capybara Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 27 minutes ago, BeauxArts said: I don’t think my post suggests that the Mariinsky are ascribing any responsibility to KO’H. That would be speculative. But, BeauxArts, you said this: "The message seems to have been conveyed to the Russian fanbase that Kevin O'Hare declined to release her because of her RB commitments this week." If that isn't an apportionment of 'blame' by implication, I don't know what is. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamk Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) It is the Russian equivalent of this forum that is pointing the finger at KoH. One of the forum members, purporting to write on behalf of Osipova, says that KoH would not let her go because she needs to be on standby this week in case a dancer with an Achilles pain cannot complete her performance. This seems rather surprising if you look at the schedule for the week. Edited March 25, 2019 by annamk correct error 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 *Very* surprising, especially if you assume we're talking about Don Quixote! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 6 minutes ago, alison said: *Very* surprising, especially if you assume we're talking about Don Quixote! Presumably "standby" could only be for Juliet tomorrow or more likely Thursday... it may be thought unlikely that she would be kept back for that, in between dancing Kitri tonight and on Saturday, but on the other hand it seems those other commitments were not originally expected to prevent her dancing as Kitri at the Mariinsky on Thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) Ignore, sorry Edited March 25, 2019 by Richard LH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, annamk said: Ignore, sorry Edited March 25, 2019 by Richard LH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamk Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 6 minutes ago, Richard LH said: There is no reference to any dancer with an Achilles pain in the Russian Forum post I quote above, assuming this is the relevant post. It doesn't look like the same post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 7 minutes ago, annamk said: It doesn't look like the same post. Sorry, no it wasn't, I have now deleted that comment. Let's just hope there are no more RB cast changes this week due to injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 Woo, that was FUN! (I can't believe I'm saying that about the Acosta Don Q, but there you are!) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninamargaret Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 What an evening! Don't think I've ever seen the company in such good form - no dud performances and Osipova And Muntagirov quite simply superb. And I don't even like the ballet! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisG Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 21 minutes ago, ninamargaret said: What an evening! Don't think I've ever seen the company in such good form - no dud performances and Osipova And Muntagirov quite simply superb. And I don't even like the ballet! Agreed! I get the feeling I've just seen one of the great performances. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 A wonderful evening. I enjoyed it as much as the dancers did! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 And a special shout out to Fumi Kaneko for her variation (Queen of the Dryads, for those who weren’t there) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Sounds fabulous and very much looking forward to Saturday evening’s performance (casting shows Morera/Hirano). Who was Amour last night please? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 3 minutes ago, JohnS said: Who was Amour last night please? Isabella Gasparini, and she was fabbo. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Thrilling performance last night. The company really threw itself into the performance with total commitment and theatricality. And the standard of dancing was terrific. Although they're well matched in terms of brilliance, I'm not sure Osipova and Muntagirov are otherwise a natural pairing - it was a bit like seeing a wild, passionate, Bolshoi panther with a pure, classical, RB (though also Russian!) gazelle. But what the heck. Every cast member was outstanding. Claire Calvert was a sultry Mercedes with Reece Clarke a commanding (and sometimes amusingly OTT) Espada. Lukas Bjorneboe Braendsrod was a revelvation (to me) as the Gypsy man - oozing sexuality and drawing all eyes to him, especially those of his passionate woman, Itziar Mendizabal. Fumi Kaneko was calmly beautiful as The Queen of the Dryads and her variation was absolutely gorgeous. Isabella Gasparini was a smiling, darting, joy of an Amour. I may even have come to love this production, to my great surprise. Danced like this, it sweeps away all doubt. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scheherezade Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Yes, last night was life affirming. Osipova and Muntagirov were blisteringly good together - why isn’t this partnership rolled out more often? - and I couldn’t agree more about Kaneko and Gasparini. And whatever the truth may be about the Mariinsky gala, Osipova seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself and that enjoyment was picked up by the audience in spades. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Yes - in spite of what I said above, I would love to see Osipova and Muntagirov paired together again, in something less showy, to see how they could really relate to each other. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 8 hours ago, Geoff said: And a special shout out to Fumi Kaneko for her variation (Queen of the Dryads, for those who weren’t there) .......................and whose diagonal grand jetes outclassed those of the Kitri who followed her. Fumi has been simply glorious in this run as both Kitri and The Queen of the Dryads. A terrific, spirit-lifting atmosphere in the auditorium (although no standing ovation). I think that I might be a convert too. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scheherezade Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 I agree, Bridiem, that Osipova and Muntagirov, as the feral and the classical, feisty and reserved, may not be the most natural pairing but it works. And can’t the same be said of her pairing with Hallberg? Agree, by the way, with your comments about Reece Clarke, who gave an amusing comedic spin to Espada as opposed to Hirano’s sexy beast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estreiiita Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 I' m so grateful to the Royal ballet and especially to Natalia Osipova and Vadim Muntagirov for a most delightful performance yesterday! Such performances are much worth of travelling a long way to witness them! To my mind it was a beautiful dancing, great partnership and perfect acting! I was also charmed by Lukas Bjørneboe Brændsrød, impressed by Reece Clarke and Claire Calvert and practically swept to the heaven by Fumi Kaneko and Isabella Gasparini! And what a fun it was to watch Thomas Whitehead as Gamache! All in all, a perfect performance ! 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Glad you enjoyed it so much, Estreiiita! Before the performance I had been thinking, given how un-fond I am of this production, that I'd go to one of their two performances and return my ticket for the other one, but now - no way!! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Scheherezade said: I agree, Bridiem, that Osipova and Muntagirov, as the feral and the classical, feisty and reserved, may not be the most natural pairing but it works. It certainly did last night....that old maxim about opposites attracting and then balancing each other out really proved true in the Osipova/Muntagirov pairing in this ballet. More please Mr O'Hare! I agree with other posters above that the whole cast were on full fire. I just can't single out any of them for special praise because they were all superb. I will however reiterate that Fumi Kaneko is the finest Queen of the Dryads that I've seen for years. Simply beautiful. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 11 minutes ago, Sim said: I agree with other posters above that the whole cast were on full fire. I think the whole company have now 'bought into' the production and its as if they really feel they own it, and go at it full on. And it shows! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Scheherezade said: And whatever the truth may be about the Mariinsky gala, Osipova seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself and that enjoyment was picked up by the audience in spades. That is great to hear. 16 hours ago, annamk said: It is the Russian equivalent of this forum that is pointing the finger at KoH. One of the forum members, purporting to write on behalf of Osipova, says that KoH would not let her go because she needs to be on standby this week in case a dancer with an Achilles pain cannot complete her performance. This seems rather surprising if you look at the schedule for the week. 15 hours ago, alison said: *Very* surprising, especially if you assume we're talking about Don Quixote! 15 hours ago, Richard LH said: Presumably "standby" could only be for Juliet tomorrow or more likely Thursday... it may be thought unlikely that she would be kept back for that, in between dancing Kitri tonight and on Saturday, but on the other hand it seems those other commitments were not originally expected to prevent her dancing as Kitri at the Mariinsky on Thursday. * Dear annamk * Dear alison On investigating our Russian "sister" forum further http://forum.balletfriends.ru it does seem as if the issue may have been related to Don Q, and in particular a fear that there might not be sufficient potential injury cover currently at the RB for the two performances on Saturday if anything happened to Osipova in St P, or delaying her travel back on Friday. * Just trying out the mode of address quite often employed between posters on the Russian forum! Perhaps we should use it here more ...particularly effective for appearing polite whilst actually being patronising, or prior to hurling an insult ! Not that I would ever do that of course.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Agree with all the comments about last night's Don Q, the only thing that still jarred sometimes was the dancers having to shout out whatever it is they shout, but what a difference from last time, faster, funnier, some beautiful groupings which I didn't notice before, and of course Osipova and Muntagirov, I loved how all the dancers looking on were enjoying it too, and the moment at the end of the Kitri's vision solo when Christopher Saunders managed to catch and hold Natalia Osipova after she did the fastest turns in manege's (since the Black Swan ones) I have seen! The speed of her fouettes was amazing too! Fabulous dancing by everyone else, as always the whole Company become inspired by great dancing 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Beryl H said: Agree with all the comments about last night's Don Q, the only thing that still jarred sometimes was the dancers having to shout out whatever it is they shout.................. I think that Lukas Bjorneboe Braendsrod, as the lead Gypsy last night, slightly lost the plot and called out "thank you" as he urged his fellows to subside! But, mostly, it's garbled Spanish, isn't it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Currently a few seats going for Saturday evening's repeat performance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nogoat Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 I’ve seen quite a few crimes on the ROH stage recently. The orgy of killings in Frankenstein – a result on one man’s obsession with breathing life into dead tissue – should have been the most disturbing, but last night I saw what I can only describe as an act of vandalism, as the ‘creative’ (hah!) team behind the current production of Don Q conspired to suck the life out of a vibrant, joyful classic and spray-paint its corpse with pointless tags such as ‘three windmills!’ ‘moving houses!’ and ‘cod Spanish shouting!’