The Royal Ballet: Mayerling, Autumn 2018

[MissMonk]

I didn't quite get the Hungarian officers. I saw the cinema relay and i found them very disrespectful. Isn't that their prince? Should they really be literally pushing and pulling him around? They seemed very hostile for even being friends. (this is a comment on the characters not the dancing which was wonderful)

[JohnS]

1 hour ago, MissMonk said:

I didn't quite get the Hungarian officers. I saw the cinema relay and i found them very disrespectful. Isn't that their prince? Should they really be literally pushing and pulling him around? They seemed very hostile for even being friends. (this is a comment on the characters not the dancing which was wonderful)

 

I've assumed the Hungarian officers are proposing a radically different political arrangement to the Hapsburg Empire and this is what the physical jostling depicts.  They see Rudolf as a potential ally who will support Hungarian independence but he needs persuading ... regularly (which also allows for scene changes).

[ninamargaret]

i think  the real Rudolph was being greatly manipulated by the Hungarian faction,so I suppose the apparent disrespect shown in the ballet is a way of showing this.

[capybara]

Standing ovation tonight for Matthew Ball (and co.). Yesssssss. 😀 He was stupendous.

[penelopesimpson]

Oh, Matthew.  Thank you for restoring my faith in Mayerling.  You were wonderful and, what’s even more wonderful, is that you obviously have so much more to give.

 

Here we have an athletic, irritable adolescent in his physical prime.  This is not the thinking man’s Rudolph, it’s the Crown Prince pulled this way and that without the love of family or the intellect to pull him through.  His dancing is youthful and virile which makes the pain of his descent into drugs and despair so much more acute. 

 

Not it impressed by Melissa Hamilton who danced beautifully but without any indication of who Mary Vetsera is.  Lifts in the final pas deux

not in the same ballpark as Watson/Galeazzi or Osipova and light years away from Kobborg/Cojocaru.  Oh to see Hayward and Ball.  Thought Elizabeth Harrod  As Stephanie  was wonderful, rivalling Hayward.  Marcelino Sambe - WOW, what a dancer.  Cast list said Pail Kay was Bratsfich but he didn’t look much like Paul Kay so I assume it was one of those cast changes that the audience don’t need to know...

 

Presuming this was the third or even fourth cast, I can only say what a company.  Should add that even for a Saturday night audience, the response to Matthew was fab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by penelopesimpson

[LinMM]

I have always found that final pas de deux very uncomfortable to watch....nothing much about love there for me ....but am usually wrung out by the end as the whole ballet is really painful. One of the things I admire about Macmillan is he did not shy away from difficult subject  matters.

Many thanks for all the reviews and piccies will "look forward " to the next run of this ballet! 

[Tony Newcombe]

5 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Oh, Matthew.  Thank you for restoring my faith in Mayerling.  You were wonderful and, what’s even more wonderful, is that you obviously have so much more to give.

 

Here we have an athletic, irritable adolescent in his physical prime.  This is not the thinking man’s Rudolph, it’s the Crown Prince pulled this way and that without the love of family or the intellect to pull him through.  His dancing is youthful and virile which makes the pain of his descent into drugs and despair so much more acute. 

 

Not it impressed by Melissa Hamilton who danced beautifully but without any indication of who Mary Vetsera is.  Lifts Ii. the final pas de deluxe not in the same ballpark as Watson/Galeazzi or Osipova and light years away from Kobborg/Cojocaru.  Oh to see Hayward and Ball.  Thought Elizabeth Harrod  As Stephanie  was wonderful, rivalling Hayward.  Marcelino Sambe - WOW, what a dancer.  Cast list said Pail Kay was Bratsfich but he didn’t look much like Paul Kay so I assume it was one of those cast changes that the audience don’5 need to know...

 

Presuming this was the third or even fourth cast, I can only say what a company.  Should add that even for a Saturday night audience, the response to Matthew was fab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can’t agree with comment about Melissa Hamilton and there was a cast sheet change re Paul Kay

[penelopesimpson]

1 minute ago, Tony Newcombe said:

Can’t agree with comment about Melissa Hamilton and there was a cast sheet change re Paul Kay

There may well have been but it certainly wasn’t in the. Cast Sheet I was handed.  Maybe you have to seek them out but why would you?

