The Royal Ballet: Firebird Triple Bill June 2019

[Shya100]

Saw tonight as I love the Firebird score. Loved Month in the Country. Liked Firebird less but this is always and forever because of how the orchestra play the score. The dancing is just a nice addition to that music. For me anyway.  Left before Symphony in C as seen it twice recently and getting home an hour earlier makes all the difference when you have work.  

[Minxette]

17 minutes ago, MRR said:

Meaning he has sort of a "ta-da" look whenever he finishes something difficult.  I don't mind it so much in difficult classical variations but from my understanding Balanchine hated these affectations.  However, Campbell seemed more reserved tonight, or maybe the first night I saw a couple instances of this and exaggerated them in my brain.  I believe we're referring to the same thing.

 

We are indeed but you are able to articulate this better than I could.  In my experience, he does this consistently and frequently but I just accept this is what he does.

 

"Audience-faced mugging" - I absolutely love this expression. 😄

 

[ninamargaret]

This has to be one of the best ever triple bills!  Personal favourite was Firebird, for me a perfect ballet. The combination of story, music, costumes, sets are so beautifully right together, and I loved Mendizabal, with her lovely arms quick bird like movements. Month in the Country was interesting - I have never been very enthusiastic about Osipova, but I loved her in this. She looked slightly too young - more like Vera's sister but a bit of artistic license is, I think, allowed! Don't think David Hallberg is a natural for Ashton but good to see him. Symphony highly enjoyable, especially the first movement. But a really splendid evening by dancers, orchestra and a very hard working stage crew!

[Sim]

I have never noticed that Alexander Campbell does this more than any of the other men.  I think they are very happy to have come through something difficult and to share this happiness with the audience.  They are, after all, doing it to please and impress us.

 

I think that last night Campbell was simply showing us how thrilled he was to be back on that stage!

[Rob S]

 

 

 

 

A very small selection from tonight

[bridiem]

7 hours ago, Minxette said:

 

We are indeed but you are able to articulate this better than I could.  In my experience, he does this consistently and frequently but I just accept this is what he does.

 

"Audience-faced mugging" - I absolutely love this expression. 😄

 

 

Personally I think it's rather disrespectful. I prefer to call it showmanship. 

[ninamargaret]

To be fair, most of the,dancers in the first, third and fourth movements have rather bright smiles. Those in the second look as,though it's a much more solemn affair. I thought this was intended - noticed the same on my previous visit to Symphony in C.Certainly didn't think Campbell was different to the rest of the cast. 

 

And lovely pictures from Rob. I've got a particular weakness for Kashkei, have always loved the long nails!

[capybara]

8 hours ago, Minxette said:

 

"Audience-faced mugging" - I absolutely love this expression. 😄

 

 

So do I and it is a perfect description of an aspect of Campbell's presentation which I feel detracts rather than adds to his performances.  It was toned down slightly last night, however.

[MRR]

It's not him smiling, per se, it's the big smile and open mouth after a difficult series of steps which I noticed a few times.  Somebody commented on this back in the autumn (not specifically about Campbell, but the company), that excessive smiling after difficult passages was threatening to turn the Royal's "Symphony in C" into a Petipa ballet.  I wouldn't go that far, but I understand the point and suspect the small affectations were not to Balanchine's taste, particularly after reading fascinating insights from John Clifford (former NYCB principal).  

 

Genuinely was not meaning to be disrespectful to Campbell whose dancing was on very good form both shows. While he isn't my favorite, I respect the quality, consistency, and versatility he brings to the table. Again, the second night either Campbell was more reserved or I just exaggerated this in my brain, and I didn't intend it as more than minor criticism.  Choe was the main weakness of third movement for me, for the reasons I stated.  

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by MRR

[WoodlandGladeFairy]

Went and saw this triple bill last night and it was amazing! 

