Royal Ballet's Swan Lake (Spring 2022)

[emmarose]

38 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

She is sorely missed in this neck of the woods  too.

It is such a shame as she had only just come back from injury (missing Nutcracker and R&J) when she pulled out again at the  DGV General Rehearsal. I was really looking forward to see her in Rhapsody after her "RB Live" PDD with Campbell (who is also unfortunately absent at present) in Nov 2020. Now, with her  also missing Swan Lake, my "No Akane" ticket returns credit total with the ROH has reached a sizeable amount. 

There does not seem to be any public info.  about  how she is doing or when she might be back...(she is not very prominent on social media). 😥

 

It seems to be a really awful time for her, she just can't seem to get back there. 

 

God, to have tickets to see her so often and miss all of that gorgeous dancing is so upsetting!

 

I'm in a similar situation to you, I had quite a few bookings but had awful luck for a few weeks, getting ill then getting an infection on my foot where I couldn't even put on a shoe, I've got a whole heap of credit on my account now. At least my bank balance will be better off when next season's bookings finally open! It'll feel like I'm getting things for free!

[Richard LH]

51 minutes ago, emmarose said:

God, to have tickets to see her so often and miss all of that gorgeous dancing is so upsetting!

Well yes it is... but at least I got to see her dance Giselle last autumn (the role that, in 2016, was instrumental in her promotion to Principal). As for Swan Lake,  I was lucky enough to see her perform this already with both Bracewell and Bonelli in 2018 and  again with Bonelli in 2020, when her last performance  (just before lockdown) was simply outstanding. 

 

Meanwhile, I'm keeping my appreciation  ticking over with various recordings until she returns ☺️!

 

I'm sorry  about your own bad luck,  emmarose.  I hope you are better, or getting there. 

[Dawnstar]

Tonight's cast sheet is up. I see Mendizabal is down for the Spanish dance. I think that's her first performance back since maternity leave? (I'm not going tonight, just reading it out of curiosity.) https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/36/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/49151

[Rob S]

Yes it is, hoping she’ll be a big swan before the end of the run 

[Emeralds]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

Tonight's cast sheet is up. I see Mendizabal is down for the Spanish dance. I think that's her first performance back since maternity leave? (I'm not going tonight, just reading it out of curiosity.) https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/36/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/49151

Great news that Itziar Mendizabal is back! I think you’re right that it’s her first show since being away, Dawnstar.

 

Anyone going to tonight’s show, let us know what you think of it afterwards! It’s also Steven McRae’s first Swan Lake since returning from surgery and rehab. All the very best to him, Anna Rose O’Sullivan, Itziar and the whole cast. Sold out show! Fantastic. 👍

 

And in the next round of our new forum sport of Benno-spotting, tonight’s Benno is the ever busy, ever in demand Luca Acri (with Sae Maeda and Ashley Dean as Siegfried’s sisters). Dias, Hamilton, Gasparini and Sasaki take on the duties of glowering at Odile as the four rival princesses. 😁 Oh, I wish I could see tonight’s show. It looks fabulous. 

[art_enthusiast]

Excellent show. Steven McRae delivered a very strong performance, what a great comeback to the role of Siegfried. Anna Rose - stunning of course, and seemed more confident in the role of Odile.

Extremely impressed by Sae Maeda and Ashley Dean, as Siegfried's sisters. And of course the entire corps, brilliant as always.

[Rob S]

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Rob S

[Supernoodle]

The cast list for this evening’s Gala is now up. 4 Odette/Odiles, 4 Siegfrieds, 2 Queens, 2 Von Rothbarts, 2 Bennos, 2 sets of Sisters! 

 

https://static.roh.org.uk/digital/cast-sheets/Swan-lake/5.5.22-Swan-Lake-Ukraine-gala-v4.pdf

[DoctorDerry]

Wow. I thought. Vadim was going to be a Solo Siegfried with his own personal quartet of Odette/Odiles. Hope someone has a grasp on traffic control.

Have a great evening everyone who can attend

[Emeralds]

For those who enjoyed Fumi Kaneko’s first performance in Swan Lake earlier in March, or in other performances....you may like this lovely article in Pointe magazine, the magazine for professional dancers but available online to all, where Fumi is cover star this month. Lesley Collier and Federico Bonelli are also interviewed along with Fumi, as she prepared for Swan Lake. (Article written by Lyndsey Winship, currently one of the Guardian’s dance critics.) 

https://pointemagazine.com/fumi-kaneko/

[Jan McNulty]

10 hours ago, Emeralds said:

For those who enjoyed Fumi Kaneko’s first performance in Swan Lake earlier in March, or in other performances....you may like this lovely article in Pointe magazine, the magazine for professional dancers but available online to all, where Fumi is cover star this month. Lesley Collier and Federico Bonelli are also interviewed along with Fumi, as she prepared for Swan Lake. (Article written by Lyndsey Winship, currently one of the Guardian’s dance critics.) 

https://pointemagazine.com/fumi-kaneko/

 

Which of course is included in the Links today, along with many other links of interest - please go and take a look!

 

 

[Emeralds]

13 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Which of course is included in the Links today, along with many other links of interest - please go and take a look!

 

 

Thank you for putting it in this morning, Jan, and for all the other articles and helpful links to threads as always.... my goodness, there seems to be a lot of upheaval in dance companies this week! 

[alison]

Oops - I must look more closely today   

[San Perregrino]

The cast sheet for today’s schools matinee has some pleasant choices including joonhyuk joon as benno and madison bailey/liam boswell in the neopolitan dance. here’s hoping these are reprised for the public cuthbertson/bracewell shows. 

