Royal Ballet - Swan Lake 2024

[Blossom]

SO excited for Cesar Corrales' return to the stage tonight!

[Sim]

20 minutes ago, Blossom said:

SO excited for Cesar Corrales' return to the stage tonight!

Me too!

[Missfrankiecat]

1 hour ago, emmarose said:

 

I feel the same, I treasure any chance.

 

After what happened last year when Marianela was out, well, I was lucky because I have no idea why but I'd bought tickets for the first night and then on the Friday rush I picked up some for their third night, no idea why. But when she wasn't able to dance the first night I had the third already (it was sold out)

 

This year that was very much in my mind so I got tickets for the first night and the third intending to return whatever one wasn't needed, but now I'm wondering if I should just go and see the magic again...

 

I'm the same.  Fully intended to return tickets for 6.4 (booked because I was unsure I would be able to make last night's mid-week performance) but now thinking that if there is a chance of last night's magic being repeated, I don't want to miss it.  There are so many excellent dancers in the company atm, it seems, on one level, ridiculous to watch one pairing more than once but last night reminded how exceptional these two are.

[emmarose]

I forgot to mention this last night, but they were both so enchanting in the Act II pas.

 

One of my favourite moments in the whole ballet is when the swans having been still for so long come back to life and start their hops around the stage. I love the movement, I love the sound of them.

 

Last night I didn't see it, I was so focused on those two and how achingly beautiful it was, I completely missed it.

[emmarose]

6 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

 

I'm the same.  Fully intended to return tickets for 6.4 (booked because I was unsure I would be able to make last night's mid-week performance) but now thinking that if there is a chance of last night's magic being repeated, I don't want to miss it.  There are so many excellent dancers in the company atm, it seems, on one level, ridiculous to watch one pairing more than once but last night reminded how exceptional these two are.

 

I'm going to hand onto them for now because it's very tempting to go back and see this dream once again. 

I can't decide if it's madness to go or madness to return the tickets.

[emmarose]

9 minutes ago, emmarose said:

I forgot to mention this last night, but they were both so enchanting in the Act II pas.

 

One of my favourite moments in the whole ballet is when the swans having been still for so long come back to life and start their hops around the stage. I love the movement, I love the sound of them.

 

Last night I didn't see it, I was so focused on those two and how achingly beautiful it was, I completely missed it.

Quoting myself to say this is no shade to the corps. They were on song last night, absolutely stunning movements throughout as swans and their lines were perfection.

 

This was more a testament to how captivating Nela and Vadim were in Act II.

[Rob S]

17 minutes ago, emmarose said:

 

Last night I didn't see it, I was so focused on those two and how achingly beautiful it was, I completely missed it.

 

Did you also miss the strange silhouette of Odette on top of the rock before she was supposed to be spot lit, she looked like she was having a conversation with someone on the ground  behind the rock

[emmarose]

Just now, Rob S said:

 

Did you also miss the strange silhouette of Odette on top of the rock before she was supposed to be spot lit, she looked like she was having a conversation with someone on the ground  behind the rock

No, I actually saw that!

 

At first I thought it was a stage hand then realised it was Marianela, she also seemed to push it and check it's sturdiness!

Someone obviously messed up the lighting there...

[San Perregrino]

2 minutes ago, Rob S said:

 

Did you also miss the strange silhouette of Odette on top of the rock before she was supposed to be spot lit, she looked like she was having a conversation with someone on the ground  behind the rock

Along the lines of “These shoes are killing me” ? 

[Missfrankiecat]

1 minute ago, Rob S said:

 

Did you also miss the strange silhouette of Odette on top of the rock before she was supposed to be spot lit, she looked like she was having a conversation with someone on the ground  behind the rock

Yes that was unfortunate - I was in extreme right SC so my view was slightly obscured but I thought she was having a cosy chat with Gary Avis pending curtain calls!!  

