ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET: RAYMONDA

[bridiem]

Firstly – a great achievement for Tamara Rojo and the company to get a new and ambitious full-length production on in current circumstances. Secondly – lots of excellent dancing on display. But thirdly – I found the production and some of the performances dramatically unconvincing, and the much-vaunted Crimea/nursing setting pretty much an irrelevance (except of course in respect of the sets and costumes, which were attractive). Shiori Kase and Isaac Hernandez danced beautifully but without much characterisation; Jeffrey Cirio as Abdur Rahman was by contrast very charismatic. I found the ending confusing because it was so downbeat and lacking in drama, which presumably wasn't the intention. (Whereas Rojo's dress was undeniably dramatic!). So I found the evening impressive but uninvolving.

[li tai po]

1.30 am - Just got home after my usual train was cancelled due to a reduced timetable.

 

Lots to say tomorrow, but for now Jeffrey Cirio IS a total class act.  He held the stage and injected emotion, passion and pathos at every stage of his performance, a real personality and not a cardboard cipher.

 

For me the highlight of the evening was the beautiful pas de deux with Raymonda towards the end of Act II, where he oozed desire and longing.  

 

There was a shock for Raymonda towards the end of her Act III variation, when she suddenly drew up short to see Abdur standing there.  There was a lot of activity all evening and very little calm, but Jeffrey Cirio provided moments of stasis and you you could feel his pain and grief at the end of the ballet. 

[DanJL]

I had a fantastic time watching this - what a feast of dancing! In the programme, Rojo talks about bringing this classic Petipa ballet to modern British audiences and for me she has been greatly successful in doing that. The story certainly doesn't have the depth of Romeo and Juliet, for example, but stands up against the plot of many other Petipa ballets. Whilst the focus of the story is the love triangle, for me the Crimean war / nurse setting gave an intriguing new context for both the story and character dances. It also inspired some lovely moments for the corps and the twist at the end, which I found more satisfying than the climax I was expecting.

 

My experience of Raymonda before this was fairly limited. But I enjoyed the wonderful dancing from the Bolshoi cinema broadcast a couple of years ago - and I was very pleased to enjoy similar last night. The dances from the third act were the ones I was most familiar with, after multiple viewings of the recent Royal Ballet DVD. It was wonderful to see them again but with greatly added context. I thought the emotion in the third act added a lot and was driven by a slightly more romantic interpretation of the music. Overall a beautiful ballet and fantastic to have the chance to see it in its entirety. 

[DanJL]

16 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

Anyone going tonight, I'd be interested to know if the 2h40 running time turns out to be accurate.

I'd say it was closer to 3 hours in the end (at least from advertised start time). I emerged from the theatre at 10:35 and was relatively quick getting out from my seat. The curtain call was probably a little extended due to it being the premiere, but only by a few minutes. 

[capybara]

But the show started nearly 10 minutes late, as is always the case when invited first night guests are coming across from the adjacent hotel.

[DanJL]

Ah, have to confess I hadn't noticed the start time (and getting used to shows starting about 5 minutes late in any case!). Perhaps 2 hours 50 might be expected for other nights then? 

[alison]

Curtain came down at approx. 10.25 - after a late start as capybara says.

[Rob S]

 Damn, well all this (and seeing a few video clips) makes it even more disappointing that I'd had a ticket for last night before it was cancelled and then reinstated ☹️ 

[Angela]

two early reviews:

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/dance/raymonda-at-the-coliseum-review-tamara-rojo-isaac-hernandez-b977503.html

 

https://slippedisc.com/2022/01/alastair-macaulay-tamara-rojo-does-violence-to-this-ballet/

[FionaM]

Two completely opposing views!!!

 

Do slipped disc ever write anything positive?  Their review is stuck in the past. 
 

I hope this new Raymonda lasts … it’s visually and musically appealing with lots of ballet.  The change of costumes from tutus to period dresses will attract different audiences too. 

[Tebasile]

Much of last night's dancing was exhilarating, but I was very disappointed by the extent to which the score had been messed about with, particularly in Act I. This surprised me, given how frequently Rojo had stressed its beauty and importance in interviews. I felt that the new setting and plot simply did not justify these often jarring changes.

[FionaM]

3 minutes ago, Tebasile said:

Much of last night's dancing was exhilarating, but I was very disappointed by the extent to which the score had been messed about with, particularly in Act I. This surprised me, given how frequently Rojo had stressed its beauty and importance in interviews. I felt that the new setting and plot simply did not justify these often jarring changes.

i would ask you to give it another chance.  

 

I had a similar reaction to another new ballet which changed the order of a score, that I know very well in its original order.  It annoyed me in the same way as you I am guessing, in that my head was expecting the next piece to be something and then it wasn’t.  However, on the second viewing it didn’t bother me at all.  
 

Please give it a second chance 🙏

 

Most audience members won’t know the score in original order like you do. it won’t bother them.  

 

[Blossom]

6 minutes ago, Tebasile said:

Much of last night's dancing was exhilarating, but I was very disappointed by the extent to which the score had been messed about with, particularly in Act I. This surprised me, given how frequently Rojo had stressed its beauty and importance in interviews. I felt that the new setting and plot simply did not justify these often jarring changes.

 

I think the questions to be asked are

1. Is this a good ballet in its own right aside from any purist context?

2. Does it hold up authentically as 'Raymonda' in terms of music and choreography? 

3. Does it need to do both to be considered a success?

4. Can you/we see it as a lasting part of the rep?

[capybara]

35 minutes ago, Tebasile said:

Much of last night's dancing was exhilarating, but I was very disappointed by the extent to which the score had been messed about with, particularly in Act I. This surprised me, given how frequently Rojo had stressed its beauty and importance in interviews. I felt that the new setting and plot simply did not justify these often jarring changes.

 

I can hum the Bolshoi version of Raymonda from beginning to end, but the changes, although noticeable, didn't jar with me. The majority of the audience are coming to Raymonda free of any previous knowledge of the ballet or its score.........

[Lizbie1]

1 hour ago, FionaE said:

Do slipped disc ever write anything positive?  Their review is stuck in the past. 

 

Generally only when someone has died.

[CCL]

I’m delighted to read all the positive reviews. I think I’ll ignore the waspish words of Slipped Disc. I cannot wait for Friday evening!

[Lizbie1]

What I expect to see in Alastair Macaulay's reviews:

1. Any ballet over 40 years old should be preserved in aspic
2. Cranko is bad
3. Peter Wright is very bad
4. Same-sex partnering should be compulsory in new choreography

This might be a bit broad but I roll my eyes whenever these themes come up in his writing.

[LinMM]

While talking about the score can anybody tell me if the Spanish Dance in Act 3 is 

a) by Glazunov

b) in the original Act 3 Raymonda. 
The music was so familiar that thought it must have been dropped in from another ballet. 
It is so many years now since I’ve heard the full score ( I originally had it on vinyl records!) that I was surprised I did notice a few order discrepancies but in the end was just happy that some of this glorious music was at least getting some exposure!
I got a bit muddled with the settings as when it got to Act 3 I thought it was set in Hungary and thought well how did that happen but knowing the truly Hungarian flavour of the original Act 3 score thought Raymonda and John had decided to emigrate there! However on reading the synopsis ( I hadn’t read the full account by the time it started) discover that in fact they are in England and it’s Hungarian workers come over to work the harvest that allow the Hungarian flavour.  ( wondered if Tamara having a much welcome little dig here) 

Anyway although I did miss the sumptuousness of the original Act 3 ...no gasp as curtain went up on this occasion) that wouldn’t have worked in this Raymonda. 
However I loved the vivacity and more authentic rendering of the Hungarian dancing last night ...almost a get up and join in moment!!! 
I wonder though that regarding this Raymonda’s sneak off at the end that this should have been an engagement party celebration so she makes her break for freedom without doing the dirty on John as doesn’t actually marry him! Also that would allow a little more tension between John and Abdur as I felt Abdur was a little out of place in this last Act just sort of lurking!! 
 

