Royal Ballet - 2018/19 new season wish list

[Lizbie1]

16 minutes ago, fashionista said:

I am concerned, as you are, that the rep is leaning too heavily on new works, many of which appear for one season and are never performed again as they are not worthy of being revived.

 

On the contrary, it appears to be a matter of policy to revive new works at least once, whether or not they're any good. Fewer of those revivals might clear the way for some of the older (and better) one-acters to re-appear.

[Colman]

20 minutes ago, CheerwellMaker said:

 

As much as I'd love to see the season you're suggesting, why the Nureyev La Bayadere over the current production? 

 

Because it's older and therefore better?

[Rob S]

5 minutes ago, Livia said:

The current crop of dancers more interested in posting social media of themselves lifting weights in the gym, than being able to perform two clean pirouettes.

 

LOL 😂 Wasn't like that in your day, was it? #silversurfer #howmanyismany

[zxDaveM]

I have discovered the rather wonderful 'ignore' option against another user's account. And have tried it - and it works! (see the section under About Balletcoforum, Problems, queries & feedback)

 

Normal blood pressure restored...

[Lindsay]

I think it is fair that consideration should be given to audience members who prefer some of the new works over some of the 'heritage' works.   I would take Woolf Works or Polyphonia over Two Pigeons or The Invitation any day.  But equally I would rather have Fille, Symphonic Variations or Rhapsody than any of Alice, Winter's Tale or Frankenstein.  I am able to defend my preferences on a rational basis should I be required to do so.  The De Valois works that I have seen over the past couple of decades now appear hopelessly dated (if indeed they ever had much artistic merit to begin with) and it is right that they should be retired.  

This is not a rejection of the company's 'heritage'.  As I'm sure Livia will agree, the Royal Ballet is not the Mariinsky.  Neither should it aspire to be. I am happy that dancers (and directors) in a leading ballet company in a free western society should play a role in relation to their art form that is wider than mere curators of a museum.  If Petipa must be set in aspic, let that be the mission of the Russian companies or the Ratmansky revivals.  Although I disagree with many decisions, both repertoire and casting, made by present and past RB directors, that disagreement is within the bounds of recognising that the company is balancing continued performance of the 'classics' with exploration of ballet as a living art form.   If that means dancers' bodies represent a healthier aesthetic and that their careers (and later lives) are less frequently truncated by injury, that seems to be a worthwhile price to pay.  Hand wringing over a perceived 'decline and fall' seems to me to demonstrate a distinct narrowness of imagination and artistic vision.    Those who prefer a corps of spaghetti-limbed giraffes or a flat-out racist production of Bayadere can see the Mariinsky on their London tours.   A cursory scan of ballet discussion boards shows that every company has a little posse of amateur critics explaining loudly to newcomers how everything was better in the old days and they are too ignorant to understand why it is All Wrong Now.  These people are very predicable and rather tiresome.   I have frequently criticised performances by some of the 'favoured' dancers on this site and have never felt attacked or censored for having done so.   Livia's shrieks of victimhood seem to me to be Fake News.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Lindsay

[Colman]

3 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

I have discovered the rather wonderful 'ignore' option against another user's account. And have tried it - and it works! (see the section under About Balletcoforum, Problems, queries & feedback)

 

Normal blood pressure restored...

 

Yup, it's a great improvement.

[Richard LH]

46 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

Kevin seems to need an excuse to stage any Ashton ballet except Marguerite and Armand

I don't quite follow, Floss; since Kevin took over in 2012 the RB has had Ashton ballets in every year,  including (as well as M & A) Sylvia, La Fille (twice),  La Valse, Meditation From Thais, Voices of Spring, Monotones (twice), Rhapsody (twice - "heart-stopping Ashton from Francesca Hayward" - Luke Jennings) , The Dream (twice - "As for Hayward, I don’t believe I’ve seen a better Titania since Antoinette Sibley" - Judith Mackrell) , Scenes de Ballet, Symphonic Variations (twice) , A Month in the Country,  The Two Pigeons, and The Sleeping Beauty with additional Ashton choreography. 2018/19 includes Les Patineurs, The Two Pigeons and A Month in the Country.

