Woolf Works - Royal Ballet March 2023

[Candleque]

3 minutes ago, MJW said:

Special shoutouts to Harris Bell and Marco Masciari.

Loving hearing that some of the younger company members are getting a chance to shine 👍

[LinMM]

I was hugely impressed with Ashley Dean tonight ….I had to look up in the interval who it was dancing this role….and also Masciari… very good and Richardson as usual of course! 
Nunez and Ball were both very good but perhaps Ferri had a little more poignancy and vulnerability in her portrayal. 
I just really love the music for this Ballet especially the final act and at one point just for a bit I let the music wash over me and looked at the backdrop of waves ( instead of the dancers) it was very hypnotic….it really does seem to capture Woolf’s state of mind …both her mental battles and anguish. 
I have to say every time I see it I see something I didn’t see before …in every Act. Tonight I got caught up in the drumming section and followed one of the dancers and their movements were perfectly timed to the drum rhythm …..but when you watch all the dancers in a general way it can seem as if they are not giving particular attention to the music. 
Melissa Hamilton was amazing as ever…how she doesn’t just break into two I don’t know!!! There was one bit where her leg was up on her partners shoulder (I think!) and she was bending her body down one way and back up and then back down around the other way repeating several times ……My core hurt just looking at this 😳She must definitely be McGregors dream dancer! 

I definitely like Woolf Works the more I see it but alas no more in this run. 

 

[MJW]

16 hours ago, MJW said:

I’m writing this having managed to get from Covent Garden to sitting on my train from Waterloo within ten minutes!

 

Another magnificent performance of Woolf Works tonight with a superb cast. Special shoutouts to Harris Bell and Marco Masciari.

 

Last time I was in the stalls circle and tonight I was bang in the centre front row of the GT. Its very interesting how different each part looks from different parts of the auditorium. Becomings was as mad but magnificent as ever; I now, I then moved me less than before but Tuesday was beautiful and made so much more sense to me than before!

 

Poor timing but I have a meeting with my new boss tomorrow so hopefully I will have managed to get some sleep from a late night back. 

 

Looking forward to Cinderella rehearsal on Friday.

 

From last night - 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqF-nLSoUmD/

[Sim]

As I mentioned somewhere upthread, I was also hugely impressed with Masciari.  

[LinMM]

Great curtain call video MJW! I usually wait till McGregor comes on to take his call but had to go a bit early yesterday so just left as Hamilton was taking her bow….still able to walk lol! 
 

[capybara]

So McGregor comes on stage after every show?

[LinMM]

Well I don’t know but he was certainly in the ROH yesterday evening but he could have just been in the audience. But as others have said he came out when they were there and I wasn't I assumed it might be most nights.

[Sim]

25 minutes ago, capybara said:

So McGregor comes on stage after every show?

He has come on at every one I have attended thus far.  Am going tomorrow night, and as it is the final one he will probably come out then, as well.  

[Richard LH]

2 hours ago, Sim said:

He has come on at every one I have attended thus far.  Am going tomorrow night, and as it is the final one he will probably come out then, as well.  

Isn't this rather strange? 

[Scheherezade]

Yep, I’m there tomorrow night too; final night and my first and only night during this run so really looking forward to it. 

[Sim]

1 hour ago, Richard LH said:

Isn't this rather strange? 

I’ve never seen it before!

[Josette]

10 hours ago, Sim said:

As I mentioned somewhere upthread, I was also hugely impressed with Masciari.  

He is an amazing talent, and so intense. 

 

[art_enthusiast]

Incredible performance tonight! Extremely impressed by the entire cast, particularly Nicol Edmonds, Leo Dixon, Annette Buvoli and Isabella Gasparini in Act 1. Natalia Osipova is of course brilliant, one of my favourite dancers of all time and I think the way she portrays emotion is just exquisite. Hugely touched by Act 3, and I really liked the partnership between her, Reece Clarke and Mayara Magri. Act 2 is always so invigorating, and I was so happy to see Joseph Sissens and Fumi Kaneko again. They absolutely stunned me in the first Ferri performance. I also find them to be a very interesting partnership.

 

Sad that this was the last Woolf Works performance!

[LinMM]

I wanted to see Osipova in this role as well but unfortunately timings just didn’t work out this time. 

 

[Peanut68]

Really sad not to have got to see Woolf Works this time around…. I did catch a glimpse of Ferri leaving Sadlers Wells walking to a bus stop after the final Tiler Peck performance….my companion wouldn’t let me disturb her solitude by going up to gush at how much of a fan I am (!).

I would’ve loved to see her in the role once again (I saw her in both previous runs) & also Nunez & Osipova….

