ROH 23/24 season announced

[LinMM]

She truly is!!! Though some years since I’ve seen her perform it now! 

[MildConcern]

I believe Hayward has been frank about stamina issues she faced during Swan Lake and which (in my humble opinion) were apparent from the audience. Admittedly, she seems to be fine with Aurora (although I didn't see her during her performances this run), but maybe she views Kitri as more in the O/O wheelhouse. 

Edited April 28, 2023 by MildConcern

[Benjamin]

6 hours ago, Sim said:

I have seen his R&J a few times (Stuttgart Ballet brought it to London a few years ago) and I like it.  Much of it is similar to MacMillan's.  I think the latter drew on Cranko's and then expanded it (and added his gorgeous pdd).  There is a story (maybe apocryphal) that Cranko took a friend to see MacMillan's R&J early on.  The friend said to Cranko 'I liked it, but I also want to see yours.'  'You just have', replied Cranko.  Ouch!

I’m glad that there’s (presumably) no bad blood but I wish Someone put Cranko as Original Choreographer in the credits for Macmillan’s or something, because I’ve seen both and they are very similar.

[Benjamin]

4 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

I agree that Kitri wouldn't suit Hayward. But then (as another poster above said) I don't think Don Q suits the RB generally.

Agreed they more suit a British, French or even Russian Ballet. Not this fiery explosive style. They can still do it, and pretty well they can too.

[alison]

57 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

I’m glad that there’s (presumably) no bad blood but I wish Someone put Cranko as Original Choreographer in the credits for Macmillan’s or something, because I’ve seen both and they are very similar.

 

People often say that, but I don't think they are that similar.  I'll have to have another look at the DVD when time permits.

[Benjamin]

13 minutes ago, alison said:

 

People often say that, but I don't think they are that similar.  I'll have to have another look at the DVD when time permits.

Sorry they aren’t that similar, again my lack of re-reading sabotages me. But they do share some similarities.

[Two Pigeons]

On 26/04/2023 at 11:44, Jane S said:

No designer listed for Les Rendezvous, so maybe they've ditched the polka dots?

 

 

We can only hope!

[Emeralds]

17 hours ago, Fonty said:

 

I agree and was going to mention it but you got in first!  I thought this part was lovely, and would really like to see it again.

 

I love Onegin, and on that basis I would really like to see more of Cranko's other works.  I know BRB do Pineapple Poll which I think is delightful and would fit wonderfully into a triple ballet as the amusing ballet to finish the programme with.  Has anyone seen any of his other full length ballets?  I would be fascinated to see his Romeo and Juliet, and see how it compares to MacMillan's, but I think the chances of the RB performing that would be somewhere between fat chance and no chance.

 

Am I allowed to say that when I saw Les Noces I thought it was rather dull?  My husband still refers to it as that one about the prancing potato farmers! 

Hurrah! Glad someone else remembers Act 2 Mr Worldly Wise! Act 1 looked like a spoof for the whole act - a very entertaining spoof nonetheless, with Mukhamedov and Kumakawa (plus Bussell’s role looking like straight woman to the two men’s comics) - but when Act 2 started unfolding, I thought, now there’s a beautiful classical (yet fresh, inventive and modern) ballet right there. I’d cut out Mr WW from the act altogether so that you just see the dancing.

 

I saw Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew performed at Sadler’s Wells by Stuttgart Ballet,  with Alicia Amatriain as Katerina and [RBS graduate] Alexander Jones as Petruchio, but not managed to see BRB perform it yet. It needs very careful playing to ensure Petruchio doesn’t come over looking sadistic and misogynistic, with Katerina sort of tortured into being a domestic violence victim; I think both succeeded in doing that. Obviously Taming of the Shrew is nowadays a tricky play to put on for those and other reasons, but in dance form it seems to be able to steer clear of some minefields because they don’t use the dialogue.

 

Sadly, I missed his R&J when Stuttgart Ballet toured it here in 2008. I’ve seen the pas de deux live and some bits of the production on YouTube, and you can see where MacMillan has taken his inspiration. 