I do think this new version by Tamara can be a valuable part of the Rep as so much dancing for the Company. I’d like to see it again with a slightly more dramatic actress than Shiori Kase who danced absolutely beautifully ( especially in the dream scene) but am not sure caught the real feisty and passionate nature of this new Raymonda. 
I will be interested to see reviews of different casts particularly by those who saw last nights one. 
 

Edited January 19, 2022 by LinMM

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, FionaE said:

Two completely opposing views!!!

 

Do slipped disc ever write anything positive?  Their review is stuck in the past. 
 

I hope this new Raymonda lasts … it’s visually and musically appealing with lots of ballet.  The change of costumes from tutus to period dresses will attract different audiences too. 

I already knew the slipped disc one was going to be negative and mean spirited, as it turned out to be, when I saw that the author was Alistair Macauley, who has a habit of being judgmental about creators and dancers unlucky enough to be randomly assigned to his not-my-personal-preference pile, and blindly lavishing gushing praise to his favourites, even when they are clearly struggling to produce work of a high standard. More to the point, I wonder why he’s no longer got his day job, which was being dance critic for NYT. Maybe the paper received too many complaints.....

 

With regards  concerns (or shock) some have expressed about modifications to the score, I’d been alerted by hearing interviews with Tamara Rojo and music director Gavin Sutherland that the score would need some rearranging. Eg in the original, Abderakhman is killed (a duel to the death on the king ‘s orders) right in front of Raymonda- who also has just suffered a very traumatic near abduction experience - and her guests, and then they proceed to a wedding immediately! I don’t see how the score could be unaltered if Rojo was going to discard this grisly and macabre plot progression- a killing and then a wedding? I know no culture, where this is supposed to be acceptable, especially among nobility. An elopement, eg Romeo and Juliet, sure. Not a noble’s wedding. 

 

The dances by the slaves being “offered” as a “gift” (oh dear) in the original version would also need a bit of switching around ....or discarding!  

 

None of the Bolshoi, Mariinsky nor Paris (Nureyev’s) productions are faithful versions of the Petipa original- everyone has shortened, altered or switched around variations, music or passages to make their versions more accessible or more representative of their artistic vision. Vikharev’s attempted reconstruction for La Scala is sumptuous and beautiful but still suffers from difficulties and occasional incongruity of the original. One of the obvious changes in the Bolshoi version is that Jean de Brienne’s Act 3 wedding solo is danced in Act 1, which always feels jarring to me when I hear it so early, but I accept it works in the production’s new(ish) context and the Bolshoi danseurs always win you over with their wonderful dancing. 

 

I say all this as someone who is probably one of the biggest fans of Glazunov’s music (and the Raymonda score in particular) on the entire galaxy. I haven’t seen the ENB version yet. I might suggest moving it around in different ways to what they’ve done.  But I know Rojo and Sutherland have each spent 5 and 3 years or so, respectively, researching the ballet’s archives and working on it. I’m keen to see what they have proposed and whether it works when I attend it later on. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Emeralds

[RuthE]

Regarding the Coliseum’s curtain call photos policy: it may of course vary by company, but at ENO performances they actually have a “please feel free to film the curtain call” message projected onto the surtitle screen when the time comes.

Edited January 19, 2022 by RuthE

[Angela]

1 hour ago, FionaE said:

Most audience members won’t know the score in original order like you do. it won’t bother them.  

 

Maybe it would bother Mr. Glazunov. Without having seen the ENB production, this partitura was written long after Minkus or Drigo, even after Tchaikovsky - composers were still aware that balletmasters/choreographers might change the order and succession of the numbers in the score, but they composed whole, integral works with a structure, an architecture. Like Tchaikovsky, Glazunov works with leitmotifs, too much cutting and rearranging might certainly disturb the symphonic character of his score. Would you do that to Stravinsky's ballet partituras, too? They are not so far away from Raymonda, not even 20 years. Somehow it humiliates this beautiful music if you think it's ok to use it for self-service.

