Royal Ballet - 2018/19 new season wish list

[Richard LH]

Akane Takada when a first artist.

[Fiz]

I thought it was her but I wasn’t sure. Thank you, Richard.

[Richard LH]

Oh my....hard to follow on with this discussion on such terms...

Edited July 19, 2018 by Richard LH

[Jan McNulty]

Hopefully it will die down.  After all, it was a wish list for the up coming season and we have known for some time what it is!

[CHazell2]

I hope that everybody is Ok and that Livia hasn't put you off. I greatly enjoy our debates and I learn such a lot from all of you.

[Douglas Allen]

 

4 minutes ago, CHazell2 said:

I hope that everybody is Ok and that Livia hasn't put you off. I greatly enjoy our debates and I learn such a lot from all of you.

 

Might I add my support to what CHazell2 has just said?

 

I've been reading the comments under various headings during the last few days with increasing bemusement and bewilderment. I assume the moderators have been working overtime (for which, many thanks) as comments seem to come and go with bewildering frequency. One moment a comment is in place and I think how unpleasant it seems and then it disappears as if it had never existed. The general tenor of several of the remarks seem unpleasant and inappropriate for this forum and whilst I haven't the slightest intention of contributing in the increasingly polarised and tendentious atmosphere, I hope regular contributors aren't put off (even if, or especially if, I disagree with them).

[FLOSS]

I shall proceed on the basis that there are at least one or two people who have not been adversely affected by the heat and are reading this thread out of  interest in the repertory rather than for the sake of being "clever" and that not everyone believes that all is for the best in this best of all ballet worlds. Thank you for the sanity of your comment about petit allegro Lin MM. You are clearly someone who wishes to discuss rather than score cheap points.

 

While it may be comforting to believe that the Ashton works which have been staged since Kevin became director represent the best of the man's output and  that the frequency with which they are performed is a good indicator of their quality  I have to point out that it is not only the lesser works which have been neglected. Unfortunately the number of revivals which an individual Ashton work receives and the regularity with which it is staged by the RB and other companies across the world is not necessarily a reflection of its quality. If it were Marguerite and Armand would be Ashton's towering masterpiece rather than merely a star vehicle. I accept that there are works in the RB back catalogue which are of only  local historic interest such as de Valois' Job, Rake, Checkmate and The Prospect Before Us and that MacMillan's "shabby little shockers" such as The Invitation, The Judas Tree and Valley of Shadows could be filed away as only to be revived on very rare occasions such as significant anniversaries. But equally there are  major works which should be maintained as part of the company's living repertory regardless of the cost involved in staging them. Works like Les Noces which only survived because Ashton persuaded Nijinska to stage it for the company should be treated as an integral  part of the company's core repertory as should MacMillan's Song of the Earth and Ashton's Daphnis and Chloe. These works all merit more than the occasional revival.

 

A number of works have been cited as evidence of Kevin's commitment to the Ashton repertory or rather the " Ashton heritage works" as  most people seem to prefer to describe them presumably because the use of the word "heritage" makes the works in question seem quaintly irrelevant to the  company's twenty first century corporate and artistic image. One of the reasons Ashton's works are not taken as seriously as they should be is that they are difficult to dance well and with the new improved technical standards which the company now boasts of it is easier to describe Ashton's works as " camp" or "fluff" than admit that the company cannot dance them properly, let alone dance them well. There are individual dancers who can dance them at something like the right speed and in the right style but sadly not enough to always do his works justice in performance.

