Tchaikovsky Classics with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia & Birmingham Royal Ballet at Symphony Hall 2024

[San Perregrino]

10 hours ago, Tony Newcombe said:

BRB’s main main full length ballet next year is Cinderella. After this evenings Music and Dance offering Swan Lake has to follow the year after. TonightYu Kurihara was absolutely phenomenal as Odile in the Black Act Pas de deux. Lachlan Monaghan’s Siegfried didn’t stand a chance. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This young lady is something very special

it was a quality evening.

Carlos Acosta introduced the evening with a huge thank you to everyone for turning up and, barring a few upper gallery seats, making the event a sell out. He followed that with an impassioned plea for people to continue to buy tickets and see as many events and shows as possible to keep the Arts alive in Birmingham now and for future generations.

Céline Gittens was poetry in motion as the delicate white swan. Yasiel Hodelin showed the promise of technical greatness that is being murmured about in the ballet corridors. 

Miki Mitzutani and Max Maslen were perfectly precise and shone as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Prince. Yu Kurosawa had definitely shot an arrow through Lachlan Monaghan’s heart, he was beyond smitten. The beautifully executed fouettés brought the house down as a fitting finale.

A big shout out to the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by a wonderfully entertaining energetic Paul Murphy for their stand alone pieces particularly the Capriccio Italien.

Edited March 29 by San Perregrino

[Emeralds]

Yu Kurihara, not Kurosawa, but thank you for the review, @San Perregrino. Fingers crossed I can attend it next year. 

 

[Jan McNulty]

The annual Evening of Music and Dance has long been one of the highlights of my year and this year was no exception.

 

Symphony Hall Is a fabulous venue and despite the fact that the dancers only have a pocket handkerchief to perform on it is so good to see the orchestra "in the open" instead of buried in the pit.  As ever the orchestra was conducted by the effervescent Paul Murphy and they were utterly magnificent.

 

The evening was opened by Carlos Acosta making a short and impassioned speech with the message of the need for everyone to support the arts.  This year the theme was Tchaikovsky classics and what an opening we had with what I think of as the ending of Theme and Variations.  The music swelled and soared and I was swept away!

 

All the danced excerpts were highlights and, as with every year, I was yet again I was amazed at how well the dancers use the tiny space available to them.

 

I must particularly mention Celine Gittens divine performance in the white swan adagio from Swan Lake.  What a privilege to see her from the centre of the very close front row.  Every tiny meaning and look had meaning - just beautiful.

 

Tzu-Chao Chou danced a very elegant short solo from Sleeping Beauty that I can't ever remember seeing.  The programme tells us it was choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton and it was sublime.

 

The 2 danced items in Act 2 rounded the evening off on a high with the glorious Miki Mizutani and Max Maslen performing the gpdd from the Nutcracker beautifully.  They looked wonderful together.

 

The final item of the evening was Yu Kurihara and Lachlan Monaghan giving us serious fireworks in the black swan pdd.  Even though danced completely out of context Yu was sexy, alluring and downright evil.  You could see she was leading Lachlan on and equally you could see Lachlan fell for her hook, line and sinker.  It was sensational!!

 

We left the hall and wended our way home on a real high.

 

I can't wait for next year's evening now!

 

[San Perregrino]

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Yu Kurihara, not Kurosawa, but thank you for the review, @San Perregrino. Fingers crossed I can attend it next year. 

 

Darn predictive text again! 

[Emeralds]

10 hours ago, San Perregrino said:

Darn predictive text again! 

Seven Samurai, Ran, Throne of Blood (ie Akira Kurosawa- was that whom the phone was thinking of) - very good films! If it's any consolation, the predictive text on my old phone used to believe that ballet didn't exist! 

[Emeralds]

13 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

The annual Evening of Music and Dance has long been one of the highlights of my year and this year was no exception.

 

Symphony Hall Is a fabulous venue and despite the fact that the dancers only have a pocket handkerchief to perform on it is so good to see the orchestra "in the open" instead of buried in the pit.  As ever the orchestra was conducted by the effervescent Paul Murphy and they were utterly magnificent.

