Royal Ballet MacMillan triple bill: Danses Concertantes, Different Drummer, Requiem 20 March to 13 April 2024

[Vanartus]

20 minutes ago, alison said:

 

I think you must be confusing dates, Vanartus: Watson (and Putrov) definitely did the "tightrope walk" along the railway line at the end, so it must be a previous run you're thinking of.  I don't remember Cooper being in the ballet, but I could simply have missed it.  I think there may have been something in my 2008 programme about the ending having been changed, unless it was in the current one which I had a glimpse of last night.

Ah! The mystery deepens - or rather my mind ‘n memory are addled…I know when I saw Watson I was half way along the lower slips so that’s my pathetic excuse for not seeing the railway walk! But I am def right about the apotheosis and removal of it …hope someone else has a better memory than me! 

[Roberta]

8 minutes ago, Vanartus said:

But I am def right about the apotheosis and removal of it …hope someone else has a better memory than me! 

 

The place to research is the official website. So few read it!

 

https://www.kennethmacmillan.com/different-drummer

 

"The ballet, like Büchner’s play, is fragmentary, but mesmeric in the accumulation of these fragments. It opens with Woyzeck and Andres his fellow-soldier dutifully marching while on guard. Then Woyzeck’s torturers arrive and MacMillan progressively reveals the humiliations visited on him by the Doctor and the Captain; his relationship with Marie and his cuckolding by the Drum Major; Woyzeck’s mounting despair and hysteria; the inexorable descent into murder and a suicide. These events are rendered through the prism of Woyzeck’s tortured psyche. As the ballet ends, Woyzeck’s and Marie’s corpses are prepared for an autopsy; the Doctor and the Captain wheel mortuary trolleys triumphantly across the stage. But in a suggestion of an apotheosis - and mirroring Schoenberg’s score - Woyzeck and Marie seem transfigured; united in another world while their bodies are left in the hands of their earthly tormenters. However, the suggestion of transfiguration did not survive in MacMillan’s subsequent reworking of Different Drummer for the Deutsche Oper ballet in Berlin and the Royal Ballet’s later restagings."

 

I note reviews are beginning to appear online and no doubt will be in LINKS tomorrow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alison]

46 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

Adam Cooper danced Drum Major.  

https://www.dancepicturelibrary.com/Dance/Royal-Ballet/Adam-Cooper/i-nFFzPmZ Photo

 

So he did.  It was in late 1993, still early in my ROH-going days.  I wonder why I missed it?  There's no way from the performance database you can work out what the other elements of a mixed bill were, is there?

 

EDIT: Looks like Herman Schmerman and a couple of new works, unspecified in what I could find out.  Can see that I might not have bothered with it.

[Roberta]

37 minutes ago, alison said:

It was in late 1993, still early in my ROH-going days.  I wonder why I missed it?  There's no way from the performance database you can work out what the other elements of a mixed bill were, is there?

 

Frustratingly this cuts off for me at the crucial point, but no doubt someone else will have access to other databases and will find it.  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/in-rehearsal-stars-prepare-for-royal-ballet-s-new-season-1512279.html

 

There were four works on the mixed bill. 

 

Cast list which includes Adam Cooper for Different Drummer 

https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=19342&row=5

 

Edited to say Fanfare was ballet number one

https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=19342&row=5

 

Ballet number two  If this is still a problem

https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?row=3&performance=19341&page=0

 

Herman Schmerman was another 

https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?row=3&performance=19343&page=0

Edited March 21 by Roberta

[Roberta]

39 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

Edited to say Fanfare was ballet number one

 

Correct link for Fanfare here! Ballet choreographed by Matthew Hart  (just too late to edit the above when I spotted the link error)

https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=19340

 

If this is still a problem William Tuckett

https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/work.aspx?work=176

Edited March 21 by Roberta

[Fonty]

Regarding the costumes for Danses Concertantes, they look like a lot of fun.   I understand from the tik tok clip  on the previous page that the hats look like wigs, but is there any information about the ornaments on top?  I assume they are meant to represent something, but I am not sure what.  The designer wouldn't just add details like that just on a whim, surely? The photos make me think of chess pieces as much as anything.  

[FionaM]

Teletubbies 🙊

[Cayetana]

I found Dances C exhilarating and, for my taste, aesthetically memorable - I thoroughly enjoyed the 50s vintage, Piper-esque landscape, the quirky costumes (the hairdos with their finials, the decorative symbols, the colour scheme and of course, last but not least, the music which almost seemed to follow the dancing) a fairy tale of a chess party where each dancer became a piece in an imaginary, living game board. The game fast, unexpected, always transforming. The "teams" regrouping and scamping according to a secret logic. Arrows and colours, directions. Individual yet anonymous. And a queenly master of ceremonies.