 

I do find Les Noces a little repetitive after repeat viewings too, hence I don’t think it would do well sales wise if a company programmed too many performances in one run, especially in a year where a lot of companies worldwide are staging it.

 

It’s a bit of an ensemble piece but because of its subject and the artistic intentions- community vs individual love stories, and community wins - you are left feeling that after seeing it once, you’ve absorbed  everything the ballet is saying and repeat viewings don’t give you a lot more. Heehee! Prancing potato farmers is not far off! Many steps do look like prancing! I love the distinctive sound and concept of Les Noces, and the first viewing is very powerful, but couldn’t watch it frequently.

[Emeralds]

17 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Definitely agree with all of these - I also have a feeling Mariko Sasaki would make a wonderful Odette/Odile.

 

So are O’Sullivan and Naghdi the only female principals who haven’t done Kitri yet?

O’Sullivan and Hayward haven’t, but Naghdi made an electrifying debut as Kitri in spring 2019 with Sambe as Basilio. Not many performances for them either, I think, so it was a packed house! 

 

I actually think Hayward would be fine as Kitri one day, as she has danced Lise successfully, and that’s also demanding stamina/energy wise, and a similar storyline/character (young woman’s parent wants to marry her off to someone else, young woman and her sweetheart persist and manage to marry in the end). It’s important that it doesn’t become a role of technical showstoppers with a bit of hammy acting thrown in. If Hayward is happy with the fouettes (no different to the Swan Lake ones) I think she could put in a beautifully rounded portrayal that makes it appealing for more people. There are quite a few “non-pyrotechnics” ballerinas around the world who have danced Kitri successfully.

[Lizbie1]

19 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

I do find Les Noces a little repetitive after repeat viewings too, hence I don’t think it would do well sales wise if a company programmed too many performances in one run, especially in a year where a lot of companies worldwide are staging it

 

How many companies are doing the version under discussion? I can only think of Ballet West and Zurich.

[Ondine]

Akane Takada is back just in time for Don Q isn't she?

 

 

 

[Sim]

18 minutes ago, Ondine said:

Akane Takada is back just in time for Don Q isn't she?

 

 

 

She is already back and dancing Cinderella.  

[Ondine]

Yes I know.

[capybara]

41 minutes ago, Ondine said:

Akane Takada is back just in time for Don Q isn't she?

 

 

 

 

Don Q doesn't open until the 30th September!!!! But fingers crossed..............

[Ondine]

No shortage of experienced Kitris, it's not a long run is it, to give each a few performances?

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/photos/32753135857

 

 

 

 

[Guest oncnp]

3 minutes ago, Ondine said:

No shortage of experienced Kitris, it's not a long run is it, to give each a few performances?

 

17 performances if I've counted correctly

[Benjamin]

11 minutes ago, oncnp said:

 

17 performances if I've counted correctly

Here are the shows:

Saturday September 30 7:30

Wednesday October 4 7:30

Saturday October 7 1:00

Saturday October 7 7:00

Wednesday October 11 7:30

Friday October 13 7:30

Saturday October 14 1:00

Saturday October 14 7:00

Monday October 16 7:30

Tuesday October 17 7:30

Thursday October 19 7:30

Saturday October 28 1:00

Saturday October 28 7:00

Friday 3 November 7:30

Saturday 11 November 1:00

Saturday 11 November 7:00

Friday 17 November 7:30
and yes that’s 17!

[Ondine]

I wonder how many Kitris there will be? 

[Benjamin]

Just now, Ondine said:

I wonder how many Kitris there will be? 

If anyone wants to do the math: Find other RB shows that have a similar amount of shows in a similar time period and then they could theoretically tell us how many Kitris there would be. 

[Ondine]

I can bet on who will get the cine relay.

 

 

 

 

[Benjamin]

5 minutes ago, Ondine said:

I can bet on who will get the cine relay.

 

 

 

 

Me too. I always wished the cinema relays somehow had multiple casts.

[Guest oncnp]

28 minutes ago, Ondine said:

I wonder how many Kitris there will be? 

