Alexander Campbell farewell performances and appreciation thread

[Jamesrhblack]

30 minutes ago, Scheherezade said:

First thing that came to mind. 

Undoubtedly. As with Laura Morera…

[capybara]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

When watching the video, did anyone else feel like shouting at Mr O'Hare, asking why, if he held Campbell in such high regard, he cast him much less frequently than other male principals??

I said that under my breath as KOH spoke.

That speech did not hit the spot as far as I was concerned.

[Candleque]

17 hours ago, Blossom said:

is the nicest man in ballet.

Love this description. Like many I am in mourning over losing my platonic ballet crush. Alex as a dancer somehow made me feel like I knew him personally and that he was just the best kind of bloke to have as a friend. 

 

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

When watching the video, did anyone else feel like shouting at Mr O'Hare, asking why, if he held Campbell in such high regard, he cast him much less frequently than other male principals??

Having treated myself to a posh seat for this last performance in the same row as Mr. O'Hare, it took all of my strength and manners instilled as child not to grab him and ask this question. 

 

[annamicro]

On 03/03/2024 at 19:04, Emeralds said:

I live in hope that Campbell might do an   Alina Cojocaru or Jonathan Cope and return to the stage to dance,

 

Not sure what you mean 😊: Cojocaru never stopped dancing (except for injuries 😟, pregnancies and lockdowns)

[Emeralds]

7 minutes ago, annamicro said:

 

Not sure what you mean 😊: Cojocaru never stopped dancing (except for injuries 😟, pregnancies and lockdowns)

Cojocaru= join another company

Cope= rejoin Royal Ballet 

(Both situations not exactly the same as Campbell of course- no announcement of an RAD job for Alina). 

[annamicro]

20 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Cojocaru= join another company

Cope= rejoin Royal Ballet 

(Both situations not exactly the same as Campbell of course- no announcement of an RAD job for Alina). 

Ah, ok. Anyway Cojocaru didn't "return" to stage: she just moved to another one 😊

[lady emily]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

I said that under my breath as KOH spoke.

That speech did not hit the spot as far as I was concerned.

 

I have to agree, he said all the 'right' things but it did not feel incredibly genuine to me. There wasn't anything particularly unique to Alexander in it, it more read like a stock speech you could say of any dancer leaving. 

 

Still so strange to me that he would be the one to promote him to principal and then sideline him. 

[lady emily]

2 hours ago, Candleque said:

Having treated myself to a posh seat for this last performance in the same row as Mr. O'Hare, it took all of my strength and manners instilled as child not to grab him and ask this question. 

 

 

Oh wow! That must have taken great restraint. I hope you shot daggers with your eyes at least to convey to displeasure of all fans 😅

[JohnS]

A truly memorable evening on Friday and fabulous to see all the tributes, footage of the curtain calls and speeches, and the stunning performance footage from the wings. Thank you all for the posts here.
 

I do sympathise with the comments about Alex being so underused but I thought his speech an eloquent and incredibly measured response. I’ve also been looking again at his ‘Spotlight on …’  series on the ROH Stream which seems remarkably prescient.

 

It was great to see Alex, Claire, Francesca and others at the Stage Door, with Alex generously finding time to have more than a few words with everyone as he’s always been so willing to do. 
 

In writing a note for Alex I realised I’ve now been coming to the ROH for 50 years and Alex and Francesca have certainly provided me with some of the absolute highlights. I’d pick their Giselle (Act 1 of the first performance and Act 2 of their second performance) and last Saturday’s Manon as the ones I’ll most treasure but there are of course so many more which will stay with me. Hugely fitting for Alex and Francesca to be dancing Manon to bring the curtain down on this Royal Ballet chapter of Alex’s career and let’s see if there’ll be another chapter at some point.
 

Meanwhile huge congratulations, many thanks, and all good wishes to Alex as he takes up his RAD role, a great opportunity where I’m sure he’ll excel.

[Hodorys]

Alexander Campbell was one of the dancers that really piqued my interest in Ballet after I watched the wonderful Mad Hatter rehearsal streamed for WBD (along with the fantastic Beatrix Stix-Brunell!). I always enjoyed watching his various rehearsals streamed on YouTube, in particular his Mercutio. 

