Jump to content

Viviana Durante Company: Kenneth MacMillan - Steps Back in Time, London, April 2018


Recommended Posts

15 minutes ago, Petunia said:

I really would love to see all three complete ballets reconstructed and with properly played music

I thought Kevin O'Hare's comment in the Q&A that some of these early small-scale heritage works might be suitable for revival in the Linbury Theatre was very promising in this regard.

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 79
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

It was a very informative evening and it must have been a huge effort to reconstruct those works, especially Laiderette (from a B/W film).

 

"Laiderette" was my favourite and full praise for Yasmine Naghdi (whom I was told learned the ballet at very short notice, having to take over from Francesca Hayward). Yasmine's shy girl characterisation was so delicately portrayed and her public humiliation was very palpable.

 

Praise also to the rest of the cast whom I felt gave it their all.

Bravo to everyone involved and especially Viviana Durante for undertaking the reconstruction.

 

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the last Ballet Association meeting Kevin mentioned that some of the early Ashton works might be more suited to the Linbury stage than the ROH's  main stage but I am not entirely convinced that all these early works would be more at home there or that people would buy tickets for them if the new prices for the main auditorium are any indication of what Linbury prices might be. As far as these early MacMillan pieces are concerned I  seem to recall that Danses Concertantes was performed on the main stage as part of a RBS performance during the late 1970's or early 1980's and it looked perfectly at home there. I can't help thinking it  might look a little cramped on the Linbury stage.

 

While I can understand that ballets produced before 1955 when the company began notating its repertory might need to be reconstructed using film as source material . It seems a trifle odd that Danses which was certainly revived for the RBS at a time when notation was the norm should need  reconstruction in the way that Laiderette or House of Birds clearly did.

 

Edited by FLOSS
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

While I can understand that ballets produced before 1955 when the company began notating its repertory might need to be reconstructed using film as source material . It seems a trifle odd that Danses which was certainly revived for the RBS at a time when notation was the norm should need  reconstruction in the way that Laiderette or House of Birds clearly did.

 

 

Danses was performed by the RB on the main stage in 2003! So it shouldn't have needed 'reconstructing' at all.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Petunia said:

 

Well... the King was there and the Retired Queen and the Dowager Duchess and some important dignitaries and a couple of Princelings.

 

 

Oh, c'mon!  That's not very informative.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

I thought it was very funny. I guess it means KOH, Monica Mason and Lady M, plus others unguessable.

 

some of the others (last night anyway) were of course Viviana Durante, notator Mayumi Hotta, Akane Takada, Benjamin Ella and pianist Jonathan Higgins. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon at the Barbican - as always being closer to the dancers than usual is a real treat, as is seeing members from the three companies involved working together.  Having read the interview with Viviana Durante and JohnS's (and others') review, the brevity aspect came as no surprise and I enjoyed all three items equally. It was fascinating to see Manon and Juliet movements making an appearance in those early MacMillan works and, as with The Cage in ENB's programme, seeing ballets that I was only aware of from photos (with the exception of Dances Concertantes which I saw in 2003) come to life.  And, for me, come to life they did - I suspect the combination of the small space and excellent dancers (with special mention of Francesca Hayward in Laiderette) allowed this to happen but I didn't feel the ballets looked dated at all and could happily sit through repeat viewings. Personal comment alert: thought Takada looked absolutely stunning in her Dances Concertantes costume and headdress - had a brief and rather nightmarish image of what I would look like with that on my head!

 

The reception from the audience was very warm and enthusiastic and congratulations to Viviana for bringing about such an interesting and informative programme and for getting all those wonderful dancers together (so interesting to see Thiago Soares' partnering skills close up). Really hope it is the first of many such enterprises for her and that we can see similar events both from Viviana and in the new Linbury generally.

 

A great afternoon all round.

 

  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought that in the curtain call at the end of House of Birds, the dancer who played the Bird Woman (Cira Robinson when I saw it yesterday afternoon; Sayaka Ichikawa at some performances) had a large enough role to deserve a principal bow, rather than coming on as part of the ensemble after only “the girl” and “the boy” took a bow as principals.