If the past is anything to go by (and it probably isn't this year)

 

Don Q  2019

17 performances

 

·        Marianela Nuñez x 3

·        Akane Takada x 3

·        Lauren Cuthbertson x 2

·        Fumi Kaneko x 3

·        Yasmine Naghdi x 2

·        Natalia Osipova x 2

·        Mayara Magri x 2

 

To add - As the end of the run overlaps a bit with the Cellist, perhaps Cuthbertson won't be Kitri-ing this time around if she comes back from maternity leave. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by oncnp

[LinMM]

Well I doubt whether there will be 8 Kitris ( 2 performances each) ( not that there aren’t 8 dancers who could do it well) so guessing it will 5 so roughly 3 performances each? With a couple of new dancers trying it? 
 

[LinMM]

Just seeing your list oncnp I would say Osipova would have to be in the 3 performances category!! 

[Benjamin]

Just now, oncnp said:

If the past is anything to go by (and it probably isn't this year)

 

Don Q  2019

17 performances

 

·        Marianela Nuñez x 3

·        Akane Takada x 3

·        Lauren Cuthbertson x 2

·        Fumi Kaneko x 3

·        Yasmine Naghdi x 2

·        Natalia Osipova x 2

·        Mayara Magri x 2

Sounds about right, I wonder if Lauren will be back, if she won’t I’d give Osipova more shows, or Lamb, Hayward, O’Sullivan or Gasparini

[Guest oncnp]

9 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Just seeing your list oncnp I would say Osipova would have to be in the 3 performances category!! 

If she can work it in to her usually quite busy non-ROH schedule. 

[Ondine]

So no need for Francesca Hayward to knock herself out trying it!  I can see why she's not keen, a huge amount of work & effort for few performances and there are others already in line.

[LinMM]

I don’t really see Hayward as a natural Kitri somehow but if she herself is keen for the role then I’m sure she would definitely surprise me!! 

[jmhopton]

1 hour ago, Benjamin said:

Here are the shows:

Saturday September 30 7:30

Wednesday October 4 7:30

Saturday October 7 1:00

Saturday October 7 7:00

Wednesday October 11 7:30

Friday October 13 7:30

Saturday October 14 1:00

Saturday October 14 7:00

Monday October 16 7:30

Tuesday October 17 7:30

Thursday October 19 7:30

Saturday October 28 1:00

Saturday October 28 7:00

Friday 3 November 7:30

Saturday 11 November 1:00

Saturday 11 November 7:00

Friday 17 November 7:30
and yes that’s 17!

Thanks very much for this, Benjamin.  Several two show Saturdays and one with a Fri as well. Very good for those us who have to travel. 

[Fonty]

1 hour ago, Ondine said:

I can bet on who will get the cine relay.

 

 

 

When I was at the cinema broadcast for Cinderella they were advertising a boxed set of various RB productions.   The same principals were in every one, bar one I think.  

[Ondine]

I can see why financially it happens, the big names sell tickets and then are put on DVD for 'posterity' and further sales but there is so much talent beyond those.  I can't be alone in wanting to see others at the local flea pit!

 

By the way, given that Rhapsody is one of next season's offerings, thought I'd mention Marquee TV currently has it 'free to view'. I think it was the last pre-lockdown cine broadcast with:

 

Natalia Osipova Steven McRae Emma Maguire Yasmine Naghdi Beatrix Stix-Brunell Luca Acri Tristan Dyer Nicol Edmonds Benjamin Ella Kevin Emerton Marcelino Sambé

 

If anyone can't find it please feel free to message me for the link. 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Ondine

[FLOSS]

The coming season is a not very inspired effort designed to male as much  money as possible from the ballet addicted punters. No doubt Don Q, Nutcracker, Manon and Swan Lake will be rendered palatable by the casting when it is announced. No doubt Don Q will sell but I rather  resent the revival of a ballet which does not suit the company's aesthetics, temperament or style when there are so many better ballets in the company's back catalogue which are in danger of dying through management's indifference and neglect. Having reminded people of the existence of Coppelia it would have been rather enterprising to revive it rather than going onto autopilot and programming yet another Nutcracker revival. 