 

I echo everyone’s sentiment about what an exceptional actor he is, along with his incredible solo and partnering technique. 

I also agree he was much under-utilised. I was hoping the Prodigal Son was rescheduled so we could see him and his very talented wife Claire Calvert dance together.
 

I also would have loved to have seen his Siegfried and Rudolf. 

However our loss is RAD’s gain and I have no doubt he will be an exceptional AD.

[Swan]

8 hours ago, Fonty said:

When watching the video, did anyone else feel like shouting at Mr O'Hare, asking why, if he held Campbell in such high regard, he cast him much less frequently than other male principals??

I certainly did, @Fonty!  😠 

[FionaM]

I nearly got the strength to ask this question to KoH at the stage door afterwards.  Another time!  

[Roberta]

 Has Alex Campbell been greatly any less used than other principals? He has certainly had wide exposure appearing in cine broadcasts, presenting & dancing, Manon was the most recent, also he danced two major roles in the recent run.  (He had probably more exposure than he wanted as Golden Idol full screen and close up but we won't go there in depth.) 

 

 

He was going to dance in the cine relay of Different Drummer. Then there was presenting for Insights, World Ballet Day, his producing, as with the short film and ballet Sleepwalker (see above).

 

 

 

Of course very recently there was The Limit at the LInbury, Alexander Campbell productions.  https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/the-limit-by-kristen-mcnally-details

 

 

I saw him as a very public face of the Royal Ballet really. 

 

His list of roles danced is wide and varied, he's all over YouTube,  a legacy of which I'm sure he's proud.  He's recently become a dad too, and perhaps had some time out for that? Doesn't he additionally own a ballet school along with his wife Claire Calvert? 

 

Let's not sour a celebration thread.  His contribution to the Royal Ballet has been immense IMO and I'm sure his move will not end his connection. 

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/people/alexander-campbell

 

Edited March 10 by Roberta

[Sim]

Alex has just posted a lovely tribute to Frankie Hayward on his Instagram.  Brought a tear to my eye.  

[bridiem]

I hope it's OK to copy here what he has said on Instagram about Friday evening:

'Still can’t find the words to describe how it feels to have been through this experience of a ‘retirement’ show - but I can say that I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I was reminded that I have been surrounded by incredible people during my time here @royaloperahouse and that is an absolute gift that I will treasure for the rest of my life.'

[Roberta]

31 minutes ago, bridiem said:

I have been surrounded by incredible people during my time here @royaloperahouse 

 

He is one of the 'incredible people' and I suspect he never quite grasped how incredible he is. He'll be greatly missed, not only as the versatile and wonderful dancer he is. Whenever he appeared on screen, cine, Insight or WBD, you knew there was safe pair of hands in charge no matter what. 

 

 

[Sophoife]

In response to someone above, yes, Alex was under-used.

 

One of the reasons his retirement followed so speedily on the heels of the announcement of his appointment to the RAD job is that he wasn't cast in Swan Lake or in The Winter's Tale. The only role in which he was cast apart from Des Grieux and Lescaut in the Manon run that ended on Friday was Different Drummer, which he did not feel appropriate as a retirement role.

 

Yes, he had sidelines but if one looks at his actual dancing with the RB one will see how much time he had to pursue those sidelines due to not being cast in roles he should have been dancing. He was never given a chance as Rudolf or Leontes, for example.

 

 

Edited March 11 by Sophoife

[lady emily]

12 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

In response to someone above, yes, Alex was under-used.

 

One of the reasons his retirement followed so speedily on the heels of the announcement of his appointment to the RAD job is that he wasn't cast in Swan Lake or in The Winter's Tale. The only role in which he was cast apart from Des Grieux and Lescaut in the Manon run that ended on Friday was Different Drummer, which he did not feel appropriate as a retirement role.

 

Yes, he had sidelines but if one looks at his actual dancing with the RB one will see how much time he had to pursue those sidelines due to not being cast in roles he should have been dancing. He was never given a chance as Rudolf or Leontes, for example.

 

 

 

Never given Siegfried either; off the top of my head he is the only one of his contemporary principals who never danced the role? With such long runs of the ballet it would have been a slap in the face. 

 

Wasn't cast in Don Quixote this season either. 

[DVDfan]

Well, I find myself wondering who you would like not to have been cast so that Alex Campbell could be, or should there have been longer runs of fewer ballets so that everyone could be cast?