I found myself totally in the moment, in empathetic delight.  I loved the whole company's dancing, and Gasparini, rather magnetic. I found the whole intelligent, fun, inventive - totally life-enhancing.

 

As for Different Dreamer and Requiem, both extraordinary. One, Kafkaesque drama of vivid despair; the other, sublime human aspiration. 

 

I totally relished this programme which I found both beautiful and thought-provoking in loads of directions. Music 10/10 in all three pieces, and all the dancers and dancing equally top notch. Engrossing! 

 

(I have enjoyed so much reading all the thoughtful comments; This Forum must be one of my luckiest finds last year: a terrific balletic community!) 

[Roberta]

For @Vanartus and @alison a little blast of nostalgia... a review for that quadruple bill of 1994. 

 

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Royal+Ballet.-a014804860

 

On Different Drummer:-

 

 

MacMillan's Different Drummer is a somber and dramatic work created in 1984. It tells the disturbing tale of Woyzeck, a common soldier repeatedly abused and humiliated by his captain and deceived by his common-law wife, who, after stabbing her, finally drowns himself in a bathtub. Not the jolliest way to end an evening out!

MacMillan's genius for conveying the subtleties of stark realism in balletic form was brilliantly executed by Irek Mukhamedov, who goes from strength to strength with the Royal. Drummer did not require displays of bravura, but rather clear evocations of the pathos and inevitability of disaster. Mukhamedov had superb support from the whole cast, especially Viviana Durante as the wife, David Drew as the captain, and lain Webb as the anomalous doctor. The ballet made compelling viewing.

 

COPYRIGHT 1994 Dance Magazine, Inc.

Author: Margaret Willis

 

Edited March 22 by zxDaveM
add author's name

[Jane S]

Let's  credit the author - Margaret Willis

[Roberta]

9 minutes ago, Jane S said:

Let's  credit the author - Margaret Willis

 

Thanks.  There was no obvious author via that link. Or none I could spot.

 

 

[Jane S]

Keep reading down!

[Roberta]

23 minutes ago, Jane S said:

Keep reading down!

 

 I have, tiny print I find hard to read and the first version which I read and reproduced the short quote with attribution to the publication said nothing about not reproducing any portion without permission of the author (name I still can't see anywhere but I have very poor eyesight) and it is now too late for me to edit it. Perhaps the moderators will edit my quote above out. Thanks. Apologies for the error. 

 

FAO @BalletcoForum Moderators

 

 

 

Edited March 22 by Roberta

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, Jane S said:

Let's  credit the author - Margaret Willis

 

credit added

[art_enthusiast]

Could anyone remind me briefly of the Different Drummer plot and who on earth is the person in the white coat - I’m assuming the Doctor?

 

Really liked all three pieces tonight, but most particularly Requiem. Absolutely superb, I would certainly watch it again many times.

 

David Donnelly was brilliant as the Drum Major.

[Roberta]

3 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

credit added

 

Please can you edit out the quote? The link is I think OK.  This is going on a bit, but if source says nothing can be quoted without the permission of the author (which wasn't there first time I looked and quoted) well. better not quote as I have. 

[Roberta]

6 minutes ago, art_enthusiast said:

Could anyone remind me briefly of the Different Drummer plot and who on earth is the person in the white coat - I’m assuming the Doctor?

 

 

Yes the Doctor and I hope this helps with the plot!   https://www.kennethmacmillan.com/different-drummer

 

 

[LinMM]

Good job I didn’t see David Drew in that then….after his role as the gaoler in Manon! 

[Emeralds]

20 hours ago, LinMM said:

Good job I didn’t see David Drew in that then….after his role as the gaoler in Manon! 

I saw him in both - Different Drummer in person and as the gaoler in Manon on tv. I think the role in Different Drummer was quite abstract and expressionist, almost to the point of looking like a satirical cartoon. I think at the time I thought that he had to portray a lot of villains but in real life (both at the Stage Door and in a TV documentary when he was teaching partnering to RBS Upper school students) he seemed like a really nice person. A relative of mine once observed that the nicest people in life portrayed villains really well because it was their chance to do characters completely opposite to their own personalities!

[Tango Dancer]

20 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

I saw him in both - Different Drummer in person and as the gaoler in Manon on tv. I think the role in Different Drummer was quite abstract and expressionist, almost to the point of looking like a satirical cartoon. I think at the time I thought that he had to portray a lot of villains but in real life (both at the Stage Door and in a TV documentary when he was teaching partnering to RBS Upper school students) he seemed like a really nice person. A relative of mine once observed that the nicest people in life portrayed villains really well because it was their chance to do characters completely opposite to their own personalities!

 

I think there's something in that.  I saw interviews with Heather Ripley (Jemima Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and she said Robert Helpmann was absolutely delightful and really kind to her and Adrian Hall (Jeremy) and they thought he was a great person and it was hard to be scared of him when he was in character. 

 

I would also say that I do classes with Benn Gartside when I'm in London who makes a really good villain (really unpleasant as Rothbart) and is, despite that, a supportive and encouraging teacher.  

[Emeralds]

34 minutes ago, Tango Dancer said:

I would also say that I do classes with Benn Gartside when I'm in London who makes a really good villain (really unpleasant as Rothbart) and is, despite that, a supportive and encouraging teacher.  

Benn is excellent at portraying villains eg Rothbart but I will forever remember him in 2 good guy roles - Antigonus in The Winter's Tale in the first cast (he also danced Leontes) and the hapless but hilarious Four of Clubs in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland....simply because the ROH, Marquee TV and other social media pages keep reposting that hilarious video with Laura Morera, him and the other three "cards" in the jam tart Adagio! 🤣  Looking forward to seeing him later this season.

Edited March 23 by Emeralds

[art_enthusiast]

Forgot to mention that I very much liked Natalia and Reece's portrayal of the Different Drummer main characters. I had totally forgotten the plot so the ending was a shock for me. (I did see Wozzeck when it was on last year but have to admit I didn't like it at all.) Brilliant acting and performances from the whole cast.

 

Danses Concertantes was danced very well with precision, very impressed by Isabella (and it reminded me how much I love Luca Acri's style) but it didn't resonate with me as much as the other pieces. I also feel that Vadim didn't get much of a chance to shine... Reminded me a bit of Scènes de ballet but I much preferred that to this.

 

Requiem was absolutely brilliant and made the whole evening worth it.

[JohnS]

A few more thoughts on this astonishing Triple Bill if I may.

 

I found the contrasts between the ballets made for a hugely satisfying programme so was a little taken aback by the negative reaction to Different Drummer and how it had diminished enjoyment of Requiem. For future performances some posters were going to sit out the ballet or even return tickets. I fully accept that Different Drummer is the strongest of game meat and is harrowingly bleak. But I think that makes Requiem even more transcendental.

 

And I found Different Drummer utterly compelling in presenting the drama, certainly as regards Woyzeck and Marie who are so vividly brought to life by MacMillan, with Sambe and Hayward excelling. I’ll be keen to see David Donnelly’s Drum Major on the final night as he impressed me in the General Rehearsal. I liked the treatment of the minor parts: deliberately two dimensional where the Captain, Doctor and soldiers could have come straight out of an Otto Dix painting at his most savage. I was pleased to see the soldiers all holding their rifles in exactly the same way when crossing the stage at speed en masse as there’d been some untidiness at the General Rehearsal which I’m quite sure the Captain wouldn’t have tolerated.

 

I do though find the ending of Different Drummer a bit problematic. The music closes serenely, mirroring the resolution found by the couple in Richard Dehmel’s Transfigured Night poem, and I can quite see why MacMillan originally hinted at atonement for Woyzeck and Marie. But that doesn’t fit the bleakness of the play so we see Woyzeck stumbling along the railway track at the back of the stage to whatever horrors await at the end of the line. That desolation doesn’t seem right to me: it doesn’t fit the music; and what has happened to Marie? I don’t think the music at that point is Marie’s and that she might take her place in Requiem. Cutting the last few bars of the music might be one brutal solution but not one I’d welcome, particularly as MacMillan had very deliberately selected the music and given how well the Webern and Schoenberg were played. I wonder if it might have been more effective to cut Woyzeck’s rail track stumbling and simply let the music play with the light fading. In that way audiences could decide for themselves whether Woyzeck and Marie could both take their places in Requiem’s In Paradisum.

 

I’ve deliberately made references to Requiem as I think there are similarities between the two ballets and not just because of the presence of a Christ/John the Baptist figure in both. They both deal with death and provide remarkable contrasts: the awful anguish and bitterness of regret where life has been so brutalised for Woyzeck and Marie; or the quiet contentment of those at peace so miraculously captured in Requiem.
 

For me having both ballets in the programme has been immensely rewarding and, combined with Danses Concertantes, with its wit and inventiveness, show the genius of MacMillan. I should add I rather like the original costumes, a reminder that the ballet is almost 70 years old yet remarkably fresh.

 

I’m very much looking forward to the cinema relay and the final performance in the ROH.

