Royal Ballet Sleeping Beauty, 2019-20

[Ingrid]

51 minutes ago, alison said:

 

I'm wondering if her sudden reappearance is related to Olivia Cowley suffering a back spasm?  After all, Sleeping Beauty does need quite a few female character artists.  Does her name show up in the programme?

From her social media it seems like Hayley was rehearsing for this role before Olivia’s injury so I would say they are unrelated. Her name is on the programme from the photo @Dawnstar posted here ( it’s her maiden name - Forskitt) for tonight performance with Hayward and Campbell.

[JohnS]

2 hours ago, Sim said:

The role of Gallison in Act 2 seems to have the Curse of Carabosse on it:  on Thursday night Erico Montes’ hat kept falling off, and today the blindfold wouldn’t stay on so eventually the rest of the blind man’s buff was played without it!

 

Bennet Gartside removes his hat before being blindfolded which I’m sure helps.  The blindfold unravelling in the matinee I’m afraid was inevitable.  As you say Kevin Emerton improvised well and I rather liked one knitter and Anna-Rose O’Sullivan retrieving debris in the matinee. 

 

Hopefully more considered comments tomorrow on double Sleeping Beauty but now desperately trying to see how I can fit in more performances after the opening night’s comments on the Forum and today’s fabulous performances.

[Dawnstar]

Yes, there were only two last-minute cast changes tonight: Dias replacing O'Sullivan as the Fairy of the Golden Vine and Arestis replacing McGorian as the Queen (which made me wonder irreverently if the King has Henry VIII tendencies towards his Queens!). Is Hayley Forskitt's married surname Maloney? If so then I did see someone, possibly Stix-Brunell, post about her rehearsing but as I'd not heard of her it didn't mean anything to me at the time.

 

I enjoyed tonight's performance probably as much as I am ever likely to enjoy Sleeping Beauty. The lack of plot in Act 3 & the feels-endless variations in both the Prologue & Act 3 are not really my taste, no matter how well they may be done. While I was pleased to get Hayward, Campbell, Corrales & Magri all in the same cast, if I could have swapped SB for another Manon with them then I'd have gladly done so!

 

I don't have the knowledge to assess how good all the dancing was tonight but it all looked pretty good to my inexpert eyes. I assume that Hayward & Campbell's grand pas was well-done, especially the fish dives, as the lady sat next but one to me was audibly gasping at them! I did find the Rose Adagio brought tears to my eyes but that was due to the music & Hayward's acting rather than however good or otherwise her technique was. The Bluebird variation was definitely my favourite one but I'm not sure if this was due to the choreography or due to it being Magri & Corrales doing it.

 

Given how easily the Prince gets to Aurora - the Lilac Fairy basically does all the work - I found myself wondering why it took her a hundred years to get round to getting Aurora woken up!

 

My usual crop of queries:

 

Is there a reason why the Prince is unhappy at the start of Act 2 or is it just supposed to be general ennui?

 

Who are Florestan and his sisters?

 

Who are the three pairs of fairytale characters who don't do any solo dancing supposed to be?

 

[MrsBBB]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

My usual crop of queries:

 

1) Is there a reason why the Prince is unhappy at the start of Act 2 or is it just supposed to be general ennui?

 

2) Who are Florestan and his sisters?

 

3) Who are the three pairs of fairytale characters who don't do any solo dancing supposed to be?

 

1) As his mimed dialogue with the Lilac Fairy relays, he has never been in love.

 

2) No idea. Distant cousins? 
 

3) Bluebeard + 1 (always strikes me as a bad omen for a wedding, cf. the opera by Bartok), Goldilocks + 1, Beauty and the Beast.

[alison]

2) I thought were siblings, probably of Florimund, since we see no signs of Aurora having any?

 

3) Isn't it Cinderella and her Prince, rather than Goldilocks?  (I miss the Cinderella divertissement  )

[Dawnstar]

At least there is some ambiguity with the characters then, it's not just me being clueless!

 

Some curtain call photos from tonight (if anyone wants to see some of the rest of the cast, if you open my tweet there are 2 other tweets linked to it with more photos).

 

 

[RuthE]

7 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

Who are Florestan and his sisters?

I googled this on Friday and nobody else seems to know either!

