Royal Ballet Cinderella March/April 2023

[balletyas]

6 hours ago, Candleque said:

Spot on. Rather dreading having to sit through the sisters act again and again 🙈. Because I was excited to see so many ballerinas making their debuts as Cinderella, I made the rookie mistake of booking multiple tickets for a show I had never seen. If it comes back (as no doubt it will given the investment) once will be enough for me. 

Am sure the Jonathan Gray review is in the Links; hope it is ok to quote one line:
"If only the producers had been braver, bitten the bullet, and given the ballet the pruning it really needs."

That's exactly how I feel. With all respect to Ashton, how long does a ballet have to be around before it is okay to make some tweaks? Agree Ashton is a genius, but that doesn't mean every work is perfect.

On the other hand, while not my own cup of tea, I know that pantomime is super popular in the UK. So my new marketing question to the ROH is: Why not communicate that element? This Cinderella really is the perfect entry ballet for families that love panto. But a lovely ballerina in a field of flowers does nothing to communicate the slap-stick humour that is half the show. Contrast with the original VHS cover image on the ballet's wikipedia page which features the step-sisters as well as Cinders and her Prince. (Note the page in the background appears to be in blackface so thankfully it is ok to make at least some needed changes for a modern audience.) 
 

I agree with so much of this and have to say have been astounded by the marketing choices.   Marianela surrounded by flowers perhaps arose from the initial creative process that apparently took place in Wendy Somes’ garden and of course the ball had changed into a garden party but as the general public couldn’t know any of that before seeing it, it’s not surprising that ticket sales were so sluggish. There are so many famous elements (slippers, broom, pumpkins etc)  in Cinderella that could’ve been harnessed cleverly to show off the new production it seems downright perverse not to use them! 

[LinMM]

I didn’t think it was THAT bad Capybara!! 
But I’d cut the last Act if had to cut any ….in protest at the unreasonably long intervals slowly creeping up on us at the ROH

30 mins gradually creeps to 35 mins as the other night ….before long they’ll officially be at 40 mins 😡

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by LinMM

[capybara]

24 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I didn’t think it was THAT bad Capybara!! 
But I’d cut the last Act if had to cut any ….in protest at the unreasonably long intervals slowly creeping up on us at the ROH

30 mins gradually creeps to 35 mins as the other night ….before long they’ll officially be at 40 mins 😡

 

I won’t miss Act 1 every time!!!! 😉

[FLOSS]

I had not intended to write a great deal more about this production but further viewings compels me to do so. The lighting in the first act from the arrival of the  fairies has been  revised and the special effects seem to have been considerably toned down compared with the  first night. One fairy is denied improved visibility and that is the  Fairy Godmother who at times appears to be little more than a face and arms .As far as the season fairies are concerned the improved lighting  should be a positive move but the downside is that the costumes  which they wear as they dance their solos are all too visible.The designer's choice of colour for these costumes is unfortunate.

 

Sadly no one seems to have thought to remind all those involved in designing this 

production that the dancers' visibility must be at the centre of all design decisions and must take priority over stage effects however clever they are thought to be. In general costumes should  not be overly elaborate or fussy but elegant providing a clean outline with details which do not compromise, restrict or conceal epaulement and upper body movement or feet. Even the feet of the Step Sisters need to be visible.

 

Ashton's decisions about how to bequeath his ballets was not a major problem while the original beneficiaries were alive but now those works subject to specific bequests have begun to pass into the hands of those beneficiaries' own heirs there are increasing difficulties. The problem with the second generation of owner who inherit from the original beneficiaries is that they may have no knowledge of ballet. Even when the ballets  pass to  former dancers there is no guarantee that they will have the skill to stage the ballets they  own. Working as a stager calls for a set of skills which a dancer does not automatically acquire as  a result of a career in dance. Ideally a stager of an old work will remain true to the intentions of the choreographer and his text but will possess a creative imagination, theatrical flair, an eye for good and effective design combined with the basic ability to pull all the disparate elements which go into staging a ballet  into a visually and theatrically coherent whole.  A sensitive stager will not permit characters to be coarsened in the pursuit of cheap laughs or encourage that process by sanctioning vulgar and coarse costumes since coarse and vulgar designs tend to encourage coarse performances.