 

The evening was opened by Carlos Acosta making a short and impassioned speech with the message of the need for everyone to support the arts.  This year the theme was Tchaikovsky classics and what an opening we had with what I think of as the ending of Theme and Variations.  The music swelled and soared and I was swept away!

 

All the danced excerpts were highlights and, as with every year, I was yet again I was amazed at how well the dancers use the tiny space available to them.

 

I must particularly mention Celine Gittens divine performance in the white swan adagio from Swan Lake.  What a privilege to see her from the centre of the very close front row.  Every tiny meaning and look had meaning - just beautiful.

 

Tzu-Chao Chou danced a very elegant short solo from Sleeping Beauty that I can't ever remember seeing.  The programme tells us it was choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton and it was sublime.

 

The 2 danced items in Act 2 rounded the evening off on a high with the glorious Miki Mizutani and Max Maslen performing the gpdd from the Nutcracker beautifully.  They looked wonderful together.

 

The final item of the evening was Yu Kurihara and Lachlan Monaghan giving us serious fireworks in the black swan pdd.  Even though danced completely out of context Yu was sexy, alluring and downright evil.  You could see she was leading Lachlan on and equally you could see Lachlan fell for her hook, line and sinker.  It was sensational!!

 

We left the hall and wended our way home on a real high.

 

I can't wait for next year's evening now!

 

I think the Ashton solo that Chou danced could be the one that the Royal Ballet production has (Monica Mason did retain a solo for Florimund in Act 2 made by Ashton for Anthony Dowell). I'll check when I see Peter Wright's production in late April if his version leaves it out. The Mariinsky and Bolshoi versions don't have it either (with anybody's choreography) I believe.  Nureyev's version uses the Entr'acte music instead. 

[alison]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

I'll check when I see Peter Wright's production in late April if his version leaves it out. 

 

It does, much to my disappointment - although possibly "does not include it" would be a better way of putting it as it doesn't imply that it was there in the first place, which of course historically it wasn't.

[Roberta]

I'm pleased that the programme at least made no mention of any Black Swan PDD (ODILE IS NOT A SWAN!)  Bee in my bonnet? MEEE? 🦢 

[Emeralds]

7 minutes ago, alison said:

 

It does, much to my disappointment - although possibly "does not include it" would be a better way of putting it as it doesn't imply that it was there in the first place, which of course historically it wasn't.

This is probably one for the geeks (usually that's me but I haven't got time to do it today).... I'm curious to know what or where the music originally was, as the original Sleeping Beauty music score is very very long and most productions cut out or edit a lot. 

 

(Not to get sidetracked into Swan Lake but Swan Lake is even longer, and just to ruin everyone's lunch- or dinner or whenever they read this - Tchaikovsky never wrote an Act 3 pas de deux (or Black Swan pas de deux), a lot of the music used in Act 3 nowadays was originally in Act 1. I think Sleeping Beauty is more "intact" than Swan Lake and mostly in the original order but there are still lots of cuts and bits moved around. It's possible Ashton might also have used music by Tchaikovsky not from Sleeping Beauty, like he did with the Fairy Godmother solo in Cinderella where it was Prokofiev but not from the ballet.) 

[Roberta]

I believe the score used by most companies nowaday for Swan Lake is actually the work of Drigo, an arrangement / orchestration using the music of Tchaikovsky?

 

And that SB solo? This one?   http://www.frederickashton.org.uk/beauty.html

 

There is film of Dowell performing it also. 

 

 

 

Edited March 30 by Roberta

[Emeralds]

39 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

This is probably one for the geeks (usually that's me but I haven't got time to do it today).... I'm curious to know what or where the music originally was, as the original Sleeping Beauty music score is very very long and most productions cut out or edit a lot. 

Well that didn't take long....according to two sources it is the Sarabande near the end of Act 3 (just before the coda where the courtiers get up from their chairs and standing positions to dance before the final pose of the apotheosis). It was cut by Petipa soon after the ballet's premiere. It certainly does have the rhythm of a sarabande. 