And still feel Ferri would be a convincing Juliet today! 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Peanut68

[Rob S]

 

 

[Sim]

12 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Incredible performance tonight! Extremely impressed by the entire cast, particularly Nicol Edmonds, Leo Dixon, Annette Buvoli and Isabella Gasparini in Act 1. Natalia Osipova is of course brilliant, one of my favourite dancers of all time and I think the way she portrays emotion is just exquisite. Hugely touched by Act 3, and I really liked the partnership between her, Reece Clarke and Mayara Magri. Act 2 is always so invigorating, and I was so happy to see Joseph Sissens and Fumi Kaneko again. They absolutely stunned me in the first Ferri performance. I also find them to be a very interesting partnership.

 

Sad that this was the last Woolf Works performance!

Yes I agree with you in everything you say.  A truly lovely way to end this short run.  I was privileged to see all three casts, and although Queen Alessandra is in her own league, I thought Nunez and Osipova were excellent in their own ways.  I must say last night's Septimus and Evans didn't move me quite so much as Richardson/Sissens and Richardson/Masciari.

 

I have really enjoyed all the performances I have seen.  This ballet is definitely, as they say, a keeper.  I took two friends who had never seen it before and they were both totally blown away.  

 

Bravo to cast, crew, designers, lighting designers and of course Wayne McGregor (yes, he came out for another bow last night!).

[Linnzi5]

I only saw one performance, Ferri's final one, but I loved it. Bravo to all! 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Linnzi5

[Nogoat]

I put a reply on the Creature thread concerning whether or not music written specifically for some recent ballets worked on their own as soundtracks to listen to. My post made a particular point about Max Richter's album of music from Woolf Works (Three Worlds) that @JohnS felt might bear repeating here. That made sense, so here is the extract...

 

I listened to the Richter's album 'Three Worlds' on Spotify a few weeks ago, following my first visit to Woolf Works at the ROH and my desire to help relive that wonderful evening. It didn't quite have the impact of the live performance (and Becomings ends on the solo piano rather than the upbeat finale in the ballet), but it came close.

In fact, in one respect the album improved on the theatre.

 

In Woolf Works at the ROH, the first and last acts are introduced with the spoken word, which I find helps prime the senses and emotions for what is to come; for a choreographer famously reticent to provide too much structure, it's a welcome framing device. 
On Richter's album, the second act, Becomings, also starts with the spoken word - a quote from Orlando itself. And my goodness, is that quote fitting! It sets up both the fragmented, diverse musical structure of Becomings and the choreography/staging so brilliantly that I'm left wondering why the creative team didn't use it in the ballet itself. In fact, because it fits so well, I'm left wondering if it was something that got dropped/forgotten about at an early stage.
(Mr McGregor, in case you read this forum, could you please consider (re-)introducing it to the ballet?)

 

Here is the quote...

 

"Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting..."

 

Gosh, just reading that again makes me think of the roaming spotlight, the lasers, the costumes, the shards of music, the foreground and background choreographic snapshots all competing for attention.

 

[JohnS]

Many thanks @Nogoat. I think the ‘Memory is the seamstress’ quote very pertinent and your concluding paragraph illuminating. But I still think ‘Becomings’ lacks the depth of the other two Acts. We see the ever changing fragments but what emotions are being invoked?

[Nogoat]

15 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Many thanks @Nogoat. I think the ‘Memory is the seamstress’ quote very pertinent and your concluding paragraph illuminating. But I still think ‘Becomings’ lacks the depth of the other two Acts. We see the ever changing fragments but what emotions are being invoked?

 

Acts 1 and 3 more often than not push me close to tears - who knows what those around me think to find me surreptitiously blowing my nose/wiping my eyes when the lights go up 🙄 - but Becomings, as you say, is shallow in comparison (though I still find it as thrilling a sugar-rush as a box of Friars Assorted Dessert Chocs).

 

[LinMM]

I think there is a compelling rhythm in Becomings which sort of holds that Act together…it’s a bit of a weird but wonderful section and has a touch of otherworldliness (and even the hallucinatory)  about it similar to the last act of Dante. It possibly has been chosen by McGregor to illustrate the more extreme mental states Woolf suffered from on occasions or to show the flow of consciousness Woolf was apparently famous for in her writing. 

[Scheherezade]

On 30/03/2023 at 13:24, Nogoat said:

Here is the quote...

 

"Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting..."

 

Gosh, just reading that again makes me think of the roaming spotlight, the lasers, the costumes, the shards of music, the foreground and background choreographic snapshots all competing for attention.

 

Yes it does. And she does, indeed, write so evocatively.

[Bruce Wall]

On 30/03/2023 at 13:24, Nogoat said:

 

 

Here is the quote...

 

"Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting..."

 

 

Thanks SO, Nogoat, for this wonderful quote.  Like so much of Woolf's work it is both poetic and inspiring.  Thanks to your guidance I made a little recording of it to use as a literary lift-off in a session next week.  You can see that here.  I made similar one earlier in the week using Martha Graham's stunning words used to inspire her Company members.  They were both creators of a uniquely imaginative tongue.  (If you do watch either you will probably need to turn the volume down as everything has to be cranked up given the age of the receiving equipment inside.)