Royal Ballet Cinderella March/April 2023

[OnePigeon]

I had no idea about the Friday rush tickets going on sale today, thanks so much for the heads up as I just managed to get tickets for the Nunez and Muntagirov performance - I think it must be a miracle as I can never get tickets for them. 

[Dawnstar]

14 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

not our usual seating arrangements by the way!

 

7 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

I did wonder!

 

I wouldn't actually think it unusual if two people did choose to sit separately. On the occasions when I go to the theatre with my mother we usually sit separately as she likes to sit towards the back on an aisle, as she can get claustrophobic in theatres, whereas I like sitting as near to the stage as I can afford to do so.

[Richard LH]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

one of those oh-goodness-2-of-the-best-dancers-in-the-world-are-right-in-front-of-me moments!

What a lovely expression @Dawnstarfor a feeling I am sure many of us have felt at various times, in relation to various dancers, but certainly true for me last night.

[emmarose]

I was there last night, and I pretty much agree with Dawnstar's excellent review. 

 

Just to add a few things from my perspective...

 

Some of the 'magic' I found lacking. When The Fairy Godmother switched forms you clearly saw Fumi run onstage to replace her, I don't know if it was mistimed or something? Likewise when Nela was swapped out in the ball.

 

I was sitting in an unrestricted seat, SC A78, yet a big moment (when Cinderella walks down the stairs en pointe) was completely obscured by the crowded stage, I only saw the last two steps of her feet. It was a moment I was waiting for and was pretty much lost to me. There were a few moments of overcrowding, or slightly 'off' staging. Hamilton seemed to completely run out of space during her Summer solo, she ended up right on top of Fumi and Nela.

 

Fumi was gorgeous. A little slip off pointe, but she just carried on. Also Nela bumped into a chair too.

 

I don't know if I was hearing things, but I swear I heard the sets groaning as they were being moved in Act 1.

 

Nela and Vadim are always perfect together, but there really isn't a lot for the prince to do. He walked the stairs a lot. And Act 3, would've loved a PDD of some kind, it felt a bit fizzled for me. But it was very pretty and magical, and that veil was gorgeous!

 

But this is perfect, pretty escapism, and as has already been said, I left happy and you can't ask for much more (although I wouldn't complain about a bit more of Vadim dancing).

[Dawnstar]

15 minutes ago, emmarose said:

Some of the 'magic' I found lacking. When The Fairy Godmother switched forms you clearly saw Fumi run onstage to replace her, I don't know if it was mistimed or something? Likewise when Nela was swapped out in the ball.

 

I don't know if I was hearing things, but I swear I heard the sets groaning as they were being moved in Act 1.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only person who found the character swaps were all too obvious.

 

Yes, I could hear various noises from the set in Act I once pieces started being flown out. I could understand an older production being a bit noisy but you'd think that a new production would be quieter. I'm not sure if deconstructing the set like that added much either - except it presumably added to the cost!

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Dawnstar

[capybara]

I wrote in about there being so many 'onlookers' at the side of the stage that Cinderella walking down the stairs was obscured from view, even in the side Stalls. They could easily leave the fairy attendants out of the tableau and let the audience see the key moments such as this and the Prince finding the slipper.

 

Anyone who wants to see more dancing from the Prince, please look here:  https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqm0SBvDZkk/  

(Muntagirov in the variation from the version by Veronica Paeper mounted recently by Cape Town City Ballet).

 

The Ashton version makes one feel as if, when he made Cinderella, the RB was a bit light on taller Principals but better served by the shorter ones able to do justice to the Jester role. 

[bridiem]

12 minutes ago, emmarose said:

Some of the 'magic' I found lacking. When The Fairy Godmother switched forms you clearly saw Fumi run onstage to replace her, I don't know if it was mistimed or something? Likewise when Nela was swapped out in the ball.

 

Yes, I've found this at both performances I've been at so far. I have been quite high up (Amphi, about 8 rows back and at the side) but I still wouldn't expect to be able to see the 'transformations' quite so obviously. I wondered if the timing of the Fairy Godmother switch was faulty too (but it happened both nights); and Cinderella is very visible when she runs off from the ball (I seem to remember it was more convincing in previous productions). I also found the pumpkin transformation a bit underwhelming (partly because the pumpkin was so small and partly because it was all a bit clunky - though the coach etc was undoubtedly gorgeous when it appeared). I was a bit surprised by these things, given how much emphasis had been put on the 'magic' before the première. Maybe these moments can/will be finessed as the run continues.

[Sim]

I have seen three shows so far, each from a different part of the House, and I could see the transformations each time.  It would be cool if the Fairy Godmother just appeared through the smoke, so that we didn't see her run on from the wings.  It would be cool if we didn't see Cinderella going offstage whilst her raggedy replacement appears.  As Bridie said above, maybe they can work on this.  

