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Royal Ballet - Romeo and Juliet - Winter 2022


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22 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

But the most senior positions are overwhelmingly held by men.

 

 

And for ten years before the current director, the director and her associate director were women.  Swings and roundabouts and the best person for the job.

 

The current director's number 2 and 3 (in seniority) are female. 

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1 minute ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

The current director's number 2 and 3 (in seniority) are female. 

 

Do you mean the chair and vice-chair? Or the administrative director and someone else? I should have been clearer perhaps that I meant the senior management on the artistic side.

 

3 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

Swings and roundabouts and the best person for the job.

 

I don't disagree, but in combination with the shortage of choreographic representation - and granted that Monica Mason was no better! - the RB doesn't present the appearance to this moderate feminist that women have been given their due, or not before the disparity became so glaring that questions were being asked.

 

To be clear, the problem as I see it hasn't been sexism as it's commonly thought of, more a kind of thoughtlessness.

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26 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

 

And for ten years before the current director, the director and her associate director were women.  Swings and roundabouts and the best person for the job.

 

The current director's number 2 and 3 (in seniority) are female. 

This is a thorny issue. I would look at roles and salaries. I am not sure how transparent this is in the ballet world.  

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As a woman, and a firm believer in equality of opportunity both for women and across the board, I strongly believe that any appointment should be made on the basis of the best person for the job. Anything less is patronising beyond belief for anyone appointed on the basis of their sex, gender, colour, religion, age or any other attributes other than the ability to deliver optimum performance in the least antagonistic way possible.

 

In itself, this presupposes that whilst equality should and must fully encompass opportunity, it should not extend to equal numbers of appointees. The two do not, and should not, go hand in hand. If they do, we find ourselves firmly in the realm of positive discrimination, the effect of which is undesirable at best and disastrous at worst.

 

Having said this, ENB has awarded a number of extremely well-judged and successful commissions to women. I would suggest, however, that the success of these works owes more to vision and acuity than levelling up the scales.

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18 hours ago, oncnp said:

 

Perhaps she should dance with Bonelli more often?

 

If their Romeo and Juliet was anything like their absolutely breathtaking “Manon” back in 2014 (?) then I’m all for this suggestion.

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24 minutes ago, Anna C said:

 

If their Romeo and Juliet was anything like their absolutely breathtaking “Manon” back in 2014 (?) then I’m all for this suggestion.

 

I would like to see them in Swan Lake and who knows, at the rate things are going, it may happen (wishing no harm to her currently scheduled partner, of course). 

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On 13/01/2022 at 05:57, SamR said:

Hello, a newbie here!

I was also there last night and loved the performance. 

I had a question about the music. I have several recordings of Prokofiev's R&J. But can't seem to find the music for the specific dance at the ball where Juliet strums the mandolin while first her friends, then Romeo, dance. It's not in any of the 'ball' sections of the score. Is it originally written for another part of the ballet and was moved to the ball, perhaps? 

Try looking for it in the scene after Juliet takes the sleeping potion and is visited by her friends/bridesmaids the following morning. I believe it was used originally for their dance as they anticipate her marriage to Paris (which obviously never happens).

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4 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

The Director, Rehearsal Director, Music Director, both resident choreographers and the Senior Repetiteur - who I respect! - are all men. There were for a long time and only until the last few years almost no main stage commissions from women choreographers, and two of the most neglected choreographers in the company's repertoire under KO'H are women (Nijinska and de Valois).

 

Compare it to ENB and it is very far behind on this front.

 

You have also forgotten that the RB paved the way for female conductors with Andrea Quinn not only conducting for them, but being appointed Music Director between 1998-2001 after she won the Conduct for Dance competition organised by ROH. Not the RB's fault she then opted to join New York City Ballet.

 

As for Nijinska, her works featured brilliantly & strongly during Monica Mason's tenure & will no doubt return in rotation along with De Valois's Checkmate. 

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1 hour ago, emmarose said:

I've been a bit AWOL, having a break from everything online, but was Nunez and Bonelli supposed to be on on Monday? I thought they started a few days into this run.

 

They replaced Osipova and Clarke who had been due to perform on Monday.

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31 minutes ago, Diandri said:

 

You have also forgotten that the RB paved the way for female conductors with Andrea Quinn not only conducting for them, but being appointed Music Director between 1998-2001 after she won the Conduct for Dance competition organised by ROH. Not the RB's fault she then opted to join New York City Ballet.

