The Royal Ballet: Romeo and Juliet, Spring 2019

[capybara]

54 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

You've forgotten Campbell

 

And that is one of the cardinal sins on BCF 😉 !!!

Picture of the new guest Romeo (Timofej Andrijashenko)  is below (separate post).

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by capybara

[capybara]

Edited April 19, 2019 by capybara

[Bruce Wall]

I saw him in Corsaire (Anne Marie Holmes' production as at ENB - although with slight variances) at La Scala and he certainly stood out.  

Edited April 19, 2019 by Bruce Wall

[Dawnstar]

4 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

You've forgotten Campbell

 

Apologies! At least he hasn't been injured but his exchange visit to Australia didn't work out from the RB's point of view when his counterpart was.

 

4 hours ago, capybara said:

 

And that is one of the cardinal sins on BCF 😉 !!!

Picture of the new guest Romeo (Timofej Andrijashenko)  is below (separate post).

 

He certainly looks suitable for Romeo. I wonder what will happen if Clarke is still off in a month? Would Andrijashenko perhaps be a bit too young-looking compared to Nunez?

[MAX]

Quote

Would Andrijashenko perhaps be a bit too young-looking compared to Nunez?

That's very elegant for Nunez... 

[betterankles]

Maybe someone will work out soon that all that extra-curricular ‘fitness’ program is not making the injury list any smaller...

[Clara_f]

9 hours ago, betterankles said:

Maybe someone will work out soon that all that extra-curricular ‘fitness’ program is not making the injury list any smaller...

 

Betterankles out of curiosity what's the fitness programme, and why isn't it working to help prevent injury? 

[Rob S]

7 hours ago, Clara_f said:

 

Betterankles out of curiosity what's the fitness programme, and why isn't it working to help prevent injury? 

 

The one that has made it in to several magazines that the dancers have been linking to in their social media. I'd be more worried about Vadim practicing his slam dunking skills than the dancers weight training

[bangorballetboy]

In case anyone was worried, David Hallberg is in good health and has arrived in London to start rehearsals!

[Sim]

Looking promising!  From Andrej Uspenski’s Instagram page.  Melissa and Timofej in rehearsal for R&J.  

[Odyssey]

Remember that Melissa Hamilton had a last minute change of partner in Mayerling with Matthew Ball and it all went rather well. She is quite the  experienced Macmillan dancer despite her fairly tender age.. I hope it goes well for them both but particularly her  - she doesn't get noticed that often these days. 

[alison]

She had a pretty last-minute change of partner last time she danced Juliet at the ROH, too.

[Odyssey]

Was that Ed Watson? I thought she had danced it since 2012 - I think she only had the one performance that year.

[alison]

I thought she was in Dresden last time it was on, although I could be wrong.  Yes, it was Watson - was it indeed only the one performance?  I know I only saw one, but that might have been due to lack of availability of tickets at the last minute.

[Lindsay]

A group of SCS tickets have just appeared for Saturday's matinee in case anyone is interested in seeing the guest Romeo

[capybara]

3 hours ago, Lindsay said:

A group of SCS tickets have just appeared for Saturday's matinee in case anyone is interested in seeing the guest Romeo

 

not forgetting Melissa Hamilton, of course!

[alison]

I guess Lindsay was assuming that people who were would already have bought tickets?

[Dawnstar]

I'm seeing the ROH's R&J for the first time this evening (did see ENB's over a decade ago). If anyone else is there & would like to meet up please let me know. Obviously, with it being my first viewing, I'm afraid I won't be able to say anything very insightful about it!

[RuthE]

I'm not going this evening, but if you go out onto the terrace outside the Amphitheatre restaurant during the intervals of any RB performance, you will usually find a sociable little gathering of Balletco-ers at one of the tables.

[Dawnstar]

The cast list for tonight is as the first night apart from Gartside as Lord Capulet & Whitehead as Escalus. No last minute cast changes on screen, at least at the moment. Given my RB track record this season, there's an impressive lack of injuries for once!

[alison]

Shh, we still have 15 minutes to go!

[Dawnstar]

I'm sitting within sight of a screen & keep checking it! Although given the last time I was here we had mid-show injury & replacement I suppose I can't really relax for another 3 hours!

[alison]

Hope you've relaxed now, Dawnstar!

[Dawnstar]

Everyone did indeed make it to the end in one piece!

 

Is this the best ever ballet score? Certainly has to be the best ever non-Tchaikovsky one. Even when I couldn't see characters entering the music told me they were, which was very handy given my restricted view side stalls circle seat (made worse by the woman next to me repeatedly leaning forward). I felt I lost more for this than Nutcracker or Don Q & about the same as Frankenstein.

 

While I enjoyed the piece it didn't quite blow me away choreographically in the way Mayerling & Manon did & there were a few moments where I found myself wishing Macmillan had done something different. Possibly having watched the telecast of Stuttgart Ballet doing the Cranko version in January was a mistake in hindsight, as I found myself having flashbacks to that. I did cry slightly at the end but not as much as at Mayerling or Manon, though admittedly I saw both of those twice & in each case cried a lot more at one cast than the other so perhaps I'll react differently at other R&J viewings. I hadn't had the best day today so did find it hard to concentrate at times.