 

 

 

[Blossom]

37 minutes ago, LinMM said:

While talking about the score can anybody tell me if the Spanish Dance in Act 3 is 

a) by Glazunov

b) in the original Act 3 Raymonda. 
The music was so familiar that thought it must have been dropped in from another ballet. 

 

Did you ever take RAD grade 6? Grand battements and battements cloche exercise used this.

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, Tebasile said:

Much of last night's dancing was exhilarating, but I was very disappointed by the extent to which the score had been messed about with, particularly in Act I. This surprised me, given how frequently Rojo had stressed its beauty and importance in interviews. I felt that the new setting and plot simply did not justify these often jarring changes.

Gotta remember that virtually every version still being danced nowadays, especially the Bolshoi and the Paris Opera productions, have messed about with the score. Even the Mariinsky production has slight edits. I think if we all got a copy of the original score- not what is released on CD, vinyl or DVD, which isn’t always complete and unaltered either - 99% of dancegoers wouldn’t recognise all of it, and many wouldn’t like it. We’re all conditioned or at least influenced by what we see or hear the most often. 

 

Eg: American dancegoers seeing British Nutcrackers: “Where’s the Mother Ginger music and section?”

British dancegoers seeing the Mother Ginger part of American Nutcrackers: “What in the world is this?”  (Fact: it is actually in Tchaikovsky’s score).

 

Swan Lake- 5 pieces of music missing from most British Swan Lakes: the Russian Dance/variation for Act 3. Also an adagio, 3 variations and a coda, of which the female one is used as the Odile variation by the Bolshoi (Ashton used the music for a pas de quatre in his 1979 version).

 

Sleeping Beauty: most British and other productions skip the entr'acte  music with the beautiful violin solo between Act 2 & 3- the Mariinsky is one of the few companies in the world that still perform it. Ashton made a pas de deux to it for Aurora and Florimund to dance after the kiss, now known as his Awakening Pas de Deux.

 

Coppelia/Sylvia: the number of productions that “steal” Delibes’ music for Amynta from his score for Sylvia to use as Franz’s variation in the Act 3 wedding grand pas de deux without acknowledging it.....! (Because Delibes never wrote one for Coppelia- at the premiere and first runs of the ballet in Paris, Franz was performed by a woman, and it was a mostly mime/character role!) NB Ninette de Valois’ production for the Royal Ballet didn’t steal any Sylvia music. Which is just as well, because Ashton later made a version of Sylvia too!

 

There’s a lot of chopping and changing going on all the time in the classics that we thought we knew so well. 😉

Edited January 19, 2022 by Emeralds

[FionaM]

Thank you @Emeraldsfor all this info on other scores, as well as the Raymonda one, that have been altered/re-ordered even in the perceived traditional versions.  

[LinMM]

Blossom ...aha! One of my regular ballet teachers uses that music for grand Battement!!! Have no idea whether it’s the actual grade 6 exercise but it’s one of the regular ones he uses and this one has quite a bit of battlement en cloche in it. I’m now really surprised I didn’t place it immediately🙄 So presumably is a Glazunov piece at least.
 
Emeralds....you’ve now brought back a cherished memory!  
Ive wondered in recent years where has that lovely violin solo music gone.

And I do recall a beautiful pas de deux which Nureyev and Fonteyn danced in the dream scene in SB. So perhaps this Ashton pas de deux was kept in for a while in some productions for a while but not recently. 
It was always a very moving moment when they danced that piece. What a shame has been discarded. 
The other day there was a piece of music being played on the radio which wasn’t actually from SB but I recognised it immediately as Tchaikovsky as right in the middle was one of the Fairy variation tunes so he obviously liked that refrain! 

 

[Blossom]

16 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Blossom ...aha! One of my regular ballet teachers uses that music for grand Battement!!! Have no idea whether it’s the actual grade 6 exercise but it’s one of the regular ones he uses and this one has quite a bit of battlement en cloche in it. I’m now really surprised I didn’t place it immediately🙄 So presumably is a Glazunov piece at least.
 