[postie]

Fwiw, it crossed my mind that, at the ending of Different Drummer - it is quite abstract - Woyzeck killed their love before disappearing into the void, effectively releasing her.

At that point Woyzeck and Marie were in some ethereal, different place.

It's not particularly convincing but, at this point, I'm open to any offers ...

Edited March 23 by postie
offers

[OnePigeon]

I approached this mixed bill with some trepidation after the late and seemingly odd casting announcement, the discount controversy, the mixed reviews here regarding DD and then the last minute cast changes, on top of having a gruelling week at work and very much wishing I was tucked up in my PJs rather than schlepping up to London.  However, it was very much worth the trip and I thought every piece was wonderful in its own way.  
 

DC was joyous and fun and after my initial discombobulation with the male outfits (Oh Vadim, what have they done to you? 😆) I was able to enjoy the stylisation of the set design and costumes.  The choreography was interesting and playful, at times putting me in mind of Balanchine and 1950s musicals: it was somehow of its time and yet so fresh it could have been choreographed yesterday.  What an amazing debut piece and one can well see why De Valois gave him the opportunities she did.

 

I was almost dreading DD expecting it to be hideous and unrelentingly miserable.  I found it to be incredibly powerful and thought provoking and there was so much to unpack during and after it.  I thought the cast last night were incredible and Reece Clarke really impressed me with his portrayal of Woyzeck.  I know Macmillan can be too dark for many, but I always find his choreography and vision so strong and interesting, with moments of pure beauty added in, that I always find his work powerful and thought provoking.
 

Requiem was a balm to the soul after the trauma of DD and was the perfect choice to complement the other works.  It felt like we had entered a celestial realm with the stark white background, the white costumes and the beautiful flowing choreography, all blending with the beautiful voices raised in harmonious prayer.  I am not religious, but this was akin to a religious experience through the power of art taking us to another realm.  William Bracewell looked like Michaelangelo had carved him out of marble - as if David had come to life and was dancing before us.  
 

After not enjoying most of the NYCB mixed bill the other weekend, I was so relieved that every single piece in this was involving and a real showcase of the incredible varied talents of Macmillan and the RB dancers.

[DelphiumBlue]

A bit late from Wed night . Had to persuade myself to book for the triple bill in the 1st place - but somewhat to my surprise, I am so glad I did.

 Found Danses Concertantes great fun, enjoyed watching and watching out for the steps, patterns and precision. I did wonder about the wigs and hats/headdresses , perhaps they made more sense at the time when people wore hats more often? Plus surely the original costumes wouldn’t have been ‘lycra unitards’ ?

 

Different Drummer - I wouldn’t go as far as saying I enjoyed it , but found that I really could appreciate the choreography and the fantastic performances. Would  I see it again ? Probably -which is a massive change in attitude.

Requiem was breathtaking & exhilarating !!! I just ‘leant’ into the wonderful music , movement and the glorious light  and the time sped past . 
I was reminded a bit of ‘sports acrobatics’ - the trust ,  the waves of group movement at different levels and the way in which the company was also moving as one.

 

 

[Richard LH]

10 hours ago, JohnS said:

I found the contrasts between the ballets made for a hugely satisfying programme so was a little taken aback by the negative reaction to Different Drummer and how it had diminished enjoyment of Requiem. For future performances some posters were going to sit out the ballet or even return tickets. I fully accept that Different Drummer is the strongest of game meat and is harrowingly bleak. But I think that makes Requiem even more transcendental.

Sorry about the negativity  @JohnS !

 

It's great that you (and many others) found the whole programme so rewarding.

 

I did enjoy DC and Requiem but for me DD was the fly in the ointment... just one too many of MacMillan's depictions of horrible behaviour.  Perhaps coming so soon after Manon, and the treatment of women in that ballet, didn't help. We even had the seemingly obligatory group of harlots running on near the end, for no particular reason I could see (although I accept I have no prior knowledge of the original work that this was based on).

 

Your last quoted point is a cogent and  interesting one, although I would hope, as a rule, that  it is not first necessary to endure  a harrowingly bleak offering in order fully to  enjoy a beautiful transcendental  piece such as Requiem!  

 

As to returning tickets,  given the costs of  attending ballet (including train fares etc.) I just thank the ROH that they enable us (subject to the £4 retention) to cancel further performances  we  would not particularly enjoy, and  credit the proceeds for hopefully more rewarding future choices. 

[Cayetana]

13 hours ago, JohnS said:

Doctor and soldiers could have come straight out of an Otto Dix painting

Yes!! Exactly. The painterly element in all three ballets. For Requiem I thought of William Blake repeatedly.