 

I love watching things up close like that, but I’ll admit to getting distracted by things I shouldn’t - like working out how the costumes were constructed!

 

I liked all of it but I LOVED Laiderette. As Viviana Durante said in the Q&A, “If I were still dancing, I’d be BEGGING to dance Laiderette”.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really loved this programme, and was lucky enough to see both casts.  I thought that the melding of the three companies worked really well.  I hope that all the good reviews from critics and audiences will encourage Kevin O'Hare to revive these ballets for the Linbury stage soon after it opens again.  What a treat it was to see these very rare pieces performed so well.

 

On another issue, I have written to complain to the box office manager about the whole seating debacle;  I will let you know the response I get.  I can almost see it now:  "we are very sorry your visit to the Barbican didn't live up to expectations.  We strive to ensure that all of our customers enjoy a happy experience during their visit here.....blah blah blah."  I am sure there won't be anything done or any compensation offered.  I bought Row A so that my view wouldn't be impeded;  I then had a whole new row put in front of me and my view was impeded by someone's head, which meant that I had to move from side to side which probably meant I was disturbing the person behind me (who was too polite to say anything if so).  This wasn't cheap at £18 for an hour.  I know that many other people were unhappy, so maybe if they receive complaints they will ensure this doesn't happen in future.  I am sure it is the theatre department who are probably to blame for this;  if that's the case, I hope the complaints are passed to them.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sorry Sim and zxDaveM also had such restricted views.  As there hadn't been much comment about the poor view/dim lighting, I wondered if it were just me and I'd exaggerated the problems.  After Wednesday's opening night and my post, I'd felt obliged to pass on my comments to the Box Office.  I received a prompt acknowledgement and a promise that I would get a full response within 5 working days so I shall see if I hear anything tomorrow.  I am just very pleased that the performance was filmed so there's still time to look again and also how good it has been to read the critics' comments, although I can't believe they were sitting in row B.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Couldn't see much below the dancers' knee level from row D.

 

Very impressed by the dancing but at all not impressed by the venue or the lighting and would seriously think twice about going there again.

 

The live stream gave a far better view and didn't involve six hours of travel!

Edited by Mummykool
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had a response from the Barbican:

 

"We did raise the level of the house lights after the first performance as we were also aware that the low level was causing difficulties for our audience but I am sorry this was a concern on the evening you attended.

 

The lack of a rake for the front three rows is not usually a problem in The Pit but appreciate it does have an impact with dance pieces so I thank you for bringing this to our attention.

 

The difficulty with the music for Dance Concertantes and Laiderette is that there have been no recent recordings so the quality was not ideal but the best available.

 

Viviana Durante chose the programme with great care and in close consultation with Deborah MacMillan.  She wanted to interject a contrasting piece to the drama of House of Birds and Laiderette and the pas de deux from Dance Concertantes provided a delightful albeit brief interlude."

 

I'm very pleased the house lights were raised for subsequent performances.  

 

I'm sure the addition of the extra row AA was the real problem as regards obstructed views and Sim and others have asked about this.

 

It was the Stravinsky that was so distorted (even more so when watching the Live Stream where we have a recording of a poor recording).  I did ask whether a piano reduction might have been considered - it was about 3.5 minutes.

 

I hadn't appreciated that Danse Concertantes pdd was in effect an amuse bouche.  Being greedy I'd loved to have seen all three ballets performed in full - perhaps in the Linbury?

 

I have very much enjoyed seeing the Live Stream despite the jumpy video and poor sound.  Very good to see what I missed and I will certainly watch again before it disappears into the ether.  But it seems such a pity that the effort and artistry going into the programme was rather let down by environmental factors which ought to be pretty basic for a theatre.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apologies if I missed something obvious but I couldn't work out why Row AA was added: IIRC it was something to do with the discovery that some reconfiguration of the seating was needed, but as far as I could tell, the whole available width of the seating part of the Pit was employed, so I don't know where the "disappearing" seats would have been. Or were people originally due to sit side-on to a smaller stage?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

Apologies if I missed something obvious but I couldn't work out why Row AA was added: IIRC it was something to do with the discovery that some reconfiguration of the seating was needed, but as far as I could tell, the whole available width of the seating part of the Pit was employed, so I don't know where the "disappearing" seats would have been. Or were people originally due to sit side-on to a smaller stage?

