Royal Swedish Ballet : Manon May/June 2023

[annamk]

There are some performances of Manon in Stockholm over the next few weeks and I am wondering if anyone who reads this forum has plans to go and if so maybe they could post some words about it. 

 

I actually don't know the company at all, it came to my attention because Friedemann Vogel is guesting there as Des Grieux for 3 performances. His Manon is Sarah Erin Keaveney who is British and joined from the Royal Ballet School in 2018, so she is young. She's currently only a second soloist and this is a debut for her. 

[ctas]

I saw Sarah Erin Keaveneny dance Cinderella in Stockholm last year, she’s very good! I wish I could see her in this. The opera house there is very lovely. If anyone is visiting I recommend the guided tours pre-performance! 

[Christine]

According to IG Sarah’s debut in Manon yesterday was received with standing ovations.

 

I’ll be going to see it on the 5th. I’ll give a report, however I am no expert on Manon having only seen it once live and and probably an RB recording, if I remember correctly…

 

Thank you ctas for the tip about the pre-performance guided tour, I’ll try to book it!

[FionaM]

Curtain calls

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs4e5jJIgQC/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Emeralds]

For those who have tickets for another cast rather than Keaveny and Vogel’s, there’s also some British interest.....Calum Lowden, who dances Des Grieux in the first cast with American ballerina Madeline Woo, is a Royal Ballet School graduate from Oxton in Scotland....same year as Tomas Mock and Laura Day (BRB and now Australian Ballet).

 

Those who attended the 2011 RBS performance might remember him as the Red King in Checkmate (had to take on a character role as he had an injury and couldn’t perform the dancing roles).  He joined Royal Swedish Ballet after graduating and was promoted to principal in 2021. If the surname sounds familiar, yes, he is the younger brother of Olivier-Award winning (for Ghosts) stage and screen actor (Dunkirk, Mary Queen of Scots, etc) Jack Lowden.

 

RSB is a wonderful company currently directed by Nicolas Le Riche- they’ve always been very international. They brought a beautiful production of Don Quixote on tour to the Coliseum in the 1990s when Simon Mottram was director, and they were technically and artistically outstanding....if you didn’t read the programme or know the dancers, you might have thought it was ABT/Bolshoi/Mariinsky dancing Don Q! I understand Deborah MacMillan has been overseeing rehearsals for Manon, and the first night was a royal premiere- the king himself led the standing ovation. I guess he enjoyed it! The opera house is beautiful but sadly they weren’t performing when I last visited Stockholm. I wish I could see them in Manon - and all the casts! 

[capybara]

I believe that Calum Lowden moved from ENB School to the RBS for his last year before graduating.

I recall him being very impressive in ENB’s end of year performance where, possibly, he was in the same year as Ken Saruhashi and the Menezes twins.

 

(PS If anyone is attending Manon performances in Stockholm and has two spare nights in between shows, the overnight ferry to Helsinki, a day in the city and the ferry back makes a for a lovely summer trip.)

[Emeralds]

Ah, thanks @capybara I did wonder if he had attended ENBS full time or just for a summer course, as a post from a Swedish ballet school he is guest teaching in said that he studied at both ENBS and RBS while the BBC (reporting in the local Scottish news on his promotion to principal) only said RBS. At first I thought he might have gone to White Lodge then ENBS for pre-professional training but then I found the RBS graduation cast list and a review floating around in cyberspace so just assumed he’d been in RBS throughout.  I didn’t know that RBS took students in the age 16-19 year groups other than as Prix de Lausanne or YAGP scholarship holders, but I guess they can take anyone any time they want.  

[capybara]

I believe (hearsay) that Calum was ‘talented spotted by the RBS at the ENBS performance I mentioned. But he was not necessarily in his graduate year.

[Velvet]

13 hours ago, alison said:

There are numerous threads on the subject in Doing Dance, if you want to take a look.

 

In the meantime, if anyone has actually seen the production and would like to report back, that would be most welcome.

I watched last night. It was the most stunning production. The orchestra are superb. Staging, costumes, lighting great. But of course the most important bit, the dancing. I have never felt so drawn in and moved by ballet before. Friedemann Vogel and Sarah Erin Keaveney have tangible chemistry. Their acting ability is off the scale so they captivate you with their story telling. Friedemann at 42 is majestic and magnificent. Sarah at 22 is tiny with a light ethereal quality. I was riveted from start to finish and have never experienced a ballet fly by before like this. At the end the audience erupted out of their seats into standing ovation, many of us with tears streaming down our faces. If you want to experience beautiful dancing and story telling then I highly recommend this production. So much so I have booked to watch again on Monday. 

[Jan McNulty]

Hello @Velvet and welcome out of the lurking shadows!

 

Thank you so much for your review.

[Velvet]

5 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

Hello @Velvet and welcome out of the lurking shadows!

 

Thank you so much for your review.

Ha, I don’t mean to be lurking, I just don’t visit here very often but this topic caught my eye! 

[Jan McNulty]

7 minutes ago, Velvet said:

Ha, I don’t mean to be lurking, I just don’t visit here very often but this topic caught my eye! 

 

We love our lurkers ... especially when they start posting!

[Christine]

5 hours ago, Velvet said:

I watched last night. It was the most stunning production. The orchestra are superb. Staging, costumes, lighting great. But of course the most important bit, the dancing. I have never felt so drawn in and moved by ballet before. Friedemann Vogel and Sarah Erin Keaveney have tangible chemistry. Their acting ability is off the scale so they captivate you with their story telling. Friedemann at 42 is majestic and magnificent. Sarah at 22 is tiny with a light ethereal quality. I was riveted from start to finish and have never experienced a ballet fly by before like this. At the end the audience erupted out of their seats into standing ovation, many of us with tears streaming down our faces. If you want to experience beautiful dancing and story telling then I highly recommend this production. So much so I have booked to watch again on Monday. 

Thank you for this, Velvet! Now I am looking forward to Monday even more. 
 

[Velvet]

Christine, I’ll see you there 😉

[Christine]

That would be nice. Will be sitting in row 2/stalls.😉

[annamk]

7 hours ago, Velvet said:

I watched last night. It was the most stunning production. The orchestra are superb. Staging, costumes, lighting great. But of course the most important bit, the dancing. I have never felt so drawn in and moved by ballet before. Friedemann Vogel and Sarah Erin Keaveney have tangible chemistry. Their acting ability is off the scale so they captivate you with their story telling. Friedemann at 42 is majestic and magnificent. Sarah at 22 is tiny with a light ethereal quality. I was riveted from start to finish and have never experienced a ballet fly by before like this. At the end the audience erupted out of their seats into standing ovation, many of us with tears streaming down our faces. If you want to experience beautiful dancing and story telling then I highly recommend this production. So much so I have booked to watch again on Monday. 

 

I am crying into my tea ...... I dithered about going and now it's too late  

 

Please tell us what Monday evening is like. 

[Christine]

So sorry, Anna.
Will report.

[AnneL]

On 03/06/2023 at 07:55, Velvet said:

I watched last night. It was the most stunning production. The orchestra are superb. Staging, costumes, lighting great. But of course the most important bit, the dancing. I have never felt so drawn in and moved by ballet before. Friedemann Vogel and Sarah Erin Keaveney have tangible chemistry. Their acting ability is off the scale so they captivate you with their story telling. Friedemann at 42 is majestic and magnificent. Sarah at 22 is tiny with a light ethereal quality. I was riveted from start to finish and have never experienced a ballet fly by before like this. At the end the audience erupted out of their seats into standing ovation, many of us with tears streaming down our faces. If you want to experience beautiful dancing and story telling then I highly recommend this production. So much so I have booked to watch again on Monday. 

I am very envious! I would love to see Vogel live, having enjoyed his Onegin on video very much, and Keaveney I imagine would be great as Manon. I enjoyed her Cinderella last year. Sounds like a great partnership. 

[Velvet]

4 hours ago, AnneL said:

I am very envious! I would love to see Vogel live, having enjoyed his Onegin on video very much, and Keaveney I imagine would be great as Manon. I enjoyed her Cinderella last year. Sounds like a great partnership. 

Just about recovered from Mondays performance. It really is the most extraordinary ballet. It starts out being so light and frivolous but ends devastatingly. I feel almost traumatised! I didn’t think this production with Vogel and Keaveney could be any better, but I was wrong. The emotion and power of the story telling reached another level. They look divine together in my opinion. The experience and magnificent physique and lines of Vogel married with Keaveney’s delicate frame and fresh innocence was breath taking. This time the audience were out their seats before the curtain was even down. There were a lot of tissues about!! 

[Christine]

Sitting on my plane back to Stuttgart as I am writing this. When Velvet praised the evening she definitely did not promise too much: it was this intense, I got so much drawn into the story by this performance that it was over, before I could as much as blink.

 

I jumped at the chance when, not very long ago, it was announced that Friedemann Vogel would be dancing Manon with the Royal Swedish Ballet. Firstly, because I love seeing him dance in a Macmillan story ballet which they do not perform in Stuttgart - and he had excelled as Crown Prince Rudolph in Mayerling there. Another lure was the beautiful Kungliga Operan in Stockholm that I had long been keen to visit.

 

All in all, minimal problems and mishaps aside, this production really worked for me on all levels – especially, however, musically and in terms of the dancing & acting, but also atmospherically, thanks to an enthusiastic audience, even if though the house was not fully sold out.  I liked the fact that the sets by Mia Stensgaard were rather unobtrusive and that the somber atmosphere seemed to  have chiefly created by this and the lighting. The simplicity of the costumes were fine for me, although they cannot of course rival the elegance, splendour and more authentic 19^th century vibe of Georgiadis’ sets, except for the tutus in  Madame’s etablissement in act two which were too garish and looked like candyfloss puffs to me, clashing with the tragedy and grim subject matter of this tale.

 

Just like the first time I saw Manon, I was struck by the beauty of the  Manon score played live which was directed with great aplomb by Philippe Béran Even if the tempi seemed unusually slow in the beginning, he built the dramatic climaxes in a way which, in concert with the action on stage, drew audible gasps from the audience, especially towards the end of act II. But not only here.

 

Saraherin Keaveney was a revelation. “Only” a second soloist, I was slightly surprised at first that Friedemann would be teamed up with her but learned on Instagram that she suffered a foot injury last year that must have stopped her progress short. She not only went for the role with everything she’s got, I soon felt that this was actually brilliant casting: she is and looks very young indeed, perfect as the girl just arrived from the country as the fresh-faced, beautiful and highly vulnerable ingenue that was going to be put through the grinder. Her dancing may not (yet) have the elegance and finesse of some long-standing first soloists but she portrayed the dilemma of being torn between true love and the temptation of a life with diamonds and rich admirers with utter believability and complete naturalness, great charm (not a hint of cloying sweetness) and soul-shattering vulnerability. This alone together with the music really killed me. But her dancing, too, seemed very strong.

 

There is not much that I can add to what Velvet already wrote about Friedemann, “magnificent and majestic”, yes. At 42 years, ever youthful,  Des Grieux is a role that suits him very well, from the book-loving dreamer courting Manon where he dances with a poetry of movement that alternates between shyness and outbursts of ardour, through the fulfilment of romance to the despair over Manon’s rejection of love in favour of a life of glamour where his disappointment and anger palpably bite, to the complete abandonment to love and grief in the final scene. It seems to me that his portrayal of Crown Prince Rudolph in Mayerling in recent years has added new layers of depth to his performance.

 

The highlights for me were indeed the PDDs, but there were many other scenes too, which stick in the memory. Taylor Yanke and also Gianmarco Roman in the drunken number in act 2 Taylor eloquently expressing her disgust at the lover who shows her off and Gianmarco who has given himself up completely in his blind ambition to make money were hilarious and it was another moment of wonderful dance-acting. The corps were very good, too.

 

I found the gaol scene  particularly cruel this time, thanks no doubt to an effective portrayal by Danial Goldsmith of the gaoler while  Manon by this time had clearly reached the dregs and was reduced to a pitiful waif. Terrible.

 

The performance was again met with a prompt standing ovation. Deservedly so!

[alison]

Thank you, Christine, for that lengthy review. I don't think I have met anyone who likes the act ii puffballs!

[annamk]

@christine

 

thank you so much for sharing your thoughts of the Manon performance. I very much regret not going. 

 

Some years ago a friend and I booked to see Friedemann Vogel and Alina Cojocaru in Manon in Bucharest at the time that Johan Kobborg was directing the Romanian Ballet. Sadly, there was a huge falling out between the management and JK shortly before the performance and the guests withdrew. We went anyway as it was too late to cancel flights and hotels. The Romanian Ballet company principals did their valiant best but we were left feeling "if only" ! 

 

After I saw the Jurgen Rose Mayerling redesign for Stuttgart Ballet it became my dream that Stuttgart would acquire Manon, Jurgen Rose would would weave his magic on the design and I would get to see Elisa Badenas and Friedemann Vogel in the lead roles. If only.  

 

 

 

 

[Christine]

I am so sorry you were one of those affected by the Bucharest cancellation @annamk

 

Yes, a Jürgen Rose design for Manon would have been a dream, it is not going to happen though as I cannot imagine that at his age he is going to take on another project on that scale.

 

If you like the Ladies of the Camellias there is a good chance to catch Elisa Badenes and Friedemann Vogel in Stuttgart or fairly likely at one of the guest performances of Stuttgart Ballet in Hamburg on the 4th or 5th of July.

The casts have not been announced yet, though. 

[Christine]

Postscript: According to IG posts by Anders Rosen (https://www.instagram.com/p/Cta0H1kog1t) Sarah Erin Keaveney was promoted to first soloist (one level below principal) last night and her partner, Kentaro Misumori - already principal dancer with the Royal Swedish ballet -  were awarded a scholarship after yesterday's performance of Manon. Other promotions were Taylor Yanke and Anna Cecilia Meyer to second soloist. Definitely deserved and I wish them the best of luck for their future careers.

[FionaM]

Promotion announcement 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CtbdzPQIjKB/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Irmgard]

On 01/06/2023 at 22:01, capybara said:

I believe that Calum Lowden moved from ENB School to the RBS for his last year before graduating.

I recall him being very impressive in ENB’s end of year performance where, possibly, he was in the same year as Ken Saruhashi and the Menezes twins.

 

(PS If anyone is attending Manon performances in Stockholm and has two spare nights in between shows, the overnight ferry to Helsinki, a day in the city and the ferry back makes a for a lovely summer trip.)

Callum Lowden, along with Guilherme Menezes, danced Albrecht in Act II of Mary Skeaping's "Giselle" by ENBS in 2010 before moving to the RBS for a year. (Ken Saruhashi was also meant to dance Albrecht but injured his foot shortly before the performances).  I met up with Callum again in Stockholm in 2019 and 2022 when I was invited to watch rehearsals and performances by the Royal Swedish Ballet. 

[Velvet]

After a notification to say there was a new message on this thread I was interested to see after watching Royal Swedish Ballet recently whilst on a work trip. But to my surprise the messages have been all about RBS students posted obviously by friends and family. Is there not an RBS thread somewhere else for promoting these students? It had been refreshing to celebrate other ballet going on in the world, particularly Friedemann who was astonishing! Sorry!! 

[LinMM]

Yes that sometimes happens unfortunately  as you reply or respond to others postings! 
Id be happy for Mods to move the RBS comments here onto the RBS thread if that’s still possible? 

[Anna C]

1 hour ago, Ondine said:

If the mods wish to move a number of posts to another thread and leave this to the Royal Swedish Ballet that sounds sensible. That's out of the hands or us mere mortals.

That sounds sensible, as the thread did veer off topic back on page 1.  One of us will split the thread when we have a moment, so this thread can return to the subject of Royal Swedish Ballet.

[Velvet]

❤️

[Jan McNulty]

A number of posts about Royal Ballet School graduates have been moved to this new thread in Doing Dance:

 

 

Please keep this thread to discussion about the Royal Swedish Ballet's performances of Manon.

 

(Posts re Calum Lowden have been left in this thread as he is a member of RSB.)

[art_enthusiast]

I've seen that Royal Swedish Ballet's Manon is back in September 2023? I was thinking of going. (Or potentially to to their Corsaire in October/November instead)

 

Does anyone have any tips on seating? This would be my first time going.

[Irmgard]

1 hour ago, art_enthusiast said:

I've seen that Royal Swedish Ballet's Manon is back in September 2023? I was thinking of going. (Or potentially to to their Corsaire in October/November instead)

 

Does anyone have any tips on seating? This would be my first time going.

The auditorium of the Royal Opera House in Stockholm is wonderful.  I have sat in various areas over the years (but not the very top level) and they have all afforded an excellent view.  The foyer is a replica of the Paris Opera's golden foyer.