Anna C Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Gosh yes, we have some opera glasses and I didn't take them! Thank you; it'll take a few days to recover but it was worth the pain. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Aileen....yes, this was her debut. She has had a hip injury so that was probably bothering her. I fell over on Friday and broke my arm quite badly and had to miss yesterday's performance. I hope I can be there on the 7th for their last show. So meanwhile thanks for posting about it so I can live it through you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 (edited) Hasn't Marianela danced Tatiana before? I didn't think it stated debut on the cast sheet - maybe I have it wrong. Anyway much more importantly SusanR and I wondered if Marianela injured herself as she was quite obviously holding her rib cage at the end and looked winded as well as physically drained (which is to be expected!) - I sincerely hope she is OK. I totally agree that seeing Marianela dance with real life husband Thiago Soares was extra special and the way she hugged him at the end was really so lovely. I have seen Onegin several times at ROH and in Berlin but this one really tugged the emotions somehow - I guess down to the acting and dancing skills of M&T. Probably the best Onegin I have seen to date. Valentino Zucchetti and Meagan-Grace Hinkis also did a great job as Lensky and Olga, and the big scene in Act 1 where they and the corps all run and jump across the stage twice has to be up there with Kingdom of the Shades and Swan Lake's 32 fouettes as one of ballet's great spectacles. Bravo! Edited January 27, 2013 by Don Q Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Aileen....yes, this was her debut. She has had a hip injury so that was probably bothering her. I fell over on Friday and broke my arm quite badly and had to miss yesterday's performance. I hope I can be there on the 7th for their last show. So meanwhile thanks for posting about it so I can live it through you all! Ouch - hope you are not in too much pain and that your arm heals quickly Sim. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Sim, so sorry to hear about your injury. I hope that your arm heals quickly. I hope that Marienela is not injured. Those pdds for Tatiana and Onegin did look physically brutal. DonQ, I agree about those runs and leaps across the stage by the corps (with Olga and Lensky). They were terrific. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmhopton Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I waited at the stage door to congratulate Mariella and Thiago and she was walking ok then. I suspect she was just mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the performance which may have exacerbated her hip problem but it didn't seem to be troubling her then. She was carrying one of her bouquets and seemed to be really on a 'high', perfectly understandable after such a tremendous debut. They were really sensational together. It was well worth by 4 hour train journey (beset by cancellations and disruptions). Can't wait for next weekend when I'm seeing them again on the Friday and (hopefully) Alina on Sat. matinee. Can't imagine a better weekend!!! Joan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I'd just like to echo the praise for Marianella & Thiago's performance - it was a real tour de force. Their wonderful dancing was a joy to behold, they conveyed the changing passions of the story brilliantly. Valentino and Meaghan Grace were excellent, as was the rest of the cast. As already mentioned, the applause was rapturous. What a privilege to witness such an outstanding performance! Joan, as a matter of interest how long did it take from the end of the performance for Marianela and Thiago to come out? I was tempted to wait, but I assumed that it would take them a long time to recuperate and then emerge after giving their all in the last scene. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 I agree that it's quite "bloke friendly"; no fairies, two intervals and a duel meant that even my husband would enjoy Onegin. (...) And (as suspected) my back really can't manage the cramped seats and limited legroom of the amphi, as I barely made it home and am stuck in bed today. Owwwwww ... Hope you feel a lot better soon, Spanner. And yes, a friend of mine who's a former dancer herself had a young lodger who was a serious football fan. They struck a deal that she'd take him to the ballet and he'd take her to a match. She took him to Onegin, and he was surprised to find how much he enjoyed it. Hasn't Marianela danced Tatiana before? No, she was always Olga in the past. BTW, I was wondering the other night, is there a technical name for those "Lensky leaps"? You know, the ones in the first act solo where he jumps and brings his leading leg backwards so it actually hits his trailing leg and knocks it into the air behind him, for want of a better way of describing it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaneL Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Alison, do you mean a cabriole? I can't remember the steps you mean in Lensky's solo but that's what I'm imagining from your description. Youtube video: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmhopton Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Arky, it took about an hour for them to emerge at the stage door. They were both very friendly and chatty and delighted with their reception both in the theatre and at the stage door (about 20 waited, enough to give them a good reception but not overwelm them). They seem a lovely couple and it's great Marianella has at last got the opportunity to dance a role many ballerinas must covet; and dance it so passionately too and with such feeling and understanding of the role. If that was the first performance can't wait for the others!!! Joan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Joan, Thanks for that. How thrilling to see them just after a wonderful triumph! Marianela and Thiago were outstanding, both technically and in conveying the emotion. They drew us into the drama. Such a contrast from the disappointment of Osipova's performance in Swan Lake, which was technically good but, to me at least, without any emotional involvement in the story; I did not come away that day feeling that I had witnessed a great performance. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Joan, Thanks for that. How thrilling to see them just after a wonderful triumph! Marianela and Thiago were outstanding, both technically and in conveying the emotion. They drew us into the drama. Such a contrast from the disappointment of Osipova's performance in Swan Lake, which was technically good but, to me at least, without any emotional involvement in the story; I did not come away that day feeling that I had witnessed a great performance. Could not have put it better myself - especially about Osipova's Swan Lake I totally agree! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Thanks Alison - I knew I had seen Marianella IN Onegin but it was as Olga. Glad to hear Marianella was not hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 Alison, do you mean a cabriole? I can't remember the steps you mean in Lensky's solo but that's what I'm imagining from your description. Jane, it might be some sort of reverse cabriole, I suppose. Maybe. It's certainly going in the opposite direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 Jane, it might be some sort of reverse cabriole, I suppose. Maybe. It's certainly going in the opposite direction. Better description: it starts off as a relatively modest jeté, then I think the leading leg is brought backwards to hit the trailing one and push it up in the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Anyone going this afternoon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 I wish! :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nina G. Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Anyone going this afternoon? Not this afternoon but tonight!!!! The Lamb/Hristov/Naghdi/Dawid T. cast 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 "One for the collection, then; another memory to carry with the images of Marcia Haydée, Natalia Makarova and Tamara Rojo in the role;" This is a quote from the ballet critic Sarah Crompton in The Telegraph, in today's Links thread....a review of Marianela Nunez' Tatiana. Really? Rojo danced Tatiana? Have I missed something?! I know she was desperate to dance it but never got the chance.....if I'm wrong could someone please enlighten me as to when and where this happened? Certainly not in London I don't think!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Tamara was the first cast Tatyana (with Adam Cooper as Onegin) when Ross Stretton introduced Onegin to the RB in 2001. And, yes, it was in London! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 (edited) Yes, Sim, she danced Tatiana in the RB's first run - with Adam Cooper I think. And Sarah Crompton is right about Nunez - i saw her and Soares last night and was very impressed indeed. (Simultaneous posting - sorry, capybara!) Edited February 2, 2013 by Jane S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Eugene Onegin Adam Cooper Lensky Ethan Stiefel Madame Larina Genesia Rosato Tatiana Tamara Rojo Olga Alina Cojocaru Their Nurse Muriel Valtat Prince Gremin Christopher Saunders ROH performance database Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Thanks folks...what a shame I never got to see her in that role...bet she was brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Mmmm Adam Cooper as Onegin :-) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Thanks folks...what a shame I never got to see her in that role...bet she was brilliant! She was. As she was in the rehearsal just before she was taken out of the ballet. To my mind, nobody at the RB has yet quite matched her. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Enjoyed it today and glad I went - Alina was lovely - but overall it's probably not a ballet I would go to again. I just didn't "feel" it! Thought hard all evening about why and I think the music just didn't move me (music plays a huge party of stirs emotion for me). Also I suppose I felt Onegin was a very unlikable chap so I couldn't get the love story side if it. Maybe I just need a different Onegin but I think it was now the story than the dancer. Will try the opera! Maybe I'm just picky - everyone else seems to love it. (lovely costumes tho and some great dancing) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 (edited) I suppose I felt Onegin was a very unlikable chap so I couldn't get the love story side if it. Maybe I just need a different Onegin but I think it was now the story than the dancer. Hi Julie .... I have to say .... and simply IMHO ... I don't think you will find a MORE sympathetic Oneign than Jason Reilly ... I thought his performance this afternoon was truly SUPREME ... Certainly it built on the three previous I have seen him give. I had never intended to see that many of one cast ... but the courage of his obvious conviction intrigued me. He and Alina were both truly electrifying in their heated final pas. In their first 'mirror' pas de deux I felt Mr. Reilly gave a masterclass in partnering. (Hopefully that will be valued.) Furthermore, I don't think I've EVER seen the first scene solo BETTER done - and I do have some very special memories. This afternoon you could feel the internal struggle that WAS this Oneign ... You sensed his demons. They reached out beyond him as his hands pushed forward in his anguish. This is man who, himself, really could not speak ... Sadly when he found a voice it was too late. (Very suitable for the ballet.) The seeds of the broken figure of the last act were oh, so clearly sown in the first. I felt Mr. Reilly's was a beautifully calibrated performance .... I don't think Canada can have a better calling card than the inspiration of such as Karen Kain and Jason Reilly. Of course, what makes both Alina and Mr. Reilly oh, SO special is they are both UNIQUELY spontaneous. They both live in the moment. ... In a sense that makes them exotic. You get the sense that nothing survives beyond their mesh of history while it exists. Moreover, they have the ability to allow things to simply happen ... That, for me, is why Alina is ALWAYS so full of entrancing detail that keeps adding and altering with each and every performance. IT LIVES.. The fact that these two similar artistic souls have come together in this regard is, I think, very special. ... and, as sincerely sad as I was - and please believe me when I say I was - to miss Johan in a role (i) in which he excels and (ii) most likely will now never dance again with the RB if anywhere else, this partnership ... - that of Alina and Mr. Reilly - bodes VERY brightly for the future of us all. It gives great hope. That - above all else - is what I took away this afternoon. Even this old man can understand and cherish that much. Surely they MUST dance together again. You could see - nay, feel - the shared elation of both at the curtain call. If not at the RB (taking note of the understandable written concerns of many on this board) then perhaps in Hamburg where last season Alina danced more often than she did with the RB as it was and where she seems to be a Neumeier muse. Part of me thinks that may well be where she ends up after Johan finally retires from dancing. It would be understandable. Perhaps Neumeier could do a new dramatic ballet for the two of them. Certainly NOW there is no question but they would sell me the airfare. 