Scènes de ballet

[Mary]

Yes let's comment on the performances after we've seen them, rather than before.

 

Do we know who is coaching? I might have missed this.

 

[Sim]

4 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Ditto.

Ditto.

[alison]

1 hour ago, capybara said:

Hayward/Hay we’re indeed beautiful together with part of their loveliness attributable to an apparent lack of effort.

Other male dancers since Baryshnikov have had a tendency to ‘give it too much’ . But I’m giving all the casts a ‘go’ this time. 

 

I think I've booked all the performances because I couldn't get my head round the casting options  

[jmhopton]

6 hours ago, Sim said:

I too would have loved to have seen Hay/Hayward together again in Rhapsody.  Last time, their performance brought tears to my eyes it was so beautiful.  However, it will be interesting to compare and contrast what those who are new to the roles have to offer.  

 

In a way, perhaps nothing could have surpassed or even come close to the Hay/Hayward performance that I saw, so maybe it's better for me to always keep that beautiful memory...who knows if they would have reached those heights again?  Maybe...but I am so grateful to have seen them at that peak a few years ago.

I feel a bit the same, Sim as I saw them too and felt I was in the presence of true ballet perfection. But I would have happily run the risk of them not performing to last times incredible standard, especially if theirs had been the streamed performance. Since seeing their performances I have been longing for some sort of a recording of Hay/Hayward in Rhapsody and Vadim in A Month in the Country and I may have the added frustration of seeing both ballets again but neither cast I want being recorded. 

[JNC]

I see they are filming two different casts which seems unusual? I wasn’t aware this was being streamed so is it for a dvd? Doesn’t explain the two different casts though, perhaps they’re branching out some sort of online streaming offering where you can pick your cast? 
 

I am disappointed Morera isn’t being filmed but not surprised. 

[zxDaveM]

1 hour ago, JNC said:

I see they are filming two different casts which seems unusual? I wasn’t aware this was being streamed so is it for a dvd? Doesn’t explain the two different casts though, perhaps they’re branching out some sort of online streaming offering where you can pick your cast? 
 

I am disappointed Morera isn’t being filmed but not surprised. 

 

yes, strange about the filming arrangements. Perhaps two different companies doing the filming for different audiences, maybe?

Also disappointed Federico Bonelli not dancing 'Month' with Laura Morera on the 'Scenes' bill, which would have been a performance to treasure - though not disappointed with his sub really (William Bracewell)

[greypuss]

I believe the reason that two casts appear to be marked as being filmed is because of a documentary that Steven McRae and his team are making about his return from injury. One of his Swan Lake  dates is also set to be filmed. I believe the first cast will be the one screened, not the Mcrae one.

[JNC]

Oh good to know! Pleased that Bracewell is replacing Bonelli - probably the best pairing replacement given the choices in my opinion. 
 

I hope the McRae documentary is something that is perhaps shown on bbc but that may be wishful thinking! 

[CCL]

I’ve booked for the Saturday matinee and must confess to being tremendously excited. Of the three pieces the only one I have seen previously is ‘Rhapsody’ and that was a long time ago, so I think this will be a real treat! I’m really happy with the casting, too.

[FionaM]

21 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Disappointing that someone can write people off in respect of a performance that they haven't yet seen.

I have been disappointed by the physical effort shown by these dancers to favour virtuosity over the mood or drama required.  
 

I do hope that coaching, further experience and maturity would influence how they perform in Rhapsody.

 

So .. I expressed my concern and disappointment over the limited range of casting.   How to choose when none inspires?  
 

Sure they all have super virtuoso technique … but can they show it without showing off.  Hmm.  This is the difficult challenge of the role.  
 

Usually with the RB it is the other way around … too much choice of possibly excellent performances.  

[LinMM]

Well somebody here still loves you Corrales!! 
I do think Hay and Hayward would have been amazing together I must say but am looking forward to Takada and Corrales in this. 
I’ve only seen it once before though so may not have quite got a feel for the piece yet. 
Month I’ve seen many times and just can’t wait to see Osipova and Bracewell in this…I’m sure the ticket is worth it for these two in these roles alone!! 

[Emeralds]

Scenes de ballet used to be performed quite frequently in the past but has not been presented for quite some time now. I personally like it a lot but would say that it’s not a “crowd pleaser” in the way that Don Quixote, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Swan Lake, etc are with their obvious technical marvels and showy climaxes, but if you arrive in good time and settle down comfortably- preferably in a seat or standing place where you can see the patterns of the dancers moving around on the stage - there are beauties to delight. 