 

The original description was "Sarabande- a quadrille for Turks, Ethiopians, Africans and Americans" (:Sarabande – quadrille pour Turcs, Éthiopiens, Africains et Américains"). Quirky geographical grouping there, haha, and I think I both dread and feel curious about how the choreography might have looked! (With any luck maybe they all did a courtly "intetnational diplomat" style generic Sarabande!) 

 

Anyone with a music library copy of the full score should be able to see it and play it through. So looks like Ashton selected music from the original ballet itself, which is nice.

Edited March 30 by Emeralds

[Jan McNulty]

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

I think the Ashton solo that Chou danced could be the one that the Royal Ballet production has (Monica Mason did retain a solo for Florimund in Act 2 made by Ashton for Anthony Dowell). I'll check when I see Peter Wright's production in late April if his version leaves it out. The Mariinsky and Bolshoi versions don't have it either (with anybody's choreography) I believe.  Nureyev's version uses the Entr'acte music instead. 

 

Having seen 7 performances of SPW's Sleeping Beauty I can assure you that this solo is not in it.

[Jan McNulty]

So were any other forum members there on Thursday evening who would like to tell us what they thought of the performance?

[Emeralds]

11 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Having seen 7 performances of SPW's Sleeping Beauty I can assure you that this solo is not in it.

Thanks, Jan, sounds like what you saw is that RB/Ashton one made in 1968 on Dowell that I'm thinking of (the one in the video @Roberta posted). I think Peter Wright wanted to make the productions of classics for SWRB/BRB all his own work if he didn't have the original notation from Petipa, Ivanov, Perrot et al so that's laudable that it's consistently the same style..

Edited March 30 by Emeralds

[CCL]

6 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

So were any other forum members there on Thursday evening who would like to tell us what they thought of the performance?

Sadly no, but I would like to go next year!

[San Perregrino]

To add to what I’ve already written above, conductor Paul Murphy, IIRC, in his introduction to the “Black” Swan pas de deux said that the piece of music used was originally in Act 1. The original character was Von Rothbart’s daughter, a sorceress in her own right, directed by him to cast a spell on Siegfried. And, that the costume/tutu was blue until the 1920s when a ballerina wore black after which it commonly became known as the black swan. 

[Jan McNulty]

10 minutes ago, CCL said:

Sadly no, but I would like to go next year!

 

Oh I do hope you get there.  The tickets are already on sale and it's on 15th February.

[Jan McNulty]

1 minute ago, San Perregrino said:

To add to what I’ve already written above, conductor Paul Murphy, IIRC, in his introduction to the “Black” Swan pas de deux said that the piece of music used was originally in Act 1. The original character was Von Rothbart’s daughter, a sorceress in her own right, directed by him to cast a spell on Siegfried. And, that the costume/tutu was blue until the 1920s when a ballerina wore black after which it commonly became known as the black swan. 

 

I'd forgotten about that!  I think I may quite like to see a blue swan sometime - perhaps midnight blue.

 

It sounds like we could have a balletco meeting there next year!

[Roberta]

10 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Thanks, Jan, sounds like what you saw is that RB/Ashton one made in 1968 on Dowell that I'm thinking of (the one in the video @Roberta posted). I think Peter Wright wanted to make the productions of classics for SWRB/BRB all his own work if he didn't have the original notation from Petipa, Ivanov, Perrot et al so that's laudable that it's consistently the same style

 

 

There is the possibility that there is that thorny 'rights' issue too, I wonder who 'owns' that Ashton (and very typical Ashton at that) solo? As Jan is clear it isn't part of the BRB Beauty, it does seems an odd choice to include it in the programme, though it is a lovely piece of choreography. I wonder who taught / rehearsed it?

 

[Roberta]

11 minutes ago, San Perregrino said:

o add to what I’ve already written above, conductor Paul Murphy, IIRC, in his introduction to the “Black” Swan pas de deux said that the piece of music used was originally in Act 1. The original character was Von Rothbart’s daughter, a sorceress in her own right, directed by him to cast a spell on Siegfried. And, that the costume/tutu was blue until the 1920s when a ballerina wore black after which it commonly became known as the black swan. 

 

 

We have a recent thread specifically on this issue.  ODILE IS NOT A SWAN and no it is still not a 'Black Swan' PDD!  It doesn't say so in the programme either, thankfully! 

