ROYAL BALLET TRIPLE (McGregor/Wheeldon/MacMillan)

[Nina99]

Actually, one lovely solo that Vadim has done was posted by him on his Instagram in early August 2021, when he was on holiday in Russia with his parents. This post showed him dancing very beautifully round the empty halls of the Chelyabinsk Opera house, accompanied,  by the song “Once upon a December” which, funnily enough, is from the 1997 animated movie Anastasia.

[Guest oncnp]

17 minutes ago, Nina99 said:

Actually, one lovely solo that Vadim has done was posted by him on his Instagram in early August 2021, when he was on holiday in Russia with his parents. This post showed him dancing very beautifully round the empty halls of the Chelyabinsk Opera house, accompanied,  by the song “Once upon a December” which, funnily enough, is from the 1997 animated movie Anastasia.

 

For those who may have missed it Vadim Muntagirov on Instagram: “Happy to visit @chelopera174 . Remember running as a kid around the theatre while my parents performing on stage . Now I’m a big boy 👦.…”

 

Thank you for  reminding me of this. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by oncnp

[emmarose]

49 minutes ago, Nina99 said:

Actually, one lovely solo that Vadim has done was posted by him on his Instagram in early August 2021, when he was on holiday in Russia with his parents. This post showed him dancing very beautifully round the empty halls of the Chelyabinsk Opera house, accompanied,  by the song “Once upon a December” which, funnily enough, is from the 1997 animated movie Anastasia.

 

Oh isn't that lovely, I never tire watching him and that was so beautiful along with his history.

I actually love that song. There's also a beautiful instrumental version of it played by Emile Pandolfi which I think is quite lovely and another by Leiki Ueda. It lends itself to be danced to.

[Balletfanp]

I saw this when he posted it, and the back story combined with the words, and that melancholy ending, left me really choked up.

[capybara]

Vadim’s new book From Small Steps to Big Leaps includes some QR codes which lead to other spontaneous dancing from him, including clips poking fun at himself.

But, after his Mayerling last autumn, the sky would appear to be the limit where choreography made on him is concerned.

————————————————————

Back to the subject of this thread …… Rupert Christiansen again (in Links). Oh dear re Morera 😨 

[MJW]

47 minutes ago, capybara said:

Vadim’s new book From Small Steps to Big Leaps includes some QR codes which lead to other spontaneous dancing from him, including clips poking fun at himself.

But, after his Mayerling last autumn, the sky would appear to be the limit where choreography made on him is concerned.

————————————————————

Back to the subject of this thread …… Rupert Christiansen again (in Links). Oh dear re Morera 😨 

Thanks for the link; very interesting read whilst sitting here in the V&A’s cafe 

[JohnS]

A remarkably ungenerous comment - I wonder if Rupert Christiansen ever saw Laura Morera when the full 3 Act Anastasia was last performed?

[San Perregrino]

57 minutes ago, capybara said:

But, after his Mayerling last autumn, the sky would appear to be the limit where choreography made on him is concerned.

 

so, why wasn't he included in the new MacGregor i wonder?

[Ondine]

18 minutes ago, JohnS said:

A remarkably ungenerous comment - I wonder if Rupert Christiansen ever saw Laura Morera when the full 3 Act Anastasia was last performed?

 

He's an avid ballet goer and it is within living memory, so possibly.

 

 

[Ondine]

10 minutes ago, PeterS said:

so, why wasn't he included in the new MacGregor i wonder?

 

Hasn't he said he doesn't want to do 'new' works like this?

 

Someone on here said he had.

 

 

[Guest oncnp]

39 minutes ago, PeterS said:

 

so, why wasn't he included in the new MacGregor i wonder?

Otherwise engaged?  Dancing Bayadere in Hong Kong

Edited June 16, 2023 by oncnp

[Balletfanp]

No, he doesn’t do McGregor. He elaborates a little in his book.

[alison]

44 minutes ago, PeterS said:

 

so, why wasn't he included in the new MacGregor i wonder?

