Royal Ballet - Romeo and Juliet - Winter 2022

[Eleena]

1 minute ago, Rob S said:

 

Where have you found that? When I click on the link for casting info on the e-ticket it doesn't go to a cast page (it doesn't seem to be a very reliable or long lasting link at the best of times)

Just to clarify, I have no cast list for the opening night! But the dancers’ pages have one Benno, two sisters, one Rothbart, one Queen (and so on) listed, so sounded to me it might be the opening night cast. But I might be wrong! Anyway, the details have been there for two or three weeks already. Might be that it’s not even supposed to be visible to us but is automatically generated from some system they use (and therefore includes some old casting details that have not been revised yet). But I’m guessing now - I really don’t know.

[Rob S]

13 minutes ago, Eleena said:

Just to clarify, I have no cast list for the opening night! But the dancers’ pages have one Benno, two sisters, one Rothbart, one Queen (and so on) listed, so sounded to me it might be the opening night cast. But I might be wrong! Anyway, the details have been there for two or three weeks already. Might be that it’s not even supposed to be visible to us but is automatically generated from some system they use (and therefore includes some old casting details that have not been revised yet). But I’m guessing now - I really don’t know.

 

Oh ok...I don't take that info to say who they'll be in the next performance, merely that they are going to be that role at some point in the production, for example Claire Calvert is listed as going to be Odette and a big swan...not in the same performance and not for the opening night of course.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Rob S

[Dawnstar]

5 hours ago, Eleena said:

If you go through the dancers’ ROH profiles, there seems to be three Mercutios (Acri, Hay and Yudes, as expected), three Paris (Donnelly, Mock and Edmonds), and two Tybalts (Mock and Gartside - I think Gartside played Tybalt in both Magri/Richardson and Lamb/McRae shows previously). There’s of course no way of knowing whether they’ll dance these roles in the same cast as previously, but it’s probably quite likely. Of course, with Covid, no casting is final…

 

That would mean a different Paris on 24th to 19th then, as Clarke did it on 19th. That's disappointing, as he's one of the supporting cast I'd like to have seen.

[Eleena]

1 hour ago, Rob S said:

 

Oh ok...I don't take that info to say who they'll be in the next performance, merely that they are going to be that role at some point in the production, for example Claire Calvert is listed as going to be Odette and a big swan...not in the same performance and not for the opening night of course.

I’ve been trying to follow how the ROH website works throughout the season, as I find it quite baffling, especially in terms of how and when casting is shown. Based on what I’ve seen so far, there seems to be a difference between principal casting (included in a dancer’s ”upcoming productions” for the entire season until their final performance in that principal role) and soloist/supporting roles. The latter seem to appear in a dancer’s profile only for specific performances and are moved to ”most recent productions” in their profile as soon as a performance is over (in fact, the moment it’s scheduled to start, so it seems to be automated). Then a few weeks later, when the same dancer dances the same soloist/supporting role again, the role is moved from their ”most recent productions” back to ”upcoming productions” and then, after that show, again back to ”most recent productions”, and so on. When they dance multiple roles in the same production, some roles may appear under ”upcoming productions” and some under ”most recent productions” - for instance, right now, Gary Avis has Lord Capulet under ”upcoming productions” but Tybalt under ”most recent productions”, as if these were two different productions of R&J, even though they are the same production.
 

But back to Romeo & Juliet performances! Sorry for sidetracking the discussion!

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Eleena

[Eleena]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

That would mean a different Paris on 24th to 19th then, as Clarke did it on 19th. That's disappointing, as he's one of the supporting cast I'd like to have seen.

I guess you could ask him directly if your decision depends on this? He seems to have an active Instagram account. There might be changes to casting tomorrow anyway…

[capybara]

🤔 If Gartside was with McRae this year and Mock was with Ball, that is unlikely to change, given the intricacies of the Tybalt/Romeo fight.