 

 

Also when the costume commonly became black I believe was far later than the 1920s.  The 'original' costume design (Russia) was rainbow coloured!  Though there is mention of blue at the first performance. 

Edited March 30 by Roberta

[Emeralds]

33 minutes ago, Roberta said:

 

 

There is the possibility that there is that thorny 'rights' issue too, I wonder who 'owns' that Ashton (and very typical Ashton at that) solo? As Jan is clear it isn't part of the BRB Beauty, it does seems an odd choice to include it in the programme, though it is a lovely piece of choreography. I wonder who taught / rehearsed it?

 

I think for the rights to the Florimund solo it is easy for RB as Ashton made it for RB (but a Peter Wright production! - for RB  though, not BRB). For the ENB Swan Lakes that use Ashton's Waltz and Neapolitan Dance, I guess a fee is paid - the rights for those were, according to the Ashton Foundation, held by Anthony Russell-Roberts so I guess they now pass to whoever or whatever (eg a Trust) has been named to inherit. The fee could be small, as I think they're keen for the dances to be danced and staged correctly rather than to be lost due to companies not being able to afford high fees. 

Edited March 30 by Emeralds

[Roberta]

10 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

held by Anthony Russell Roberts so I guess they now pass to whoever or whatever (eg a Trust) has named to inherit.

 

 

Yes I'm wondering who now has those rights. However, not too relevant to this thread. Lovely it was danced, I'm curious to know who decided to include it and why, as it is not in the BRB production, though presumably we will never know for certain I'm assuming it was Carlos Acosta. 

 

https://ashtonballets.com/

 

http://www.frederickashton.org.uk/owners.html

 

Edited March 30 by Roberta

[San Perregrino]

24 minutes ago, Roberta said:

We have a recent thread specifically on this issue.  ODILE IS NOT A SWAN and no it is still not a 'Black Swan' PDD!  It doesn't say so in the programme either, thankfully! 

There is no need for you to  ‘SHOUT’ at me in capital letters. I am merely reporting what was said in Birmingham on Thursday night. And, if you read what I wrote you’d see that I didn’t say that it is “a ‘Black Swan’ PDD!” , I wrote that it has commonly become known as the black swan. 

 

24 minutes ago, Roberta said:

Also when the costume commonly became black I believe was far later than the 1920s.  The 'original' costume design (Russia) was rainbow coloured!  Though there is mention of blue at the first performance. 

Again I am merely reporting what was said on Thursday evening. 
Personally I don’t give a fig if it was blue, rainbow, pink or gold when it was danced in an era long before I was conceived or at what point black became commonplace. Perhaps in a new version it will be scarlet with polka dots. 

[Roberta]

I wasn't shouting at YOU I was railing against the now common (gah!) calling that PDD 'The Black Swan' and given that name and so turning Oldile into a swan! (Think Father Jack, I'm the female version.) At least the programme had it right. 

 

For some of us, history matters even if that some of us is only me. I like to get to the bottom of things. Ballet obsessive that's me. 

 

Also considering the costume was mentioned, i thought I'd add the thread. I'm thankful there were no pink swans and that idea was knocked on the head or we now might have 'the flamingo acts'. 

[LinMM]

I think people know Odile is not a black swan but Von Rothbarts daughter of course who can morph into looking like somebody else!! 

It’s just that at one point she tries to mimic the movements of Odette to trick Siegfried so goes all swan like in movement so it’s  just called the black swan pas de deux for that reason. I don’t really think it’s that big a deal! Though I think it works for the drama of the ballet that she’s now dressed in black. 

 

I wonder if Simon Rattle has ever conducted any ballet music…I’m sure he has…It would  be lovely for him to make a sort of guest appearance at this event ( a sort of support for the Arts type guesting) owing to his long association with the Hall. He might even do it for free! 

[LinMM]

I was just looking and Simon has conducted the three Stravinsky ballets  The Firebird Petrouchka and Rite of Spring and the Nutcracker!! 
 