 

It was my first time seeing Ball live & I was glad to find that I immediately liked him, as I wasn't sure if I would. I've seen Cuthbertson do 2 comedic roles but this is the first time I've seen her do tragic & I thought she did it well, though I wish I'd been able to see her facial expressions better. I know Mercutio is the 3rd most important role but I thought Hay as Benvolio managed to make that role almost equal to Zuchetti as Mercutio. One of my main reasons for getting a ticket for this cast was to see Avis as Tybalt, after the recent interview in the Telegraph said it was his signature role (which surprised me as I would have thought Drosselmeyer was) & he did not disappoint. His stage presence is so strong that I find it hard to look at anyone else when he's on stage. I really enjoyed the Act 2 sword fighting from Avis, Ball & Zuchetti. I was also impressed that McGorian, who must be nearly 60, was literally rolling on the stage at the end of the act. It's certainly a great piece for character artists.

 

I need to go & re-read the Shakespeare because there were 2 points I didn't feel the staging made clear. In Act 2 does Romeo just nip off to his wedding then return to the market place immediately afterwards or were the scenes either side of the wedding on different days? And the synopsis said Romeo was banished at the end of Act 2 but the Prince didn't turn up to banish him, which I thought he did in the play but admittedly I haven't read it since I did it at school 20 years ago so I may be misremembering.

 

I did go to the amphi terrace in the first interval but couldn't spot any likely-looking group. Although I'm so hopeless socially that whether I'd've had the nerve to join even if I had spotted one is another matter.

 

ETA: Sorry, just posted this & realised how long it is.

Edited April 26, 2019 by Dawnstar

[Dawnstar]

Not too bad on the cast change front this afternoon either. Only Yudes replacing Ella as the lead mandolin dancer & then Sissens covering Yudes in the mandolin dancers group.

[Coated]

It would be nice for this thread to get back to R&J performances. A little off topic is always fine, but this now 2 pages of random things interspersed with casting updates.

 

 

[RuthE]

3 minutes ago, Coated said:

It would be nice for this thread to get back to R&J performances. A little off topic is always fine, but this now 2 pages of random things interspersed with casting updates.

 

I can oblige, by reporting on a total lighting blackout for several seconds during the opening scene of today’s matinee - coming back up in the nick of time for the fight to start, after which we were treated to a minute or two of “disco lighting” while the problem was further resolved. It seems OK now!

[RuthE]

Also, a belt-and-braces approach to a minor cast change: David Yudes’s promotion to Lead Mandolin from the ensemble of mandolin dancers (and the resulting shuffle to the ensemble) was both displayed at the programme sales point by the cloakroom AND announced before the curtain rose.

[RuthE]

If your child is going to ask, at full volume, every ten seconds, throughout Mercutio’s death scene “IS HE GOING TO DIE?” (and once during Tybalt’s, which is a lot shorter) I suggest they *may* be a little too young for this.

 

Kish is really good as Tybalt...

[Ian Macmillan]

As to that blackout this afternoon, ENO has tweeted that a "Power shortage in the Covent Garden area" led to cancellation of a matinee at the Coli, with a decision still to be taken about tonight's show.

[capybara]

2 hours ago, RuthE said:

Also, a belt-and-braces approach to a minor cast change: David Yudes’s promotion to Lead Mandolin from the ensemble of mandolin dancers (and the resulting shuffle to the ensemble) was both displayed at the programme sales point by the cloakroom AND announced before the curtain rose.

 

......and, actually, pointed up on stage as well when Sissens' positioning for the leap-frog sequence in the Mandolin Dance meant that Yudes couldn't attempt the last jump. He dealt with it very well and drew a laugh from the audience.

 

As regards the performance overall, I liked Andrijashenko a lot for his boyish characterisation and his dancing (although his movement didn't always seems to be extended fully through his feet). Hamilton was lovely but, oh dear, who IS dealing with the Juliets' hair this year? Melissa's bun, plaits and pony tail were to obvious, heavy 'add ons' of an unnatural colour under the lights. I felt that there was a good connection between this Romeo and Juliet and a development from childish love to something infinitely more.

 

This is the first time for many years that I have watched a show from the back of the Amphi and, even with 'opera' glasses, I found it difficult to read facial expressions. Nevertheless, it was interesting that some portrayals 'reached' me up there whereas others did not. So kudos not only  to the two main leads but also to Christina Arestis (Lady Capulet), Nehemiah Kish (Tybalt), Thomas Whitehead (Escalus) and Beatriz Stix-Brunell (Lead Harlot). Valentino Zucchetti and Bennet Gartside were good but they did not 'carry' so well. Moreover, in my view,  Mercutio needs a lighter touch than he was given today and Lord Capulet needs to be weightier than Bennet made him.

 

But a good afternoon all round..............

 

 

 

 

[MargaretN7]

Glad the power shortage in the area only applied briefly to ROH (did emergency generators kick in to save the show?). It was a brilliant performance all round, plenty of power generated on stage. 

[Dawnstar]

As more expert people have posted I won't say much about this afternoon except that it gave me all the emotion I had hoped for (& didn't quite feel last night). I though Hamilton & Andrijashenko made a gorgeous couple, both blonde & beautiful, & they had me sobbing through the last scene.