 

[Sim]

Reece is due to dance Paris tomorrow night (24th).  ❤️

[Dawnstar]

That's certainly an encouragement towards 24th. Though the BBC forecasting snow for Cambridge tomorrow afternoon is a discouragement. Oh dear, I keep on changing my mind! I fear that whichever cast I see I won't be entirely satisfied because I'll also regret not seeing the other one. Maybe it's partly because what I'd most like to do is see Magri/Richardson again tomorrow afternoon but of course that's not possible.

[Emeralds]

On 23/02/2022 at 11:49, Eleena said:

I checked yesterday morning and there was no casting for the soloist/supporting roles at that point. It was added at some point yesterday afternoon. It was the same with the previous week’s R&J shows - casting for that week’s shows appeared a few days before the shows, but only for those shows (not these last three performances this week). It was the same with The Nutcracker - casting appeared in the dancers’ profiles usually the day before the show, sometimes two days before the show. I suspect the dancers’ profiles are linked in some way to a casting database/system the ROH uses, and when the dancers’ names are assigned to specific performances in the system, casting also appears automatically in their personal profiles. Or something like that - I really don’t know.
I noticed too that the opening night casting for Swan Lake looks a bit odd, especially for Beatriz Stix-Brunell! 😊

I think that opening night cast is a glitch - I would advise ignoring that cast list. It looks like it was copied and pasted from 2020, as they are exact cast I saw 2 years ago, and Beatrix is probably in lectures in America....doubt she’s flying in to dance when she’s left the company.  😉

[Rob S]

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

I think that opening night cast is a glitch - I would advise ignoring that cast list. It looks like it was copied and pasted from 2020, as they are exact cast I saw 2 years ago, and Beatrix is probably in lectures in America....doubt she’s flying in to dance when she’s left the company.  😉

 

Indeed....although it doesn't explain why she's still listed on the roster and her page has been updated to say she left the RB at the end of last season yet Ed Watson has already been deleted from the dancer roster page

[AnticaFiamma]

The cast list of tonight is out, Mock and Clarke are in

[Guest oncnp]

3 minutes ago, Rob S said:

 

I yet Ed Watson has already been deleted from the dancer roster page

 

and added to the "Staff" page

 

Staff (roh.org.uk)

[capybara]

4 minutes ago, oncnp said:

 

and added to the "Staff" page

 

Staff (roh.org.uk)

Yes, Edward is a Principle (sic)  Repetiteur.

Honestly……!!!!!!

 

 

 

[Rob S]

Looks to be an interesting cast with me seeing Yudes as Mercutio and Mock as Tybalt for the first time

[Dawnstar]

@Rob SI just put my camera on to charge. May as well take it off if you'll be there!

[Rob S]

6 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

@Rob SI just put my camera on to charge. May as well take it off if you'll be there!

 

You know what I say to that, don't you!!

[Dawnstar]

14 minutes ago, Rob S said:

 

You know what I say to that, don't you!!

 

Well this time I'm sitting behind a pillar so I'll be lucky if I'll even see half the stage, let alone be able to take decent photos of it!

[Sim]

28 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Looks to be an interesting cast with me seeing Yudes as Mercutio and Mock as Tybalt for the first time

Yes, I will be seeing them for the first time and Reece as Paris for the first time.  Lots of firsts for my last R&J!

[alison]

On 07/02/2022 at 14:05, EVWS said:

I’m not sure if this has been previously discussed on the forum but something I’ve been wondering about for a long time is the way that a certain lift is done in the Balcony Scene which the Royal Ballet do differently to most other companies (judging by pictures posted by various photographers, dancers etc. on the internet, social media etc.)

 

It’s about hallway through the Balcony PDD where Romeo kneels and lifts Juliet up and down three times (sorry don’t know the technical name for this!). In photos of the RB and what I’ve seen in performance, Juliet does not support herself on Romeo’s shoulder but in pictures from other companies she does.

 

Is the way that the RB does it how it was originally choreographed or is it more difficult/awkward to do at the end of a very exhausting Act 1 so other companies choose not to? Very small thing but it’s always been curious about it!!