[FLOSS]

CherwellMaker

The answer  to the question of  why I want the Nureyev staging is quite simple. It is the staging in which Fonteyn herself actually danced. It is a self contained staging  which ends in a sunburst with Solor and Nikiya at its centre. I recall it being exceptionally beautiful and far grander with its thirty two shades than the twenty four shades version of the Markarova staging. Needless to say it is far more of a test of the corps de ballet ability to dance as  one without wobbling because of the eight additional shades who have to descend the ramp. In 1975 it was the version which the corps performed when it was awarded the Evening Standard Award for achievement in classical dance, who at that time were described as dancing "as a single entity with shared style and ideal unity". They danced it with a wonderful combination of Russian style and Ashtonian epaulement and arabesques. It is impossible to describe how extraordinary it was and went on being for years.

 

fashionista

I really think that one of the problems which the Ashton repertory faces and the MacMillan repertory does not is that MacMillan is rarely, if ever, consigned to the heritage box. His works are part of the company's living repertory whereas most of Ashton's ballets are "heritage" repertory only to be staged under duress. So although the company has a number of works like Les Rendezvous which helped create the company and its style in the early days of its existence and would certainly sharpen up the corps de ballet today they are not pressed into service. A failure which the late David Vaughan used to comment on quite often.

 

As to the lack of a good Lilac Fairy or Myrthe.

 I am unsure whether the problem is essentially one of casting, coaching or a combination of the two. Perhaps everyone has managed to persuade themselves that roles like Myrthe, Lilac Fairy and the Fairy Variations were originally danced by senior dancers in the company because they were the only ones with sufficient technique to be capable of performing them and that everyone's improved technique means that such roles should no longer be seen as anything other than secondary roles to be danced by the up and coming and dancers otherwise difficult to cast because of their height. Everyone seems to have lost sight of the fact that they were created for leading dancers. In 1890 the Fairy Variations allowed Petipa to display the skills of the company's own leading dancers to the audience before they saw the guest star. They are ballerina roles not roles for the hopeful aspirant. They were created to display the dancer's exemplary style and command of the choreography. As far as the Lilac Fairy is concerned ideally she combines the commanding technical skill to dance her solo effortlessly and the stage presence of a great character dancer which Bergsma certainly did.

 

I am not sure how these roles have gradually come to be treated or seen by the company as a whole as essentially secondary roles which should only be allocated to dancers at a certain level in the company but that is what has happened which I guess means that they don't get the rigorous polishing which they need. You get the occasional good performance of one or two of the Variations but never a complete set. Beryl Grey's unscheduled intervention at an Insight Evening was a real eye opener. Perhaps it is as much a question of not being coached by the right people as not being cast with sufficient care and not getting enough performances to consolidate and never having seen an exemplary performance of the role.

 

The company's continuity in experience of good and great performance of works like Manon seems to work wonders as far as establishing and maintaining standards in the performance of the major Macmillan narrative works is concerned . They are revived regularly and there are so many performances of them that the occasional casting mistake has no impact on the reputation of the ballet or its maker. Programming six performances of an Ashton mixed bill with sometimes three different casts does not help maintain standards or style. If you go to a performance of an unknown work which has been allocated to well known popular dancers who  will you blame if you find the performance less than adequate? Will you blame the management who miscast the work? This is unlikely as you have never seen the ballet before . Will you blame the dancer or dancers in question? Of course not they are your favourite dancers. They are the reason why you booked in the first place and being wonderful they can do no wrong. That only leaves the choreographer. It has to be his fault and here is the evidence . The ballet has not been revived for years. There must be a reason for its neglect. I saw a bad performance of course it's the ballet which is the problem. That is what happened with the revival of Pigeons the best cast was the last one who only got a single performance.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by FLOSS

[Rob S]

1 minute ago, Livia said:

 

Ah, res ipsa loquitur.