 

There should be no loose ends or missteps caused by design decisions being at variance with the demands of the narrative or the choreographic text in a production staged by someone who has as much experience of this ballet in performance as the rights owner and stager has. The sad truth is that it is difficult to believe that anyone has had real oversight of the enterprise or cast an integrating directorial eye over the entire production until it arrived on stage for the first time. Ellis -Somes allows the fairy godmother to issue  her admonition to Cinderella warning her that her finery will vanish at midnight while gesturing to a non-existent clock. There is, as I noticed in my latest trip to the production, a dimly delineated clock in the distance to the side of the stage. In the second act the choreography requires Cinderella to recoil as midnight strikes. The clock used to be displayed above Cinderella's head so that her gesture had meaning. In the current production it has been reduced to mere epaulement as the designer has elected to project an indistinct image of the clock face onto the floor. The stager has apparently sanctioned the changes, thus rendering the choreographed gestures of two characters at key points in the narrative completely meaningless..

 

The designs for the women are, for the main part, fussy and unflattering. Rather than being dressed in costumes which give them a crisply defined silhouette with a hem high enough to leave their feet visible the female courtiers in act two are dressed in the sort of tulle confections which used to play such an important part in  television's "Come Dancing ". However distinguished the costume designer may be in her own area of expertise she is a rank amateur in the world of ballet. I can't help thinking that knowing of her inexperience Ellis-Somes should have exercised a far greater degree of control over the stage and costume designs than in fact she did. The costumes look like someone's fantasy of what ballet costumes should look like rather than designs created by someone who understands the practical demands of the art form and the supportive function of design in performance. The fairies' child attendants have ugly flower inspired costumes which  do nothing for the children wearing them except make them look awkward. I am not sure why the child attendants appear en masse in the ballroom scene. I don't recall them doing so in earlier productions.They look out of place and disrupt Ashton's carefully constructed second act set piece involving the Fairies and the attendant stars.

 

The set designs now liberate Cinderella from the confinement of four walls at the beginning of act 2 rather than at the midpoint of act 3 after she has been recognised as the true owner of the discarded slipper depriving her of her progress from basement kitchen to royal palace to the transcendent realm of the Fairy Godmother. I had thought that the design changes had robbed Act 3 of its poetic dying fall but i have come to the conclusion that it is the ballerina's approach to the role of Cinderella which really determines the impact of the final section of the ballet and whether the audience leaves the theatre  feeling satisfied or short changed.

 

The role of Cinderella was made on two dancers with contrasting performance styles which goes a long way to explain the distinct change in her personality that Cinderella undergoes  between acts one and two as she abandon's expressive lyricism and is transformed into a classical ballerina. A great Cinderella encompasses both elements of

the role giving an account if the second act choreography which is as much concerned with revealing its expressive possibilities as it is about establishing her credentials as a classical ballerina. Perhaps It helps to remember that for Ashton and his contemporaries technique was a means to an end and never an end in itself. Even at its most classical the ballerina's role is an expressive one rather than a cool and distant one. There should be no hint in act two that the dancer performing the role of Cinderella is engaged in a display of dance or a display of technique. I know that Macauley's comments on Nunez's performance raised a few  hackles here but perhaps he thought he detected  that  approach when he saw her interpretation of the role.

 

I have to say that I was expecting Nunez to give a far more dynamically interesting, nuanced and varied account of the role of Cinderella as she was once considered a very promising Ashton dancer. Sadly I found her account of the role cold and delivered in a blandly beautiful all purpose international style rather than in full bloodied idiomatic Ashtonian style.A wonderful performance if all you wanted to see was a display of technique but for me she was distant rather than engaging and was  playing the role rather than inhabiting it.