'Bravi' I say and I oh, so thank the RB for allowing me the privilege of witnessing the growing potency of this particular creative combination. Bless them. Edited February 3, 2013 by Meunier 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I wish that I had see Alina and Jason. They sound fabulous together. I rather doubt that Alina would move to Hamburg permanently. I wonder whether the RB are "trying out" some senior male dancers from other companies. First Jason Reilly (I know that he has come in as a replacement but it has given the RB an opportunity to see how he fits in with the company) and soon Matthew Golding. I don't know enough about the male soloists at the RB, but unless some of them are ready for promotion pretty soon the RB is going to have to recruit some senior male dancers from outside in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_New Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I agree with everything you have said, Meunier - I saw Reilly on Wednesday, and was knocked out by his performance - and his partnering. I found his interpretation very clear, and very moving. I hope that we get the chance to see him again in London! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamicro Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Interesting considerations, Meunier. Just a quick reminder, maybe not for you, but for your readers: Jason Reilly is from Stuttgart, not from Hamburg. In Hamburg, Alina Cojocaru has already three partnerships of the level you saw on Saturday, with Thiago Bordin, Carsten Jung and Alexandre Riabko. In April she is dancing Romeo and Juliet with another principal of the company, Edvin Revazov, and will hopefully have th fourth great partner in that company. Yesterday the theatre was full of Germans and I recognized some Hamburg regulars. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Don't get me wrong - he gave a magnificent performance (in fact I take back my comment that perhaps if I'd seen a different dancer as Onegin...). The pdds were wonderful and in fact I thought the dancing was superb from all the company. Obviously I haven't seen it before, but he seemed to portray the character in just the right way. But, as I said, for me the music didn't stir my emotions. I love watching any ballet live (in fact any live performances, but particularly ballet) but as i don't have the luxury of getting there as often as I'd like, if I'm going to watch something more than once, I've got to love it! And what makes me "love" a ballet is a combination of the dancers (but that's almost the minor part as you can watch different casts), the sets, costumes, but most of all for me, the music. And the music for Onegin just didn't "do it for me", much as I wanted it to. I felt the same about BRB's Beauty and the Beast last year - wonderful dancing, costumes etc, but I felt nothing from the music. So, as I said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and my 18 year old daughter was very happy to see her favourite (Alina - she's grown up watching her from the first time she went to the ROH to see Nutcracker when she was about 7), but it's one I'll tick of my list as having seen, and will go to see something new again next time (or one of my favourites next time maybe - ). As you may now have got, music can really stir something in me, and I've only got to hear the first few bars of certain ballets to have goose-pimples all over (often the ones my son's performed in for obvious reasons!) - if I don't get the goose-pimples then I'll still enjoy the performance for the love of the dancing, but it won't make it onto my favourites list 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Enjoyed it today and glad I went - Alina was lovely - but overall it's probably not a ballet I would go to again. I just didn't "feel" it! Thought hard all evening about why and I think the music just didn't move me (music plays a huge party of stirs emotion for me). Also I suppose I felt Onegin was a very unlikable chap so I couldn't get the love story side if it. Maybe I just need a different Onegin but I think it was now the story than the dancer. Will try the opera! Maybe I'm just picky - everyone else seems to love it. (lovely costumes tho and some great dancing) Know what you mean JulieW - I always think its a happy ending, as she stays with the right chap! Though I wouldn't go as far as seeing the opera.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I agree about the music Julie, and I adore Tchaikovsky. Perhaps it is because - correct me if I'm wrong - it's several different pieces arranged together, instead of a seamless ballet suite? I don't know. But like you, I didn't get emotional because of the music, but almost in spite of it.....if that makes sense. The music is such an important part of the experience for me. If I don't love the music, it almost always has an impact on whether I would see a ballet again (oddly, Onegin seems to be the exception to this because I'm desperate to see it again). For example BRB's "Cinderella" - fabulous dancing but the music does nothing for me. Ditto ENB's "Snow Queen". I would however love to see Onegin again but from closer to the stage next time, so that the dancers' faces were clearer. I could feel the emotion from the Amphi but I SO wanted to see the dancers close up! Let's hope RB bring Onegin back again before too long. :-) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now