragedy in motion. Lamb and Osipova's faces read so clearly in this and the release into Vetsera's moment of first independent dancing was terrific. After this scene, Vetsera is on her own course and her movements no longer copy her mentor's.

 

The Birthday Party scene is long but it seems necessary to flesh out the adulterous yet almost accepted relationships of Rudolf's parents and their hypercritical stance on his. I also enjoy Katharina Schratt's song (and not just because it was beautifully sung by my velvet toned mezzo Catherine Carby) because it acts as a point of stillness for all of us to gather our thoughts in the way that advanced interlude might do in an opera. Watson captures Rudolf's incomprehending misery almost touchingly here and Gary Avis' acute stage craft makes the kissing of the palm of Elizabeth's hand denied to the courting officer an elegant but decisive moment of possession.

 

Osipova's physical recklessness pays dividends in Mary's first visit to Rudolf unless you think that by moving into full gear immediately she forfeits some development. I know that her performances seem always to develop so one can't take this as her final thoughts on something still very different to her training but there was burgeoning passion and mutual fascination, even with a malfunctioning gun.

 

I enjoy the first Scene of Act 3 and not only because the costumes are so beautiful. It shows Stephanie beginning to reassert herself, Larisch beginning to lose her dominance and the accidental shooting always resonates in my mind as a cracking of Rudolf's final hold on reality as the next time we see him he can barely assert himself.

 

Watson's emaciated red gold presence reads really poignantly here and Lamb is superb in her moments of compassion. There's another mirroring as she and Elizabeth take off at speed in their quarrell - is there an implication that the older Larisch may have had elements about her of the maternal tenderness that Elizabeth cannot show, at least to her son. The mounting frenzy of the suicide pact was powerfully conveyed by both dancers and led us to a final scene of abandon yet compassion. Neither of these characters is inherently good or even likeable and yet they are not simply monsters - if they were we would not care other than vicariously about their fate over a hundred years later and it is testament to MacMillan's genius that he makes us understand this.

 

It was an ever improving, ultimately satisfying performance. I'd been expecting to be blown away but perhaps I was expecting too much and then came this afternoon...

 

 

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BMC wrote:

 

    “I am also very firmly pro Osipova - I just find her endlessly interesting and I loved the way she was such an incredible driving force in the relationship. I'm sure she must be a real challenge to partner but for me the physical risks she took in the pas de deux made them seem a bit messy and therefore more real.”

 

Yes, she is “a real challenge” in a very good sense - artistically and emotionally she is inspiring. Where technique is conserned her partners love to dance with her because she does everything herself - she jumps, ‘rotates’ and helps well with lifts.

 

    “Incidentally - does anyone remember the Hollywood film with Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve and Ava Gardner as the Empress?! Let's just say a far cry from the ballet (and the facts!!)…”

 

Yes! And Geneviève Page as Larish and James Mason as Emperor Franz-Josef. And there was some ballet there. When Rudolf was watching Marie from his box at the theatre, there was “Giselle” on stage, and Giselle was danced by the tiny and charming Liane Dayde.

 

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Still reeling from the experience, I am trying to formulate why this afternoon's performance moved me so much more despite the presence of three debutantes who might, realistically, be thought to lack the knowledge of Watson and Lamb in performing their roles or Osipova's world class presence and technique.

 

Admittedly, my seat was better (front Balcony as opposed to front row Amphitheatre sides) but as soon as the curtain went up I was gripped in a way that had eluded me last night.

 

Initially, Bonelli's rather set face of misery seemed cod and unimaginative, and his technique fallible in the opening solo with its difficult turns of direction and yearning arabesques, but as soon as he turned to the seduction of Louise a roguish charm emerged that was undoubtedly winning and without any costume issues this delectably seductive duet (with a beautifully articulated Emma Maguire) was able to be all it could not be last night. However, it wasn't just these two. The amused look on Olivia Cowley's beautiful face said it all - "Oh, here he goes again." 