 

Regarding views, the worst for me was from the SCS right side, number 47.  Much of the projections are obscured as you can't see the top of the stage.  You lose much of the skyscape and the clock in Act 2.  Also, Cinderella's walk down the stairs was pretty much totally blocked by the crowd onstage.  This was very disappointing not so much for me, but for others who are only going to be seeing the ballet once.  My first two shows were from the middle (the first at the back of the stalls in the general rehearsal, the second standing in the stalls circle in the middle).  Those views were both fine.  I have said it before and I will say it again....people who set these ballets need to remember that the theatre has three audience sides to it, not just the straight-on middle bit.  They should be testing views out from all over the auditorium.  I know it's hard to stage things so that everyone can see, but for an iconic moment like Cinderella's descent down the stairs there must be some way to ensure everyone gets to see it...perhaps like moving the dancers away just for that bit.  

 

@Dawnstar, I will be there on Monday night so if you want to say hello please send me a DM and we can organise it. 

 

[Richard LH]

2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

I thought Nakao danced well

Yes I should have mentioned him.... very spectacular and a  seemingly tireless, virtuosic performance! As for seeming rather sinister at times, don't jesters  often have a slightly dark, or at at least mocking and  anarchic, element to them?

[Dawnstar]

26 minutes ago, Sim said:

Regarding views, the worst for me was from the SCS right side, number 47.  Much of the projections are obscured as you can't see the top of the stage.  You lose much of the skyscape and the clock in Act 2.  Also, Cinderella's walk down the stairs was pretty much totally blocked by the crowd onstage.  This was very disappointing not so much for me, but for others who are only going to be seeing the ballet once.  My first two shows were from the middle (the first at the back of the stalls in the general rehearsal, the second standing in the stalls circle in the middle).  Those views were both fine.  I have said it before and I will say it again....people who set these ballets need to remember that the theatre has three audience sides to it, not just the straight-on middle bit.  They should be testing views out from all over the auditorium.  I know it's hard to stage things so that everyone can see, but for an iconic moment like Cinderella's descent down the stairs there must be some way to ensure everyone gets to see it...perhaps like moving the dancers away just for that bit. 

 

Given the vital moments in Swan Lake - the vision of Odette in Act III & her death in Act IV - that aren't visible from the far sides of the auditorium, I won't be surprised if I find on Monday that I can't see Cinderella's entrance from the same seating area either. I accept that things will be missed from the far sides of the auditorium but considering the view restrictions the recent pricing decisions for those seats are rather hard to take.

 

Your mention of the clock reminds me: if I recall correctly there were some mentions after one of the first performances that the clock on the palace facade seemed to stay at ten to midnight. So last night I kept an eye on the clock every so often and saw it at quarter to, ten to, five to and then just before midnight. So perhaps it didn't work properly at the previous performance.

 

8 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

Yes I should have mentioned him.... very spectacular and a  seemingly tireless, virtuosic performance! As for seeming rather sinister at times, don't jesters  often have a slightly dark, or at at least mocking and  anarchic, element to them?

 

I guess as it's a fairytale I was expecting something a bit more comedic from a jester. I should have thought more about how Grimm fairytales can be!

[emmarose]

44 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I'm glad I'm not the only person who found the character swaps were all too obvious.

 

Yes, I could hear various noises from the set in Act I once pieces started being flown out. I could understand an older production being a bit noisy but you'd think that a new production would be quieter. I'm not sure if deconstructing the set like that added much either - except it presumably added to the cost!

 

 

I knew the change must be coming, the build up was there, so I was really disappointed that the light shone right on an empty spot for Fumi to run into it. It made little sense that it was such a slow exchange. I've seen things like that done elsewhere brilliantly, so I have no idea why it was so lacking here.

 

It was a creaking/groan. Like you, I can understand an older set, but surely with the expense of all this, a smooth transition should be essential.

[emmarose]

48 minutes ago, capybara said:

I wrote in about there being so many 'onlookers' at the side of the stage that Cinderella walking down the stairs was obscured from view, even in the side Stalls. They could easily leave the fairy attendants out of the tableau and let the audience see the key moments such as this and the Prince finding the slipper.

 

Anyone who wants to see more dancing from the Prince, please look here:  https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqm0SBvDZkk/  

(Muntagirov in the variation from the version by Veronica Paeper mounted recently by Cape Town City Ballet).

 

The Ashton version makes one feel as if, when he made Cinderella, the RB was a bit light on taller Principals but better served by the shorter ones able to do justice to the Jester role. 

 

I was so looking forward to that moment, but all I could see was all the characters on the stage watching it. And these are expensive seats to miss one of the key moments. The seats have full visibility, so this is an issue of staging. 

 

Thank you for the link, I'm always happy to see more of Vadim's gorgeous dancing.