 

 

Lauren Cuthbertson did it the second time the other night, but not the first.  I was unable to judge how well she was balanced.

[MJW]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

Yes, Edward is a Principle (sic)  Repetiteur.

Honestly……!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Should The Queen be listed on the Staff page?

[art_enthusiast]

2 hours ago, alison said:

 

Lauren Cuthbertson did it the second time the other night, but not the first.  I was unable to judge how well she was balanced.

I noticed that as well. I assume it's also a personal preference, not sure.

[Rob S]

Lauren just did it again for the second and third of the three raises. 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Rob S

[Sim]

2 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Lauren just did it again for the second and third of the three raises. 

Most don’t, until they are about to put their feet back on the floor.  

[Rob S]

Alondra’s Mr Tambourine Man is a lot quieter than Jonathan Lo’s during Act 2 

[Rob S]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rob S]

Lauren is the first Juliet I’ve seen that puts the poison under the pillow by clambering on to the bed…she also doesn’t do that thing with Paris where she goes limp at the start of their pdd. 

[Pas de Quatre]

On 07/02/2022 at 14:05, EVWS said:

I’m not sure if this has been previously discussed on the forum but something I’ve been wondering about for a long time is the way that a certain lift is done in the Balcony Scene which the Royal Ballet do differently to most other companies (judging by pictures posted by various photographers, dancers etc. on the internet, social media etc.)

 

It’s about hallway through the Balcony PDD where Romeo kneels and lifts Juliet up and down three times (sorry don’t know the technical name for this!). In photos of the RB and what I’ve seen in performance, Juliet does not support herself on Romeo’s shoulder but in pictures from other companies she does.

 

Is the way that the RB does it how it was originally choreographed or is it more difficult/awkward to do at the end of a very exhausting Act 1 so other companies choose not to? Very small thing but it’s always been curious about it!!

As far as I remember, originally this was done without Juliet supporting herself, but of course there is always that option if the position is precarious.  For Juliet this is the same position as the overhead lift of Giselle in Act 2.  Whether it is an intended reference, I don't know.

[Sim]

I loved Tomas Mock's Tybalt last night.  His surname is very appropriate here;  he spent much of his time sneering or looking contemptuously at the Montague crowd, with a half smile but not angrily malicious.  He clearly thought they were pathetic children, or flies buzzing around that he had to swat away.  When he squashed one, he was horrified and  regretful.  He has clearly taken something of the Matthew Ball school of Tybalt interpretation, and it works very well.

 

Speaking of Matthew Ball, the cherry on the cake of this wonderful R&J run would have been being able to see his magnificent Tybalt once again.  

[Dawnstar]

I ended up opting for last night's cast. I don't regret my choice performance-wise but from an overall experience point of view a) I would not recommend stalls circle C91 for R&J, b) we contacted the opticians this morning to arrange picking up my new glasses tomorrow & c) some of the audience made me feel like asking the Montague & Capulets if they had any swords going spare! Especially the people in the row in front who whispered repeatedly through all 3 acts & whoever it was whose phone rang at the start of the last scene.

 

Of the dancers I hadn't seen before in their roles, I was most impressed by Yudes as Mercutio. It's the first major role I've seen him do & I thought he gave a terrific performance. In the Act II sword fighting he made me think of a scrapping terrier. For that last scene in Act II I found myself wishing I had several pairs of eyes when I was trying to watch Yudes dying, Pajdak saying goodbye to him, Mock's reaction & Ball's reaction all at the same time. I thought that Mock played it that he stabbed Mercutio accidentally rather than deliberately. Even with the addition of the "villainous" facial hair I thought he looked a little too inherently pleasant as Tybalt. On a Tybalt continuum, if you have Whitehead at the most aggressive end then I'd put Mock at the other end! I'm very pleased to have seen him as Tybalt though as ever since October, when Gartside posted a picture on Instagram of a Tybalt doublet with his name & Mock's visible on the label, I've been wondering what Mock would be like in the role, especially as he's my favourite Paris. I've been waiting even longer, since 2019, to see last night's Paris, Clarke. I thought he was very good in the role.