 

Fond memories of RAD grade 6 connected me immediately to the music on seeing Raymonda for the first time (Mariinsky full version remotely during Covid and Royal Ballet Act 3 live before that). Between that and grade 7 (La Sylphide) in years gone by, I've realised how important the RAD is in driving my music appreciation. I think there's also a piece from Raymonda used in the current Intermediate syllabus also for the classical dance. I don't dance anymore but it does produce quite an emotional response for me as a result.

I've been watching Royal Ballet's Act 3 today to really get a feel for the stylistic impact on Act 3 in the new version, it's a lot more classical (vs character dancing) than I recall, with only Raymonda's solo not being remotely demi charactere (but dramatically really fitted the story line) and perhaps one more short solo.  Given the fabulous opening dance led by Emily Suzuki and Henry Dowden which had lots of Character with a capital C, I think I can accept it even with a more 'purist' head on.  

 

Can't wait to see again on Sat night, same lead cast but hoping there is some opportunity to see some different dancers in other roles.  

[Angela]

Emeralds, I know all that (at least most of it), and I know about certain variations being given to totally different characters than they were intended to. But cutting some national dances in Nutcracker or Swan Lake sounds a bit different than what Macaulays review says:

"She and her musical colleagues Gavin Sutherland and Lars Payne disregard structure and style, shift individual numbers from act to act, set busy dance steps to non-dance music, and reassign music to different characters. In the first scene, for example, Petipa and Glazunov composed an ensemble waltz for Raymonda’s name day that pauses to give the heroine a brilliant pizzicato solo. But Rojo interpolates a medley of other numbers before the pizzicato – which she gives to a different ensemble rather than to the heroine."

Again, I have not heard the score at ENB, but this sounds - hm.

[Tebasile]

I don't have such a problem with sections being cut and - on occasion - moved. I understand that such things have happened with most classical ballet scores. But in my view the flow of the music was interrupted too frequently in Act I, and there seemed to be some odd interpolations and changes to what I believe to be the original score. 

 

Examples: 
- The 'lantern' sequence - what was that music? It sounded like a repetitive 'variation on a theme' from the score, in the style of Akram Khan's Giselle. 

- John's agitated solo before his dream pas de deux with Raymonda: As far as I'm aware, this music was not from Raymonda and seemed rather out of place. 

Please do correct me if I'm wrong as I am by no means an authority on Glazunov.

[Drdee]

4 hours ago, FionaE said:

Two completely opposing views!!!

 

Do slipped disc ever write anything positive?  Their review is stuck in the past. 
 

I hope this new Raymonda lasts … it’s visually and musically appealing with lots of ballet.  The change of costumes from tutus to period dresses will attract different audiences too. 

The word ‘violence’ used in the headline by Macauley has really irked me for some reason. I think it appears too strong considering his critique but also with the current concerns about violence towards women and what might have been in the original Raymonda story it just seems so tone deaf. We are off to see it on Friday and are looking forward to it and yes the period and National costumes will be a treat.

[Guest oncnp]

From the Guardian

 

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jan/19/english-national-ballet-raymonda-review-a-bold-lavish-refit-of-the-petipa-classic

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, LinMM said:

Blossom ...aha! One of my regular ballet teachers uses that music for grand Battement!!! Have no idea whether it’s the actual grade 6 exercise but it’s one of the regular ones he uses and this one has quite a bit of battlement en cloche in it. I’m now really surprised I didn’t place it immediately🙄 So presumably is a Glazunov piece at least.
 
Emeralds....you’ve now brought back a cherished memory!  
Ive wondered in recent years where has that lovely violin solo music gone.

And I do recall a beautiful pas de deux which Nureyev and Fonteyn danced in the dream scene in SB. So perhaps this Ashton pas de deux was kept in for a while in some productions for a while but not recently. 
It was always a very moving moment when they danced that piece. What a shame has been discarded. 
The other day there was a piece of music being played on the radio which wasn’t actually from SB but I recognised it immediately as Tchaikovsky as right in the middle was one of the Fairy variation tunes so he obviously liked that refrain! 