 

The music is by Stravinsky but not one of his dramatic well known ballet scores like Firebird, Rite of Spring, Petrouchka, etc. Rather, it has a more subtle, sedate and elegant feel like Orpheus or Apollo. I think Scenes de Ballet is quite a difficult piece to perform as it is plotless, there are no obvious showy “tricks” but yet demands a lot of skill, virtuosity and rehearsal to make it look effortless. The steps are classical, not super modern. Ashton was said to have regarded as his favourite ballet.

 

The last Scenes de Ballet cast I saw was led by Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae some years ago, who were gorgeous in it. The ballet is quite a contrast from A Month in the Country (based on and quite faithful to the Ivan Turgenev play of the same name) with its various characters and subtle nuances in their roles and emotions, and the showpiece Rhapsody (named after the music it is set to- Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini), created for Lesley Collier and Mikhail Baryshnikov.  I have dubbed this The Triple Bill of Gorgeousness.  😊 It will be a fabulous show whichever cast you pick.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Emeralds

[FLOSS]

 Kevin seems to see mixed bills as a means of giving a range of dancers opportunities to show what they can do rather than an opportunity to showcase a single dancer's range in a selection of contrasting ballets or a group of works in which he or she is seen as an outstanding exponent of specific roles. Kevin's approach is entirely understandable given the number of good dancers there seem to be at every level in the company and his stated intention of giving his dancers interesting careers even if he can't promote everyone.Unfortunately while a casting policy based on the need to give dancers opportunities may keep the dancers happy, even with good coaches and "dancers giving their all", it does not always result in performances which show a work at its best. Getting the best out of a piece of choreography might be thought to start  with the very basic question of whether a dancer has a good enough technique to dance the work in question but I think we all understand that it does not stop there as there is always the question of whether the dancer selected has the artistic imagination required to evoke a ballet's mood and perform the choreography in the style its creator intended it to be seen.Interestingly Hans Brenaa was of the opinion that the most important thing when casting a ballet was finding the dancer most suited to the role in terms of their stage personality, performance style, artistic empathy and imagination and the type of roles to which they were most suited with technique seemingly a secondary consideration. Brenaa's argument in favour of his approach was that a dancer who was a perfect fit for a role but whose technique needed a little work done on it in order to bring it up to the level the  role required was a much better choice than a dancer brim full of technique but lacking the essential qualities a role demanded. Technique can be worked on and improved but miscasting is miscasting. I accept that there are occasions on which a dancer surprises you and reveals an unexpected range but sadly my experience is that generally they don't do that they simply disappoint and do a disservice to the choreographer. I have memories of Bussell's Hostess in Les Biches and her Natalia Petrovna, and they are far from good. Her Hostess lacked the wit and sophistication of Yanovsky or the extraordinarily effective characterisation of Chapman while as Natalia she was way out of her depth in a role created for one of the greatest dance actresses of the last century.

 

Ashton's ballets are always concerned with dance as a flow of movement rather than the exposition of classroom steps straight from class and a series  of poses and photo opportunities. They contain sequences of steps that have to be reproduced in phrases which should,in performance,seem to emerge naturally and effortlessly from the music to which they are set. This  means that the dancer should be thinking ahead all the time in order to accommodate the next swift change of direction and the one after that and not slowing down every time they encounter a tricky combination of steps.In interview Hay has said that when faced with Ashton's technical challenges he has found the best solution is to get on and dance the choreography. In other words Ashton's ballets involve dancing rather than merely doing steps and if performers get bogged down in trying to get the steps "right" in terms of making them conform to what is taught in class it means that they have yet to master the choreography and get to its heart as they have failed to understand that Ashton's choreography, like that of every other major classical choreographer, is based on a very personal approach to classical vocabulary which on occasion requires steps to be modified and sometimes fudged and the relationship of those selected movements to the music to which it is set and from which in good performances it seems to arise organically.

 