 

And I'm sure dear Robert, thinks there nothing wrong with this rudeness and ageism. The awful crony ganging up of the five or so people who seem to post on what appears to be fan site. 

 

I’m just really surprised you spend your time paying attention to what such mediocre dancers are doing to increase their strength and prevent or recover from injury.

[Rob S]

1 minute ago, Livia said:

and there have been many messaging me privately, feel this way strongly to. The tragedy that they feel they cannot reply or make similar posts for fear of abuse and censorship is not fake.

 

How many? 

[Lizbie1]

If there is a decline in standards in the corps - and I have no opinion worth listening to on the matter - is it possible that it's not simply because of the new works but down to the prominence of long runs of MacMillan in programming? I absolutely get that he is canonical to the RB, that his "Big Three" works do very good box office, that he allows the corps to flex their dramatic muscles and that the dancers love performing his works (though to me this last is the weakest argument in his favour). However, I always think when watching his 3 act ballets that the corps is underemployed technically. If a run of, say, Manon is on at the same time as a contemporary mixed bill, does this have the effect of the corps losing their edge technically speaking, or is daily class enough to keep that at bay? Of course it may be that KO'H is careful to avoid such a situation in the programming in the first place, I haven't checked!)

 

I'm asking this from a position of full ignorance!

[Lindsay]

Livia has the bigliest number of private messages Rob. Really really big numbers. The biggest.

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, CheerwellMaker said:

 

As much as I'd love to see the season you're suggesting, why the Nureyev La Bayadere over the current production? 

 

 

Hello CheerwellMaker and welcome out of the lurking shadows!

[Rob S]

1 minute ago, Lindsay said:

Livia has the bigliest number of private messages Rob. Really really big numbers. The biggest.

 

Yes I can imagine, I have noticed a slowing down of the internet this afternoon as it struggles to cope with all the traffic heading Livia’s way 

[Jan McNulty]

56 minutes ago, Livia said:

Ah, the eternal snideness levied at anyone daring to criticise the current regime, company or rep.

 

No, my dear Colman, Floss is quite correct. The 1963 Nureyev version is vastly superior and much harder to dance than the 1989 Makarova truncated version.

For one Makarova removed eight shades from the Kingdom act, 24 instead of the Petipa 32. What matters this, you say? Well, let's halve 'to be or not to be' from Hamlet, the 32 shades is a cornerstone, the apogee of classicism. The mark of a corps of any great classical company. To lessen the impact, to shorten the passage and the technical demands it makes on the corps, where every member is a soloist is to destroy the integrity of the ballet and the text.

 

The Nureyev version includes all the classical variations as danced by the Kirov/Mariinsky, it places great demands on the company as a whole, from corps to principals, every member must be alive and present through their technique and the ballet.

 

The highly truncated Makarova version is like a taster menu of La Bayadere. La Bayadere lite. Go to Youtube, watch the 1989 POB production of Nureyev's Bayadere and then compare to the current Makarova Royal production. If you cannot or will not see the difference. How one is the soul of classicism, the other a bland abstracton, then there is nothing more to say.

 

Floss is also correct there isn't a single Lilac or Myrtha in the company at present, nor a full cast for a Symphonic Variations or Scenes de Ballet. The current crop of dancers more interested in posting social media of themselves lifting weights in the gym, than being able to perform two clean pirouettes.

 

When did RB last perform the Nureyev Bayadere?  Perhaps many of us have not seen it to make the comparison.

 

 

[Anna C]

Can we all keep to the original topic, please? 

 

Thank you. 

 

Edited to add: Jan and I were posting simultaneously. 