[Riva]

There weren’t any cast change slips when I picked up my cast sheet and programme - can you please confirm so I can amend? Thought it looked like Tristan Dyer but didn’t have my binoculars with me to be certain!

 

Delighted to see such a warm reception for Matthew Ball - I thought he was superb. 

[penelopesimpson]

I thought it was Tristram Dyer, but who knows?

[Sim]

Tristan Dyer replaced Paul Kay tonight.  

[Riva]

Thank you!

[penelopesimpson]

The synopsis gave me a good laugh.  Clearly over wordy and needs boiling down to :

 

Austrian Prince dances with lots of women and then shoots himself.  To find out which one, you need to buy a ticket and a programme, you cheapskate.

Edited October 20, 2018 by penelopesimpson

[capybara]

32 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Should add that even for a Saturday night audience, the response to Matthew was fab.

 

I don't understand what you are saying. The response where I was sitting was wonderful. Many people standing, lots of cheering. I haven't seen much of that on weekdays during this run of Mayerling.

[penelopesimpson]

I don’t often visit on a Saturday so I may be out of date.  In the past I’ve found Saturday night audiences a bit like warm.  Tonight was terrific.

[penelopesimpson]

6 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

I don't understand what you are saying. The response where I was sitting was wonderful. Many people standing, lots of cheering. I haven't seen much of that on weekdays during this run of Mayerling.

Perhaps because it wasn’t Matthew Ball.  Last Saturday night the response was, at best, lukewarm.

[loveclassics]

35 minutes ago, ninamargaret said:

i think  the real Rudolph was being greatly manipulated by the Hungarian faction,so I suppose the apparent disrespect shown in the ballet is a way of showing this.

 

He didn't need manipulating, the real prince was a great supporter of Hungarian independence and wrote anonymous articles  on the subject for the liberal press.  He was also a great admirer of Gyula Andrassy who was Hungarian but served a period as Foreign Minister of the Austro-Hungarian empire and naturally felt that his country should enjoy more autonomy.

 

I'm sure I've said this before but Macmillan was very 'economical with the truth' when he created Mayerling. He omitted a lot,  not least that Rudolf was sincerely in love with his bride when they first met and wrote her tender love letters which can still be seen in the State Archives in Vienna.  He also wrote many political pamphlets, studied ornithology to the extent his writings were consulted by professionals and wanted desperately to go to University to study zoology.

 

All the stuff about his drug use and carousing with whores was largely concocted by the tabloids that were controlled by the secret police. There's a mysterious shortage of reliable contemporary sources and given the amount of political writing he produced it's hard to imagine him having time for a social life.

 

My personal feeling is that he killed himself in despair at the way his country was being run.  He was a liberal living in a backward tyranny and could only see future disaster ahead (the Austrians had recently suffered two enormous defeats on the battlefield).  I can recommend the book The Road to Mayerling by Richard Barkeley if you want a more factual account of the events leading to Rudolf's and Mary's deaths.

 

But there's no denying that it's a highly entertaining ballet and Matthew Ball was in fine form tonight.

 

Linda

[JennyTaylor]

Standing ovation for Matthew Ball and Melissa Hamilton this evening!  Utterly mesmerising ......….so I was able to stand up in the Orchestra Stalls and applaud these two as I had so wished to do at last Saturday's matinee. What chemistry they have. 

 

Matthew Ball added even more characterisation this evening - just little touches. I'm wondering what makes him so good in this role, and I think it's because he is so believable. There's no OTT acting but such depth of expression even so. There were some mistakes in the Stephanie pdd but there was no hanging back, that's for sure. As for the Rudolph / Mary interactions - electric.

 

Once again, I loved Olivia Cowley as Larisch.  She is so expressive, with her face / eyes,  but also with her hands.    

 

I love this cast - what an evening

[penelopesimpson]

You are absolutely right: he is totally believable.  I was not impressed with Hamilton but the evening was a triumph

[Tony Newcombe]

2 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

You are absolutely right: he is totally believable.  I was not impressed with Hamilton but the evening was a triumph

Sorry, I am with Jenny Taylor on this and with the audience

[penelopesimpson]

As you said.  You thought she was great, I didn’t.  For me she gave no indication at all of who Mary Vetsera was.  Nice dancing, failed on characterisation.  I felt the same about Hirano - no emotional pull at all.  Last Saturday was a damp squib, despite SIX Principals in the cast.