 

Personally, if Fate had decreed that I was a principal dancer, I should be dead from boredom in a few years. I mean - you spend weeks rehearsing and developing a performance, give it, heave a sigh of relief that you can move onto something new, and then back it comes - Nutcracker Prince every year, Romeo, Des Grieux and Albrecht every three years, Siegfried every two years. Now with some roles I suppose you're going to find more in them when you revisit them, but there has to be a limit to that. 

I suspect that Campbell gave such brilliant performances towards the end of his career because he had outside interests, and was not bored or exhausted, and had a richer life experience to bring to his interpretation.  

 

I agree with the poster above, let's not spoil a thread dedicated to appreciating a fine artist at the moment of his retirement from the stage, with angry criticism of the AD. 

[Scheherezade]

10 hours ago, Roberta said:

 

He is one of the 'incredible people' and I suspect he never quite grasped how incredible he is.

That’s the thing about incredible people, Roberta, they never do believe that they are particularly incredible whereas some of those who are not find it much easier to believe that they are. 

[lady emily]

39 minutes ago, DVDfan said:

Well, I find myself wondering who you would like not to have been cast so that Alex Campbell could be, or should there have been longer runs of fewer ballets so that everyone could be cast?

 

Personally, if Fate had decreed that I was a principal dancer, I should be dead from boredom in a few years. I mean - you spend weeks rehearsing and developing a performance, give it, heave a sigh of relief that you can move onto something new, and then back it comes - Nutcracker Prince every year, Romeo, Des Grieux and Albrecht every three years, Siegfried every two years. Now with some roles I suppose you're going to find more in them when you revisit them, but there has to be a limit to that. 

I suspect that Campbell gave such brilliant performances towards the end of his career because he had outside interests, and was not bored or exhausted, and had a richer life experience to bring to his interpretation.  

 

I agree with the poster above, let's not spoil a thread dedicated to appreciating a fine artist at the moment of his retirement from the stage, with angry criticism of the AD. 

 

Of course you can get bored and not everyone can do everything every year. But he never got to do roles that other principal men were able to do, even if it wasn't every run, and he was regularly not cast as much as his peers. Those two things together is what singled him out. Even if you just look at this season. He was not cast in Don Quixote, The Dante Project, or The Cellist. He didn't appear on the main stage until The Nutcracker. Yes, he was working on The Limit but dancers are used to multitasked and it didn't stop Hayward from appearing in Dante. He was cast for two performances of Manon, but nothing in Swan Lake or The Winter's Tale. He is the only fit male principal so underused this season; all the rest danced Don Q and/or Dante and every other principal was cast in Swan Lake. 

 

Whether or not you personally believe that it's a good way to operate a company, the Royal Ballet very much does not run on an emploi basis. Pretty much everyone dances pretty much everything, every time that it comes around. To single someone out and have them be the only dancer who does not operate on that basis makes a statement. 

Edited March 11 by lady emily

[OnePigeon]

30 minutes ago, DVDfan said:

Well, I find myself wondering who you would like not to have been cast so that Alex Campbell could be, or should there have been longer runs of fewer ballets so that everyone could be cast?

Well maybe some of the non principal dancers?  I would be pretty miffed if I was made a principal and then almost every principal but me was given certain roles and then, to add insult to injury, lower ranked dancers were also given principal roles that really should have gone to me.  I agree it’s good to be positive and celebratory about his career, but it’s also a little disingenuous to ignore the fact that he wasn’t cast as much as he could have been - and I say this as someone who wasn’t a particular fan of his (as in he wasn’t one of my preferred dancers, not that I didn’t like him.)

 

Mukhamedov was treated appallingly when he departed and was rightly hurt and angry when he first left the RB - these things do happen, it’s not all roses and champagne behind the scenes.

[Roberta]

20 minutes ago, lady emily said:

He was cast for two performances of Manon

 

Alexander Campbell danced the two main male roles in Manon, four as Lescaut (including the cine broadcast) as well as two Des Grieux.   https://www.balletnews.co.uk/the-royal-ballet-casting-for-50th-anniversary-of-manon/ 

 

 

 

 

[lady emily]

11 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

Alexander Campbell danced the two main male roles in Manon, four as Lescaut (including the cine broadcast) as well as two Des Grieux.   https://www.balletnews.co.uk/the-royal-ballet-casting-for-50th-anniversary-of-manon/ 

 

 

Yes sorry I should have clarified I will edit. I didn't include it as the non-leading role. 

 

EDIT: Never mind can't edit the old comment anymore!

Edited March 11 by lady emily

[Blossom]

Is it worth considering that he mightn’t have danced in Don Q in order to concentrate on his family? 
 

[Roberta]

Here is Alex Campbell teaching in Australia at the YAGP (2023) yet another of his talents. 

 

(Sadly not the best quality recording.)

 

 

 

 

[bridiem]

I watched (online!) a class he gave in London last year, and some of his Zoom classes during lockdown/s. He's clearly an excellent, kind and intelligent teacher.

[LinMM]

Not that I’m a cricket fan in any way but interested to read that among other things he has a role in a cricket club in U.K. to help promote more girls to play cricket. 
A friend in Oz told me his dad was the cricket teacher/coach at her son’s school in Sydney. So nice to see Alex has kept that passion going too. 

[lady emily]

I do wonder if we will someday see Alexander as the artistic director of a major company, perhaps even the Royal Ballet. He clearly has interests in management (with the ballet company he bought with his wife) and with artistic directing, given his new role. He is so well-spoken and has already proved himself as an effective public face of the company. Given the clear love his co-workers have for him I'm sure he would be appreciated and respected. 

[Fonty]

I hesitated to post that I could see him being a terrific Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet, in case people thought it would be insulting to the RAD.  

 

I think it is a pity that he never got a chance at Rudolf, and I am also sad that I never got to see his Romeo, although thankfully he was cast as Mercutio.  I always feel with Campbell that he was frequently cast in roles that he shared with first soloists, rather than true principal roles.  I might be wrong, but that is how it felt to me.  

 

 

[Emeralds]

2 hours ago, DVDfan said:

Well, I find myself wondering who you would like not to have been cast so that Alex Campbell could be

I'm not taking any sides in this topic, but just wanted to reveal that mathematically there is a very easy solution to your (reasonable) question which does not deprive any dancer from being cast. In the 2022 run, William Bracewell was scheduled for 5 performances as Siegfried: 2 with Hayward, 1 Schools Matinee with Cuthbertson, 2 with Cuthbertson so if the 2 with Hayward had been assigned to Campbell instead, Bracewell would still be dancing slightly more than the average of 2 that other principals like Sambe, Hirano, Ball, Corrales, McRae etc were assigned before the run began.

 

Bracewell was subsequently given an extra Schools Matinee with Kaneko (due to the retirement of Bonelli) and the opportunity to be one of the four Siegfrieds in the charity performance so even if Campbell had danced with Hayward, Bracewell would still have finished the season with a total of 5 Siegfried appearances, which is more than anyone else. Bracewell could still dance Swan Lake with Hayward in subsequent seasons.

 

Also, as Hayward and Campbell had previously danced in Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker (both Clara/Hans-Peter and Sugar Plum/Prince), Coppelia. Giselle, Manon, etc together, that would have been a physical advantage with regards to the partnering and acting aspects. Of course this is all hypothetical now, but one does wonder how their Swan Lake would have looked like- I think if it'd happened it would have been unforgettable.  🙂 

Edited March 11 by Emeralds

[capybara]

And some of the other dancers in the above list were also cast in the more modern works.

This does raise the question as to whether those who are thus featured should be given more shows of the classics/modern classics rather than the same kind of share as everyone else.

It’s not only Campbell who was/is underused.

[lady emily]

33 minutes ago, Fonty said:

I always feel with Campbell that he was frequently cast in roles that he shared with first soloists, rather than true principal roles.  I might be wrong, but that is how it felt to me.  

 

Exactly: Lescaut and Benno were signature roles but they should have been signature roles from his soloist days, not when he was principal. Hirano is the only other male principal who comes to mind who regularly does that, and only with Lescaut. But he also gets to dance the leads as well. 

 

Incidentally did he ever dance Lensky? I don't think so but that seems like exactly the type of role he would have danced frequently. A could imagine a very strong Onegin from him as well, especially with his partnering skills. I should stop fantasizing about things that will never happen...