[Rob S]

3 minutes ago, Livia said:

 

 

The sweetest thing is, Dear Lindsay, you and Dear Robert think this is witty and clever. Despite responding to you civilly, explaining my points and addressing yours, you all persist in this rudeness. It's terribly sad and very immature. And yes, indeed, I do have many messages complaining of this behaviour.

You’ve not addressed mine. Very rude.

 

how many different people have messaged you to express agreement?

 

im going to guess one, who then later messaged you to ask that you don’t name them after you started telling us all you’ve had many messages

[SPD444]

50 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

I have discovered the rather wonderful 'ignore' option against another user's account. And have tried it - and it works! (see the section under About Balletcoforum, Problems, queries & feedback)

 

Normal blood pressure restored...

 

Thank you Dave, have followed your example. Hopefully that's the end of those odious opinions.

[Anna C]

10 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

When did RB last perform the Nureyev Bayadere?  Perhaps many of us have not seen it to make the comparison.

 

 

 

I haven't seen it.  I must look online.

 

The discussion around Myrtha and Lilac interests me because in the not too distant past (a decade or so ago?) I can remember Nuñez dancing both roles with her usual exemplary technique and wonderful acting.  If I remember rightly, Cojocaru danced Giselle and Aurora respectively so Nuñez was been a Principal at the time.  I wonder if the runs thereafter had First Soloists and Soloists in those roles?  

 

Incidentally, Laura McCulloch stands out in my memory as a wonderful Myrtha in terms of both zero wobbles technically and a great stage presence.    I believe she was a Soloist at the time.

[FLOSS]

As to the damage which extended runs of MacMillan can do. Some years ago the company danced its usual quota of Romeo and Juliet which always seems to go on interminably for weeks. At the end of the run they danced a mixed bill which included MacMillan's Concerto and a right royal mess they made of it. Now Concerto is a piece which MacMillan devised during his time in Berlin to save him having to go and watch daily class but still enable him to identify those who needed to work on their technique.  Because of the way in which the dancers are lined up at certain points of the ballet those dancers whose technique is not up to the mark stand out like a sore thumb. One critic who should have known better expressed surprise that the company were struggling with its choreography as they had just finished dancing Romeo and Juliet, She did not seem to see the possibility of the link between all those Romeos and the company's sorry state. Somehow tripping about the stage as a townsperson with an individual backstory is not quite enough to keep your technique where it should be.

Edited July 18, 2018 by FLOSS

[Jan McNulty]

2 minutes ago, Livia said:

 

Hi Janet,

 

Not since the mid 80s unfortunately, when Dowell took over he had a clear out of the classics. La Bayadere especially because he no longer had a company who could dance it, so commissioned the truncated Makarova version.

 

The original version with Fonteyn as Nikiya and Semour, Park and Mason as Shades was astonishing, we'd never seen anything like it. Later in the early 80s Nureyev restaged it for the RB and used the very young Bryony Brind as Nikiya, he said 'she was the only one there who had that something' - it seemed he's minted a new star, but as we all know poor Bryony's career never fulfilled its early promise.

 

If you want to see the Nureyev version the Paris Opera Ballet version is pretty much faithful and can be found online, I believe.

 

I saw the POB version when that company opened the Lowry in 2000 and I agree that it was fabulous.  I haven't seen the current RB version since the late 80s and don't really remember too much about it.  

 

I did (because of its setting) do something very foolish when I saw the matinee at ROH - there was an Indian festival in the basement at Liberty at the time and I had the back of my hand henna'd.  It caused much hilarity in work and a very sore hand as I was scrubbing it every day for 2 weeks till the skin was red raw and the henna had faded enough not to be noticeable!

[RuthE]

9 minutes ago, Anna C said:

The discussion around Myrtha and Lilac interests me because in the not too distant past (a decade or so ago?) I can remember Nuñez dancing both roles with her usual exemplary technique and wonderful acting.  If I remember rightly, Cojocaru danced Giselle and Aurora respectively so Nuñez was been a Principal at the time.  I wonder if the runs thereafter had First Soloists and Soloists in those roles?  