 

A great exponent of the role gives the audience a  Cinderella who combines sadness with wit and charm;a sense of innocence and optimism in act one and the splendour of the genuine ballerina in act two. It is not simply a question of dancing the  role with technical assurance and accuracy but of giving Cinderella an almost demi-character personality in act one and the beginning of the third act. Nunez's account of the role treats it as if the role was essentially an abstract one in which the display of a fine technique is all that is required. Of course I accept that some of these interpretative choices may have as much to do with coach's ideas as those of the performer. For me her imitation of the sisters at their dancing lesson was not deftly done. It was far too broad. In act two she seemed very distant throughout as if she was dancing Diamonds rather than Cinderella. The entry must be as if in  dream but not once she reaches the front of the stage and acknowledges the presence of the Prince but from that point on it is as much about expressing emotion as technique.

 

When it comes to comparing individual interpretations and in particular how idiomatically  Ashtonian particular dancers are, it will often be the knowledgeable outsider who is most able to point out the loss of profound stylistic detail  such as a dynamic upper body and lush epaulement and the over reliance on the superficial  markers of Ashton's style such as deep bends to the side. The outsider may be aware of the loss of detail in a way that the local audience is not. The outsider may have a more certain  image of how a particular role should look stylistically in performance because they have not experienced the gradual attrition of the style over time as the local audience has.  For the local audience the loss of Ashton style has been gradual and thus virtually imperceptible. This process is particularly corrosive when the dancers involved in the attritional process are highly regarded local favourites  who of course can do no wrong in the eyes of their fans.

 

While I still  dislike the designs and believe that the ballet was much better served by the productions staged during Ashton's lifetime. Hayward's  performance has restored my faith in the ballet. It worked on Thursday night in a way that it had not at earlier performances in the run. .She  gave the audience a Cinderella fully engaged in the action of the ballet from the outset who was more concerned with communicating with the audience than technical display. In other words she has given Cinderella feelings and a heart . I know that Shearer danced at the premiere because Fonteyn was injured and I believe that that critics were respectful rather than enthusiastic.It was only when Fonteyn  began dancing the role that audiences came to love the ballet. Of course every dancer is unique but I suspect that Nunez's  approach to the role is closer to Shearer's account than Fonteyn's, while Hayward's  approach is closer to Fonteyn's. With Hayward the choreography has meaning rather than mere beautiful shapes and her use of epaulement shifts between classical and expressive because she wants to communicate its meaning.

 

In act one she is downtrodden but  resilient all charm and goodness and deserving of  the Fairy Godmother's intervention. With Nunez and to a lesser extent with Naghdi I feel the intervention comes because it is in the script and is more of a reward for technical prowess. Nagdhi's account of the role sits somewhere between that of Nunez and Hayward's and it will be interesting to see the direction in which she develops her interpretation. My comments on what I have seen so far in this run take account of the fact that with the exception of Nunez none of the dancers tackling the role of Cinderella have danced the role  before and the bulk of the dancers now in the company have had no previous knowledge of the ballet in performance let alone experience of being in it as a dancer. This leaves plenty of room for development over the coming weeks.

 

As far as the Step Sisters are concerned i rather liked Arestis and McNally because they did not shift the  focus of the ballet away from Cinderella in the way in which the male interpreters of the roles often do in their attempts to be funny. Less is more in comedy. It helps if the audience is unaware of the effort involved. Arestis could do with being a bit more dominant and bossy but if the pair of them concentrate on characterisation I for one shall be very happy. As far  as I am aware women only danced the Step Sisters in 1958 and 59. It is possible that the the only person who has any idea about what they actually danced  is Monica Mason  who I have been told was an understudy for one of them but never got to perform her role on stage. 

[JohnS]

52 minutes ago, capybara said:

Notwithstanding the huge expense, I am now making my own cut by missing Act 1.

 

16 minutes ago, capybara said:

I won’t miss Act 1 every time!!!! 😉

I’m very pleased to see your clarification capybara.
 

I’ve booked a number of performances and when I’ve had enough of the sisters, I’ll focus on Cinderella. On Thursday I kept half an eye on Cinderella, very rewarding seeing Francesca Hayward’s reactions, and I guess by the end of the run it will be Cinderella and the Father who grab my attention, most probably when the sisters are danced by males. I just can’t envisage Cinderella without Act 1 and I very much enjoy the Fairy Godmother and the Seasons. And the Prokofiev score is wonderful.

[Guest oncnp]

Matinee cast

 

Cinderella | Cast List | 01.04.2023 13:00 (roh.org.uk)

[LinMM]

I’m just so annoyed will have to miss Hayward….the only nearly possible one is on the 10th …so might have to  call on a Fairy Godmother to come up with a solution!! 

 

 

[JohnS]

On 31/03/2023 at 09:53, JohnS said:

I’m even tempted to have another look at Easter Bank Holiday Monday as I still have a ticket but I doubt a Fairy Godmother will magic transport for me.

 

37 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I’m just so annoyed will have to miss Hayward….the only nearly possible one is on the 10th …so might have to  call on a Fairy Godmother to come up with a solution!! 

 

Well my Fairy Godmother may well have arrived, unbelievably in the guise of Avanti. As a result of multiple train journeys I’ve become an Avanti Gold Club member and Avanti have granted me a free return ticket so I may be able to travel to London via Newcastle. And I still have my ticket for the evening performance. 

[Scheherezade]

I am so pleased to read the positive reactions to Hayward’s Cinderella. Like others, I had thought that this role would sit perfectly on her, and this is the cast that I will be seeing with my daughter, so very much looking forward to the 10th. 

[LinMM]

My cousin who lives in Manchester now but rarely uses trains had nothing but praise for Avanti the other day when we met up in London as both journeys had gone perfectly. 
Not sure what he’d be saying if using the service more regularly though! 

[Scheherezade]

3 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Well my Fairy Godmother may well have arrived, unbelievably in the guise of Avanti. As a result of multiple train journeys I’ve become an Avanti Gold Club member and Avanti have granted me a free return ticket so I may be able to travel to London via Newcastle. And I still have my ticket for the evening performance. 

Very glad to hear this, John. A but if a coup, and perfectly timed. 

[Jane S]

16 hours ago, MargaretN7 said:

The first time I saw Cinderella, 29th December, 1958, Fonteyn and Somes, the step sisters were Moyra Fraser and Margaret Hill. If assume Ashton was involved with that, then he was casting women early on.

 

A few sisterly footnotes:

 

I think Fraser (as a guest artist) and Hill in 1958 were the first women to do the Sisters - ironically it was Fraser's decision to leave the company in 1948 that  caused Ashton to decide that he and Helpmann should do them instead.  Women danced the roles the roles maybe 40 times over the next few years.

 

Moyra Fraser was trained at the Sadler's Wells School and had danced  Myrtha amongst other roles. She left to go into musicals etc and eventually became an actress - if you remember As Time goes By, she was Penny, Judi Dench's sister-in-law.

 

Margaret Hill was in the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet/ touring Royal Ballet - she created the Girl in Macmillan's Solitaire.

 

There have been some rather good replacements for the Ashton Sister - I remember David Bintley in particular, and also liked Tim Matiakis ('a female Baldrick, all of whose cunning little plans went astray'), and Michael Coleman , but I think the Helpmann role is more difficult.

 

 

 

[Fonty]

4 hours ago, FLOSS said:

I have to say that I was expecting Nunez to give a far more dynamically interesting, nuanced and varied account of the role of Cinderella as she was once considered a very promising Ashton dancer. Sadly I found her account of the role cold and delivered in a blandly beautiful all purpose international style rather than in full bloodied idiomatic Ashtonian style.A wonderful performance if all you wanted to see was a display of technique but for me she was distant rather than engaging and was  playing the role rather than inhabiting it.

 

 

 

I think this sums up a little of what I feel about Nunez in other roles I have seen her in.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I find her cold, but I do think "all purpose international style"  is very apt.  Maybe I notice it because I have seen many Ashton ballets in the past by dancers who excelled in the style, and I can refresh my memory by watching videos on line of some of those performers.   And I will probably face the wrath of the entire forum by saying I sometimes feel the same way about Muntagirov?  