[Silver Capricorn]

Everything has been said about yesterday's performance.  The Royal Ballet currently has no other pair for the classical repertoire that can be compared to the pair of Nela - Vadim.  I am happy that I could be there yesterday.  I'll be back in May to see how Vadim's new future partnership with Fumi works out.

[Missfrankiecat]

Any suggestion that first night casting was misplaced surely laid to rest by the reviews so far in, since no Artistic Director in his right mind would want to forgo first night notices like these.  The Times and The Stage both giving 5 star ratings and superlative reviews of Nunez and Muntagirov (and everyone else).  I particularly like that both pay fulsome tribute to Liam Scarlett's choreography and vision.  I would link but I suspect we are meant to go to the Dance Links thread for the day.

Edited March 7 by Missfrankiecat

[emmarose]

14 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Any suggestion that first night casting was misplaced surely laid to rest by the reviews so far in, since no Artistic Director in his right mind would want to forgo first night notices like these.  The Times and The Stage both giving 5 star ratings and superlative reviews of Nunez and Muntagirov (and everyone else).  I particularly like that both pay fulsome tribute to Liam Scarlett's choreography and vision.  I would link but I suspect we are meant to go to the Dance Links thread for the day.

Not really sure what that was all about anyway.

 

World class, some of the finest to ever dance, you don't leave that on the backburner. Anyone who truly appreciates the art form could surely never bore of seeing their artistry. 

 

It's not as if they just saw them yesterday, and as I pointed out, Nunez didn't dance on opening night last Swan Lake season, so it's been 4 years.

[Lindsay]

I think it's natural when you see a LOT of ballet (as many forumites do - I know I am guilty of this in periods when a work lull coincides with programming I want to see) to get jaded and want novelty all the time.  But also the more you see, the more one can learn to appreciate the difference between "really excellent absolutely at the top of their game" dancing and the kind of "dancers of their generation" performance we saw last night.  For me, Nunez, Muntagirov, Osipova and Hayward (in the right roles because of her amazing acting skills) can all hit those heights

 

Edit to add:  One thing that I am enjoying about the current period (and like others I have been around since the Dowell days) is that more or less every performance reaches "really excellent absolutely at the top of their game" standards of dancing - which has not always been the case

Edited March 7 by Lindsay

[Dawnstar]

50 minutes ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Any suggestion that first night casting was misplaced

 

I was not suggesting that the first night casting was misplaced in performance terms, just that it would be nice to be able to read (newspaper) reviews of other casts given Nunez & Muntagirov have been reviewed several times previously.

[Mary]

I think actually this  might have all started only because Dawnstar suggested it would be good if critics saw and wrote about several casts and I certainly agree with that.

 

I completely agree that last night was a masterclass, it just doesn't get better.

I can also understand how people can get to like, to favour, dancers, for other reasons, - I always have a couple of favourites I love to see, though realising fully they are not the best in the world.

 

...if that makes any sense.

 

[Fonty]

16 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

 

Edit to add:  One thing that I am enjoying about the current period (and like others I have been around since the Dowell days) is that more or less every performance reaches "really excellent absolutely at the top of their game" standards of dancing - which has not always been the case

 

I think I shall wait until I have seen the Ashton triple bill again.  I couldn't go to the last one, but I have seen some less than excellent performances of some of his ballets over the past few years.

[Lindsay]

I

2 minutes ago, Fonty said:

 

I think I shall wait until I have seen the Ashton triple bill again.  I couldn't go to the last one, but I have seen some less than excellent performances of some of his ballets over the past few years.

I wouldn't disagree with you there but I thought the casts I saw (although I couldn't see all of them) in the last Ashton bill a very pleasant surprise - particularly Lamb and Muntagirov in Scenes de Ballet and Hayward in Rhapsody.  Would be interested to see Symphonic Variations again, since that is the ballet I remember thinking looked under-rehearsed/un-idiomatic last time I saw it.

[Balletfanp]

2 hours ago, Rob S said:

 

Did you also miss the strange silhouette of Odette on top of the rock before she was supposed to be spot lit, she looked like she was having a conversation with someone on the ground  behind the rock

Oh, that’s what was going on - I was very much on the right so couldn’t see that part of the stage very well, but there did seem to be a lot of moving shadows that I didn’t recall seeing before!

