The Royal Ballet: Firebird Triple Bill June 2019

[Sim]

10 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

Has Marianela Nuñez danced the role before?  I'd been under the impression that last night was her debut as Natalia Petrovna.

 

Yes it was her debut last night.  

[RHowarth]

31 minutes ago, Mary said:

I think after Johnny Cope's very sad acccident , his first role back was in the Firebird, - (correct me if I'm wrong) so I had a sense of deja vu. 

 

He was meant to retire in it wasn't he? I remember he didn't dance in his planned final performance at the ROH, although came on stage at the end to take applause. Ballet Imperial was also on the bill but can't remember what else! Did he then dance it on tour? And in Month as well but was that a subsequent year? 

[Mary]

33 minutes ago, annamk said:

in Month Hay danced everyone off the stage, Hayward showed great expressive and natural acting

Agreed- and just wanted to add i really should have said how wonderful Hayward and especially Hay were in Month in the Country- can't see how these roles could possibly be better danced.

[Richard LH]

I had wondered how Yasmine Naghdi would come across as the Firebird after first  seeing this  role danced so strikingly  by Leanne Benjamin (recorded) and Itziar Mendizabal. Well  I  thought Yasmine was brilliant, quite literally, given the costume and lighting, as well as figuratively in terms of her beautiful technique  and spot-on interpretation. I think this is the first performance of hers I have really felt  her completely capture the character. A great casting choice !

 

I loved the first section of the ballet, as the Firebird was caught by Ivan Tsarevich (Edward  Watson back with us, and  bringing  Christmas a little early) and eventually negotiates her freedom. And it  was good to see Christina Arestis as the Tsarina, with her cohort of enchanted princesses. Following on from the odd dropped apple, in what seemed a bit like an out-of-hours games practice at a girls’ boarding school,  it all got rather strange: stunning to look at  in places, with some great visual set pieces and tableaux, especially when the stage was full of all the characters,  but  rather  lacking in terms of memorable dance content and narrative with which one might empathise.

 

Then a total contrast in  A Month in the Country.  Ashton’s way of telling a story through dance and mime is so clever, as in the humour that is included to lighten, and add a another layer  to,  what might otherwise have been a stock melodrama.  Nunez,  Hayward and Hay were  particularly outstanding, I thought. Exemplary dancing and acting from them. And it was also great to see Romany Pajdak as the maid.

 

And then to finish with the tutu-tastic Symphony in C – what more can one say about this work, except that I can’t think of better way to end this fantastic RB season (at least for me) than this dazzling, joyous display of neo-classical ballet performed so well by such a company  of outstanding dancers.

 

Thank you, Royal Ballet!

[Richard LH]

Oh I forgot  to mention how striking Muntagirov, Sissens and Corrales looked together as they jumped and spun in Symphony in C !

[capybara]

2 hours ago, bridiem said:

I have no idea how the company can perform a bill like this, three long complicated works involving a large number of dancers (and sets, costumes, lighting etc too), with many debuts involved, having been in the thick of R&J for weeks (and still a performance of that to come) whilst also preparing for the Fonteyn gala, the Japan tour including Don Q, Los Angeles including the new McGregor, etc. Literally unbelievable.

 

It's astonishing, and arguably too much. If my calculations are correct, the Company has on its plate at the moment:
Firebird

Symphony in C

Month in the Country

Don Quixote

Winter Dreams (Yokohama)

Mayerling

New McGregor

Gala numbers for  8th June and Yokohama

and so much of this involves the entire roster of dancers. 

 

Some amazing performances last night in the context of a simply wonderful overall showing from the Royal Ballet. Maybe any minor quibbles people might have are a consequence of limited preparation time for some dancers in particular? I certainly feel the need to 'drink in' more before going into print!