I'll get my coat......

[Guest oncnp]

1 minute ago, Fonty said:

 

I think this sums up a little of what I feel about Nunez in other roles I have seen her in.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I find her cold, but I do think "all purpose international style"  is very apt.  Maybe I notice it because I have seen many Ashton ballets in the past by dancers who excelled in the style, and I can refresh my memory by watching videos on line of some of those performers.   And I will probably face the wrath of the entire forum by saying I sometimes feel the same way about Muntagirov?  

I'll get my coat......

'everyone's entitled etc, etc....

[capybara]

Some casts seem to have the good fortune to be coached by former dancers who are not only well-versed in the Ashton style but allow their charges some freedom of interpretation. Others dancers do not 

necessarily benefit from the same level of specific coaching knowledge and are perhaps also more straight-jacketed.

 

Of course, I don’t know.  Just my impression from observation of open Insights and titbits picked up over many years.

[Linnzi5]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

 

I think this sums up a little of what I feel about Nunez in other roles I have seen her in.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I find her cold, but I do think "all purpose international style"  is very apt.  Maybe I notice it because I have seen many Ashton ballets in the past by dancers who excelled in the style, and I can refresh my memory by watching videos on line of some of those performers.   And I will probably face the wrath of the entire forum by saying I sometimes feel the same way about Muntagirov?  

I'll get my coat......

No wrath here! You are perfectly entitled to your opinion and I can see what you mean about Muntagirov, despite my love for his dancing. I do love Nunez too - but I do see,  again, why others may feel the way they do about her perfection, somewhat restrained and understated style. Though having seen Nunez and Bonelli on video performing the Manon bedroom PDD, I thought she was anything but restrained there! It’s a really passionate performance, in my opinion. What I do find strange, is that perhaps Yasmine Naghdi doesn’t always seems to get the praise I think she deserves. Maybe that’s just me though?

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

I think this sums up a little of what I feel about Nunez in other roles I have seen her in.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I find her cold, but I do think "all purpose international style"  is very apt.  Maybe I notice it because I have seen many Ashton ballets in the past by dancers who excelled in the style, and I can refresh my memory by watching videos on line of some of those performers.   And I will probably face the wrath of the entire forum by saying I sometimes feel the same way about Muntagirov?

 

I think that both Nunez and Muntagirov are brilliant, stellar dancers who give consistently tremendous performances, including in Ashton ballets. But I think it would be fair to say that neither of them are complete exemplars of the Ashton style in the way that some other dancers are or have been. (And since neither of them would have started learning the Ashton style until their mid teens, maybe that's not so surprising.) But they are both nevertheless magnificent!

[Mary]

Muntagirov in A Month in the Country last year- Ashtonian enough for me.

 

 

[bridiem]

27 minutes ago, Mary said:

Muntagirov in A Month in the Country last year- Ashtonian enough for me.

 

And for me, just to be clear!

[Sim]

50 minutes ago, Linnzi5 said:

No wrath here! You are perfectly entitled to your opinion and I can see what you mean about Muntagirov, despite my love for his dancing. I do love Nunez too - but I do see,  again, why others may feel the way they do about her perfection, somewhat restrained and understated style. Though having seen Nunez and Bonelli on video performing the Manon bedroom PDD, I thought she was anything but restrained there! It’s a really passionate performance, in my opinion. What I do find strange, is that perhaps Yasmine Naghdi doesn’t always seems to get the praise I think she deserves. Maybe that’s just me though?

No it’s not just you…I totally agree.   

[annamk]

I’m baffled as to why the Royal Ballet chose to spend what was presumably a significant amount of money reviving this. It is so so much less than Fille - I could weep. The score is difficult, the story is not well told, the choreography is less appealing than other Ashton ballets and the stepsisters are appallingly unfunny - someone should tell them it’s the 21st century, not the 1950s. 

[jmhopton]

47 minutes ago, Mary said:

Muntagirov in A Month in the Country last year- Ashtonian enough for me.

 

 

And me!

[Thecatsmother]

I saw the matinee this afternoon. Was excited to see the new production. I agree with a lot that has been shared. I was a bit underwhelmed by Nunez. Reflecting upon it, perhaps it is not just the way that she has chosen to portray the role but also the interplay this has with some strong characters that share the stage (Avis etc).  Things did not really get going until act 2 in terms of her performance.

 

The costumes were on the whole most unflattering for the dancers. I wondered if the focus had been placed upon how they would move rather than look upon the dancers. Lots of fabrics which moved beautifully but were not kind to the performers especially those who were short in the waist. I would be inclined to scrap the Act 1 fairy costumes and have them do the solos in the tutus from Act 2.

 

One of the highlights of Cinderella has always been the stars but the set in Act 1 did them no favours as it compressed the spacing and it lost its power which you can see return a bit in the later acts when they have more space on stage. The footwork was also disappointing.

 

Positives-the elevation of the jester, the set in Act 1 in terms of entrance of the fairies although it has a knock on effect upon space for the stars. I also like the set for the final act. Fumi in the role as fairy godmother and her gorgeous costume.
 

 

[Odyssey]

3 hours ago, capybara said:

Some casts seem to have the good fortune to be coached by former dancers who are not only well-versed in the Ashton style but allow their charges some freedom of interpretation. Others dancers do not 

necessarily benefit from the same level of specific coaching knowledge and are perhaps also more straight-jacketed.

 

Of course, I don’t know.  Just my impression from observation of open Insights and titbits picked up over many years.

I agree. To be coached by Morera, and particularly Collier who worked with Ashton, has to be beneficial in terms of passing on the torch. No disrespect to Ellis Soames as I don’t know how much teaching she does. Do we know who coached which couples? From an Instagram pic I recall seeing after the first night, I think Nunez and Muntagirov may have been partly coached by Alexander Agadzhanov .

[balletyas]

1 hour ago, Sim said:

No it’s not just you…I totally agree.   

Re Naghdi quite agree / perhaps partially because she is is so consistent and her technique is so rock solid that people feel she’s an automaton but her Giselle and Tatiana should have put paid to that…(I didn’t see her Mary Vetsera - that would have been interesting) 

[Sim]

3 minutes ago, balletyas said:

Re Naghdi quite agree / perhaps partially because she is is so consistent and her technique is so rock solid that people feel she’s an automaton but her Giselle and Tatiana should have put paid to that…(I didn’t see her Mary Vetsera - that would have been interesting) 

It was…and with Vadim letting rip like never before they each brought something out of the other. It was wonderful to see. 

[balletyas]

1 hour ago, annamk said:

I’m baffled as to why the Royal Ballet chose to spend what was presumably a significant amount of money reviving this. It is so so much less than Fille - I could weep. The score is difficult, the story is not well told, the choreography is less appealing than other Ashton ballets and the stepsisters are appallingly unfunny - someone should tell them it’s the 21st century, not the 1950s. 

Quite agree! I put Fille on yesterday just to remind myself why Widow Simone’s clog dance is so much more enjoyable than all that stepsister nonsense.. I think it’s the music - everything is comes from that whereas the sisters antics seem utterly detached from it. Agree to re story - so much better told  and the staging and costumes remain absolutely perfect.

[alison]

48 minutes ago, Odyssey said:

I agree. To be coached by Morera, and particularly Collier who worked with Ashton, has to be beneficial in terms of passing on the torch.

I understand Francesca Hayward was coached by Lesley Collier. I'm not sure if it's clear who coached the others.

[JennyTaylor]

It was my first proper performance today, having seen a pre-General rehearsal, which I enjoyed very much.  Once again, the performance left me feeling happy. The luxury casting, the music, the special effects and the dream dancing of Marianela and Vadim. ...........and it's proper ballet and so interesting to see Ashton return to the stage and observe how well modern dancers execute his choreography (mixed results). 