. And this wasn’t the shock of the new. I saw, and heard, this production a couple of times during its first run, but I didn’t realise the extent to which I must have supressed those traumatic memories (though part of that trauma was, of course, Osipova’s awful fall 😢). Music is great at triggering memories and, unfortunately, they all came flooding back as the first strains of the overture struggled to escape from the orchestra pit. The music was weak, diluted, flat. Where was the vitality, the joie de vivre, the exuberance of, say, the ABT or Bolshoi arrangements? Don Q is, after all, an unapologetically happy celebration of love and life – and no-one dies! It was as if the musical landscape had been bulldozed flat – as if orchestrated for some ‘easy listening’ radio programme, or as late-night lounge music, or as 24/7 lift muzak. Maybe that’s why the creative team felt it necessary to try to add a bit of aural excitement by injecting, seemingly at the slightest excuse, various shouts, whistles, and ‘cod Spanish dialogue’. Call me old-fashioned, but the languages of ballet are movement and music, not cod Spanish. I’m really happy to hear the sly nod to opera in Mayerling, the voice of Virginia Woolf before the start of Woolf Works, and the scream in the last act of Anastasia, but I think the line should be drawn a long way before the vocalisations found in this Don Q (as well as that other recent offering, The Unknown Soldier). In terms of the staging, I guess at least I should be grateful there were no video projection effects (that would be like seeing the Queen wearing AirPods). The mechanical on-stage effects, though, added very little for no-doubt enormous cost. Why was it necessary to adopt some sort of Google ‘street view’, and shift the focus from one street to another, just for the entrance of Don Q? Why do we need three windmills, and mobile ones at that? I did, however, find Don Q's horse fittingly endearing; it looked like it came last in the auditions for War Horse and was on its way to the knacker's yard (hopefully taking the rest of the production with it...). It was great to see Muntagirov and Osipova dancing together again, and they looked like they were enjoying it as much as the audience. Muntagirov has a baseline level of ‘princliness’ that doesn’t quite fit the character of Basilio – but frankly who cares when he dances as well as he does? And he makes such a stable partner for the bundle of pure energy that is Osipova – you got the impression he could have held those one-handed lifts for minutes rather than seconds (and didn’t we all secretly wish that?). But even the considerable talents of this pair of superstars couldn’t salvage this dire production; I felt I was watching it for the bits I might see in a gala. But what a gala performance they put in! I lost count, but she must have completed close to 10 double and 15 single fouettés in the Act 3 PDD. And the speed at which she did it seemed to pull the orchestra out of its stupor (up to then, some of the PDD music had sounded more like a dirge rather than a celebration of love at a couple’s wedding). I was really impressed by Kaneko as the Queen of the Dryads in the dream scene in Act 2, and Gasparini made a fitting Amour. Along with Osipova and the corps, the dream scene was certainly the best sustained ensemble sequence of the evening. O’Sullivan seemed to be having a ball as one of Kitri’s friends. The look on her face when Basilio pushed her away as if so say ‘why would I like her?’ was absolutely priceless! Storm-Jensen ended up falling for the considerable charms (well, a big diamond ring) of Whitehead’s Gamache. She kept up the pretence during the curtain calls, proudly showing the ring off to the audience! I’m a massive fan of Osipova, Muntagirov and Don Q, so my head should be full of last night’s performance; but it isn’t. My favourite Don Qs are the ABT production (from the 80s, with Baryshnikov and Harvey; still available on DVD), the cinema broadcast by the Bolshoi in 2011 (with Osipova and Vasiliev) and the live performance by the Mikhailovsky in 2013 at the Coli (with Osipova and Vasiliev). Now, the Royal has Osipova in its ranks, and its male leads such as Muntagirov are wonderful. The breadth of talent across the rest of the company is also on a par with that of the ABT in the 80s. Given that overlap, I’m led to the inevitable conclusion that it’s the production that’s to blame for the empty space in my head. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 I like this production a lot. And the words aren’t COD Spanish. They are saying words such as “viva Espada” and “guapa” and “vaya”. I am sure that Carlos wouldn’t let his lovely language get mangled in his own production. It is similar in flamenco, when the musicians call out to encourage the dancers. I know it’s weird in a ballet and I didn’t like it first time round, but I have seen it enough times that I am used to it and don’t mind it. I probably would in any other ballet, but I always think there’s room in DonQ for some poetic licence, be it the dancers or the production! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard LH Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, Sim said: I like this production a lot. yo también ! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPD444 Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Well Nogoat, I know nothing about other companies performances of DQ but to say last nights performance as a crime and an act of vandalism is not one I agree with. Speaking simply the dancing was wonderful and that’s what matters, I respect what Marianela said about it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Well Monday is not the best night of the week for me to have a late night (due to work next day) and Monday’s can have a somewhat subdued audience. But not last night! It’s not my favourite production either Nogoat, but you couldn’t fault the company for commitment or excellence of dancing. I like the Osipova/Muntagirov partnership - there was fun, cheekiness, tenderness and fireworks. I love a swaggering, smouldering swishy caped matador (Reece Clarke), fiery partner (Claire Calvert), charming Amour and regal Queen of the Dryads (Fumi Kaneko). There was humour too. The chap next to me was going to miss Act 3, but was persuaded to stay, as I said it was the best part. He loved it- hope he didn’t miss his Train. it was pure joy- I wish I could bottle it and have it to sustain me for the rest of the week. Thank you RB. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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