 

I can’t really add much to the superlatives already stated about last night, but I think I could watch Marianela and Vadim’s Act 2 pas de deux and their Black Swan sequence to the end of my days and never get bored. They make it different every time and I always have a frisson of excitement just before the Black Swan sequence because I know we are going to see something something spectacular. Marianela’s fouettés are always perfect, but more than that, beautiful to watch. Vadim’s now trademark double double tours were spectacular and absolutely bang on the nail finishing in a perfect fifth. And just how does he appear to hang in the air in those jetés and still land soundlessly? I’m always in awe!

 

But as well as all that they both acted so well all the way through. There isn’t a moment on stage where they let the character slip. Marianela’s Odile is just deliciously seductive and malicious, with Vadim’s naive love/lust-struck Prince an effective counterpoint.

 

And Vadim’s Act 1 soliloquy was just so beautiful it brought a lump to my throat.

 

I thought Luca Acri was brilliant as Benno, both dancing and acting were on point throughout. I’ve always felt he was very underrated and I’m very happy to see him coming into his own so much more lately. Isabella Gasparini and Sae Maeda were exuberant, charming princesses. Gary Avis was, of course, excellent as always. But a special mention for the Corps, who were on great form and more together than I have seen them in this before, I think. Impressive synchronicity throughout in the group ensembles, especially the men in Act 1. One thing was that I felt the Cygnets’ tempo was incredibly fast, they did very well to keep up, but it did make them ever so slightly ragged - maybe just me - but I felt it was more the fault of the tempo than of them.

 

An absolutely fantastic opening night to remember, with a standing ovation. The ROH seem to have started to switch on the house lights on their last bow so that the dancers can see it, which I think is a really nice development. I’ve spoken to dancers at the stage door before and mentioned their standing ovation, but they always said they couldn’t see it, which seemed a great shame. Well, they can now!

[Missfrankiecat]

11 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I was not suggesting that the first night casting was misplaced in performance terms, just that it would be nice to be able to read (newspaper) reviews of other casts given Nunez & Muntagirov have been reviewed several times previously.

I absolutely understand that you weren't questioning their performance and I agree it would be nice to see other performances in a run reviewed [and I am aware, from a freelance dance writer acquaintance, that, at least on occasion, potential reviewers are offered a choice of dates/comps to other than 1st night].  But I was simply disagreeing with any suggestion, perhaps misunderstood, that others should get 'first night' dibs on the basis that these two have been reviewed before in the roles.

[Balletfanp]

And having said I couldn’t really add much, I realise that I did, in fact, add a lot - sorry!

[Missfrankiecat]

There was great disappointment in the section where we were seated that Luca did not make a curtain call - his Benno was very well received.  

[emmarose]

I saw a few standing after the Act III fireworks too!

 

What a fabulous night!

[emmarose]

35 minutes ago, Lindsay said:

I think it's natural when you see a LOT of ballet (as many forumites do - I know I am guilty of this in periods when a work lull coincides with programming I want to see) to get jaded and want novelty all the time.  But also the more you see, the more one can learn to appreciate the difference between "really excellent absolutely at the top of their game" dancing and the kind of "dancers of their generation" performance we saw last night.  For me, Nunez, Muntagirov, Osipova and Hayward (in the right roles because of her amazing acting skills) can all hit those heights

 

Edit to add:  One thing that I am enjoying about the current period (and like others I have been around since the Dowell days) is that more or less every performance reaches "really excellent absolutely at the top of their game" standards of dancing - which has not always been the case

I get it, I'm kind of in the mind of if you're bored of life, go to Paris.

 

I never really tire of true art. I used to watch every tennis match Federer played, it was an awful lot and I never tired because it was always art. It's not as if this is happening everyday anyway, like I said it's 4 years since the critics saw them together opening night for SL.