 

And from then on I was helplessly drawn in. Alexander Campbell's panache and power as the First Officer were as spell binding as you'd expect from this treasurable artist and Bonelli began to relax. There were some awkward moments in the partnering as Larisch hurled herself at him and yet there was an emotional honesty too. Crowley's ravishing arms and legs curled seductively in his arms with that wonderful combination of knowledge of what to do allied with spontaneity of execution. Laura Morera, en debut as Vetsera, was almost unrecognisable as a Child, face seemingly scraped clean of makeup and feet skittishly tripping, more interested in her friendship with Valeire at this stage.

 

Tara-Brigitte Bhavani's stage presence may be less imposing than Zenaida Yanowsky's but her beauty is absolute and, as with Cowley's reaction to Louise and Rudolf, her colleagues enhanced her - I'd never seen before so clearly expressed the references to Sisi's famously slim waist (and, having seen it in the Hofburg, I always like to see her exercise ladder). Whether through pacing or inexperience, Bonelli was less frenzied than Watson here. You felt he really wanted to gain rather than enforce his mother's affection and his agonised pressing of a hand to his forehead as he exited with her looking the other way prepared the way for the following scene, as well as clearly referencing an idea that becomes more prevalent as the ballet develops.

 

Meaghan Grace Hingis doesn't have Hayward's strength of personality and her much blonder stage presence reads perhaps less dramatically but her terror seemed real as Bonelli's almost initially playful behaviour with skull and gun, however disordered, became more sinister. Both dancers had absolute confidence and, strangely, it came across as more frightening than last night. I'll expand my theory on why these things suggested themselves to me later.

 

The Tavern Scene was great. James Hay is delicious as Bratfisch, lighter and more boyish than Campbell, and sweetly winning as he tries to get Stephanie to paricipate (Hingis' gesture of morning sickness when he did so was another detail new to me) and Beatriz Stix-Brunell made a sweetly seductive Mitzi, perhaps less realistically experienced than Nunez's portrayal last night and slightly keener on her Prince. Today's only wardrobe malfunction that I noticed was her inability to get her arm down her sleeeve as she exited with Taaffe. Bonelli's handsome, smiling charm really worked here and he was beginning to dance with far greater freedom and abandon. Campbell's thrilling attack and powerful projection were enough to have my brother-in-law who is a visual artist with an ambivalent approach to classical ballet asserting that he felt he could in time dance Rudolf. 

 

And then it happened. Vetsera emerged from the coach and the ladies set off in matchless, perfect unison, united in purpose and as one in thinking. It gives me shivers thinking of it (and I've seen wonderful dancers in these roles, most memorably Benjamin and Galeazzi as Vetsera and Morera and Rosato as Larisch). This then carried over into the Card Telling Scene. Cowley conveyed inevitably the sense of orchestrating a situation and the precision of her timing as she produced the card was a real, "History Changed Here" moment. I appreciate that the scene is an invention but the intention (which in some ways can be as true as any historical happening) was superb. Morera fell over her feet with excitement and the trembling of Cowley's beautiful extended foot as she bade farewell showed a sense both of elation and foreboding.

 

Perhaps I'm projecting my own wishes on to what I saw? It read so clearly I can see it now in recollection in a way so specific that I'm pleased to have the opportunity to articulate it.

 

Bonelli's growing misery in the Birthday Scene was moving not just frightening. You sensed here was a man who was beginning to be driven by things he couldn't control, the rocking moment redolent both of confusion and ambivalence of decision. Cowley's glamour, lightening the mood, and her quasi maternal embrace at one point were almost irresistibly seductive, except that Rudolf had moved beyond her control now.