 

For me the  season only picks up with the MacMillan  mixed bill even if it is only the very quirky Danses Concertantes and Requiem which I want to see. You see  for me it's not the fact that Different Drummer is based on Wozzek that puts me off it is the fact that it simply shows what ballet can'r do as well as opera can. Berg's opera is a masterpiece whereas MacMillan's ballet is an interesting experiment which does not really work that well even with the right cast.

 

The Ashton mixed bills, particularly those which involve Sarasota's dancers offer the opportunity to see a number of long neglected works.I find it difficult to believe that Facade which used to be a staple which often ended a company's mixed bills has not been danced on the Covent Garden stage since 1994. As far as Les Rendezvous is concerned it has not been danced by the company since 2006 when it was performed in the ghastly designs by Anthony Ward which had been authorised by its then owner Derek Rancher who died in 2014. When the RBS included the ballet in their end of year main stage performance a year later they danced it in the William Chappell designs. I believe that both Les Rendezvous and Les Patineurs which had originally been left to Brian Shaw passed to Derek Rencher on his death and on Rencher's death passed to the custody of the Ashton Foundation who look after the ballets on  behalf of the RBS which receives the income generated by their revival. 

 

The revival of The Cellist does not interest me at all nor does the revival of The Dante Project. The Cellist was an interesting idea which does not work in the theatre and it uses far too many talented dancers  as little more than living scenery. The Dante Project has a wonderful score which the choreography fails to match. 

 

Perhaps Kevin was hoping to establish his commitment to female choreographers by reviving The Cellist I think then I thinl that he  has failed as the ballet is not that good. He would have done  far better to revive a major work like  Les Noces in its centenary year. 

The whole point about the elements of the peasant wedding depicted in Les Noce is that these events are rituals repeated generation after generation at each wedding. They have little or nothing to do with the wishes or feelings of the individuals involved. The ballet is not concerned with individuals  and the part they play in a community but the life events and the age old folk rituals disguised by references to the saints and the blessed virgin which accompany them which the community believe are essential  to ensure their future existence.

 

The repetition whether in the music, the text or the choreography is the point and the essence  of the ballet. In a well coached sensitively cast performance of the work you come to understand this very quickly. I think that the elements of the ballet, the ritual preparation of the bride; the ritual blessing of the groom; the bride's departure "to live with strangers" and her mother's lament at the loss of a beloved child; the communal celebration of the potential for the community's regeneration through the birth of children,the ritual bedding and the communal celebrations and the tableau with which the ballet ends are intentionally completely and unremittingly impersonal. This is clear from the fact that Nijinska rejected Gonchorova's original colourful peasant inspired costumes and  insisted that the male and female dancers whoever they were portraying in the ballet should wear  uniform undifferentiated costumes in neutral colours as members of a village society rather than as individuals.

[alison]

6 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Hurrah! Glad someone else remembers Act 2 Mr Worldly Wise! Act 1 looked like a spoof for the whole act - a very entertaining spoof nonetheless, with Mukhamedov and Kumakawa (plus Bussell’s role looking like straight woman to the two men’s comics) - but when Act 2 started unfolding, I thought, now there’s a beautiful classical (yet fresh, inventive and modern) ballet right there.

 

I saw Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew performed at Sadler’s Wells by Stuttgart Ballet,  with Alicia Amatriain as Katerina and [RBS graduate] Alexander Jones as Petruchio, but not managed to see BRB perform it yet. It needs very careful playing to ensure Petruchio doesn’t come over looking sadistic and misogynistic, with Katerina sort of tortured into being a domestic violence victim; I think both succeeded in doing that. Obviously Taming of the Shrew is nowadays a tricky play to put on for those and other reasons, but in dance form it seems to be able to steer clear of some minefields because they don’t use the dialogue.

 

I agree about Mr Worldly Wise, and have often wished for Act II to return.  With regard to Shrew, I think the original problem was more about the "offensive" portrayal of Petruchio's servants rather than anything else.

 

3 hours ago, Ondine said:

I can bet on who will get the cine relay.

 

We haven't had Muntagirov's Basilio recorded yet - or for that matter Osipova's Kitri with the RB.  Maybe Muntagirov with Kaneko?