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by capybara

[bridiem]

8 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

It's astonishing, and arguably too much. If my calculations are correct, the Company has on its plate at the moment:
Firebird

Symphony in C

Month in the Country

Don Quixote

Winter Dreams (Yokohama)

Mayerling

New McGregor

Gala numbers for  8th June and Yokohama

and so much of this involves the entire roster of dancers. 

 

Some amazing performances last night in the context of a simply wonderful overall showing from the Royal Ballet. Maybe any minor quibbles people might have are a consequence of limited preparation time for some dancers in particular? I certainly feel the need to 'drink in' more before going into print!

 

I'd forgotten about Mayerling! 😲

[Xandra Newman]

34 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

It's astonishing, and arguably too much. If my calculations are correct, the Company has on its plate at the moment:
Firebird

Symphony in C

Month in the Country

Don Quixote

Winter Dreams (Yokohama)

Mayerling

New McGregor

Gala numbers for  8th June and Yokohama

and so much of this involves the entire roster of dancers. 

 

Some amazing performances last night in the context of a simply wonderful overall showing from the Royal Ballet. Maybe any minor quibbles people might have are a consequence of limited preparation time for some dancers in particular? I certainly feel the need to 'drink in' more before going into print!

 

 

 

Plus one more Romeo&Juliet on 11th June, they haven't finished that run yet  

[capybara]

19 minutes ago, Xandra Newman said:

 

Plus one more Romeo&Juliet on 11th June, they haven't finished that run yet  

 

Whoops - yes, of course. And they have to keep that all bright and bushy-tailed for the cinema and a possible DVD/BluRay.

[RuthE]

11 hours ago, JohnS said:

The cast sheet has a 10:30 finish but I think the house lights went up at 10:45.

 

I suspected this would be the case when I looked at the individual running times! I'll have had an 18-hour day by the time I get home tonight...

[bangorballetboy]

13 minutes ago, RuthE said:

I'll have had an 18-hour day by the time I get home tonight...

 

Well, yesterday I left the house at 0615 and returned at 0340 this morning, but I did also do the Fonteyn & I insight too...

[Rob S]

Right. we had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before we went to bed, watch ballet for twenty-nine hours a day down t’Opera House , and pay Opera House owner for permission to come to sit on a padded bench, and when we got home, our Dad and our Mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah!

 

If my train is on time I’ll be home at 0115 and will then spend half an hour faffing about on Instagram 🙂

Edited June 5, 2019 by Rob S

[John Mallinson]

Tweet from Alastair Macaulay about the running time of Symphony in C

 

 

[RuthE]

Does the RB's estimated running time include the scheduled applause and curtain calls, I wonder? I realise this wouldn't account for eight whole minutes, but it would make a difference. I remember wondering the same thing the last time I noted the running time of the last act of the Royal Opera's Traviata was shown in the cast sheet as 40min, when I think of it as a 35min act even without the small cut the Royal Opera always do.

[capybara]

52 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Well, yesterday I left the house at 0615 and returned at 0340 this morning, but I did also do the Fonteyn & I insight too...

 

But you're young: you can do this BBB.

Whatever was on in the early hours?

[bangorballetboy]

38 minutes ago, John Mallinson said:

Tweet from Alastair Macaulay about the running time of Symphony in C

 

 

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

[bangorballetboy]

14 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

But you're young: you can do this BBB.

Whatever was on in the early hours?

 

Work - gotta pay those bills!

[Lindsay]

28 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

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

 

No, he wasn't even there.  But that doesn't get in the way of him having a Definitive Opinion on the Royal's Balanchine

 

Edit: As helpfully pointed out by others, Macaulay was there - he just didn't notice the actual running time

Edited June 5, 2019 by Lindsay

[annamk]

7 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

 

No, he wasn't even there.  But that doesn't get in the way of him having a Definitive Opinion on the Royal's Balanchine

 

Are you sure he wasn't there ? I thought I saw him and his Instagram posts certainly suggest he watched the performance ! 

