Royal Ballet Mayerling 2013

[Sim]

I'd also like to mention yesterday's matinee performance with Soares/Hamilton/Nunez/Choe.  A devastatingly good performance from Thiago Soares....very different from Ed Watson's, but just as effective.  He has such an expressive face, one that can reduce me to tears when it conveys the pain in Rudolf's heart.  Not only is he a brilliant actor, but his dancing is getting better and better, and the two things combined make for a truly classic performance. 

 

Melissa Hamilton is a sensual but sensitive Mary Vetsera....at first using her feminine guile and the promise of Rudolf's kind of sex play to snare her prince;  but then, when things get emotionally excoriating, she comforts him and is with him, even to their violent deaths.  A wonderful dance actress in the making.

 

Marianela Nunez, who at the moment just can't go wrong in anything she does, is, as Larisch,  much more of a vengeful schemer than the portrayal by, say, Sarah Lamb.  But the deep love she has for Rudolf shines when most needed;  you wonder why they couldn't be together!  The pdd between her and Soares in Act 1 was so very tender, yet passionate.  They have danced together much more this season, and long may the trend continue.

 

A lovely debut from Yuhui Choe as Princess Stephanie.  The pdd between her and Soares wasn't as vicious and visceral as that between Watson and McGuire, but just as terrifying, with Soares egging her on and challenging her to fight him, and she responding, uncomprehendingly.  When she was dancing her solo before Rudolf's entrance, I kept getting visions of Juliet....come on RB, please cast her in this!!

 

With Paul Kay's touching Bratfisch, the matinee performance was so very moving and deeply emotional.  I had to go home and drink a glass of wine to recover!  I'm really looking forward to their next performance on the 12th.

[John Mallinson]

Sim, what a lovely word 'viscious' is! It's a portmanteau of vicious and viscous which describes Stephanie's Act I pas de deux exactly: violent and stickily fluid at the same time. Francesca Hayward was superb in that last night - best I've seen this run.

[aileen]

A fantastic performance from the whole cast last night, but I wouldn't rush to see Mayerling again. In the light of the criticism which has been levelled at new choreography at the ROH recently, and as someone who was seeing this ballet for the first time, IMO Mayerling is far from perfect. It's too long, too episodic and has some dull scenes and dull choreography. I wonder whether it was ever suggested to Kenneth MacMillan that the ballet should be edited. I also felt that there was a loss of momentum towards the end; in the bedroom scene just as it looked as if we were approaching the denouement the curtain fell and there was another scene with a slow build-up to Mary and Rudolf's deaths. The highlights for me were the pdd for Rudolf and Stephanie (frighteningly violent) and Laura's dance with the four officers (she seems to have captured the market in dubious women).

[Mayerling79]

I also saw the Saturday June 1st evening show! Such a beautiful cast. I don't think I can ever tire from seeing them dance together.

Ed Watson, Mara Galeazzi (very moving to see her in one of her last performances with the RB), Francesca Haywarth (beautiful), Sarah Lamb (of whom I am a huge fan), Ricardi Cervera, Laura Morera, Gary Avis, Ryoichi Hirano (can't wait for him to be named principal!!)

 

Compared to the opening night (April 19th), I thought the Rudolf and Stephanie PDD was even more gripping. Ed Watson was throwing Frankie Haywarth around, grabbing her arms, making her whirl around, laughing at her, lifting her in the air, before throwing her on the floor. Wow. I mean, the acting was superb and I couldn't move from my seat.

 

Another personal favourite scene (apart from the finale and the PDD Rudolf and Mary in Act 2), is the scene with his mother Sissi. MacMillan's choreography is again spot on to dance the complex feelings between Rudolf and his mother. Each time Edward extended his two arms toward his mother, as if begging her to understand him, my heart squeezed an inch more.

 

An evening that I will remember forever.

[aileen]

Frankie (who I really liked in the role) must have been sore after that pdd with Ed. As you say, Mayerling, she was really thrown around, and pulled about.

[Sim]

Sim, what a lovely word 'viscious' is! It's a portmanteau of vicious and viscous which describes Stephanie's Act I pas de deux exactly: violent and stickily fluid at the same time. Francesca Hayward was superb in that last night - best I've seen this run.

Ha ha....am glad my typo made a good word!  I do know how to spell vicious....but my mind must already have been on 'visceral' with my fingers trailing on behind!! 

[Sim]

Do we know if Frankie will be dancing the role again on either 10, 12 or 13 June?  Those are the three I have left!  I do hope so.

[Bluebird]

Sim, what a lovely word 'viscious' is! It's a portmanteau of vicious and viscous which describes Stephanie's Act I pas de deux exactly: violent and stickily fluid at the same time. Francesca Hayward was superb in that last night - best I've seen this run.

In all this, thoroughly deserved, praise for Frankie Hayward,  there has been no mention of the fact that this was her debut as Princess Stephanie.  Given this fact, her complete command of all aspects of the role was utterly amazing.  What an achievement in what is only her second full season since joining the company from the RBS!  

 

Edited for clarity

Edited June 2, 2013 by Bluebird

[Bluebird]

Do we know if Frankie will be dancing the role again on either 10, 12 or 13 June?  Those are the three I have left!  I do hope so.

 

Yes, Sim. She is scheduled to dance with last night's cast on June 13

[Sim]

Great news....looking forward to it. Thanks Bluebird!

[alison]

A fantastic performance from the whole cast last night, but I wouldn't rush to see Mayerling again. In the light of the criticism which has been levelled at new choreography at the ROH recently, and as someone who was seeing this ballet for the first time, IMO Mayerling is far from perfect. It's too long, too episodic and has some dull scenes and dull choreography. I wonder whether it was ever suggested to Kenneth MacMillan that the ballet should be edited.

 

Give it time, aileen, give it time.  It's taken me at least a decade to finally fall for this ballet, but in 2 of the three performances I've seen so far this run I've been amazed at how the time has flown by - oddly, it feels so much shorter than various other nearly-three-hour ballets I've seen by the company in recent years.

[Mayerling79]

I'm hoping to have the chance to see the scheduled cast on Wednesday, June 5th 2013.

Johan Kobborg (Rudolf), Alina Cojocaru (Mary Vetsera), Hikaru Kobayashi (Countess Larisch), Emma Maguire (Princess Stephanie), