Royal Ballet - Swan Lake 2024

[Fonty]

I adore Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, I find it incredibly moving.  But I can understand why people who were expecting a ballet might be a bit startled.   I think having all male swans rather than all female ones is a terrific concept.  We are so used to seeing them as beautiful and graceful.  Bourne emphasises their power.

[Tango Dancer]

7 hours ago, Balletfanp said:

I’m on the fence re Matthew Bourne. I certainly found I enjoyed his shows a lot more once I stopped thinking of them as ballets, rather as shows.

 

Yes I think the same.  I liked his Swan Lake as it had some innovative ideas, I'm less keen on some of his other works as they don't do much for me.  I wasn't massively keen on his Romeo and Juliet when I first saw it before Covid but I saw it again last year (at a loose end in London one evening) and thought it was better than I remembered. 

 

As long as you're not expecting traditional ballet they can be quite fun to watch.  I think I'd agree they're not something I 'd see more than once.  I don't think I wouldn't make an effort to see them over other things but they're sometimes quite a pleasant way to spend time. 

[Roberta]

Adam Cooper in his leather pants.  Had a lasting effect on me I must say. 

[FionaM]

30 minutes ago, Roberta said:

Adam Cooper in his leather pants.  Had a lasting effect on me I must say. 

🤣 and me!

[art_enthusiast]

1 hour ago, Fonty said:

I adore Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, I find it incredibly moving.  But I can understand why people who were expecting a ballet might be a bit startled.   I think having all male swans rather than all female ones is a terrific concept.  We are so used to seeing them as beautiful and graceful.  Bourne emphasises their power.

 

I am so looking forward to seeing it for the first time in December. I have wanted to see this version since I saw that ending of Billy Elliot where he performs in it.

[San Perregrino]

4 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

 

I am so looking forward to seeing it for the first time in December. I have wanted to see this version since I saw that ending of Billy Elliot where he performs in it.

And one can’t help but wonder if a RB dancer will be a guest casting like Matthew Ball was to great effect in the 2018/2019 run at Sadlers Wells. (I can’t believe it was that long ago!). 

Edited April 10 by San Perregrino

[alison]

I can

 

There have of course been dancers guesting from other companies apart from the RB.

[Lizbie1]

11 hours ago, Fonty said:

I adore Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, I find it incredibly moving.  But I can understand why people who were expecting a ballet might be a bit startled.   I think having all male swans rather than all female ones is a terrific concept.  We are so used to seeing them as beautiful and graceful.  Bourne emphasises their power.

 

I wasn't expecting a ballet but I was expecting something more choreographically inventive (and better danced TBH). I agree he has some very good ideas and insights.

 

Like some others who've posted, I have a lot of respect for MB so don't want to badmouth him, but I've tried him several times and have to conclude he's not for me.

[Kerfuffle]

The connection with Billy Elliot is an interesting one - the swan corps are stunning but the ballet is not what we’d associate with Billy’s training up until then - we are expecting an RB future. I like some of Matthew Bourne’s work, the most satisfying ones for me are when the story diverges the most such as Red Shoes, Carman. I found Nutcracker frustrating, it was too much of a pastiche, other than the orphanage beginning which was a very unexpected setting. Tchaikovsky’s musical score did not fit with the twerking of the waltz of the flowers and the grand pas de deux was lost on me. 

[Mary]

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

I wasn't expecting a ballet but I was expecting something more choreographically inventive (and better danced TBH). I agree he has some very good ideas and insights.

 

Like some others who've posted, I have a lot of respect for MB so don't want to badmouth him, but I've tried him several times and have to conclude he's not for me.

Did you see a more recent run?

i saw the show in its early days and thought it was really good - the surprise value was much greater then..Adam Cooper was superb..(and you could hear the hearts pounding in the auditorium!)

but, I did quickly  get bored with the pastiche of La Sylphide and the Royal family shenanigans. That certainly got very tedious on a second viewing..I did go to see Ball in that run, and thought he  was excellent but the rest of it left me stone cold.

[Lizbie1]

4 minutes ago, Mary said:

Did you see a more recent run?

 

Yes, much more recent - five years ago, the Ball run.

[Emeralds]

I came here thinking there were some more reviews about the last performance on 6 April or suggestions about future debuts/performances to look for and got slightly confused by the Matthew Bourne discussion.  😉  Don't mind me.....   😁 

[Kerfuffle]

Yes we have digressed  bit 😉

[capybara]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

I came here thinking there were some more reviews about the last performance on 6 April or suggestions about future debuts/performances to look for and got slightly confused by the Matthew Bourne discussion.  😉  Don't mind me.....   😁 

Added to which we now have the initials MB on posts which can translate to both Matthew Ball and Matthew Bourne 🤯🤔

[Jan McNulty]

5 hours ago, capybara said:

Added to which we now have the initials MB on posts which can translate to both Matthew Ball and Matthew Bourne 🤯🤔

 

Matthew Bourne could be initialled SMB to differentiate!

[LinMM]

Oh yes forgot he was a Sir!! 

[Rob S]

Oooo David Donnelly as Von Rothbart this evening!!! 
 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/54699

Edited April 12 by Rob S

[Linnzi5]

25 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Oooo David Donnelly as Von Rothbart this evening!!! 
 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/54699

I think he'll be brilliant!

[San Perregrino]

32 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Oooo David Donnelly as Von Rothbart this evening!!! 
 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/54699

Is it Taisuke Nakao’s debut as Benno?

Good to see Liam Boswell & Madison Bailey will dance Neopolitan too. (First time this run I think?)

[art_enthusiast]

22 minutes ago, San Perregrino said:

Is it Taisuke Nakao’s debut as Benno?

If so, good luck to him! I’m sure he’ll be brilliant.

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, Rob S said:

Oooo David Donnelly as Von Rothbart this evening!!! 
 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/54699

 

Grrrr, I know I've said this before but why oh why can't the ROH give advanced casting for Von Rothbart & Benno? I would have seriously considered trying to get a ticket for this performance if I'd known Donnelly would be making his debut. As it is, I won't get to see him unless I luck in & he ends up appearing with another cast who I will be seeing. It's also almost certainly killed off my hope that he might get to do Benno, as I very much doubt anyone will get cast as Von Rothbart & Benno.

 

So far the new Von Rothbarts are the same as the new Gaolers so I wonder if Edmonds might do Von Rothbart too or whether his casting as Siegfried will excuse him?

[Emeralds]

 

43 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Grrrr, I know I've said this before but why oh why can't the ROH give advanced casting for Von Rothbart & Benno? I would have seriously considered trying to get a ticket for this performance if I'd known Donnelly would be making his debut. As it is, I won't get to see him unless I luck in & he ends up appearing with another cast who I will be seeing. It's also almost certainly killed off my hope that he might get to do Benno, as I very much doubt anyone will get cast as Von Rothbart & Benno.

 

So far the new Von Rothbarts are the same as the new Gaolers so I wonder if Edmonds might do Von Rothbart too or whether his casting as Siegfried will excuse him?

So it's very likely (though no guarantees, as injuries/illness/etc can occur) that David Donnelly and Taisuke Nakao will reprise their roles as Rothbart and Benno respectively at the 18th April evening and 27th April matinee performances. I believe these are role debuts for both Donnelly and Nakao- very exciting! Madison Bailey and Liam Boswell were brilliant in the Neapolitan Dance in the last run. Great casting in tonight's show! Toi toi toi to all 

Edited April 12 by Emeralds

[Dawnstar]

6 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

So it's very likely (though no guarantees, as injuries/illness/etc can occur) that David Donnelly and Taisuke Nakao will reprise their roles as Rothbart and Benno respectively at the 18th April evening and 27th April matinee performances.

 

I realise that but the Friday rush for 18th already happened today & it's highly unlikely a suitable return will appear, while 27th matinee isn't a convenient date/time for me. Also given how high the SL ticket prices are I can't keep on buying extra tickets that I haven't budgeted for. (I already added one extra performance last month when Kaneko replaced Cuthbertson.) If fuller casting had been known before the start of the run then I could have had an overall rethink of which casts to prioritise seeing.

[Emeralds]

That's really bad luck about the timing, @Dawnstar  😟 ....missing out on  the information just by several hours! Can only hope a return ticket miraculously appears in an area you can buy for the 18th. 🍀 🍀 🍀 🍀 🍀 

Edited April 12 by Emeralds

[Dawnstar]

@Emeralds Thanks but I don't think I want the stress of spending the next 5 days checking for returns when the odds are extremely low, given there are under 20 tickets in the entire auditorium that I'm both prepared to sit in & can afford for SL! I think I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that Donnelly, and Braendesrod for that matter, appear in more than one SL cast.