 

The position is not irremediable, There are still dancers around who worked with him to act as coaches but are their recollections, coaching tips being recorded in anything like a systematic way ?There is an Ashton Foundation but it has a ridiculous amount of work to do to make any inroads into the task of securing the repertory's future after thirty plus years of neglect of it by those who "own" the works. There is a very simple solution to the problem but given that the Royal Ballet is almost as ambivalent towards its Ashton repertory as the Danes are to their few remaining Bournonville works  I hold out no great hopes that the necessary action will be taken by Kevin during his directorship and by the time he retires it will probably be too late. Management has to demonstrate its commitment to its Ashton repertory in the way that the Webbs have in Sarasota rather than simply talking about it. Management needs to programme a greater range of his ballets; ensure that works like Cinderella and Fille are performed as regularly as they once were (as they both make the same sort of technical demands on the company that the Petipa classics do)  ; ensure that works like Sylvia, Pigeons, Daphnis and Chloe, and Enigma Variations are performed as regularly as The Dream and Month are currently staged; cast all of the Ashton repertory with greater care than at present; possibly  introduce special classes in Ashton technique and style similar to the special Bournonville classes introduced in Denmark for those dancers who were not trained in the Bournonville tradition and finally make it clear through programming and promotion that the ability to dance Ashton well is not an optional extra but essential for those who want to be seen as the company's leading dancers in the future. In large part the secret of the successful revivals of the MacMillan cash cows is simply that they are revived so frequently. Regular timetabled revivals ensure that works are retained in the company's collective memory which means that they become easier to  revive successfully each time they are programmed simply because the majority of the company have a real feeling for how the work in question should go. As the Ashton repertory has been subject to an excessive degree of approximate casting since before the turn of the century the company needs to take care to cast dancers according their suitability for roles so that everyone has the opportunity to see exemplary casts in his works. While I recognise that it is impractical to delay revivals of ballets like Daphnis, Scenes and Symphonic until absolutely the right cast is available  the company needs to take greater care with pragmatic revivals intended to keep works in the company's living repertory .

 

Most of the works whose revival was cited as evidence of the company's commitment to the works of its founder choreographer have been indifferently cast and indifferently danced with limited understanding of the style, musicality or mood of the piece as originally performed. The last revival of Scenes de Ballet was a total disaster. It is a ballet which has a ballerina role in it. Ideally it requires a genuine ballerina rather than a senior Principal dancer to perform it. That is it requires a dancer who is an exemplar of the style, one who possesses sufficient command of the choreography to perform it with musicality, playfulness and wit . It also calls for a leading man who is capable of dancing his choreography with ease and heroic command. Without  them as a starting point you really don't have a performance. The decision to put both Scenes and Symphonic on the same programme the last time they were revived  either revealed Kevin's lack of feeling and understanding of the challenges  which the choreography of Scenes presents or his indifference to them. But then no one during Ashton's lifetime would have contemplated putting both Scenes de  Ballet and Symphonic Variations on the same bill as either the lead man in Symphonic or the man who took the Brian Shaw role in Symphonic would be needed for the Somes role in Scenes. White Monotones when last revived seemed to be performed with photo opportunities galore rather than as a flow of movement. Finally I have had the misfortune to see recent revivals of  in Voices of Spring in which no one seems able to dance it with the ease and wit the choreography requires. The men strain away at the lifts which were originally performed with consummate ease and no one seems to realise that it is not Ashton's attempt to create his own version of Spring Waters  but  an affectionate tongue in cheek comment on the entire genre of  Soviet gala display pieces.

 

 I wonder has an audience who has seen an indifferently cast and indifferently danced performance of a particular ballet actually seen a performances of the ballet in question?  It is not just a question of the number of Ashton ballets which the company says  it has danced since 2012 or that it intends to dance in the forthcoming season. It is a question of how they are danced. Are they danced with an easy command of Ashton's choreography, his musicality, his speed, his dynamics  and an understanding of the work's mood and purpose? There has to be something wrong if a ballet which is full technical challenges such as Rhapsody clearly is looks like a mere display of technique and more like the balletic equivalent of a show jumping course in which technical challenges are addressed and surmounted one after another. Rhapsody should look effortless and elegant in performance. If in  a ballet such as Les Patineurs  a dancer can't do particular steps in their allocated role the dancer in question should not be dancing in it. I would guess that Fille is the only Ashton ballet which is seen with sufficient frequency for the audience to have a real grasp of what it should look like in performance enabling them to distinguish between a bad performance and a weak ballet.

 

Just for the record there are some major works missing from the evidential list such as Enigma Variations which was last performed at Covent Garden in 2004. It is a sublime piece if cast well and unbearable if it is not. It was danced more recently by BRB who manged to serve up both forms of revival at successive performances. Daphnis and Chloe which was also last seen in 2004 is another neglected masterpiece which needs the right cast rather than MacMillan style acting to make it  work. Then there are works like a Wedding Bouquet which I recall enjoying a great deal in the past;Façade which managed to retain its place in the repertory from 1931 to 1994 before being abandoned; it used to be seen as a great way to end a mixed bill. Then there is  Jazz Calendar another dessert style entertainment to bring a mixed bill to an end. I should like the opportunity to re-evaluate works such as Walk to the Paradise Garden which the late David Vaughan described as a little masterpiece and Les Illuminations. The point about all of this is that it would be possible to restore Ashton to his proper position as one of the major choreographers of the twentieth century if the company which he helped to establish had the will and the commitment to do so. But the RB has to want to do it and there is little evidence that it is sufficiently interested. If anyone is interested in what is missing then you might like to search out an earlier thread about Frederick Ashton's ballets and style

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2018 by FLOSS

[CHazell2]

1 minute ago, Douglas Allen said:

 

 

Might I add my support to what CHazell2 has just said?

 

I've been reading the comments under various headings during the last few days with increasing bemusement and bewilderment. I assume the moderators have been working overtime (for which, many thanks) as comments seem to come and go with bewildering frequency. One moment a comment is in place and I think how unpleasant it seems and then it disappears as if it had never existed. The general tenor of several of the remarks seem unpleasant and inappropriate for this forum and whilst I haven't the slightest intention of contributing in the increasingly polarised and tendentious atmosphere, I hope regular contributors aren't put off (even if, or especially if, I disagree with them).

Thank you for your support, Douglas.

[CHazell2]

In addition to what Floss have said. I too, would love to see Enigma Variations and Façade back in rep - as I always wanted to see them. Unfortunately I think that Mr O'Hare is in an impossible position, in this current financial climate - it makes sense to have the big money-spinners in rep rather than ballets that perhaps that not many people are interested in. Sign of the times unfortunately. Perhaps Ashton will (like fashion) come back into style. Certainly the Royal Ballet is in a much stronger position technically and there are still people about who remember how to dance Ashton.

 

I know the Two Pigeons was a success but that may not be so for the other Ashton Ballets

Edited July 19, 2018 by CHazell2

[LinMM]

Many thanks Richard LH for that lovely clip of Akane!! That would be me doing petit allegro in my dreams!!

its the lovely ballon she has and what feet!! 

You can put changes of direction in ( en tournant etc) which make it that much more complex but it should be quick moving ( no time to think) and very neat of course!! 

Probably my body type doesn't suit petit allegro but I still love it and it's exciting when you see someone doing it well.

Unfortunately what often happens in classes where there is a time issue is the petit allegro becomes just  sixteen jumps in first/second/ fifth etc and then straight on to the grand allegro.

 

[bangorballetboy]

Just to mention that Enigma Variations was last performed by RB at ROH in 2011 and I recall Bennet Gartside as an excellent Elgar.

[alison]

Thank you, BBB.  I was about to post the same.

[Jane S]

Did he do Elgar? I must have missed that - but I remember him as an outstandingly good Jaeger, rivalling the role's creator.   

[Josephine]

1 hour ago, bangorballetboy said:

Just to mention that Enigma Variations was last performed by RB at ROH in 2011 and I recall Bennet Gartside as an excellent Elgar.

 

I would love to see a Royal Ballet revival of Enigma Variations. I do remember excellent performances in 2011 but the cast I saw was led by Christopher Saunders as Elgar with Bennet Gartside as Jaeger.

 

Back to the wishlist, I would certainly welcome a revival of Les Noces, as mentioned in Floss's post above.

[Coated]

What would be the minimum number of performance of a full length ballet in a season to make it financially viable and not overtax dancers with rehearsals? Would it possible to schedule short runs, say 6-8 performances of Fille or Cinderella if they were put on regularly? My ideal would be shorter runs of full length ballets so I don't need to chose between regular Ashton and Macmillan performances, but I suspect that's not feasible.

[ninamargaret]

1 hour ago, Coated said:

What would be the minimum number of performance of a full length ballet in a season to make it financially viable and not overtax dancers with rehearsals? Would it possible to schedule short runs, say 6-8 performances of Fille or Cinderella if they were put on regularly? My ideal would be shorter runs of full length ballets so I don't need to chose between regular Ashton and Macmillan performances, but I suspect that's not feasible.

I suspect the main difficulty in your suggestion is that any full length ballet involves much work to prepare costumes and sets, and because of the financial outlay necessary longer runs are preferred. We've had some pretty long runs this season and while most have attracted full houses i wonder if Fille does it or Cinderella would? Also, giving shorter runs would provide even less chances for soloists to really get to grips with a role. The mechanics of programming ballets to appeal to the various tastes of audiences, plus providing opportunities for the ever increasing number of fine dancers,and fitting in with the opera company never cease to amaze me. Combining artistic and commercial requirements can't be easy.

[aliceinwoolfland]

I can’t wait for Woolf Works to come back!

[FLOSS]

Thank you for pointing out my error about the last time that Enigma was performed. Of course it was danced during Mason's final season as Artistic Director as  Lady Elgar was one of her important roles.2011 is seven years ago and as we know what is programmed for the 2018-19 season that means that there will have been a gap of at least eight years between revivals if Enigma were to be staged in the 2019-20 season. Enigma is a major Ashton achievement and while I don't expect it to be danced every season it was I think the first time that a choreographer had tried  and succeeded in portraying real people rather than fictional characters on stage. Elgar's daughter seems to have thought that Ashton succeeded in portraying them as they were in life saying words to the effect that they were all awful. The ballet was the only one of Ashton's works which Lincoln Kirstein wrote about in his book Music and Metaphor, not I accept a reason for staging it, but it gives an idea of its significance in the development of ballet in the twentieth century. Perhaps there is no need to worry as given another ten years or so and it will probably be all but impossible to revive it and make it live on stage as all the links with the original cast will probably be lost. As our knowledge and understanding of the repertory is largely in the hands of a company's artistic director as it is he/she who controls our knowledge by his/her choices of repertory and casts I can't help wondering what sort of choreographer Ashton will have been created by 2031 when the company celebrates is centenary. I suspect that by then he will have been reduced to MacMillan's harbinger and the purveyor of light amusing ballets.

Edited July 20, 2018 by FLOSS

[Richard LH]

Well plenty of critics, and paying customers, appear more than satisfied that Ashton is still safe in the hands of the RB, judging by the enthusiastic reviews of the most recent productions of La Fille, Sylvia, and the M/A, Dream, and S/V triple bill (about to come out on DVD). Hayward (as I mentioned before) and Takada are two young principals who have gained particular praise in Ashton roles.

[Geoff]

Might I add a piece of evidence in support of FLOSS and others? I have access (from a variety of sources, no more details sorry) to generally unavailable recordings of the Royal Ballet, from the 1950s to the present day. The loss of quality over the decades, in both Petipa and Ashton, is sadly obvious if one compares like with like. Not just the corps, but individual variations and even major roles used regularly to be better danced.

 

There are exceptions, of course, but the general trend is clear. In summary, it is as if speed, precision and musicality has increasingly suffered at the expense of athleticism and "emotionalism".

 

Memory is notoriously fallible - it is as easy to be wrong about how wonderful things used to be as it is to claim things have never been better - so I would encourage the posting of where one can find examples. One from me: Beryl Grey's Lilac Fairy occasionally pops up on YouTube, though I haven't checked recently.