 

As for Nijinska, her works featured brilliantly & strongly during Monica Mason's tenure & will no doubt return in rotation along with De Valois's Checkmate. 

 

My point was about the last ten years - no-one can dispute that the RB had an unusually strong feminine influence in its early days especially, which is why the (IMO) subsequent backsliding is so disappointing.

 

(I'd also tentatively note that Monica Mason was only given the top job on an interim basis after her make predecessor crashed and burned. I think she's said that she hadn't considered herself for the role before then, but did it take a crisis for others to spot her potential?)

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 In this version of R&J, does the Nurse, when bringing Juliet a  wedding dress, really believe Juliet is about to marry Paris although she knows she has just married Romeo? Or does she know the scheme and only pretends to be shocked and distraught when Juliet is found "dead"?

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3 hours ago, Anna C said:

 

If their Romeo and Juliet was anything like their absolutely breathtaking “Manon” back in 2014 (?) then I’m all for this suggestion.

 

I think they work beautifully together, Bonelli is such a caring partner and very natural every time they're paired together.

 

Just a small bit about how caring a partner he is, in Dances, when they do the flip lift, he would always take Nela's dress back over with her, so she was never 'exposed'. He does these small touches that makes his partnering right up there.

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2 hours ago, Richard LH said:

 In this version of R&J, does the Nurse, when bringing Juliet a  wedding dress, really believe Juliet is about to marry Paris although she knows she has just married Romeo? Or does she know the scheme and only pretends to be shocked and distraught when Juliet is found "dead"?

She doesn’t know about the potion because Juliet had stopped talking to her by the time the scheme was hatched. 

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1 hour ago, emmarose said:

Just a small bit about how caring a partner he is, in Dances, when they do the flip lift, he would always take Nela's dress back over with her, so she was never 'exposed'. He does these small touches that makes his partnering right up there.

 

He's done similar things so many times now.

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17 minutes ago, alison said:

 

He's done similar things so many times now.

 

Yes, he's one of the most caring partners, it was just one small moment that highlights just the little touches that shows how great he is to his partner. I've never seen another male dancer in the same role do that and show the same level of care. I think it can be a thing that's completely overlooked.

I think knowing they are in his hands allows his partners to really excel in their roles.

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8 hours ago, Sim said:

She doesn’t know about the potion because Juliet had stopped talking to her by the time the scheme was hatched. 

In which case I wonder what she imagines will be the outcome; I don't understand how she appears so content with the prospect of  Juliet being married to two men at the same time. 

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22 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

In which case I wonder what she imagines will be the outcome; I don't understand how she appears so content with the prospect of  Juliet being married to two men at the same time. 

 

It is a long time since I have seen (and even longer since I have read) the play but in all the ballet productions I have seen I have always thought this revolves around whether or not she thinks Juliet's marriage to Romeo has been consummated.  If she doesn't realise that it has (they are separated after the wedding) then perhaps she is just sticking her head in the sand and hoping for the best.

 

Actually I take some of that back - in at least one production the nurse finds them in bed and shoos Romeo away just before her parents arrive.

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2 hours ago, Richard LH said:

In which case I wonder what she imagines will be the outcome; I don't understand how she appears so content with the prospect of  Juliet being married to two men at the same time. 

The nurse also has to do as she’s told….if the Capulets have told her to go and get Juliet ready for the marriage, that’s what she has to do.

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1 hour ago, Sim said:

The nurse also has to do as she’s told….if the Capulets have told her to go and get Juliet ready for the marriage, that’s what she has to do.

Not to mention that she was most certainly not acting according to her master's command when she helped Juliet getting married, it is in her best interest to keep it a secret.

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In the Shakespearean play the nurse not only knows of the consummation, she plays an active and comprehensive part in facilitating said consummation. She was present when Friar Lawrence tells Romeo about his plan (to let the couple consummate their marriage before Romeo goes into exile. They (Lawrence says "we", presumably meaning him and the nurse) will then spread the news of their marriage so that he can return as her lawfully wedded man). The nurse then brought the "rope ladder" home to Juliet, which Juliet uses to lift her lover into her bed chamber.

 

At this time it is safe to assume that nobody, including the nurse, expects Capulet to be so insistent on marrying Juliet to Paris and in such short notice. After Romeo left Juliet for Mantua, Lady Capulet visits Juliet to tell her about her dad's planning a "surprise wedding" meant to cheer Juliet up after loosing her cousin:

"(your father) Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy/ That thou expect’st not, nor I looked not for."