 

I was pleased to see Hinkis as Romeo's Harlot, having previously only seen her as Mercutio's Harlot. They must have been running out of smaller harlots because even in character shoes rather than en pointe Storm-Jensen as Benvolio's Harlot was rather too tall for Ella. In fact height-wise this cast really spanned the full RB spectrum, from Clarke to Yudes. It's probably a good thing that Paris & Mercutio don't have any interactions as the height discrepancy might have been inadvertently amusing!

 

Cuthbertson & Ball were the first pair I saw in the MacMillan R&J, in April 2019, so I was interested to see what I'd make of them having seen 10 other performances in between. I thought Ball was very good as Romeo but I confess I still kind of prefer him as Tybalt! I think I may have to accept that Cuthbertson doesn't do it for me in the MacMillan rep, having now seen her as Juliet twice & as Manon once & not having been moved by her at any point. It's not that there's anything she does that I can say I don't like, it's just that I can sit there admiring what she's doing technically (and, last night, admiring how anyone can look like that after having a baby!) while not feeling anything emotionally. I may stick to seeing her in other rep in the future, as I did enjoy her in Two Pigeons, Month In The Country & The Cellist.

 

16 hours ago, Rob S said:

she also doesn’t do that thing with Paris where she goes limp at the start of their pdd. 

 

I was surprised by that, as I thought it was part of the choreography & a deliberate foreshadowing of Romeo carrying around her limp body in the last scene.

 

Something I found myself wondering at the end of the first scene last night: do the men who die at the end of the first sword fight stay dead & stay offstage for the Act II marketplace scenes or do they make a reappearance & hope the audience doesn't notice?!

Edited February 25, 2022 by Dawnstar

[alison]

2 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Something I found myself wondering at the end of thr first scene last night: do the men who die at the end of the first sword fight stay dead & stay offstage for the Act II marketplace scenes or do they make a reappearance & hope the audience doesn't notice?!

 

Now, that's something I'd never thought about!  I suspect they probably reappear.

[capybara]

8 minutes ago, alison said:

Now, that's something I'd never thought about!  I suspect they probably reappear.

Hahaha!

I can vouch for at least some of them ‘coming back from the dead’ as I watched for that very thing in a couple of shows. 

[Dawnstar]

1 minute ago, capybara said:

I can vouch for at least some of them ‘coming back from the dead’ as I watched for that very thing in a couple of shows. 

 

Thanks. I thought that probably would be the case but I'm hopeless at identifying dancers in the marketplace scenes, with all the movement & with almost everyone's hair covered up. I don't even know if it's the same ones who die each time or not.

[Sim]

@Dawnstar I agree with you here:  I think I may have to accept that Cuthbertson doesn't do it for me in the MacMillan rep, having now seen her as Juliet twice & as Manon once & not having been moved by her at any point. It's not that there's anything she does that I can say I don't like, it's just that I can sit there admiring what she's doing technically (and, last night, admiring how anyone can look like that after having a baby!) while not feeling anything emotionally.

 

I found that I wasn't moved at all last night.  I don't know why.  Matthew was his usual passionate, ardent Romeo, but I just didn't feel a deep connection there with his Juliet.  I saw Lauren in her debut as Juliet (with Ed Watson) all those years ago, and it has been very interesting to watch her development of the role since then, and things have of course changed technically as well as artistically.

 

For this ballet to work for me, I really need to feel the connection between the two leads from the get-go.  I also need to feel the foreshadowing of doom, and for that to contrast with the joy of first love.  I need to believe that feelings run so deep that two teenagers would be willing to end their lives for each other after having spent only one night together.  Somehow none of this came across to me last night.  Maybe it was just me.  I must admit it was hard for me to put the day's news out of my mind.  However, when I compare how devastated I felt at the end of Naghdi/Ball, Kaneko/Bracewell, Naghdi/Campbell, Osipova/Clarke, Magri/Richardson, O'Sullivan/Sambe and Nunez/Bonelli, I was left strangely cold last night.