[Jane S]

8 hours ago, DelphiumBlue said:

 

 Found Danses Concertantes great fun, enjoyed watching and watching out for the steps, patterns and precision. I did wonder about the wigs and hats/headdresses , perhaps they made more sense at the time when people wore hats more often? Plus surely the original costumes wouldn’t have been ‘lycra unitards’ ?

 

 

 

 

 

When the Sarasota Ballet did Danses Concertantes they borrowed the costumes from the RB, and there's an interesting youtube talk by their Head of Wardrobe, Jerry Wolf, which shows some of the costumes and headdresses in close-up.

 

I'm a bit puzzled, though, that he says that in the original, 1955, production, the women wore tutus rather than skirts, which were introduced later: the first night photos quite definitely show skirts, while the reviews and photos of the first performances by the Covent Garden company in 1959 show tutus, and a review makes it very clear that these were new (and didn't last very long). On the other hand a photo on the Macmillan site is dated 1955 and shows tutus ... can anyone shed more light on this?

[Tango Dancer]

2 hours ago, Richard LH said:

As to returning tickets,  given the costs of  attending ballet (including train fares etc.) I just thank the ROH that they enable us (subject to the £4 retention) to cancel further performances  we  would not particularly enjoy, and  credit the proceeds for hopefully more rewarding future choices. 

 

I think if you're not going to enjoy something and know it then it's better to return the tickets so someone else can go and save the money for something you will enjoy. 

[Roberta]

48 minutes ago, Jane S said:

When the Sarasota Ballet did Danses Concertantes they borrowed the costumes from the RB, and there's an interesting youtube talk by their Head of Wardrobe, Jerry Wolf, which shows some of the costumes and headdresses in close-up.

 

I'm a bit puzzled, though, that he says that in the original, 1955, production, the women wore tutus rather than skirts, which were introduced later: the first night photos quite definitely show skirts, while the reviews and photos of the first performances by the Covent Garden company in 1959 show tutus, and a review makes it very clear that these were new (and didn't last very long). On the other hand a photo on the Macmillan site is dated 1955 and shows tutus ... can anyone shed more light on this?

 

 

This has puzzled me for a while also, since I watched that short film and read the MacMillan site.

 

Obviously, further research at the V & A & ROH archives is required and identification of the dancers in the claimed 1955 photo with tutus by Houston Rogers. My gut feeling, however, is that the 1955 date is an error or refers to the date of the ballet not the photo, and that photo with tutus is of the later redesign. It is possible tutus were originally designed and replaced before opening night and that is a rehearsal photo but I think that's stretching things to think that's the case. 

 

The original set design has a female dancer in a tunic / skirt as per the other photo of the three female leads. 

 

https://www.kennethmacmillan.com/danses-concertantes

 

Despite being praised for the integration of dance and design, the ballet was redesigned several times. For Covent Garden in 1959, small tutus replaced the girls’ tunics and the choreography had to be modified to allow for their width.   

 

In 2003 Georgiadis’s original designs were restored; after fifty years the original concept seemed as chic, fresh and perfectly suited to the ballet as it had in 1955.

 

https://www.kennethmacmillan.com/new-page-2

 

If the tutus which were introduced in 1959 required alteration of the choreography, I think that would have also been the case in 1955 and lessons would have been learned then!

 

[Jane S]

Come to think of it, it's probably just 'crossed wires' - he says 'original' meaning 'original RB' and I hear 'original' meaning 1955 SWThB version.

 

Doesn't account for the photo, though.

[JohnS]

I was very taken with the Marie/Mary Magdalene references in Different Drummer and Marie’s washing of the soldier/Christ figure’s feet and drying with her hair.

In Wozzeck Marie sings about Mary Magdalene including:

‘Saviour, I should like to anoint your feet.

Saviour, you had mercy on her; have mercy on me too.’

But in opera productions I’ve seen, I don’t recall the washing of feet etc being acted out.

 

However, the washing of feet does take place in Parsifal where Kundry is also a Mary Magdalene figure. In 1979 the ROH put on a new production with Solti conducting a stellar cast, Peter Hofmann and Yvonne Minton as Parsifal and Kundry, and I recall a touching washing of the feet.

 

As the Parsifal production was just a few years before Different Drummer, I was wondering if MacMillan had seen it (or other Parsifals). I’m afraid the index in Jann Parry’s ‘Different Drummer’ biography doesn’t help - no references to Wagner, Parsifal and Kundry and just one reference to Solti but unrelated to Parsifal. I know the Mary Magdalene story is well known and there are dozens of images in the arts but I’d be fascinated to know if MacMillan saw the Solti Parsifal and if so what he made of it. Does anybody know?