Edited October 20, 2018 by penelopesimpson

[Tony Newcombe]

So we go on you said I said

[Mary]

Great evening- I was so pleased to get to see Ball at the last minute! I thought Melissa Hamilton was wonderful! very expressive eyes. Dancing of grace and finesse- under pressure.

Most impressed with Ball: for me, mainly his Act 3 which I thought was superb.

I felt very sorry for Elizabeth Harrod in the Act 2 pas de deux- some bumping around and was she even dropped at one point I think-  I hope she is OK.

 

Such an ensemble piece- so well played AS an ensemble, to make a whole performance. Bravos were well deserved. It was such a quiet audience during and so warmly appreciative at the end.

Marvellous.

[JennyTaylor]

1 minute ago, Mary said:

Great evening- I was so pleased to get to see Ball at the last minute! I thought Melissa Hamilton was wonderful! very expressive eyes. Dancing of grace and finesse- under pressure.

Most impressed with Ball: for me, mainly his Act 3 which I thought was superb.

I felt very sorry for Elizabeth Harrod in the Act 2 pas de deux- some bumping around and was she even dropped at one point I think-  I hope she is OK.

 

Such an ensemble piece- so well played AS an ensemble, to make a whole performance. Bravos were well deserved. It was such a quiet audience during and so warmly appreciative at the end.

Marvellous.

She was dropped - yes, and I think they missed a lift early on.  Interesting, as this pdd was also flawed last week - at different points, but all the other pdds in the ballet were fine. 

Full marks to both of them for carrying on 110% on both occasions and giving it their all. The physicality was amazing in both performances. 

[alison]

1 hour ago, Sim said:

Tristan Dyer replaced Paul Kay tonight.  

 

Thanks, Sim.  With the new layout, I keep having to get cast sheets from the ushers, who naturally don't have any slips.  I didn't think it was Paul Kay, but was very high up in the theatre, so couldn't be certain.

[JennyTaylor]

OK, some light relief.  I took my husband to the performance this evening because we already had tickets for West Ham v Spurs in the afternoon and I was desperate to see the Matthew Ball cast again, having been so wowed last week.  Only way to achieve this was to book 2 tickets for this performance and go after the football. 

 

The last live performance my husband saw was Darcey Bussell's final performance, but Mayerling was actually the first performance we ever saw together at the ROH (early 90s / Irek).  I remember, but he doesn't. 

 

Last night we had the following conversation: 

Me - do you remember we went to Mayerling when we visited Vienna and saw where it all happened

H - oh, is Mayerling a place?  I thought it was a person. 

 

You can probably understand now why we have agreed that I go to the ballet on my own and he pursues his passion for diving (equal to my ballet passion) when we are on holiday (I'm claustrophobic under water) .   

 

However, he did join in the standing ovation with me at the end this evening. 

[penelopesimpson]

59 minutes ago, JennyTaylor said:

She was dropped - yes, and I think they missed a lift early on.  Interesting, as this pdd was also flawed last week - at different points, but all the other pdds in the ballet were fine. 

Full marks to both of them for carrying on 110% on both occasions and giving it their all. The physicality was amazing in both performances. 

I thought so.  But says much for their professionalism and dramatic ability that it just looked like more of this violent pas de deuce.  She was wonderful.

[penelopesimpson]

1 hour ago, Tony Newcombe said:

So we go on you said I said

Not really. I gave my view, you gave yours. Then you repeated yours.  Both have equal validity.

[alison]

Right.  So let's move on.

[capybara]

I hope that Elizabeth Harrod is OK too but the flaws in that Act 1 pas de deux didn't matter a jot. They were so real. Ball is so natural on stage and is able to maintain his characterisation through every pas de deux. Very few Rudolfs  manage that.

[bridiem]

OK, so now I am even more upset that I had to miss last night through illness. AND my sister had very generously got us seats in the front row of the stalls, where I have never before sat for a performance.   However, thank you for all the lovely reviews. I will hope to see this cast in the next run of Mayerling!

[Jan McNulty]

Sorry you are unwell Bridie.  Get well soon!

[bridiem]

8 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Sorry you are unwell Bridie.  Get well soon!

 

Thanks Jan. Improving already.