[Lindsay]

9 minutes ago, emmarose said:

I get it, I'm kind of in the mind of if you're bored of life, go to Paris.

 

 

Coincidentally, I am at this very moment taking this wise advice literally.   I noticed that I have a free evening on a work trip to Paris in a couple of weeks and have just managed to nab a ticket for Don Quixote at the Bastille.  Hannah O'Neill and German Louvet that night so very much looking forward to it!

Edited March 7 by Lindsay
Apologies for taking the thread off-topic. Clearly my ballet addiction is currently out of hand....

[Mary]

3 hours ago, Missfrankiecat said:

Yes that was unfortunate - I was in extreme right SC so my view was slightly obscured but I thought she was having a cosy chat with Gary Avis pending curtain calls!!  

 

I always enjoy having a quick look at the preparations for the first night party on my way out but did not see any such last night....( was there one?)

...maybe with all the budget constraints these days Odette was just arranging to meet up with von Rothbart in The Coach and Horses for a swift half..

[Beaker]

I also saw this and can’t really add much to everyone else’s comments.

 

One thing I would say is I haven’t been to any ballet for the last 11 years, having previously been a very regular attendee shall we say. I was really struck by how Marianela Nunez has developed her artistry in this period - she was always a beautiful dancer, but I was blown away by how much ‘more’ she has become ( also with a partner who matches her so perfectly). 
 

The other - and I noticed this in Manon on Saturday as well - is that the corps and actually all the dancers are so much more consistent from when I last went. There is a greater depth to the dancing, which as a viewer leads to a confidence when watching and a greater ability to totally lose oneself in the dance. 

[Silke H]

3 hours ago, Rob S said:

 

Did you also miss the strange silhouette of Odette on top of the rock before she was supposed to be spot lit, she looked like she was having a conversation with someone on the ground  behind the rock

In the general rehearsal Mariko had also been visible on the pedestal before she was meant to be lit up and seen

[Sim]

Oh dear....now I'm going to be looking out for this through my binocs tonight!  Maybe they will have sorted it out by then, but I kind of hope not!  😂

[Silke H]

55 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I was not suggesting that the first night casting was misplaced in performance terms, just that it would be nice to be able to read (newspaper) reviews of other casts given Nunez & Muntagirov have been reviewed several times previously.

I agree.  Which is why I am so pleased that this time round the RB's magnificent Yasmine Naghdi shall be seen around the world in the cinema relay.

And I believe that one will be saved for DVD release afterwards.

Edited March 7 by Silke H
typo correction

[Lindsay]

8 minutes ago, Beaker said:

 

The other - and I noticed this in Manon on Saturday as well - is that the corps and actually all the dancers are so much more consistent from when I last went. There is a greater depth to the dancing, which as a viewer leads to a confidence when watching and a greater ability to totally lose oneself in the dance. 

I agree Beaker.  I remember seeing some really good principal performances at the end of the 'Mason years' but often being a bit on edge for the pas de trois (in the 'old' swan lake production) or the pas de six in Giselle, Myrtha's solo, Lilac Fairy etc. because there were quite a few soloists where I could sense their nerves about getting through the difficult bits.  Very rare for me to feel that nowadays - there is much more technical strength in depth.   Of course artistry is what we are all looking for but, if dancers are visibly uncomfortable with the steps (not having the odd slip or fall from really pushing, which is fine, but struggling and/or 'cheating' all the way through a variation ), I find that ship has pretty much sailed.....

 

[Beaker]

@Lindsay yes, exactly that. As someone ‘coming back’ it’s really very striking the difference. 

[emmarose]

1 hour ago, Lindsay said:

Coincidentally, I am at this very moment taking this wise advice literally.   I noticed that I have a free evening on a work trip to Paris in a couple of weeks and have just managed to nab a ticket for Don Quixote at the Bastille.  Hannah O'Neill and German Louvet that night so very much looking forward to it!

Oh wow, that is such a coincidence, I don't think I've ever used that quote on any forum before!

 

Have a wonderful time, I'm not at all envious!