[Emeralds]

2 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

@Emeralds Thanks but I don't think I want the stress of spending the next 5 days checking for returns when the odds are extremely low, given there are under 20 tickets in the entire auditorium that I'm both prepared to sit in & can afford for SL! I think I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that Donnelly, and Braendesrod for that matter, appear in more than one SL cast.

There's also the May and June performances and I think the Rothbarts and Bennos tend to be matched with the Odette-Odiles and Siegfrieds they have already danced together with. There's the possibility that Donnelly might be Rothbart to another Odette-Odile/Siegfried team in April, May or June (provided it isn't too close to his Winter's Tale performances I suppose). I suppose once you see the casting for the first dates that Hayward, Takada, Kaneko, Naghdi, Lamb, Sasaki,  Osipova and Calvert are dancing, you'll have an idea of who their Rothbart will be for their next performance.

 

It's tempting to suggest getting a Friday Rush a week in advance for any pairing who are only dancing Fridays and weekends - just risking £4 to return it if it turns out not to be the supporting cast you'd like, but at least you won't miss out on a bench ticket again. Must say that's really very unusual that Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe were assigned only Fri & Sat shows; usually everyone gets at least 1 week night.

[Rob S]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RHowarth]

It was my first Swan Lake of the season and I left the ROH feeling a bit flat last night. Maybe it was because from SCS I couldn't fully admire the patterns of the corps de ballet, or maybe because Act IV of this production doesn't work for me, for all the reasons already discussed upthread. But I found Sambe and Magri mismatched for this ballet - he was more vulnerable, even in the white acts, than she ever seemed to be, and on a physical level, she was taller than him when en pointe.

 

Lots to admire, particularly Ashley Dean as one of the sisters, dancing with silent pointe shoes and evoking for me, like Gasparini always does, dancers from eras gone by. 

 

Perhaps I was just tired - would be interested to hear what others thought. 

Edited April 13 by RHowarth

[JohnS]

I very much enjoyed last night’s Swan Lake with Mayara Magri and Marcelino Sambe in great form and I found them well matched. Very impressed with the debuts: Taisuke Nakao’s Benno - fabulous jumps with the softest of landings; David Donnelly’s Von Rothbart - great stage presence and well danced. I liked Sae Maeda and Ashley Dean’s sisters although I found some of the tempi a bit slow (not just for the pd3 but also some of Act 2). I very much liked Madison Bailey’s and Liam Boswell’s Neopolitan dance. Fabulous Big Swans, Cygnets and corps.

 

The slight ’but’ for me is that I’m still so very much MacMillan Triple Bill dominated. It astonishes me that Sambe can dance Siegfried so convincingly after Tuesday’s Woyzeck (and for me Thursday’s delayed ‘live’ screening), a testament to his professionalism and that of the Royal Ballet. What I can say is that I’m really looking forward to seeing this cast on 27 April when I’ll be much more Swan Lake orientated.

[RHowarth]

Sambe in Different Drummer on Tuesday was still lodged in my mind, too, JohnS, and probably coloured my viewing of Swan Lake last night. 

 

A 6am start with a 3-year-old, a long train journey, a glass of wine before the show, and not yet having checked into my hotel (nor really knowing where it was) - these are all things that can impact! 

Edited April 13 by RHowarth

[Mary]

No need to explain or aplogise for a less than positive review I hope- I am sure we all welcome honest responses,  no matter how critical  (so long, of course as they are appropriately worded.)

 

Plenty of us have commented on Act IV not really working.

 

 

[Sim]

2 hours ago, RHowarth said:

Sambe in Different Drummer on Tuesday was still lodged in my mind, too, JohnS, and probably coloured my viewing of Swan Lake last night. 

 

A 6am start with a 3-year-old, a long train journey, a glass of wine before the show, and not yet having checked into my hotel (nor really knowing where it was) - these are all things that can impact! 

Or, you just might not have liked it simply because you didn't like it!  It's allowed!

[Sim]

2 hours ago, Mary said:

No need to explain or aplogise for a less than positive review I hope- I am sure we all welcome honest responses,  no matter how critical  (so long, of course as they are appropriately worded.)

 

Plenty of us have commented on Act IV not really working.

 

 

I love things about Act IV:  the pdd, the beautiful swans, the way the swans slowly leave the stage during the pdd, the atmospheric lighting.  What I dislike about the act is that Siegfried is consigned to the floor for much of the last part.  He should be up, fighting VR !  Nor do I like the ending (my preference is for them both to die, then reunite in the apotheosis for eternity, as in Dowell's version), although I think I'm getting used to it.