[Mary]

1 hour ago, capybara said:

Anyone who wants to see more dancing from the Prince, please look here: 

tempted to ask Vadim if he could just stick that bit in, please, for my next visit....

 

[Jan McNulty]

I loved reading your review @Dawnstar and your photographs of the curtain call were terrific.  Thanks!

 

[Fonty]

54 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Your mention of the clock reminds me: if I recall correctly there were some mentions after one of the first performances that the clock on the palace facade seemed to stay at ten to midnight. So last night I kept an eye on the clock every so often and saw it at quarter to, ten to, five to and then just before midnight. So perhaps it didn't work properly at the previous performance.

 

 

 

It was certain stuck on ten to midnight for me.  Is that the only clock, or is there something else that I could not see from my SCS position? It is a little bit small considering the time is so important to the story.  I went to a pantomime of Cinderella a few years ago and they had a projection of a huge clock with the hands moving round in a very menacing manner.  

How did they do it in the old production?  I can't remember.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Fonty

[emmarose]

30 minutes ago, Mary said:

tempted to ask Vadim if he could just stick that bit in, please, for my next visit....

 

 

That'll be for the cinema performance, yes? I'm sure we will all be thankful if you could ask...

[LinMM]

Thanks for your enjoyable review of Cinderella Dawnstar and you often make me laugh in your posts but often for the wrong reasons!! Last time it was your retelling of your train journey home….This time it was your depiction of you falling UP the stairs! 
I obviously hope you didn’t hurt yourself but that’s just the sort of thing I would do…. head full of all the beautiful movements dancers give us during performances and then go and trip up possibly even over my own feet! 
My partner thinks I’m a bit clumsy and has often said he just can’t believe I do so much ballet lol!! 

[Dawnstar]

5 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Thanks for your enjoyable review of Cinderella Dawnstar and you often make me laugh in your posts but often for the wrong reasons!! Last time it was your retelling of your train journey home….This time it was your depiction of you falling UP the stairs! 
I obviously hope you didn’t hurt yourself but that’s just the sort of thing I would do…. head full of all the beautiful movements dancers give us during performances and then go and trip up possibly even over my own feet! 
My partner thinks I’m a bit clumsy and has often said he just can’t believe I do so much ballet lol!! 

 

No, I wasn't hurt thanks. I thought I had made it to the top of the stairs so tried to step forward only to find I was still one step down, so I fell forwards onto my hands & knees. I had been so busy trying to tell my mother about the performance that I hadn't noticed I was a step short. At least I've only ever done a few months of ballet, aged about 7, so I'm not expected to have any balletic elegance.

[Tango Dancer]

32 minutes ago, emmarose said:

 

That'll be for the cinema performance, yes? I'm sure we will all be thankful if you could ask...

 

Definitely.  I've booked for the cinema relay too and I always think the more Vadim there is in anything, the better I feel.  

[alison]

Well, on the basis of two viewings, here are some of my thoughts on the production:

 

Lights in the auditorium - it really is not a good idea to shine lights directly into the eyes of your Stalls Circle patrons.

 

Visibility - as mentioned previously, there are severe viewing restrictions, both in terms of the set and of the areas outside the proscenium.  The former have probably always been a problem, in that it's difficult to see the stairs(?) on the left-hand side and the fireplace on the right-hand side if you are outside the central area of the auditorium.  The latter are, obviously, new, and I can't comment on them much because I can barely see them, although early in Act III it rather looks as though the action is taking place in a glass of Alka-Seltzer!

 

I find the non-dancing Fairy Godmother rather odd: she looks like a cross between an Arthur Rackham illustration and something out of the Flower Fairies, yet she's supposed to be a beggarwoman, so that Cinderella can take pity on her and give her something to eat?  Strange.

 

I find the setting of Act II rather a distraction - there's too much in the way of plantings behind the top of the staircase.  I wonder what it looks like from on high?  Also, I must admit that I find it a lot easier to believe in Cinderella being entranced on entering a magnificent ballroom than on entering a palace garden.  But yes, I agree that the impression of her entrance down the steps is hampered somewhat by the numbers of bodies in the way.

 

I'm aware of the narrative shortages in this work in a way I don't remember being in previous productions, not sure why, although I can understand that Prokofiev perhaps doesn't give Ashton a lot of choice in the matter. But it does feel a bit odd for the prince to turn up at Cinderella's house so quickly.

[Pas de Quatre]

There is a whole section of music for the Prince to go round the world searching for Cinderella which Ashton cut. Does anyone know why?

[capybara]

21 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

There is a whole section of music for the Prince to go round the world searching for Cinderella which Ashton cut. Does anyone know why?

 

Don't know why except that Ashton seemed to prefer his audience to spend time with the Sisters.

All we get of that section of music is some couples going across the front-cloth miming in a very old-fashioned way.