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Geoff

[Scheherezade]

Didn't K O'H state recently at the Barbican that Ashton's lesser performed works would possibly be revived in the new Linbury? Whether these works will include those mentioned on various wish lists or whether they are likely to be restricted to reconstructions of real curiosities taken from remastered videos - I seem to recall mention of the latter - is another matter. It would seem to indicate that there is unlikely to be an immediate revival of the bulk of Ashton's works on the main stage, perhaps because K O'H feels that the company as a whole cannot currently do these works justice, but it nevertheless represents promise for the future.

[Richard LH]

8 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

perhaps because K O'H feels that the company as a whole cannot currently do these works justice

I don't why he would feel that, going by the glowing reviews for recent productions I refer to above.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Richard LH

[Lizbie1]

At the risk of taking this off topic, I wonder whether David Bintley's successor at BRB might be inclined or prevailed on to programme more Ashton. While I don't think BRB has exactly neglected Ashton, I'd like to think there is scope to perform more.

[Scheherezade]

 

 

7 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

I don't why he would feel that, going by the glowing reviews for recent productions I refer to above.

 

But conflicting views for the more challenging works, with glowing reviews reserved only for some. Don't get me wrong, Richard LH, I am not an indiscriminate critic of the available potential - I feel that the company is in its best shape since the seventies - but perhaps (and I use that word deliberately) the difficulty in performing Ashton's works as they should be performed may dictate that the Linbury may provide a better forum until the required technique has been sharpened.

[Jan McNulty]

12 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

At the risk of taking this off topic, I wonder whether David Bintley's successor at BRB might be inclined or prevailed on to programme more Ashton. While I don't think BRB has exactly neglected Ashton, I'd like to think there is scope to perform more.

 

I believe that's what most of us hope.

[Ian Macmillan]

Mention , above, of the 'new Linbury' also raises the question of how the Royal Ballet will be able to run concurrent programmes there.  My impression is that the Company is fairly continuously occupied at present with current main stage programmes plus rehearsing what's next.

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, Ian Macmillan said:

Mention , above, of the 'new Linbury' also raises the question of how the Royal Ballet will be able to run concurrent programmes there.  My impression is that the Company is fairly continuously occupied at present with current main stage programmes plus rehearsing what's next.

 

there's nearly always a few dancers that don't seem to be onstage (or have 'character' parts) during some spells in the season, so I'm sure they could find someone to do something interesting. For them, and us 🙂

[Richard LH]

22 hours ago, Geoff said:

it is as if speed, precision and musicality has increasingly suffered at the expense of athleticism and "emotionalism".

Geoff I think a great ballet performance does need an ability to act and yes "emote" if you like, to convey a role convincingly  to the audience, unless, I suppose, the dance is purtely an abstract one with no story involved. Also athleticism, and stamina, must be crucial, albeit kept within the context of proper ballet techinque. I'm sure it's a question of striking a proper balance  between all the elements and of course this won't always have succeeded in the past, just as it does not always succeed in the present. 

The speed of a perfomance is an interesting one... I found this older RB Pas de Trois from Swan Lake Act 1 - not sure of the year, or even the performers (but with acknowlegments to the Royal Opera House) where they do the variations played at a fair lick, but for  me the current RB equivalent is more successful, with the music signficantly slowed down. I think dancers can show good technique and musical appreciation by displaying fine control during slower passages. Overall I do prefer the latest RB version (some of which at least can be found on the internet although I am not sure about the copyright issues.  DVD next May, hopefully).

 

[bridiem]

Thanks very much for posting this, RIchard LH. It reminded me of why I used to find the pas de trois breathtakingly exciting - clearly it was partly to do with the speed, building up to such a thrilling climax, and the lightness of the dancing. I do prefer that to the slower pace at which it's now taken, no matter how well it's danced. The male dancer is Michael Coleman but the names of the women haven't yet come back to me. I think it's the late 1970s but no doubt someone else will be able to confirm.