 

There was also that sole spectacular performance during the last-but-one run when Osipova, returned from injury, danced Giselle, and Nunez (announced at really quite short notice) danced the only Myrthe in her recent history.

[bangorballetboy]

19 minutes ago, Livia said:

 

Not since the mid 80s unfortunately, when Dowell took over he had a clear out of the classics. La Bayadere especially because he no longer had a company who could dance it, so commissioned the truncated Makarova version.

 

 

I don't think we can really say Dowell commissioned the Makarova production, as she had already set it on ABT a number of years earlier (with Dowell as Solor).  Apologies if I have misinterpreted.

[CheerwellMaker]

The 1992 version of the Nureyev production by the POB is on YouTube in full. I couldn't compare to the royal's but the corps really are impressive in the shades scene. 

[Minxette]

47 minutes ago, Livia said:

 

 

The sweetest thing is, Dear Lindsay, you and Dear Robert think this is witty and clever. Despite responding to you civilly, explaining my points and addressing yours, you all persist in this rudeness. It's terribly sad and very immature. And yes, indeed, I do have many messages complaining of this behaviour.

 

I was going to private message you as well Livia - empathising that one cannot express views freely without the threat of an angry lynch mob assembling should one's opinion not be shared.  I totally accept that everyone will have their own opinion (irrespective of 'credentials') and that they may not agree with my views....and that's OK!  Live and let live.  I don't have to like what you like, and vice versa.  I actually enjoy hearing why others like dancers that I don't admire and vice versa.  We can co-exist as mature adults, surely?

 

So please add me to your list of people who feel self-censorship is less stressful than the possibility of a lively and engaging debate, encompassing disagreements and varying opinions.  Also add my circle of ballet-loving friends who do not post because of this.  Sadly, I know there are many of us who lurk in the shadows for fear of offering opinions that not everyone agrees with.  Let's not distract and obfuscate from the issue here by focusing on how many private messages Livia has received or her age (really?!).  Let's focus on the climate of fear and repression that people who do not post feel.  By definition, these people are hardly going to come out in hoards to wade into this debate unless they want their feet beaten with bamboo sticks.  I just felt a little suicidal/reckless so decided to stick my neck out to post what I hope is not controversial or unreasonable - the right to freedom of speech without persecution or pathological hatred.

 

Until this forum starts to be more inclusive and tolerant of opposing views, this will be the only thing I post to a discussion thread which is why you probably won't have heard of me and will hopefully forget me very quickly too.  Please don't get flippant and underestimate/dismiss as trivial how many of 'us' there really are.  You'll never know because we fear the bamboo sticks too much and at the end of the day, this is just a ballet forum; there are far more important issues to stand up for what you believe in and get knee-capped for.  

Edited July 18, 2018 by Minxette

[Anna C]

5 minutes ago, Minxette said:

 

I was going to private message you as well Livia - empathising that one cannot express views freely without the threat of an angry lynch mob assembling should one's opinion not be shared.  I totally accept that everyone will have their own opinion (irrespective of 'credentials') and that they may not agree with my views....and that's OK!  Live and let live.  I don't have to like what you like, and vice versa.  I actually enjoy hearing why others like dancers that I don't admire and vice versa.  We can co-exist as mature adults, surely?

 

So please add me to your list of people who feel self-censorship is less stressful than the possibility of a lively and engaging debate, encompassing disagreements and varying opinions.  Also add my circle of ballet-loving friends who sadly do not post because of this.  Sadly, I know there are many of us who lurk in the shadows for fear of offering opinions that not everyone agrees with.  Let's not distract and obfuscate from the issue here by focusing on how many private messages Livia has received or her age (really?!).  Let's focus on the climate of fear and repression that people who do not post feel.  By definition, these people are hardly going to come out in hoards to wade into this debate unless they want their feet beaten with bamboo sticks.  I just felt a little suicidal/reckless so decided to stick my neck out to post what I hope is not controversial or unreasonable - the right to freedom of speech without persecution or pathological hatred.