[bangorballetboy]

15 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

 

No, he wasn't even there.  But that doesn't get in the way of him having a Definitive Opinion on the Royal's Balanchine

 

I saw him there, during the first interval.  

[Lindsay]

 

7 minutes ago, annamk said:

 

Are you sure he wasn't there ? I thought I saw him and his Instagram posts certainly suggest he watched the performance ! 

Ah ok - sorry.  That's even worse though - if he actually attended and is still implying it was taken at a slow pace.  Yes, RB is not NYCB circa 1973.  But neither is the current NYCB.  It seems to me that all modern companies have traded turnout and clean finishes for a bit of speed and it certainly wasn't 40 minutes.

 

I've seen NYCB and a couple of other US companies known for Balanchine do Symphony in C in the last couple of years and none was noticeably quicker than last night.  Yes, NYCB is more idiomatic in Balanchine (as you would expect) but the performance I saw was also very sloppy in places.  I thought Miami City Ballet were actually better.  Last night was perfectly respectable.  Campbell and Choe were mismatched in the third movement, and neither really hit the Balanchine aesthetic (for different reasons) but the first two movements were glorious.

[Scheherezade]

Last night was extraordinary, sublime and life-enhancing. Possibly in chronological order as per each of the three performances. What can I add? 

[alison]

An earlier (but fairly recent) cast sheet gives the running time of Symphony in C as 36 minutes.  In my experience, I think curtain calls are allowed for in the running time.  But I thought the cassette recording of the work I had came in at 30 minutes, or even 27.  Nevertheless, the curtain came down at 10.40, which is pretty much unprecedented in my experience, unless there are obvious technical problems.

[bridiem]

It was always going to be a long bill, and of course it started a few minutes late because of Kevin O'Hare's speech. At least one of the intervals overran too.

[MJW]

Cast changes for next Thursday 13th

 

Our records show that you are due to attend a performance of The Firebird / A Month in the Country / Symphony in C. We are contacting you to let you know about the following cast changes:

The Firebird
Mayara Magri will replace Tierney Heap as The Firebird

A Month in the Country
Matthew Ball will replace William Bracewell as Beliaev

Symphony in C
Fumi Kaneko will replace Lauren Cuthbertson 
Alexander Campbell will replace Marcelino Sambé
Nicol Edmonds will replace Reece Clarke 

[MRR]

It's frustratingly rare to get a mixed bill where you like all three ballets, but such was finally the case here.

 

In her debut Yasmine Naghdi's Firebird is already headed in the right direction and then some.  She pays scrupulous attention to the music as well as nuances within her hands and eyes to bring this exotic creature to life.  Her legs are like knives, piercing through the air.  She had a strong solo and PDD in the opening with a fraction less intensity than I recall from Benjamin, but she was at her best in the standoff against Kostchei.  Her gaze dominated him, and Gary Avis was masterful here in how he showed a certain fallibility in this villain with the mile long fingers.  Overall I found him much more suited to Kostchei than Tybalt.  Watson has almost nothing to do as Prince Ivan besides the first PDD and dropping of the egg, but good to see him back.  Christina Arestis was elegant as the Tsarevna.

 

"Month in the Country" is a masterpiece not performed often enough, which I had only seen once before with Guillem.  For me Nunez was *almost* sublime, with a technical masterclass in the first solo featuring rich epaulement and tremendous precision of her lower extremities.  The PDD with Ball was ravishing, but there were certain instances of overacting instead of letting the choreography speak for itself.  Nonetheless, Natalia is a beautiful role for her and I was entirely captivated last night in a way I never was with her Juliet.  Ball has excellent turns and a developing pathos as Beliaev, but his arabesque doesn't shape and stretch to the degree needed, particularly on a role created for Dowell.  Francesca Hayward doesn't yet have the luscious upper body of Nunez but her allegro work is a marvel, every step buoyant and effervescent.  Her Vera was the perfect foil for Nunez's Natalia.  James Hay darted around the stage in a dizzying array of gyroscopic steps all rapidly strung together.  There was a slight hiccup on the opening series of turns but another great performance.  Very interested to see this tonight and hopefully Osipova is back; I'm curious to compare given my lack of familiarity of the ballet.  The setting and story is refreshingly simple, requiring no program notes or synopsis to know exactly what is happening.