[zxDaveM]

7 hours ago, alison said:

 

3) Isn't it Cinderella and her Prince, rather than Goldilocks?  (I miss the Cinderella divertissement  )

 

So, Prince Charming I guess (the chap in the golden costume)

[Odyssey]

This is a a really helpful, and readable, explanation to the various adaptations  to the original Petipa ballet and the 
Perrault fairytale.
https://petipasociety.com/the-sleeping-beauty/

 

edited to add that the section The Sleeping Beauty in the West is pertinent to the discussion here 

Edited November 10, 2019 by Odyssey

[Mary]

Any photos of Fumi Kaneko/Reece Clarke?- it sounded a lovely pairing.

 

[JNC]

I also have a question - where do the names of the fairies come from, and why have they been changed from the original (candide/violente) etc. This website from the Australian ballet gives a helpful intro to the meaning of their names and the 'traditional' names, but doesn't mention why the names were changed? 

 

https://australianballet.com.au/behind-ballet/meet-the-fairies

 

To add another question - why was Prince Désiré's name changed to Florimund? Was 'Desire' seen as perhaps too racy for British audiences? 

 

I also think it's odd Bluebeard (given his character!) would be invited to the wedding...at least he doesn't have a  divertissement I suppose! 

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Odyssey said:

This is a a really helpful, and readable, explanation to the various adaptations  to the original Petipa ballet and the 
Perrault fairytale.
https://petipasociety.com/the-sleeping-beauty/

 

edited to add that the section The Sleeping Beauty in the West is pertinent to the discussion here 

 

Thanks, Odyssey - really interesting. There's a lot there that I didn't know or had forgotten. I love the story about the Bluebird and Princess Florine!

 

I do wish that Ashton's Garland dance had been retained in the current production.

[Lizbie1]

1 hour ago, bridiem said:

I do wish that Ashton's Garland dance had been retained in the current production.

 

Completely agree - I find the Wheeldon one really dull, doesn't rise to the music at all.

[Candleque]

13 hours ago, JNC said:

I think it's nice for debuts to be recognised and don't see why ROH removed the asterisk system. Hope they maybe reconsider this decision at some point, or find another way of recognising debuts.

Totally agree. There must have been many debuts on Saturday for the matinee (for example Artists Leticia Dias, Yu Hang and Sae Maeda dancing Fairy roles) but how is the audience to know? These are big milestones to the dancers and how lovely it would be to remember when we see them in the future as the Lilac Fairy or Aurora.

I sent a message to the Royal Ballet via this contact form. Who knows; if they get enough requests, maybe they will reinstate the simple, helpful asterisk.

[Naomi M]

5 hours ago, Mary said:

Any photos of Fumi Kaneko/Reece Clarke?- it sounded a lovely pairing.

 

 

Not mine but a couple of tweets from a friend who attended the performance. 

 

[Lizbie1]

8 minutes ago, Naomi M said:

Not mine but a couple of tweets from a friend who attended the performance. 

 

Thank you, Naomi - it was a gorgeous debut and a very moving occasion as others have said.

[bridiem]

6 hours ago, JNC said:

I also have a question - where do the names of the fairies come from, and why have they been changed from the original (candide/violente) etc. This website from the Australian ballet gives a helpful intro to the meaning of their names and the 'traditional' names, but doesn't mention why the names were changed? 

 

To add another question - why was Prince Désiré's name changed to Florimund? Was 'Desire' seen as perhaps too racy for British audiences? 

 

I assume that names may be changed for matters of current taste or just because the producer wishes to do so. Yes, perhaps it was thought that Desiré could have been read as Desire which would be undesirable (geddit?!).

[RuthE]

I’m sorry to cheapen the discussion, but for me, most of the Prologue Fairy names sound like brands of air-freshener...

[Dawnstar]

Thanks @RuthE, I'm never going to be able to take them seriously now!

[Rachel H]

I'm looking forward to the 'shake 'n' vac' variation now 😆

[bridiem]

Oh dear.

[JohnS]

A hugely enjoyable double Sleeping Beauty yesterday.

At the matinee I loved Fumi Kaneko’s Rose Adage.  I was slightly concerned in the rest of the Act whether she might have hurt herself following a slip which I thought looked painful and might have knocked her confidence.  But there were no worries in Acts 2 and 3 when again she simply sparkled.  I thought Reece Clarke a strong partner, really supportive, and they radiated as a couple with that assuredness and trust.  I wish there were another public performance.