 

All that being said, I can relate to the comments made on Marianela and Vadim's overall performances. For me, Marianela was too smiley in Act 1 and and Act 3 with her step sisters and I didn't feel immersed in her character. It's pretty difficult to immerse in the Prince's character as he doesn't have sufficient time to create one, he's just a Prince. The quality of their dancing was of course, sublime. Personally I can't wait to see Will and Fumi to see what they make of it. 

 

So, onto the Ugly Sisters. Like them or not, and I'm on the vaguely negative side, Gary Avis and Luca Acri were magnificent this afternoon. I'm particularly impressed with Luca Acri's performance who gives his sister a real character that you can actually like.  Gary, of course, held the stage superbly and this is the first time I've really enjoyed watching the Sisters, though I still think they have far too much air time. 

 

Another highlight today was the Napoleon / Wellington (now called Suitors) which I have always loathed. Today we had Philip Mosley and Lukas Braendsrod who were both superb comic actors.  By far the best in these 2 roles I have ever seen.  Poor Lukas had to lift Gary Avis into a very significant holding position and he succeeded magnificently.  Philip Mosley almost made me laugh out loud, as did Lukas.  Well done them in these 2 usually thankless roles. 

 

I will have to remember to explain next week when l take my 2 step grandaughters, that oranges were a very rare commodity in the 1940s.  This is a ballet of its time and that shows. Personally, I think that this is a good thing, because I'm an historian and I hate the way history is being rewritten or just removed by some people at the moment.  This ballet is of its time and needs to be understood as such. 

 

Onto the costumes. I don't have a problem with them and think the fairies costumes are very pretty. What I definitely don't like are the hair styles and wigs. Why the buffon hair?   That's not 1940s.  Very unflattering all round, particularly for the fairies and corps.......and even Vadim today.  Also why is Cinderella's father wearing the White Rabbit's spectacles? 

 

I have several tickets for this run and am definitely looking forward to seeing different casts and interpretations. 

 

 

 

[JNC]

On dancer preference I think for me it also varies depending on the ballet. Nunez is technically solid and she has a glowing smile and stage presence, I think she brings great depth to roles like Giselle and Nikiya, but then I found her too clean for Aurora,  even though oddly Aurora is a much more “shallow” role. 
 

Hayward I sometimes find absolutely incredible (her Aurora was radiant) and moving, but I was left a bit disappointed by her Giselle and her Odile/Odette. Similarly I think Naghdi is excellent as Aurora and can manage both classical and contemporary extremely well but sometimes I don’t quite get her portrayals in more acting heavy roles like Juliet, Giselle etc. I think for some roles it’s not just this but who they’re paired with which adds a whole different dimension too, I wish I had seen Naghdi/Ball as Romeo and Juliet and also wonder if Hayward had been paired with Corrales (her real life partner) or Campbell (who I think she suits as well) for Swan Lake whether that might have made a difference.

 

Sorry to go off topic! I’ll be interested to see how I find the different Cinderellas I have booked!

 

And plus one for Fille, same with dancers we all have our preferences but the light pure happiness of this ballet, the music (I’m humming the clog tune now), the choreography, the pony (!) the ribbons…would have been a perfect spring ballet. 

[Guest oncnp]

11 minutes ago, alison said:

I understand Francesca Hayward was coached by Lesley Collier. I'm not sure if it's clear who coached the others.

 

Lamb/McRae were being coached by LeAnn Benjamin, at least during the tour yesterday. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by oncnp

[capybara]

3 hours ago, Linnzi5 said:

 What I do find strange, is that perhaps Yasmine Naghdi doesn’t always seems to get the praise I think she deserves. Maybe that’s just me though?

Completely agree.

I think she does from some of us but, even when she is put before the critics (eg Nutcracker 2022), the response to her does not take flight to the extent I feel it should.

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by capybara

[Rob S]

Has the father always ripped the scarf between the sisters….I noticed he did today but I’m on the other side to my first four performances. In those half of them resulted in the scarf not tearing in half and the junior sister ended up with all of it