 

In Symphony in C Kaneko acquitted herself admirably in the first movement (frankly can't picture Osipova in 1st, she belongs in 3rd) with a precision of line and strength of technique particularly in those hops in arabesque.  In the finale she was especially radiant.  Muntagirov can give a clinic when it comes to entrechat six and double tour, and his line extends for days.  Lamb had her usual Old World glamour in the second movement, creating an air of mystery while also being ingratiating to the audience.  Late in her career Lamb has maintained a beautiful extension though she eschewed the nose to knee penchees (I'm not aware if this was the staging or a personal preference).  There was one partnering fault where Nicol Edmonds was supposed to descend her between the demi soloist couple's arms, instead carrying her so far upstage that Sarah's leg brushed the demi guy's head.  Third movement was the weak link of the evening.  Yuhui Choe seemed miscast with her lack of elevation and penchees barely extending above 90 degrees, and while Campbell was technically strong there was a bit too much audience-faced mugging.  Hayward in 4th struggled with the pesky pirouette---a la seconde--pirouette both times, but was otherwise spirited, once again, in her dancing with James Hay.  

Edited June 5, 2019 by MRR

[capybara]

You have some great turns of phrase, MRR, including ones which make me smile in recognition and agreement.

[Dancing Kitty]

27 minutes ago, MJW said:

Cast changes for next Thursday 13th

 

Our records show that you are due to attend a performance of The Firebird / A Month in the Country / Symphony in C. We are contacting you to let you know about the following cast changes:

The Firebird
Mayara Magri will replace Tierney Heap as The Firebird

A Month in the Country
Matthew Ball will replace William Bracewell as Beliaev

Symphony in C
Fumi Kaneko will replace Lauren Cuthbertson 
Alexander Campbell will replace Marcelino Sambé
Nicol Edmonds will replace Reece Clarke 

 

Also changes on Friday 14th

 

Symphony in C
Mayara Magri will replace Akane Takada 
Marcelino Sambé will replace Alexander Campbell

[Dawnstar]

As no-one else has posted any curtain call pics from last night on here yet, these are mine from all 3 ballets. (If it's too many please tell me & I'll remove them.)

 

 

 

 

 

[Xandra Newman]

39 minutes ago, MRR said:

Yuhui Choe seemed miscast with her lack of elevation and penchees barely extending above 90 degrees, and while Campbell was technically strong there was a bit too much audience-faced mugging.  Hayward in 4th struggled with the pesky pirouette---a la seconde--pirouette both times, but was otherwise spirited, once again, in her dancing with James Hay.  

 

I did not mention Yuhui Choe and Francesca Hayward in my review but as several posters have now stated it too I may as well. For me, Choe and Hayward were the weakest links in Symphony in C. Kaneko and Lamb both danced beautifully and with good technical control but Choe in the 3rd Movement and Hayward in the 4th Movement didn't cut it and this diminished and affected the overall beauty and perfection of Symphony in C. 

[JennyTaylor]

I loved the entire evening and refuse to be critical of anyone.  For me it was utter ballet heaven. 

[Minxette]

4 hours ago, MRR said:

Yuhui Choe seemed miscast with her lack of elevation and penchees barely extending above 90 degrees, and while Campbell was technically strong there was a bit too much audience-faced mugging.

 

Please can you explain what "audience-faced mugging" means.  Campbell has a tendency to pull some particular faces and I wondered if you mean what I have experienced.

[MRR]

34 minutes ago, Minxette said:

 

Please can you explain what "audience-faced mugging" means.  Campbell has a tendency to pull some particular faces and I wondered if you mean what I have experienced.

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.