 

Great to see so many other performances - Itziar Mendizabal’s Carabosse, Mayara Magri’s Lilac Fairy, lovely Fairy solos from some relatively new members of the Royal  Ballet, and an entertaining Act 3, with Anna-Rose O’Sullivan and Joseph Sissens as Princess Florine and the Bluebird. 

The evening was fabulous. It seemed quite evident to me (and others who I spoke to) that since her first (and only) Aurora performance, Francesca Hayward has seen Alina Cojocaru dance Aurora at the Coliseum with ENB and she’s drawn on some of Alina’s experience and characterisation.   Last night I thought her wonderful, great balances and the most incredible fish dives - super fast with goodness’s danced knows how many twists and then stopping perfectly with her hand perhaps 1-2 cm from the floor. Alex Campbell  of course has a great deal to do with the success of these fish dives.  And Alex was a great prince - wonderfully secure in his partnering, fabulous solos delivered with real panache.  He and Francesca make for an ideal pair.

But the performance won’t be remembered as a series of set pieces and the brilliance of their execution.  It’s much more the fabulous musicality, wonderful characterisation, and shaping of every gesture that lights up a performance.  Francesca’s smelling of the first rose, how she places the roses in front of her mother (they can be rather thrown by some Auroras with the page boy having to gather them from a large area of the stage), the smiles to each of the princes, everything just is so beautifully judged.  Yet another of those extra special performances which seem to be coming around with increasing frequency.

 

Some people say Francesca is not so much a classical dancer and stronger in Macmillan and Ashton but I’ve never understood quite what being a classical dancer means or in what way she is not meeting some unstated criteria.  Last night I thought her Aurora simply a joy to behold and feel enormously privileged to have been there.

 

And again some lovely performances from so many - Gary Avis as King Florestan, Claire Calvert’s Lilac Fairy, Bennet Gartside as the English Prince and Gallison, and Mayara Magri and Cesar Corrales as Princess Florine and the Bluebird.

 

Special mention to the Royal Ballet’s corps for double dancing of great distinction.  

 

Also a word in support of Sleeping Beauty as there are a few concerns about its length, the Prologue, and Act 3, and a number of people express almost a disapproval for the Sleeping Beauty.  I think it works really well and enjoy the scene setting particularly when danced so well.  I much prefer Act 3 Sleeping Beauty to Raymonda.  We’ve invested time in seeing Aurora and Florimond and want to wish them well for their festivities.  The divertissements seem (to my untutored eye) much more  contrasting and colourful than Raymonda (although I’m quite happy to recognise that may well be my loss).  My only suggestion for making the performance perhaps easier would be to have just one longer interval between Acts 1 and 2 rather than the two 20 minute intervals.  But of course that depends on how readily the scene can be changed from the Prologue to Act 1.

 

Congratulations Royal Ballet and many thanks to all - although Christmas might have to come early to fit in some extra performances.

[Tebasile]

I second many of JohnS's thoughts on last night's performance. Having missed Hayward's Aurora during the last run, I very much looked forward to this occasion, and I was not disappointed. She was clearly nervous during the Rose Adagio, and there may have been a couple of very slight technical slip-ups. However she danced with such charm, effervescence and beauty of movement (her upper body is to die for), I hardly noticed. I found her even more moving in Act II, where she was quite beguiling and mastered the choreography. Act III put the icing on the cake, with a magnificent pas de deux. Alex Campbell is really growing on me as her partner; he was a perfect Prince last night and partnered extremely well - the fishdives were flawless. The supporting cast was more mixed, but I was very impressed by Corrales and Magri in the Bluebird pdd, as well as Yu Hang's assured Fairy variation (I can't remember which of the air fresheners she represented).

[bridiem]

For those of you who don't follow Francesca Hayward on Instagram, she posted a post-show photo and wrote: 'The Sleeping Beauty is a tough one! That’s all I’m going to say 🙀 Congratulations to all my beautiful friends in The Royal Ballet for making it through a heavy week finishing in a double Beauty show day and somehow finding the energy to keep me going mentally and physically on stage too 💛 special thank you to my Prince @acampbell_1 and wonderful to have @hayleymaloney back on stage with us as Carabosse.
Here we are... Carabosse, Aurora, Prince Florimund and the lovely @claire123 as our Lilac Fairy'.