 

Thus I agree that the Nurse is just doing what she is told when helping planning the Juliet-Paris wedding, as she is obliged to, perhaps with much angst that it will complicate Friar Lawrence's plan (to which, again, she is an accomplice). Though as is the convention described in other Shakespearean plays, Juliet's prior marriage to Romeo would simply nullify her marriage with Paris.

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3 hours ago, Sim said:

The nurse also has to do as she’s told….if the Capulets have told her to go and get Juliet ready for the marriage, that’s what she has to do.

 

40 minutes ago, KyleCheng said:

I agree that the Nurse is just doing what she is told when helping planning the Juliet-Paris wedding, as she is obliged to

Perhaps this would have been clearer in MacMillan's ballet if she had somehow displayed angst when bringing in the wedding dress, rather than appearing pretty cheerful about it. 

Also (and I think this has been said before) it would have helped comprehension of the story if the  ballet  included a short scene, or scenes,  that explained there was a message sent to  Romeo about Juliet's fake death plan, which he did not receive. 

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3 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

 

Perhaps this would have been clearer in MacMillan's ballet if she had somehow displayed angst when bringing in the wedding dress, rather than appearing pretty cheerful about it. 

Also (and I think this has been said before) it would have helped comprehension of the story if the  ballet  included a short scene, or scenes,  that explained there was a message sent to  Romeo about Juliet's fake death plan, which he did not receive. 

 
The Nureyev version shows the monk with the message being attacked en route.

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58 minutes ago, Jamesrhblack said:

Campbell and Naghdi this afternoon. Breathtakingly beautiful and moving. The final curtain came down in absolute silence. Says it all.

Agree.  An amazing performance.  The stunned silence at the end shows the degree to which the whole audience was taken on the tragic journey with them. I was utterly heartbroken at the end.  Beautiful indeed.  

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I went to see Campbell/Naghdi this afternoon. Spoilt again with a late Return ticket in Row A of the Orch Stalls, so I had a wonderful view. I'm also finding that I remain distracted and/or beguiled by my close up view of the orchestra. I had no idea there was so much piano in the music!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance this afternoon in all its aspects, but I didn't find it moved so much as some others, but I can't put my finger on why, because it was lovely. I'm a very big fan of Alexander Campbell so really enjoyed seeing in this role (at last!) and he certainly did it more than justice. I always love Yasmine Naghdi as Juliet and a particular highlight for me was the Balcony scene pdd where they both gave it their all. 

 

I was impressed with both Joseph Sissons and Leo Dixon as Mercutio and Benvolio. Joe played Mercutio as being very cheeky and really pulled it off, but also managed the serious death scene extremely well.  Leo Dixon's Benvolio was a lovely, friendly young man, who warmed my heart.   The scenes where the 3 friends dance together are some of my favourites and they didn't disappoint. 

 

Ben Gartside played Tybalt as somewhat dismissive and contemptuous of his rivals but not as overtly unpleasant or arrogant as others in that role. I was impressed with Tom Whitehead as Lord Capulet: a lot of very good acting going on with his eyes. 

 

For those who like some of the detail.  Yes, Alex played the "meeting at the ball" moment, completely differently to any other Romeos I have seen. So, apparently not noticing Juliet until they actually turn round and face each other.  Sadly Claire Calvert was not Rosaline today: I was really looking forward to seeing that chemistry.  The different approach still works, and there was a lot of interesting acting on the side between the 3 friends and Rosaline, leading up to that moment. 

 

In the final scene in the crypt, Alex came on to attack Paris from the doorway. I didn't see him come on at all in a cloak and go round the other side by the stairs. I was looking all over for him in the shadows, but nothing.     

 

I felt the audience response was a bit muted today throughout, but that might have been my imagination. The cast received lots of applause at the end though.  I came away happy.  

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A totally stunning,beautiful performance from Naghdi/Campbell. Certainly the best R and J I have seen for many years. As other forum members have,said there seemed to be so many small details that added to the story. I particularly loved the interaction between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio - isn't Joe Sissens a very fine Mercutio in the making? I can't think why the RB took so long to cast Alex as Romeo. It seemed to me such a well rounded performance, beautifully danced, and, of course his partnering is superb. 

 

Can someone tell me what has happened to Juliet's bedroom? It did look as though the Capulet's had shoved her bed  in the street! Can't remember if it was like that in the last run - I know the sets have been much altered over the years.

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