[bridiem]

Tonight's cast sheet - lots of exciting débuts! https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/36/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/49149

[Swan]

Excitement for tonight is now off the scale, I’m looking forward to a fabulous evening! Wonderful dancers being given a chance to shine. 😃⭐️

[Rob S]

I’ve not done any research but am I guessing correctly that the debuts are Calvert, Edmonds, Sissens, Bhavnani (if we exclude this afternoon’s matinee), Buvoli and Allnatt? 

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Rob S said:

I’ve not done any research but am I guessing correctly that the debuts are Calvert, Edmonds, Sissens, Bhavnani (if we exclude this afternoon’s matinee), Buvoli and Allnatt? 

 

That was my reckoning, though also without research so couldn't be absolutely sure about the last two being debuts.

[art_enthusiast]

Claire is stunning - and an amazingly strong Benno performance from Joseph Sissens.

[Dawnstar]

Am I going mad or was the latter part of Sissens's Act I solo different to that of the other Bennos?

[Rob S]

7 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Am I going mad or was the latter part of Sissens's Act I solo different to that of the other Bennos?

Some Bennos do what he did and others do a leaping tour of the stage.

 

 

[art_enthusiast]

Well done to Claire - I believe that was 32 fouettés!

(I know it's not all about them, but hugely impressive!)

[Jamesrhblack]

I was actually moved by Black Swan. The interaction between the dancers made it a real Pas d’action not just a technical stunt. You can feel the support on stage for Claire Calvert and Nicol Edmonds from their colleagues too.

[Sharon]

Now this is the Swan performance I really wanted to see. Claire Calvert is such a fantastic dancer and I was really pleased that she was given thus opportunity.  She more than deserves it! She has all the natural attributes for this role - a very strong technique, gorgeous epaulment and the most beautiful feet. I'm only sorry she had 1 performance. 

I hope to hear lots .ore from those lucky enough to have seen the performance. 

[Sim]

She was wonderful, Sharon!  A lovely, individual performance, replete with her own little touches.  I am only sorry that she only got one show.  
 

Lovely to see so many of her colleagues, family and friends there in support.  It was, deservedly, a very enthusiastic audience for this triple debut evening (for the main roles; there were other debuts too). 

[AnneL]

It was a lovely performance all round. The dancers making debuts - not least Claire Calvert herself- brought some freshness to the choreography, in my opinion. And the corps in Acts 2 and 4 seemed on top of their game too.

[JennyTaylor]

2 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Well done to Claire - I believe that was 32 fouettés!

(I know it's not all about them, but hugely impressive!)

What I really liked was that when she had finished and was standing at the back right of the stage with her back to the audience,  she had a little conversation with one of the dancers seated right at the back which was obviously full of encouragement and congratulation  and another dancer to their left was also grinning widely - again obviously so pleased that she has performed them so well. Lovely!

[Rob S]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Rob S

[bridiem]

I agree with all the comments so far, and I found Claire Calvert's performance absolutely riveting. Beautifully danced, including excellent fouettés, but above all a fascinating and profoundly moving rendition of the role. Her Odette was so sad, so frightened, and so imprisoned by Rothbart that her anguish radiated to the tips of her fingers and through every sorrowful movement. Calvert has a kind of gravitas that made her Odette all the more touching. And her Odile was only different in small ways; small, but crucial. The gentle but perfidious smile; the gaze directed at Siegfried tinged by subtle contempt instead of yearning love. So she was like a mirror image of Odette, and Siegfried's mistake became very understandable. This was a performance where Odile was in her way as tragic as Odette, because the gravitas was still there, the potential for love was still there, but something had caused her to misuse it and to lose it. The relationship with Rothbart was particularly disturbing, almost incestuous, and her absolutely heartless and triumphant joy when the deception was revealed was chilling. I blame the father...

 

Nicol Edmonds was an excellent Siegfried - quite reserved but no less interesting for that, and lovely dancing. He and Calvert suited each other - no histrionics, and a strong sense of an interior life that they could have shared. The friendship with Benno/Joseph Sissens worked very well, and the latter's strong dancing and powerful stage personality were impressive. Tara-Brigitte Bhavnani was a very disdainful and imperious queen, but also clearly well under the control of Rothbart (the always brilliant Gary Avis, whose death on the rock was a masterpiece of wild, flapping disintegration).

 

Yes, such a shame that this cast only had one show. But Claire seized the opportunity to pour everything into the role, and deservedly received a huge ovation (and a vast number of flowers!). 

[Sim]

I so hope that this performance has proved to Kevin O’Hare that Claire can nail principal roles. It certainly has to me, and I hope she gets more of them in the near and far future. 

[alison]

Interesting that bridiem used the words "profoundly moving", because that was pretty much what I felt, too.

[Jamesrhblack]

8 minutes ago, alison said:

Interesting that bridiem used the words "profoundly moving", because that was pretty much what I felt, too.

I too found that I was “moved.” Quite apart from the technical excellence of both Claire Calvert and Nicol Edmonds, their emotional honesty and lack of histrionics made me re-engage with the narrative of Swan Lake in a way that I hadn’t felt for some time. 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Jamesrhblack

[Candleque]

24 minutes ago, Sim said:

I so hope that this performance has proved to Kevin O’Hare that Claire can nail principal roles. It certainly has to me, and I hope she gets more of them in the near and far future. 

Agree. Certainly proved it to the audience which was wonderfully appreciative from the start and clearly full of fans who knew what a special night this was.

Also lovely to see all the support from their colleagues for Claire and Nicol. Calvin Richardson and Marcelino Sambé were in my row (🤩) cheering loudly and there's lots of love on Instagram.