[Xandra Newman]

I am not surprised she found it a tough one as prior to last night Francesca Hayward has only ever danced one performance in a full-length classical tutu ballet in her career, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (she got indisposed after her first Aurora a few years ago), and last night her nervousness was palpable and technical slips showed. Dancing classical tutu ballets is a totally different ball game compared to dancing Ashton and MacMillan, and demands much more of a ballerina. Some of her contemporaries have danced the classics much more frequently so I think she has some catching up to do here but there's Swan Lake to look forward to.

 

[Lizbie1]

I agree that Hayward's nervousness showed in the rose adagio; however the variation that follows was exceptionally musical. I normally think of it as an ordeal for both dancer and audience, but this was one of the rare occasions when I actually enjoyed watching it.

[Ianlond]

I couldn’t attend yesterday’s performances of Sleeping Beauty so can’t comment on any dancers technical proficiency but it seems that some posters are putting Ashton/ MacMillan together when comparing them to full length tutu ballets by Petipa. Are they? To me it very much seems that dancing some Ashton full lengths (Cinderella, Sylvia) are similar in some ways to the classical full lengths. Haven’t a few dancers commented upon how hard Sylvia is? Admittedly Francesca Hayward hasn’t danced these either (yet! Hopefully Cinderella will come). Romeo and Juliet, Manon etc. do seem less exposing technically. Sorry - just random thoughts. 

[LinMM]

Have booked to see Hayward in Swan Lake but come to think of it have never seen her in a big "classical" role yet but am looking forward to it.

[JohnS]

3 hours ago, Tebasile said:

She was clearly nervous during the Rose Adagio

 

Many thanks Tebasile - I think that’s in part why I’m so keen to see further performances.  I’d just say Francesca Hayward dispensed with the English Prince’s proffered support at the end.  The excitement of the music heralding Aurora’s entry always gets to me and it’s a good job my GP isn’t doing my medical checks at the same time.  Some Auroras may well present a supremely confident Rose Adage but I rather like a sense of vulnerability in my ideal Aurora (which was more evident on her debut and when she was really struggling with a cold).  So I prefer my Aurora to show an element of uncertainty and challenge and then triumphing as a result of her own abilities and drawing on the support from the Princes and the palpable will of the cast and audience.

[Tebasile]

22 minutes ago, JohnS said:

 I’d just say Francesca Hayward dispensed with the English Prince’s proffered support at the end 

Ah, I thought that’s what happened - but I was such a nervous wreck, I wasn’t really sure what was going on. 

[RuthE]

That was the only technical slip I noticed, however.

[Sebastian]

21 hours ago, Odyssey said:

This is a a really helpful, and readable, explanation to the various adaptations  to the original Petipa ballet and the 
Perrault fairytale.
https://petipasociety.com/the-sleeping-beauty/

 

This website is indeed a marvellous compendium of secondary sources and some lovely visual material (including much which is hard for the casual reader to find). However one can’t rely on it, as I discovered when doing some research around the history of the Sleeping Beauty. To give one example, the site asserts - as if established fact - that

 

>>The purpose of the Fairy Violente pointing her fingers during her variation in the Grand Pas de six of the Prologue is that she is zapping electricity, which was new in 1890.

 

I very much hope this is true, as it is a most entertaining idea and the Prologue Fairies are somewhat mysterious. However nowhere does there seem to be a 19th century source for this observation, in any language, although it pops up, unsourced, in some speculative writing after the Second World War. More than happy to be corrected by those who know more but I can’t find where this comes from. 

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Sebastian said:

 

This website is indeed a marvellous compendium of secondary sources and some lovely visual material (including much which is hard for the casual reader to find). However one can’t rely on it, as I discovered when doing some research around the history of the Sleeping Beauty. To give one example, the site asserts - as if established fact - that

 

>>The purpose of the Fairy Violente pointing her fingers during her variation in the Grand Pas de six of the Prologue is that she is zapping electricity, which was new in 1890.

 

I very much hope this is true, as it is a most entertaining idea and the Prologue Fairies are somewhat mysterious. However nowhere does there seem to be a 19th century source for this observation, in any language, although it pops up, unsourced, in some speculative writing after the Second World War. More than happy to be corrected by those who know more but I can’t find where this comes from. 

 

I also found that surprising, but I hope it's true! It is indeed an entertaining idea; maybe her gift to the baby Aurora is a load of useful electrical gadgets. (Including an alarm clock set to wake her up in 100 years' time? Maybe with a nice teasmade, so she can offer the Prince a cuppa when he finally turns up.)