 

Until this forum starts to be more inclusive and tolerant of opposing views, this will be the only thing I post to a discussion thread which is why you probably won't have heard of me and will hopefully forget me very quickly too.  Please don't get flippant and underestimate/dismiss as trivial how many of 'us' there really are.  You'll never know because we fear the bamboo sticks too much and at the end of the day, this is just a ballet forum; there are far more important issues to stand up for what you believe in and get knee-capped for.  

 

Again, could we keep on topic please? 

 

Many thanks. 

[CHazell2]

I quite like to see a new production of the Sleeping Beauty as I think that the revived Messel one has ran out of steam. I know that it is an iconic RB production and bringing it back for the 75th anniversary a decade ago was absolutely the right thing to do but I think that it is time for a change.

 

I think too that the Awakening Pas de Deux should be restored as a) it is a beautiful Ashton piece with beautiful Tchaikovsky music and b) it provides a vital piece in the story as Aurora and the Prince get to see each other for the first time.

 

 

[CHazell2]

I don't think that Petipa should be set in aspic - like the Mariinsky seems to be these days - doing the same tired old productions of the classics year in and year old.

[MRR]

57 minutes ago, Livia said:

 

Hello Anna

 

Cojocaru became principal first on Monday April 23rd 2001 after her astonishing matinee debut on Saturday 21st April. Up until that point she'd danced Fonteyn's role in Symphonic and Juliet. Both substituting for injured dancers. Nunez became a principal under Stretton, but yes indeed under Dowell she'd danced Lilac and Myrtha.

Nunez danced SPF (replacing Bussell) and Swanhila under Dowell, but not Myrtha or Lilac. She debuted Myrtha under Stretton, May or June 2002, and Lilac under Mason when the Makarova production premiered in March 2003. She also debuted Aurora during that run, which I saw.

 

I recall quite liking the Makarova Sleeping Beauty and wishing it hadn't been shelved so quickly. Also, yes, the Nureyev Bayadere is a better (and far more difficult) version than Makarova's, but it's the only full-length of his I find watchable.

[taxi4ballet]

2 hours ago, Livia said:

A lot of the problem rests with the fact that class at the Royal is very short and very big. 75 minutes instead of 90 minutes this changed as union rules came more and more into play and it was mandatory that dancers had to be paid to go to class, rather sadly than they see it as vital parts of their upkeep. 

I recall reading an article some time ago, and the reason given was that there had been a change in employment law.

Anyone required to be on business premises during a certain time period is to be paid for their time. It covers many industries, not just performing arts. The change in law was to close a loophole whereby employers were taking advantage and not paying their staff during periods of training. Employers can no longer demand that their employees are present during working hours without remuneration.

Edited July 18, 2018 by taxi4ballet

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, MRR said:

 

I recall quite liking the Makarova Sleeping Beauty and wishing it hadn't been shelved so quickly. 

 

I saw one performance of that Sleeping Beauty and despite the fact it was Miyako Yoshida and Johan Kobborg I was bored rigid and never wanted to see it again!

 

Each to his own.

[CHazell2]

15 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

I saw one performance of that Sleeping Beauty and despite the fact it was Miyako Yoshida and Johan Kobborg I was bored rigid and never wanted to see it again!

 

Each to his own.

Just out of interest, why did that production bore you Jan? - was it the design or the chorographical text?

 

I saw that production too twice I think and I remember thinking that although the scenery and costumes were lovely - it was the wrong chorographical text - although I did enjoy the choreography for Carabosse in the Prologue.

[loveclassics]

2 hours ago, SPD444 said:

 

Thank you Dave, have followed your example. Hopefully that's the end of those odious opinions.

Me too - thanks a lot Dave, it's like getting rid of an irritating mosquito.

 

Linda