[MRR]

From the credits, the two ballerinas are Sandra Conley and Rosalyn Whitten.  Wasn't impressed with Coleman but enjoyed the two ladies.

 

Sandra's entrechat six (the beated jumps in the sequence beginning at 2:35) are on par with the men.  The only ballerina I saw attempt a six in the current run was Mayara Magri, and I think Sandra's are better.

 

ETA: Bridiem, this performance was in 1982.

Edited July 21, 2018 by MRR

[Richard LH]

On 19/07/2018 at 19:14, Richard LH said:

Oh my....hard to follow on with this discussion on such terms...

Just for the sake of context, in case anyone has been trying to read through this thread more recently and make sense of it,  I posted the above in relation to the preceding one soon after that was posted. At that time the preceding post contained other material which now has been removed.

[FLOSS]

Richard L H your position is an interesting one. If what you say is correct it would seem that all those involved in the shift in the performance style of the great Petipa ballets which came to dominate the performance of his works during the last twenty years of the twentieth century and continues to hold sway had a greater insight and understanding of his  musicality as  revealed in the relationship between his choreography and the  music to which it is set than the great man himself.

 

I am afraid that I stick to the old fashioned view that Petipa expected his choreography to be performed at the tempi which the composer indicated in his score. Another unfashionable opinion that I will readily admit to is that I think that ballet is a theatrical artform and that the performance of ballets by choreographers like Petipa, Ivanov, Ashton and Balanchine  is not about the execution of classroom steps to music played at a speed which accommodates their performance in perfect classroom style where the most theatrical element in performances is that they are performed on a stage in a theatre. Ballet is a theatrical art rather than a display of technical perfection which is concerned with performing dance works in which the choreographer has often deliberately chosen to modify those classroom steps requiring them to be performed with varying dynamics and at the speed dictated by the tempi of the score to which they are set.

 

 We are all free to make our own decisions about what performance style we prefer to see when ballets created in the nineteenth century are danced. But I think that it has to be understood that the modern style of performance is a recent "tradition" which would almost certainly leave both Petipa and Ivanov struggling  to recognise their ballets in performance. If you are interested in getting an idea of what ballets like Sleeping Beauty  and Swan Lake look like when danced with their original musicality rather than having an alien musicality and aesthetic imposed on them you might like to go to the Marius Petipa website which has excerpts from Ratmansky's reconstructions of both Beauty and Lac. Ratmansky's work was prompted by the thought that it might be good to see what Petipa's balletslooked like in performance rather than other choreographer's modifications of them. He bases his reconstructions on the Stepanov notations of the ballets which record not only the choreographed movements but their close relationship to the music to which they are set.Another source of information about a performance style which is far closer to what Petipa would have expected to have seen can be found in recordings of Ulanova and Fonteyn in performances recorded in the 1940's and 1950's . They were filmed long before the great Petipa "Go Slow" took hold in both East and the West. Another source of information about performance style thought by Ratmansky to be closely related to Petipa's own can be found in early recording of the Ashton repertory. As an eminent critic said neither Petipa nor Ashton benefit from being performed slowly.

 

As far as the clip shown above I would simply point out that when it was filmed,in I think 1981 as part of the company's fiftieth anniversary celebrations,  Coleman must have been forty and was still part of the company's first cast for the pas de trois as he had been for years. I mention this not to get a sympathy vote for Coleman himself but to suggest the company was already in its long decline when the recording was made. All of the recordings which include Coleman show him in decline rather than at his best. Conley's and Whitten's performances are well worth watching. But Coleman even caught perhaps five years too late was, even in 1981, in this role and several others considerably stronger technically than the majority of his juniors. The recording is of a modified version of the Helpmann production. Its first act demanded rather more good classical dancers than the Dowell production which replaced it. I have always thought that Dowell's interest in choreographic archaeology was prompted as much by the technical state of the company as an enthusiasm for authenticity.

Edited July 21, 2018 by FLOSS

[Fiz]

::peeps out from behind the barricades::: is it safe here now?