 

In his apartments, Bonelli seems less morbidly obsessed than fascinated with the skull, a reflection on our own mortality. Morera took a very long time to remove her coat and the tension was more than palpable. Bonelli's Rudolf seemed fascinated by this extraordinary creature who made straight for the skull and treated it as a friend and who was reaching for the gun as his touch had her arching her back in erotic abandon. Her desire to get back to the gun and her turning on him with it as well as the shot (which worked this afternoon) was jaw dropping. Throughout the scene, it was she who seemed in control, pulling a hand to her breast, leaning back seductively so that her moment of boredom (this was too easy) was truly shocking. As Rudolf's head began to pound, her incomprehending naïveté was expressed perfectly as she pulled his hands away and the curtain came down just in time. It was astonishing.

 

The Shooting Scene came almost as light relief, Larisch's waning power being absolutely articulated. I'd never understood why Rudolf and Stephanie are suddenly briefly dancing together in harmony here: with Larsich no longer pertinent, he has Vetsera and he'll put up a public front, as will she to endorse her own position. His face after the shooting was totally aghast: something had snapped.

 

Things moved swiftly in the Hofburg, Cowley's misery was acute and Bonelli so addled he could barely see her. Comparisons are odorous and perhaps the confrontation of Elisabeth and Larisch was less fiercely compelling than last night but Vetsera's arrival changed everything. Suddenly Rudolf had purpose, Vetsera too. That extraordinary moment when she sits child-like on his lap was deeply touching (of course, we have seen Rudolf having a positive relationship with at least his younger sister so is this a family he has missed) but as the bells began to toll, incipient frenzy took hold. Here was where both dancers' pacing of performance told. Things really moved up and gear and that whirling turn with arms that Vetsera executes as she moves down stage was perfectly articulated at full speed by Morera. The "breaking of her neck" moment was really horrific (Rudolf, "So, I AM going to kill you") ...

 

By now, the entire audience was absolutely hushed and involved. Bratfisch' attempts to cheer the troubled pair were almost childlike and Rudolf's farewell almost paternal. Bonelli moved in to the closing stages with absolute command, his eyes blank, his lines extended, his efforts to find a way forward (moving his own legs) fruitless, and they both captured that moment of ambivalence before the final pas de deux when they walk around the chairs to perfection - do they really want to do this?

 

Bonelli's strength and opening up of character and passion were in full flow by now, but Morera went to a level in some ways beyond what I have ever seen another Royal Ballet ballerina achieve. She threw the kitchen sink, the utensils and the plumbing at it in a performance of thrillingly uninhibited commitment that had the audience holding its breath. It wasn't just bravura although it was beautifully and eloquently danced. I'd never noticed before a moment just before the final crisis when it looks as if Vetsera will renege on the pact. She moves towards the wings, stops a moment and then turns back: it is decided. We have all, in our lives, had these decision moments (I'm sure) when we determine we will do something even if it is something we know that we shouldn't. I've never seen her dance like that and it seems, on reflection, such a terrible waste that this opportunity should come so late in her career. Even if she wasn't going to be doing Beauty or Swan Lake, our experience of her artistry would have been incomplete without this breathtaking performance. These dancers' trust in each other, their commitment to character and choreography and to presenting this to the audience is something I feel moved and privileged to have seen.

 

After the first shooting, Bonelli's slow emergence around the side of the screen was redolent of regret at what he had done, his decision to take his own life a frenzied reaction to the emergence of the others.

 

The curtain came down in silence. It was one of those performances that had gone somewhere none of us could have anticipated.

 

Of course, that's ultimately a tribute to Sir Kenneth MacMillan but I was trying to understand why a debut cast at a Saturday afternoon had moved me so much when a perhaps starrier, established cast hadn't. I don't think it's just down to expectation. 

 

The only explanation I can produce (and I'd welcome thoughts from other people, perhaps especially those who were less impressed than I was) is that in their freshness of execution, their occasional clumsiness and errors, their determination to present a truth that they couldn't always perform perfectly, there was nothing routine, safe or "managed" in what was done. The emotional honesty was laid bare..

 

I've written at much too much length. It was a performance that moved me very much.

 

 

Edited by Jamesrhblack
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