 

He's never done any McGregor.

[Guest oncnp]

If anyone is looking for last minute tickets for tomorrow night, I have just returned 4 SCS which should be back on sale later today.

[art_enthusiast]

1 hour ago, Balletfanp said:

No, he doesn’t do McGregor. He elaborates a little in his book.

 

Interesting, so that's a personal preference then? 

 

I was wondering if Marianela Núñez does much McGregor - apart from her Woolf Works performance this year of course.

I know she wasn't in the Dante Project cast, but I was wondering if those who didn't appear in it last time might be cast this time round. 

[capybara]

1 hour ago, oncnp said:

Otherwise engaged?  Dancing Bayadere in Hong Kong

I think that RB dancers who guest abroad (and nearly all of them plus some Soloists now do) fit such engagements around their RB commitments.

Maybe there is some negotiation between individuals and the Director (e.g. posts on the autumn casting thread suggest that this might have been the case with Osipova and Nutcracker) but they are surely first and foremost RB dancers rather than the other way round as the quote above tends to suggest.

Which takes me back to my well-worn theme of the RB’s Principals not getting enough shows………..

 

[San Perregrino]

1 hour ago, oncnp said:

Otherwise engaged?  Dancing Bayadere in Hong Kong

If he’s not available it’ll be hard to create works on him then.

[capybara]

48 minutes ago, PeterS said:

If he’s not available it’ll be hard to create works on him then.

@PeterS  Please see the first part of my post immediately above yours.

[Amanda Liu]

48 minutes ago, PeterS said:

If he’s not available it’ll be hard to create works on him then.

I don’t think it’s availability but he would prefer classical or neoclassical choreography.

[JNC]

5 hours ago, capybara said:

 

Back to the subject of this thread …… Rupert Christiansen again (in Links). Oh dear re Morera 😨 

“silent movie ham” seems mean spirited even if he is entitled to an opinion of course. I did actually agree with all of his review in the round though, and while this phrase isn’t fair (whispers and ducks for cover) I don’t think Morera was dramatically strong in this compared to other performances I’ve seen from her so I can sort of see where Christiansen is coming from.

 

she brought such character and backstory to Cinderella compared to every other cast I saw (3 others) in a role that didn’t require it quite so much. So for a role that is almost entirely character I’m not sure why I remained unmoved. I think in part it was due to the choreography and “story”, and use of the filming that meant I couldn’t really feel it, and I felt the lighting meant I struggled at times to see Morera’s face properly. I remain increasingly disappointed this is her farewell/retirement performance. 

[emmarose]

4 hours ago, Balletfanp said:

No, he doesn’t do McGregor. He elaborates a little in his book.

 

Oh that's interesting, for any particular reason?

 

Or am I going to have to wait until I buy my book? (hopefully next time I'm ROH bound)

[Nogoat]

Gosh, judging from my own reactions, that of my partner, those in neighbouring seats, the ROH audience in general and this forum, there's a lot to disentangle in this Triple Bill! So apologies in advance! 🙂

I've seen the Triple Bill twice (Sat 10th and Thu 15th) and will see it again this Saturday, but I thought I'd comment now as reaction to that final performance will - rightly! - concentrate on Laura Morera's last lead performance.

 

Zooming right out, I agree with criticism of the sequencing of the last three runs. Sandwiching the Triple Bill between Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty would have provided a much more balanced experience for regular audience members, and ending on Cinderella would have had the added bonus of allowing Morera to finish the season on a major-role, full-length, feel-good high. 
For occasional attendees the sequence wouldn't matter, so once again I'm left wondering to what extent the ROH management's effusive praise of their 'loyal Friends' is mere lip service. While sat outside the amphi last night, a regular attendee was complaining about not having a printed cast sheet to refer to; the management have heard it all before, time and time again, yet such information remains steadfastly digital, incomplete, and late. 
It's a generalisation, but that lack of a printed cast sheet might be less likely to bother someone who was younger and/or a less frequent visitor. And, yes, the amphi audience at both Triple Bill performances seemed a different, younger mix than for the two full-length ballets (discounting all the kids at Cinderella!).

McGregor might not appeal to all, but his following seems large enough and excitedly vocal enough to continue to bolster his reputation and justify his position. But are these just 'niche' attendees who might not extend their support to other choreographers or productions? And would that really matter if those other productions are selling out? Dance/ballet is a broad enough church not to expect every production to appeal to every ballet enthusiast but, as others have pointed out, the skewing of the ROH's choreographers towards the more modern end of the spectrum is a cause for concern.

 

Untitled, 2023
What concerns me most about much of McGregor's work is his seemingly willful refusal to provide a narrative base/thread - for me his strongest works all provide at least some degree of narrative (eg Woolf Works, Infra). His current work seems to extend that omission even to its title - Untitled, 2023 - and look what a stir that caused on this very forum!
The bottom line seems to be that its 'title' reflects the use of 'Untitled' by Herrera to name some of her paintings - one of which is used as the backdrop to McGregor's new work. 

I saw Herrera's work as simplistic and irrelevant until an explanatory narrative was provided. Once I learned that she strips visual information from scenes until a bare minimum remains, I was able to use my imagination to interpret the set as an bleak, austere, expansive vista (maybe at sea, maybe on land) aided and abetted by the wide, uncorralled, shifting sounds of Thorvaldsdottir's musical soundscapes (and the knowledge she is Icelandic).

 

Lucy Carter's mastery of lighting also provided support for my imagination by soaking the whole stage with impressively uniform 'sunlight' (apart from the shadows cast by the single triangular shape on the stage) that changed colour as if under different atmospheric conditions.
I had a major problem fitting the choreography into my imagined narrative beyond people traversing a landscape, or the costume design (which also mimicked the angular white/green of the backdrop) representing the shifting of the landscape over eons.

 

It's not that McGregor didn't provide a 'narrative base'; we bought the programme (and, yes, I know there's a view that ballets should stand on their own two feet, unsupported by programme notes) and he asked the question "...how can you be sparer and more economical to best reveal the subtle emotional, rhythmic and somatic movements that emerge slowly throughout the work?" Unfortunately, this didn't help; apart from there being less 'action' on stage at any one point in time, the choreography looked as predictable in its randomness as any typical McGregor piece, and its connection to the soundscapes and lightscapes seemed rather tenuous as best (or was this the ballet equivalent of the Rorschach test, with my brain seeking patterns in random 'noise'?).

I do wonder about the degree of collaboration between McGregor and his 'creatives'. I was astounded to hear, in an unguarded moment in one of the insights into the creation of The Dante Project, just how little there was for that piece. Maybe to compensate for that impression, the recent McGregor article in the ROH Magazine uses the word 'collaboration' over and over again (though I almost stopped reading when he said he has "to be with collaborators who aren't blocking the chi").

As someone else pointed out, the relationship between music, choreography, set/costume design and lighting are key; in this latest work I found the link between the choreography and the other aspects to be the weakest, particularly the music, which was rather disconcerting. The self-amplifying possibility of that bond was apparent in a recent Cinderella at which Osipova's Act 2 solo on her debut was met with a thunderous reaction that I rationalised as the beat-perfect matching of her movement to the music, the result being that movement and music melded into a synaesthetic high. Why does McGregor appear to disdain this?

I really enjoyed, however, seeing the dancers put their all into it; Fumi Kaneko, Melissa Hamilton and Joseph Sissens in particular caught my attention. But other than seeing these wonderful dancers on stage, it all seemed a bit pointless. In the silent transition from one section/piece of music to another, Fumi threw is a few classical turns, as if to pass the time. Apart from making me think she was passing the time, what was the point of it?

Quite frankly I'd be happier to watch the dancers taking a ballet class on stage. It would have more structure, more varied moves, more opportunities to shine and better tunes than Untitled, 2023, and tickets might even be cheaper as it could be produced without a resident choreographer - just a thought...

Corybantic Games
What a transformation a stronger link between dance and music can make!

Nevertheless, I ended up as unimpressed by Corybantic Games as I remember the first time I saw it - and that was without the comparison to McGregor's Untitled, 2023 to flatter it.

The music was nice, and the lighting and stage design was varied and reactive, working to define and direct focus from one sequence to another. For the most part, the choreography was pleasant to watch but there were aspects that grated, and the overall narrative 'tone' of the piece was not something I warmed to. There is a hint of self-absorption in Wheeldon's work that takes the shine of some of his work. That doesn't apply to his longer works such as Alice and Winter's Tale (I haven't seen his Cinderella - that has to wait until next week), where the choreography is so firmly focussed on the story-telling that Wheeldon's idiosyncratic injection of 'ugly' signature moves has little effect.
But in pieces such as Corybantic Games, I find the right-angled feet etc detract from the neo-classical flow. Furthermore, without a strong story to tell, the focus of any narrative tends to resort to presenting the dancers (rather than the dance) to the audience as end-points, which comes across to me as rather self-indulgently shallow; a reality-TV 'look at me' type of celebrity, more reliant on itself than on anything of importance it's trying to say.

Anastasia Act III
I'm happy to be in the minority in regarding Anastasia as one of the great narrative ballets of the 20th century. It took a while for this view to grow, for it was in this single act form the first time I saw it and it made little or no sense to me; the lack of dance for the first 5 mins and the inclusion of vocalisations (some recorded) seemed designed to provoke.

It was only in the last decade that I saw the three-act ballet for the first time, with the recollections of the imperial household in the first two acts providing the background canvas on which the full horror of her Act III torment would be painted. I was, therefore, unsure how I would react to Act III on its own - would it pack the same, gut-wrenching punch? 

It certainly did, though unsurprisingly not to the same extent as the full-length production. 

 

Osipova's first performance was rather good, though I felt she took a while to get fully into the role; her initial scream seemed a bit weak, and she didn't always look like she was 'living the role' as she normally does. Maybe she was missing the emotional 'set-up' of the first two acts? Maybe I was?

The best praise I can give David Donnelly as her husband is to say I wouldn't prefer to see Ed Watson in the role - he was so good at emoting his anguish and helplessness.

Matthew Ball really impressed as Rasputin. He looked totally unkempt and dishevelled, as if he'd just returned from a night of drunken debauchery. If Soares played his Rasputin as a Svengali, Ball played him as Charles Manson - a really nasty piece of work.

And my goodness, did they use a trebuchet to launch the young prince into Rasputin's arms? His unconscious body seemed to fly across the stage; and what level of trust must that require in someone so young?

 

Osipova's final performance last night was absolutely superb! Her piercing scream at the start made me shudder, and was a harbinger of the ferocious intensity with which she channeled every emotionally-draining episode of her real/imagined life.

Again, Matthew Ball was brilliant; the two throws near the beginning, where he throws a horizontal Anastasia up, rolling her as he does, were breathtaking.

And in both performances, the way she turns on her tormenter at the end, kicking him from pillar to post across the stage, had me quietly cheering her on. The piece ends on a 'high' note when she overcomes the nightmarish torments of her demons from the past, and summons them from the wings as she passes serenely by on her hospital bed/carriage. 

I'm always left, though, with the fear that she is doomed to repeat the whole exhausting ritual the following day, trapped in some terrible Sisyphean waking nightmare.

That I should feel that way is testament to the genius of MacMillan as well as the dancing talent available at the ROH to realise his vision. It's the management that lacks vision by making this work Morera's and this season's final performance.

[LinMM]

Wow even better reviews and comments than usual Nogoat. 
Many thanks for above. 

[FLOSS]

I am not sure that it is  reasonable to expect that every senior member of rhe company should appear in a McGregor ballet or that they would want to do so. Principal dancers do have some say in what they appear in. Guillem danced a wide range of the company's repertory but largely steered clear of Ashton and while she danced Forsythe amd other modern choreography she was always insistent that she should have a big enough gap  between  performances when changing genres  to enable her body to adjust to the demands of a specific style, a  luxury not accorded to the foot soldiers in a company.

 

I recall that during the course of an interview that Liam Scarlett gave at the time he was to embark on his production of Swan Lake he expressed serious reservations about the long term impact that performing McGregor's choreography might have on a dancer's body. The impression I got was that he  considered long term exposure to McGregor style of movement posed a potential threat to the body of a classical dancer. We  need to remember that Watson who was a great exponent of McGregor's repertory and style was not look like a conventional classical dancer physically. He was fortunate in that he was someone who seemed confident in his ability to straddle a varied range of repertory and styles. Perhaps the truth is that Muntagirov does not much like McGregor's dance  works or style of movement and has reservations about the impact that dancing his ballets would have on  his performances of the classical and neo classical which are his core repertory. 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by FLOSS

[alison]

1 hour ago, JNC said:

 I don’t think Morera was dramatically strong in this compared to other performances I’ve seen from her

 

Which is odd, because of the three "three-act" Anastasias from a few years ago I had thought she was the most compelling.  I'm not sure whether being shorn of the preceding two acts hindered her or not.

 

43 minutes ago, Nogoat said:

Zooming right out, I agree with criticism of the sequencing of the last three runs. Sandwiching the Triple Bill between Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty would have provided a much more balanced experience for regular audience members, and ending on Cinderella would have had the added bonus of allowing Morera to finish the season on a major-role, full-length, feel-good high. 

 

Agree.  But then there often is a triple bill squeezed in (and I use the word advisedly: I've lost count of the number of times I've been frustrated because the shows are too crammed together - there was one some years ago which I was unable to see at all because everything was more or less within the same week) just before the company goes off on tour: I don't know whether it helps with rehearsing the blockbusters which they are usually taking with them?  

 

From its very tight scheduling, I get the feeling somehow that Cinderella had to be put on at the time it was: I don't know why.  It would have bridged two financial years: I don't know if that would have been relevant.  Or possibly availability of someone or other?

 

Quote

It's not that McGregor didn't provide a 'narrative base' [...] he asked the question "...how can you be sparer and more economical to best reveal the subtle emotional, rhythmic and somatic movements that emerge slowly throughout the work?" 

 

Thank you: I had picked up on the landscape point, but, not having bought the programme, hadn't realised that was the idea.

 

Quote

As someone else pointed out, the relationship between music, choreography, set/costume design and lighting are key; in this latest work I found the link between the choreography and the other aspects to be the weakest, particularly the music, which was rather disconcerting.

 

That was my problem with it, too.

 

Quote

I'm happy to be in the minority in regarding Anastasia as one of the great narrative ballets of the 20th century. It took a while for this view to grow, for it was in this single act form the first time I saw it and it made little or no sense to me; the lack of dance for the first 5 mins and the inclusion of vocalisations (some recorded) seemed designed to provoke.It was only in the last decade that I saw the three-act ballet for the first time, with the recollections of the imperial household in the first two acts providing the background canvas on which the full horror of her Act III torment would be painted.

 

Good to find someone who's seen it in its original one-act form.  I don't suppose you remember it well enough to contrast that version with what we're seeing now?  I suspect I know some of what's been changed, and how, but reinforcement would be welcome.

 

Quote

It's the management that lacks vision by making this work Morera's and this season's final performance.

 

To be fair, though, from what she's said recently I believe that was at Morera's request - albeit after some other options had been rejected, I think?

[San Perregrino]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

@PeterS  Please see the first part of my post immediately above yours.

  I’ll rephrase what I wrote. If he’s chosen not to dance MacGregor, Pite, Marston etc that will reduce the opportunities to create work on him and why he dances ‘away’ so frequently. One has to respect his choices even if one would love to see him dance more variety, especially after he shone as Rudolph.