Scenes de Ballet is the second of Ashton's one act manifesto ballets created to counter the expressionism which was to be seen in Helpmann's creations for the company but where Symphonic reveals classicism's warm lyrical face Scenes is concerned with a cooler more overtly rigorous form of classicism using Euclidian geometry as the basis of its floor plan. In Scenes Ashton gives his ballerina a double persona presenting her both as the embodiment of classicism's diamond sharp precision and clarity and its softer more lyrical  pearl like qualities. The leading male dancer in it is essentially required to be an exemplar of compelling heroic male classicism and a great partner. It is a role which calls for a danseur noble or someone who can give a convincing impression of one, for many years during Ashton's lifetime  it was one of Michael Coleman's most impressive roles. The leading male roles in both  Scenes and Rhapsody call for those indefinable elements of quality and presence which can not be taught but the mood of the two works is completely different. In a great performance of Scenes there is a sense of mystery and distance while Rhapsody at its best feels like a celebration of dance. Scenes is essentially an Apollonian work, cool, reserved and remote with a leading man who commands the stage with the beauty and quality of his movement while the leading role in Rhapsody is, I think, essentially Dionysian and better suited to a demi-character  dancer with an easy, unforced, apparently effortless bravura technique, or something close to it. Ideally the dancer will have a warmer, less remote stage presence than the danseur of Scenes and will understand that while the ballet superficially appears to be about technical display it is a celebration of dance as an art form in which the choreography speaks through the dancer's easy approach to the text. The minute you notice the choreography's difficulties you know that the dancer has gone horribly wrong and misunderstood what is required of him, after all at one point he seems to shrug off the work's challenges much as the Blue Boy does in Les Patineurs created more than forty years before.

 

It is going to be really interesting to see how well Muntagirov, Campbell and Clarke cope in the cool, heroic sophistication of Scenes and whether McRae has broken free of his tendency to highlight the difficulties of Rhapsody and learned to make light of them. As to Corrales and Sambe will they manage to produce more than a box of tricks in the Baryshnikov role? I somehow think that Sambe will manage a lot better in evoking the ballet's mood than Corrales who, for me at least,always remains resolutely himself whatever he dances. Sadly so far Corrales  has not  managed to disappear into any of the roles I have seen him dance and I can't help wondering whether that is simply the failing of a young dancer relishing his undoubted technical skills or whether he lacks the capacity to understand that if you treat technique as means to an end rather than an end in itself your career will be far more fulfilling and you be far more likely to be able to withstand injuries and the other setbacks which form part of most dancers' careers. I am not sure that I would describe Rhapsody as an abstract work I think of it more as a ballet in a celebratory mood in which the leading male dancer is essentially the spirit of dance rather than an individual attention-seeking dancer forever drawing attention to the technical tricks he is performing.While I look forward to seeing this mixed bill I think it is a pity that in a season dominated by fulfilling previous commitments to individual dancers and choreographers and generating healthy box office receipts Kevin could not find time to revive Ondine for its curiosity value or Fille for the pleasure it gives.

 

Both Ashron and Balanchine worked in the post Diaghilev dance world in which the one act ballet was regarded as the highest form of dance work and three and four act works and the idea of creating story ballets was regarded as hopelessly old fashioned. They had the freedom to make works whose duration generally was dictated by the duration of the music which they had selected. I think most people then as now are more concerned with the quality of a ballet's choreography than its duration. This attitude to dance works might well explain Ashton's reported answer to  questions about how long a ballet should be which was something along the lines of "As long as it needs to be". I would happily settle for a mixed bill of three back to back performances of Scenes de Ballet or Symphonic Variations as long as I was sure dancers with the right qualities would appear in all three renditions, and I know I am not alone.

[FionaM]

thank you @FLOSS for articulating your concerns in such a clear and knowledgeable way.   This is what I was trying to say.  

[alison]

On 28/02/2022 at 10:52, FLOSS said:

 Kevin seems to see mixed bills as a means of giving a range of dancers opportunities to show what they can do rather than an opportunity to showcase a single dancer's range in a selection of contrasting ballets or a group of works in which he or she is seen as an outstanding exponent of specific roles.  

 

FLOSS, were you really suggesting that we should have a "[dancername] Evening" format?  Not that I'm not sure that some people would appreciate it, but it would be an awful strain on one dancer, wouldn't it, in this day and age?  I know New York City Ballet do something similar for retirements, but those are one-offs.

[Sharon]

On 24/02/2022 at 18:40, MJW said:

Hope this is ok to post - a link to IG showing a snippet of Scènes de Ballet

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaXRvPJKAmF/

Thank you ❣

[San Perregrino]

I’ve just received an email re cast change on 30th April. 

[Angela Essex]

On 22/02/2022 at 22:31, Elz said:

Thanks you, I was already really looking forward to it, and now and am even more excited!

 

Here is the cast:

Scènes de ballet

Conducted by Emmanuel Plasson

CastSarah Lamb, Vadim Muntagirov

---

A Month in the Country

Conducted by Emmanuel Plasson

CastMarianela Nuñez, Matthew Ball

---

Rhapsody

Conducted by Emmanuel Plasson

CastFrancesca Hayward, Marcelino Sambé

 

 

I’ve just booked to see this cast too - can’t wait 💗🩰