I have a sort of coincidental points of our paths crossing  in his life! As used to work with his father in Liverpool so was introduced to Simon over tea with another teaching colleague when he was 17 and about to become a prodigy and world famous according to proud dad. 
We didn’t believe it of course but what did we know ha!! 
Then I bumped into his father again some years later at Festival Hall for Simons first time conducting there. 
So of course went along to say hello afterwards ….though he probably hadn’t a clue who I was!! 
And then bumped into his father again some years after that in a little park in Islington …where I then lived ….with his little grandson and it turned out Simon lived in the next road to me! 

He did wonders for the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra when he could have taken more lucrative posts at the time so always admired him for that .   And dad was right he has turned out to be famous …in the musical world at least. 
 

[Roberta]

I think it's called the Black Swan PDD mainly by people who don't know the ballet's story / history to be honest and because it makes a nice pat contrast to the 'white swan' Odette (who IS a swan at times). That film didn't help.  I hope we can appreciate on this forum she isn't a swan, she's a woman at a ball in her best dress not always black, trying to flummox the hapless Siegfried into believing she's his new love Odette, for nefarious purposes. 

 

I really do need to delve further into when it began to be called this, we won't go again into how right or wrong Alastair Macaulay was here, I'm only thankful the BRB programme was correct.  

 

This is now my life's entire mission of course.   

 

 

 

[Emeralds]

27 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I wonder if Simon Rattle has ever conducted any ballet music…I’m sure he has…It would  be lovely for him to make a sort of guest appearance at this event ( a sort of support for the Arts type guesting) owing to his long association with the Hall. He might even do it for free! 

Ooh yes he has! Not Giselle or (as far as I know) Swan Lake though. He's conducted Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe with the Berlin Philharmonic and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Firebird and Debussy's Prelude a l'apres midi d'un faune with London Symphony Orchestra. And Mahler's Song of the Earth, Stravinsky's Agon, Pulcinella, Petruska, etc with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.  He's fond of the 20th century repertoire. 😉....and Haydn, he says. 

 

But speaking of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty..... one of his successors as Chief Condiuctor of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla chose a very unusual encore when she  conducted the CBSO at their Royal Albert Hall Proms concert in 2017 - the coda from the Act 3 Florestan pas de trois (I think it's a Pas de Quatre in Peter Wright's  BRB production.)

 

Edited March 30 by Emeralds

[LinMM]

Probably best to keep any further discussion for that on the other thread though. The Black Swan issue that is. 

Edited March 30 by LinMM

[Emeralds]

Sorry, we clicked our posts at the same time, @LinMM. 😊. You found his Stravinskys I see. He also conducted Debussy's Jeux and Ravel's Mother Goose ballet with various orchestras but I don't think those two are actually danced much.

 

Sad to say, I fear that nowadays a number of the Ballets Russes Stravinsky ballets are gradually being lost from the ballet repertoire and more often heard in the concert hall, unless companies do cheaper reboot/update versions.

 

But for now, back to RB Sinfonia. I think for next year's announced Ashton theme there's an Ashton/Stravinsky overlap= Scenes de Ballet. Not in the BRB repertoire but it could be performed as an instrumental piece for the orchestra.  Or a pas de deux learnt as a bonus piece like the Florimund solo this year. Just a possible option. 😀

Edited March 30 by Emeralds

[Mary]

I've put this in my diary to book a bit nearer the time: this year's sounds marvellous: thanks for the reviews.

 

I particularly hope to see the black swan pas de deux. 

[Roberta]

22 minutes ago, Mary said:

I particularly hope to see the black swan pas de deux. 

 

Oooh naughty (yes I'm sitting shouting DRINK and other words better not used here in best Father Jack voice) though as the ACT II Swan Lake PDD was performed this year I suspect it will not be performed next.

 

I hope the evening made a great deal of money for BRB as funding becomes increasingly, and worryingly, scarce. 

 

[Roberta]

29 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Scenes de Ballet.

 Another 'Ashton Ballets in repertoire owned by Anthony Russell-Roberts and available for licensing'.

 

I'm hoping these have been inherited by the Ashton Foundation who can then charge a sum and plough that back into expanding its work.  I also hope BRB can indeed next year look at some of the smaller, rarely performed works and give them an outing for the concert.