If memory serves me Vadim was one of the four dancers on whom Wheeldon created ‘For Four’ in 2022.

FOR FOUR
Royal Ballet Premiere
Choreography CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON Music FRANZ SCHUBERT
Costume Designer JEAN-MARC PUISSANT Lighting Designer SIMON BENNISON Staging JASON FOWLER
Rehearsal Director CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS
Dancers MATTHEW BALL, JAMES HAY,
VADIM MUNTAGIROV, MARCELINO SAMBÉ
String Quartet VASKO VASSILEV, ANNA BLACKMUR, AMÉLIE ROUSSEL, CHRISTOPHER VANDERSPAR

[capybara]

2 minutes ago, alison said:

Which is odd, because of the three "three-act" Anastasias from a few years ago I had thought she was the most compelling.

Me too - the best of the casts by some distance then (just as she was last year in Month for me).

[bridiem]

9 minutes ago, PeterS said:

I’ll rephrase what I wrote. If he’s chosen not to dance MacGregor, Pite, Marston etc that will reduce the opportunities to create work on him and why he dances ‘away’ so frequently. One has to respect his choices even if one would love to see him dance more variety, especially after he shone as Rudolph.

If memory serves me Vadim was one of the four dancers on whom Wheeldon created ‘For Four’ in 2022.

FOR FOUR
Royal Ballet Premiere
Choreography CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON Music FRANZ SCHUBERT
Costume Designer JEAN-MARC PUISSANT Lighting Designer SIMON BENNISON Staging JASON FOWLER
Rehearsal Director CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS
Dancers MATTHEW BALL, JAMES HAY,
VADIM MUNTAGIROV, MARCELINO SAMBÉ
String Quartet VASKO VASSILEV, ANNA BLACKMUR, AMÉLIE ROUSSEL, CHRISTOPHER VANDERSPAR

 

This was the RB première of For Four, not world première - the roles weren't created on these dancers.

 

And yes - if Muntagirov doesn't wish to dance 'McGregor, Pite, Marston etc' then that will indeed reduce his opportunities for new roles given that so many of the RB's new works are created by these choreographers. Why that should be the case in one of the world's leading classical ballet companies is another question, as discussed above and elsewhere.

[capybara]

17 minutes ago, PeterS said:

If memory serves me Vadim was one of the four dancers on whom Wheeldon created ‘For Four’ in 2022.

FOR FOUR
Royal Ballet Premiere

For Four was choreographed on other dancers some time ago with idea of expressing their different styles and qualities (Corella -Cuban; Steifel -American; Kobborg -Danish; Tsiskaridze - Russian) but it was new to The Royal Ballet this season.

 

(Edited to add apologies for simultaneous posting with @bridiem)

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by capybara

[JennyTaylor]

31 minutes ago, alison said:

 

To be fair, though, from what she's said recently I believe that was at Morera's request - albeit after some other options had been rejected, I think?

This is my understanding too. I've been to a couple of events recently, where RB dancers were present including Laura, where this was discussed.   

Edited June 16, 2023 by JennyTaylor
typo

[San Perregrino]

31 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

This was the RB première of For Four, not world première - the roles weren't created on these dancers.

 

32 minutes ago, capybara said:

For Four was choreographed on other dancers some time ago

 

my memory didn’t serve in that case, apologies. Still it was nice to see Vadim have a go at something new to the RB and so new to me.

[bridiem]

5 minutes ago, PeterS said:

my memory didn’t serve in that case, apologies. Still it was nice to see Vadim have a go at something new to the RB and so new to me.

 

Yes, it was!

[MoVR]

In general, how much choice do dancers have to perform or not perform a certain repertoire? If for example Pite or Mcgregor comes in at the RB looking to cast however many people, could any dancer straight up refuse to be in a work or is that a privilege reserved for principals? I've always wondered how that works.