 

Itziar Mendizabal was a fierce, wild and free Firebird, just wonderful dancing plus I could now see how the music fits the choreography and the costumes were so colourful and at the end when everyone comes onto the stage to celebrate the coronation of Ivan Tsarevich and The Beautiful Tsarevna I was almost cried at how awesome the music was

 

Loved A Month In The Country, very calming after the boldness of The Firebird, Natalia Osipova was born to play Natalia Petrovna, stunning dancing and David Hallberg was good also, great partnership as well. In fact the entire cast was on top form I was riverted throughout

 

Finally Symphony in C was a bright shining star, a fitting end to a magnificent evening of dance, and very sparkly tutus, Marianela Nunez was so regal yet dreamy in the second movement of the ballet with Ryoichi Hirano. Vadim Muntagirov was as always amazing in the First Movement with a delightful Fumi Kaneko. Yasmine Naghdi was sublime in the Fourth Movement and Alexander Campbell was a burst of sunshine

 

Three nicely contrasting top class ballets made for an unforgettable evening 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by WoodlandGladeFairy

[Jamesrhblack]

Am so looking forward to seeing this tomorrow 🙂

[theorist]

Firebird I thought Saunders was disappointing as Kostchei on Wednesday. I always find the apple throwing tedious even when the dancers manage to catch them (which they often don't). This time one apple even landed in the pit.

Month Osipova's Natalia Petrovna was better than I remembered it from her previous run---very impressive indeed---but the supporting cast didn't quite reach the (extremely high) standard of the first night.

Symphony I thought Choe was excellent, as were the corps in all four movements. Other than that I agree with most of what has already been said.

[John Mallinson]

20 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

Did he then tweet about the actual running time (which was less than 40 minutes...)?

 

No. The 40 minutes came from the RB cast list. However…

 

 

[alison]

Hmm, but what time did it actually start?   (I'm afraid I gave up in the end - decided I needed the sleep more than I needed to watch another SiC.  Didn't get the sleep, mind you, but that's another matter).

[bangorballetboy]

26 minutes ago, John Mallinson said:

 

No. The 40 minutes came from the RB cast list.

 

 

Yes, I know that.  It was more the point that Macaulay would make a statement in this manner (the implication being that the RB is doing something very different from NYCB and, therefore, bad) but not then finish up with the actual facts when known (particularly when they rather blow his point out of the water).

[now voyager]

8 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

 It was more the point that Macaulay would make a statement in this manner (the implication being that the RB is doing something very different from NYCB and, therefore, bad) but not then finish up with the actual facts when known (particularly when they rather blow his point out of the water).

And for that very reason, I would NOT expect him to include “the actual facts.”

[Scheherezade]

8 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Yes, I know that.  It was more the point that Macaulay would make a statement in this manner (the implication being that the RB is doing something very different from NYCB and, therefore, bad) but not then finish up with the actual facts when known (particularly when they rather blow his point out of the water).

 

I agree entirely and this is one of my pet hates: the manipulation of words or statistics to suggest something that is wholly incorrect.

[Lindsay]

I thought Month went very well last night.  David Hallberg has LINES!  Very Dowell-esque.

[jm365]

Here we go again with this forum's variety of opinion!  I thought last night was a let down at times compared with the first night - Naghdi far better as the Firebird, for instance.  I simply could not bear to watch Hallberg - for me totally unbelievable as Beliaev - made watching the pdd very difficult as I was trying to eliminate him - thank goodness, for once, for my rather too powerful opera glasses which sometimes can restrict my view too much.  Loved both Nunez and Osipova as Natalia Petrovna, with Osipova slightly ahead.  I preferred Nunez to Lamb in the second movement of SinC, despite her slight slipup, and thought her partnership with Hirano was exquisite.

 

However, I thought both nights were a really great experience and showed the strengths of the company off so well.

[FLOSS]

I think that we have to remember that the Firebird like Scherherazade is a piece of exoticism created for the Ballets Russes' second Paris season. Schererazade is an orientalist work owing a great deal to Petipa's orientalist ballets while the Firebird is a work which combines Slavic myths and Russian peasant dances as source material for a ballet which must have seen equally exotic to Parisian audiences in 19010.They are both examples of Fokine's reform manifesto in practice. However staid and old fashioned their choreography may seem to us today , these ballets were revolutionary works in the way in which they rejected the aesthetics of Petipa's later ballets which Fokine considered embodied technical virtuosity for its own sake. In Firebird there are no excuses for technical display in the form of divertissements; the narrative is told through the choreographed movement; little mime is used; individual dancers and groups of dancers are given choreography,costumes and footwear appropriate to the characters they are playing. The only dancer whose technique is on display is the one dancing the role of the Firebird but here Fokine uses his choreography to display the power and strength of the Firebird rather than the individual dancer's technical virtuosity. The problem is that at the moment this revival seems to be suffering from the effects of neglect; infrequent revival and an incredible insensitivity to the effect that the rules of emploi must have played in casting the ballet when it was new and should make in performance practice today.

