RB Mayerling Casting for LA

[Bruce Wall]

Cast for The Royal Ballet's Mayerling:

https://www.musiccenter.org/tickets/events-by-the-music-center/Glorya-Kaufman-Dance/1819-season/royal-ballet/

 

July 5 Cast

Ryoichi Hirano, Natalia Osipova, Sarah Lamb, Kristen McNally, Francesca Hayward, Marianela Nuñez, Alexander Campbell, Christopher Saunders, Gary Avis

July 6 Cast

Matthew Ball, Sarah Lamb, Laura Morera, Itziar Mendizabal, Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Mayara Magri, James Hay, Gary Avis, Nehemiah Kish

July 7 Cast

Thiago Soares, Lauren Cuthbertson, Itziar Mendizabal, Lara Turk, Anna Rose O’Sullivan, Claire Calvert, Paul Kay, Alastair Marriott, Gary Avis

[JohnS]

Has Anna-Rose O’Sullivan danced Princess Stephanie?  Lucky LA. 

[penelopesimpson]

No Edward Watson, again.

[Dawnstar]

Also no McRae. The 6th July cast looks to be pretty much what was his cast last year, but with Ball instead. I won'der if that means McRae won't make the Symphony in C performance he is currently down for next month or whether he'll be able to manage a short piece but not a 3-acter?

[Sharon]

22 hours ago, penelopesimpson said:

No Edward Watson, again.

I spoke with Ed Watson last week and he said he would be back performing in June....😁

 

 

 

 

[penelopesimpson]

Good news indeed but is it just the small role in Firebird?  I am so hoping he will be back for a full season or more.  Perhaps he has been working with McGregor on his new full -length?

[alison]

Well, it *is* the male lead ...

[Vanartus]

11 hours ago, penelopesimpson said:

Good news indeed but is it just the small role in Firebird?  I am so hoping he will be back for a full season or more.  Perhaps he has been working with McGregor on his new full -length?

...yes...perhaps it will be his swan song

[capybara]

11 hours ago, penelopesimpson said:

Good news indeed but is it just the small role in Firebird? 

 

I have a hunch that Watson will feature in the Fonteyn Gala. There are number of 'suitable' male roles in ballets with which Fonteyn was associated.

I can't see him coming back in Manon somehow - sad to say..........

[penelopesimpson]

Oh dear.  Is there some mystery here?  Don’t have any idea what injury he has had that has caused 19 months out and there is never any news.  Now people seem to think he is finishing.  What is going on?  Not prying and don’t want gory details but don’t fans deserve some information?

[alison]

Well, the injury prior to last autumn's Mayerlings was a sprained ankle - that he did say publicly.  The implication I took was that the previous injury had healed.

[FLOSS]

I know no more than anyone else about the physical condition of either dancer who has been mentioned here but I think that everyone needs to remember that performing the role of Rudolf makes enormous demands on the dancer's body. Watson himself has said that by the end of the first act he felt as if he had danced an entire full length ballet, while Wall who created the role said that he thought that performing it had taken five years off his career. Even if training and preparation have improved the capacity of the human body to withstand the demands the role of Rudolf places on it, its capacity to do so is not infinite. The last time Watson appeared in Mayerling he looked as if he was suffering and I know several people who, like me, were not convinced that he was simply acting.

 

As to why people think that Watson's career may come to a close in the near future, not that anyone is looking forward to his retirement, I think that they are simply being realistic. Watson will be celebrating his forty third birthday in a couple of days. Most women don't enjoy such a long career as he has had and it is even rarer for a man who has not moved into character roles to have such an extensive career at the Royal Ballet. The reason for the length of his career may well be attributable to the fact that in recent years he has had the immense good fortune to appear largely in roles created on him, but the sad fact is that no dancer can go on forever.

Edited May 19, 2019 by FLOSS

[penelopesimpson]

Fair point.  I suppose I was curious what injury could keep a dancer who was nearing the end of his career out for nineteen months.  Not a sprained ankle, surely?

[Lizbie1]

Remember he danced at the Russian Icons gala at the end of March.

[Sim]

17 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

Remember he danced at the Russian Icons gala at the end of March.

And very well, too!

[alison]

There probably wasn't much after that that he could be cast in, looking at the schedule and bearing in mind that other dancers were probably already committed to certain roles (although I hope he's been working on other things in the meantime).