 

LinMM, it’s only a short excerpt but part of the Awakening pas de deux is available on YouTube, recorded with Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope dancing it. If you’d like to hear and see a longer version, even though not choreographed by Ashton, John Neumeier uses the music for Pavlova and Cecchetti, which portrays Anna Pavlova being taught by the great Enrico Cecchetti. If you search “New Mariinsky Gala 2013” on YouTube, there is a recording of the sublime Ulyana Lopatkina portraying Pavlova, at 33minutes in, with Viktor Baranov as Cecchetti, with a superb supporting ensemble of Vaganova Institute (the Mariinsky Ballet’s training school) students. That’s pretty much the whole entr’acte and it’s beautifully performed by the great Leonidas Kavakos on solo violin (wow) with the Mariinsky Orchestra. (The eminent Leopold Auer -wow again- played it at the premiere.) 

 

i think the Awakening pdd was last used regularly at the Royal Ballet in the 1968 version by Peter Wright with additional choreography by Ashton- way before my time; I only know it from the photos from the production of Sibley and Dowell in the same costume designs  that Bussell & Cope wear in the clip. It had been included in Ninette de Valois’ 1977 version initially, but was later cut. (Was it due to time constraints? Not sure.)

 

It’s performed at galas sometimes- would be lovely to see it more often, especially at the ROH. I’d love to have heard that Tchaikovsky piece you heard on the radio- was it BBC Radio 3 or Classic FM? 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

1 hour ago, Angela said:

Emeralds, I know all that (at least most of it), and I know about certain variations being given to totally different characters than they were intended to. But cutting some national dances in Nutcracker or Swan Lake sounds a bit different than what Macaulays review says:

"She and her musical colleagues Gavin Sutherland and Lars Payne disregard structure and style, shift individual numbers from act to act, set busy dance steps to non-dance music, and reassign music to different characters. In the first scene, for example, Petipa and Glazunov composed an ensemble waltz for Raymonda’s name day that pauses to give the heroine a brilliant pizzicato solo. But Rojo interpolates a medley of other numbers before the pizzicato – which she gives to a different ensemble rather than to the heroine."

Again, I have not heard the score at ENB, but this sounds - hm.

I normally don’t criticise critics, whom I accept normally try to give an honest reaction with as much integrity as they can- and some are impressive and brilliant in their own right. But I would just warn you that Macaulay has become more and more odd in the last 15 years of his writing. He can take one thing - such as the way a dancer uses their eyes, or something they can’t help, like their face or body shape, extrapolate it out of proportion and completely miss the rest of an excellent performance, and call it a disaster. He has the same bias with choreographers and choreography, and seems particularly irked by Rojo herself, or her job offer from San Francisco Ballet. Had it been a review by one of the experienced critics at the Guardian or FT, I’d take it more seriously. But as you and I haven’t been able to see the show yet, I suggest we don’t get misled by this review and worry unnecessarily till we’ve seen the show for ourselves. 

 

At times like these I wish ENB & London Coliseum or ENO had the facilities and technology to do live streaming. I think this is a production that many international viewers would love to have been able to get tickets to, to stream and watch online. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Emeralds

[Emeralds]

1 hour ago, Tebasile said:

I don't have such a problem with sections being cut and - on occasion - moved. I understand that such things have happened with most classical ballet scores. But in my view the flow of the music was interrupted too frequently in Act I, and there seemed to be some odd interpolations and changes to what I believe to be the original score. 

 

Examples: 
- The 'lantern' sequence - what was that music? It sounded like a repetitive 'variation on a theme' from the score, in the style of Akram Khan's Giselle. 

- John's agitated solo before his dream pas de deux with Raymonda: As far as I'm aware, this music was not from Raymonda and seemed rather out of place. 

Please do correct me if I'm wrong as I am by no means an authority on Glazunov.

Will let you know after I’ve seen it - and fingers crossed our show doesn’t get disrupted/cancelled by anything!