The dancers who play the character types trapped in Kostchei magic kingdom are,

 

almost without exception, characterless and merely reproducing choreography which they have taken great pains to con, but the point of which they don't really understand. The enchanted princesses and the beautiful Tsarevna don't appear to be any different in social status from the other groups of character types trapped in Kotschei's magic kingdom 

 

all far too well behaved 

 

in performance the ballet appears to be a pallid version 

 

the latest of which he seems to have Scherherzade and Firebird were created as Gesamkunst works but only Scherherazade retains its or The original décor and costumes by Golovin and Bakst were replaced in the 1920's by Gonchorova's designs which have been used by the Royal Ballet since the ballet entered the company's  repertory in 1954. I believe that the original designs were replaced in favour of ones that were easier to use on tour. It would not be unreasonable to see the designs used in the last scene  as visual monument to a Russia that everyone knew had now been lost irrevocably.

 

is alike the rest of Fokine's output is a response to Petipa's decision to abandon the pure simple elegance of the French school in favour of the bravura technique which the Italian guest dancers who came to St Petersburg in the 1890's had available to them. His aesthetic ideas were very different from those displayed in the Petipa ballets with which we are most familiar. They were created to display the technical prowess of the guest ballerinas who starred in them and to show that locally trained dancers also had some ability in pointe work. The impression that ballet is essentially about pointe work is enhanced by the fact that we are used to seeing Petipa's  Sleeping Beauty in edited versions which retain those sections of the choreographic text devoted to displaying pointe work while cutting those in which the choreography was created to display the skills of his company's character dancers. The Hunting scene which represents the "real" world inhabited by human beings rather than the enchanted one which the Prince will enter is invariably cut to avoid the costs of going into overtime. The former is the world inhabited by the character dancers the latter is largely inhabited by dancers in pointe shoes. In addition sections of the music for the court dances is today allocated to the prince to give him an opportunity to express himself. The result of these cuts  is to create the impression that Petipa's choreography was created to display technical prowess in pointe work rather than a mixture of dance types and styles. Our knowledge of twentieth century developments in ballet and in particular familiarity with the works of Ashton and above all those of Balanchine further enhances that idea.

 

Fokine does not seem particularly innovative or revolutionary choreographer today largely because so many of his aesthetic ideas seemed to have been accepted by those creating  ballets.

 

choreography he created for them and his choreography for the character dancers and their performance style in their divertissements style  to  Fokine's dancers 

[FLOSS]

please delete the above post.it was submitted in error.

[capybara]

1 hour ago, Lindsay said:

 David Hallberg has LINES!  Very Dowell-esque.

 

But, unfortunately, a couple of nice arabesques do not make a convincing Beliaev. I found his performance deeply unsatisfying: there were facial expressions but no internal characterisation, effortful partnering, and inter-relationships with those around him which didn’t really convey the story. 

As Osipova has been so recently injured, I do not feel easy about commenting on her portrayal of Natalia Petrovna. Maybe after a second viewing.

Overall, however, with the exception of the more minor characters, this was, for me, an undistinguished performance of this beautiful ballet.

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by capybara

[Lizbie1]

Haven’t seen this bill yet (going tomorrow) but it’s so refreshing to see the sharply divided opinions on just about everyone who’s been cast 

[Richard LH]

4 hours ago, MRR said:

excessive smiling after difficult passages was threatening to turn the Royal's "Symphony in C" into a Petipa ballet.  I wouldn't go that far, but I understand the point and suspect the small affectations were not to Balanchine's taste

 

I haven't noticed Campbell, or any of the dancers, indulging in any "excessive" or objectionable smiling during or after difficult passages in Symphony in C. His  passages come during  the immensely joyful third and final movements of this  ballet, during which  many smiles and  happy expressions are only to be expected (and there are plenty in the NYCB version I have seen). Would it not be strange if that were not the case?  

I can't imagine that Balanchine stipulated exactly what facial expressions would be de rigueur  for every passage, but even if he did, are not these artists allowed a degree of their own interpretation?

For me, Campbell is simply communicating, and sharing, his delight in the thrill of dancing this wonderful ballet. 

 

Indeed Mark Monahan writes this in The Telegraph  "The Australian ripped through the third movement with the broad smile and complete self-assurance of a dancer who knows he is absolutely the master of the music, and the results were superb. Slightly compact as he might be for the great Mr B’s grand style, his was the performance that stood out".  