[Fonty]

According to Wikipedia:

He had heard and liked quite a lot of the Prokofiev music and he thought Perrault's story a good one. In the event, Ashton cut some of the music, notably the third-act scene showing the Prince's journey in search of Cinderella (a pretext for a divertissement of national dances: Ashton's comment on this was "I didn't like any of the places he went to, nor the music he wrote for them") and a shorter dance of Grasshoppers and Dragonflies after the Fairy Summer's variation in the first act. 

And something else I did not notice:

The choreography of Cinderella is full of dreams, some most definitely unfulfilled. In the ballroom, the put-upon, shy Ugly Sister—significantly Ashton's own role—performs a Petipa figure that amounts to her dream of being Odile at Siegfried's ball or the Sugar Plum Fairy. She is in fact full of choreographic dreams, and that is the clue to her character (as is the fact that she has Edith Sitwell's nose). Again in the ballroom the bossy Ugly Sister does a fish-dive with her suitor, a dream of the final pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty.

[emmarose]

Yes Alison, the lights went straight into my eyes too, I had a little spot in my eye for the first ten minutes of the ballet.

[Bluebird]

1 hour ago, emmarose said:

Yes Alison, the lights went straight into my eyes too, I had a little spot in my eye for the first ten minutes of the ballet.

 

I think the very brightly shining lights during the overture (presumably intended to create a magical atmosphere in the auditorium) are a problem in many areas of the House.  I was in the front row of the central block of the amphitheatre for the rehearsal, in the front side amphitheatre on the right for one performance and in the front side amphitheatre on the left for another.  The problem was the same in all three places. The only way I could cope was either to hold my hands in front of my eyes or to close them.  Friends who sat in other areas of the House had the same problem.  I'd be interested to know if  anyone has found  an area of the House where these lights don't cause a problem.  Maybe the stalls?

Edited April 6, 2023 by Bluebird

[Pas de Quatre]

I loathe these lights. Strobe doesn't affect me, but these direct light are very painful. It is enough to stop me booking tickets.

[Guest oncnp]

8 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

I think the use of  very brightly shining lights during the overture (presumably intended to create a magical atmosphere in the auditorium) are a problem in many areas of the House.  I was in the front row of the central block of the amphitheatre for the rehearsal, in the front side amphitheatre on the right for one performance and in the front side amphitheatre on the left for another.  The problem was the same in all three places. The only way I could cope was either to hold my hands in front of my eyes or to close them.  Friends who sat in other areas of the House had the same problem.  I'd be interested to know if  anyone has found  an area of the House where these lights don't cause a problem.  Maybe the stalls?

Nope. In the Stalls as well

[JohnS]

7 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

Maybe the stalls?

 
I found the lights intensely distracting when sitting in Stalls E6 - I’m hoping now I know what to expect I’ll be able to ignore the lights and concentrate on the overture.

[Dawnstar]

I confess I didn't notice any lights in the auditorium at the start of last night's performance. Given everyone else seems to have found them very distracting I can't think how on earth I failed to notice them!

[bridiem]

The problem is that if the lights are shining in your eyes (which sounds as if it's the case just about everywhere in the auditorium), you don't really 'get' the effect that was intended - you're just aware of having light in your eyes. I was able to have a quick glance at the effect in the theatre as a whole, but only for a moment because then the light's back in the eyes. It would only work as an effect if you were unaware of where the lights were coming from. 

[capybara]

Closing one’s eyes is the only solution, although the circulating lights stop sooner now than they did at the rehearsal or on opening night.

 

And, while on the subject of so-called magic……At the rehearsal, Fumi Kaneko’s FG came through the doorway to the left of the ‘old woman’ and in a puff of ‘smoke’. Since then, the real FGs have stepped onstage from the wings, mostly while the crone is still visible. Much was made of this  moment of transformation in a press article before the premiere, so ‘something’ must’ve happened to thwart the original intention.

[Richard LH]

16 hours ago, capybara said:

I wrote in about there being so many 'onlookers' at the side of the stage that Cinderella walking down the stairs was obscured from view, even in the side Stalls. They could easily leave the fairy attendants out of the tableau and let the audience see the key moments such as this and the Prince finding the slipper.

It seems that this problem extends well  beyond the "to be expected" restricted views from certain seats or standing positions. It is  pretty serious and  frustrating for those in the "wrong" place, and I have also contacted  the ROH to ask if it can be rectified. Perhaps if enough others on the Forum did the same, we might influence the powers that be?  

[Pas de Quatre]

It seems as though the audience are a bit of a nuisance expecting to actually see what is happening on stage. Contemporary dance is often like this, treating the audience as if it is a special privilege to be allowed in to watch, and it is a pity if this is spreading to classical ballet. The performances are for the benefit of the paying audience, otherwise the dancers might as well stay in the studio.