 

The rows were originally longer. When I bought my tickets, the rows had  21 seats in them. They reconfigured the seating so as to have rows of 19 seats. My end of row seats were originally numbered 21. I was reseated in seats numbered 19 (so as still to be on the end of the row).   Presumably they put in the extra row so as to make up for the loss of two seats per row.

 

When I saw the layout of the Pit, it occurred to me that a possible reason for these changes was that the piano (which was on the side of the higher numbered seats) might have obscured the view from seats 20 and 21.

Edited by Bluebird
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

The rows were originally longer. When I bought my tickets, the rows had  21 seats in them. They reconfigured the seating so as to have rows of 19 seats. My end of row seats were originally numbered 21. I was reseated in seats numbered 19 (so as still to be on the end of the row).   Presumably they put in the extra row so as to make up for the loss of two seats per row.

 

When I saw the layout of the Pit, it occurred to me that a possible reason for these changes was that the piano (which was on the side of the higher numbered seats) might have obscured the view from seats 20 and 21.

 

Thanks for the explanation - I must say I'm surprised there would have been room for longer rows: it didn't seem that way to me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Edited to quote Lizbie1's post as this doesn't make sense without it (as my post has appeared on a different page):

 

"Thanks for the explanation - I must say I'm surprised there would have been room for longer rows: it didn't seem that way to me!"

 

I imagine the screen and the staircase by the side of the higher numbered seats would have been repositioned.

 

 

Edited by Bluebird
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, JohnS said:

I have had a response from the Barbican:
 

I'm very pleased the house lights were raised for subsequent performances.  

 

 

I attended the Saturday matinee and you could have fooled me.  (True it was a beautiful sunny day outside - perhaps I was merely blinded by coming into the unforgiving - dare I say uninviting - depths of The Pit.)  I found I had to use the torch on my phone - as did the woman next to me when attempting to seat herself ... and we were in Row AA!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Bruce Wall said:

 

I attended the Saturday matinee and you could have fooled me.  (True it was a beautiful sunny day outside - perhaps I was merely blinded by coming into the unforgiving - dare I say uninviting - depths of The Pit.)  I found I had to use the torch on my phone - as did the woman next to me when attempting to seat herself ... and we were in Row AA!

 

 

 

Clearly the lights were not raised sufficiently (but it really was black on the opening night)!  And at least you had an unrestricted view, once seated.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very pleased to be alerted to this, and it was most interesting to watch. It struck me as choreography of great imaginative power.

Unfortunately I agree with some others that the sound quality in the second two made it less pleasurable and the Frank Martin music for Laiderette I found frankly unendurable. Sitting in the pitch dark listening to that would surely not be good for anyone's mental health.

 

Wonderful to see such good dancers in a small-scale setting though and Thiago Soares I thought was excellent, with the ability to characterise these slightly sinister roles ( no disrespect to Thiago), and agree that Takada and Naghdi were superb- let's hope we get to see the whole of Dance Concertantes again soon.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, JohnS said:

I have had a response from the Barbican:

 

"We did raise the level of the house lights after the first performance as we were also aware that the low level was causing difficulties for our audience but I am sorry this was a concern on the evening you attended.

 

The lack of a rake for the front three rows is not usually a problem in The Pit but appreciate it does have an impact with dance pieces so I thank you for bringing this to our attention.

 

 Well if it is only not raked on the front three rows, it isn't much better after that. As mentioned previously, nothing below the knee was visible from row D (which was five back) and the seating only marginally staggered.

 

I also didn't notice the lighting being any better on the live stream, but at least I got to see the dancers' feet!

 

All in all, a big thumbs up to Viviana Durante, her dancers and creative team but an even bigger thumbs down to the Barbican.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...