Edited June 6, 2019 by Richard LH
Added a quote from review

[MRR]

Richard, it was more the manner in which he communicated his thrill of dancing "C" rather than him expressing himself at all. Of course third movement is joyous and I would never suggest the company look sullen during this ballet, just that Campbell (for me) tends, slightly, to "milk" some of his big technical moments in the ballet, and has a somewhat exaggerated way of relating to his partner. I wish I could explain it better but that's how I saw it, and I don't intend these as major criticisms. I know not everyone will agree and am happy for those who enjoyed his performance (in fact, as did I, with a minor reservation).

[Lindsay]

MRR - perhaps you mean things like little flourishes of the hand/arm on turns and a more staccato 'presentation' of the chest when finishing a movement, that can appear a bit mannered, especially in Balanchine?

[Beryl H]

Well, some very different thoughts about last night, I sensed a late finish and missed Symphony in C, I was going to leave after the first 2 movements but chickened out, I absolutely loved Month, the whole cast but especially Natalia Osipova, fast light footwork as expected, but I've never seen her look so soft and feminine, if that's the effect David Hallberg has, more please! Thought he danced beautifully and showed lots of emotion too, Meaghan Grace Hinkis was sweet as Vera, she had a nice big bouquet at the end, and very good to see Nehemiah Kish twice. The thing that was going through my mind was what a masterpiece the ballet is, there wasn't an out of place movement in the entire ballet, I almost wanted more but that is probably one of the reasons it is so perfect!  Itziar Mendizabal was very strong as the Firebird, but after watching the Mariinsky Blu-Ray, there wasn't the same sense of menace to the work, especially the orchestral introduction which sounded quite tame.

 

[Mary]

44 minutes ago, Beryl H said:

The thing that was going through my mind was what a masterpiece the ballet is, there wasn't an out of place movement in the entire ballet, I almost wanted more but that is probably one of the reasons it is so perfect! 

Could not agree more about Month in the Country,  Beryl.

 

I am puzzled by the very strong differences in opinion about Hallberg in Month though- wonder if anyone who didn't like his interpretation can say more about why??

 

[annamk]

2 hours ago, MRR said:

just that Campbell (for me) tends, slightly, to "milk" some of his big technical moments in the ballet, and has a somewhat exaggerated way of relating to his partner. I wish I could explain it better but that's how I saw it, and I don't intend these as major criticisms. I know not everyone will agree and am happy for those who enjoyed his performance 

 

I agree with you and I don’t think he used to do this. It seems to me that some dancers develop this way (McRae springs to mind) and it’s not wrong, it’s just not something I like but I’m perfectly happy that others don’t have any problem with it. 

[alison]

Well, interpretatively speaking only (I had a poor view, so wouldn't like to comment on the performance as a whole), I've always thought Belaiev to be somewhere in between the ages of Vera and Natalya Petrovna (who is only in her mid-20s, I believe?), and probably inexperienced enough to be unaware - or insufficiently aware - of the effect he's having on the women of the household.  It's not a question of physical age, because Bonelli can carry it off, but I felt Hallberg's portrayal was more of a mature man, who should have known better by that age, if you see what I mean.  Not sure whether the moustache helped ...

 

(BTW, I'd have loved to have ducked out of Symphony in C halfway through, but was in the middle of a row ... ) 

[ninamargaret]

17 minutes ago, Mary said:

Could not agree more about Month in the Country,  Beryl.

 

I am puzzled by the very strong differences in opinion about Hallberg in Month though- wonder if anyone who didn't like his interpretation can say more about why??

 

very difficult to put a finger on it. He danced perfectly well, although didn't seem to have the softness i associate with Ashton. His partnering looked fine, but to me he just seemed detached from the rest of the cast - maybe I've become so used to the fact that regular members of the company seem to be able to interact with each other and he seemed somewhat outside.To me, there seemed little emotional connection between him and Osopova.I'm sure other people saw it differently, so probably just me.

[Don Q Fan]

Love the photos especially RobS thank you for sharing.  Looking forward to the Friday (very, no, ridiculously) early matinee.

I know there are some cast changes but are we expecting Muntagirov in Symph in C?  There's a man missing on the ROH website casting!

[Saodan]

5 minutes ago, Don Q Fan said:

Love the photos especially RobS thank you for sharing.  Looking forward to the Friday (very, no, ridiculously) early matinee.

I know there are some cast changes but are we expecting Muntagirov in Symph in C?  There's a man missing on the ROH website casting!

 

Ball will be dancing (debuting) in the 1st movement. The missing man is Hirano, who is dancing twice but is only listed once (Firebird and 2nd movement)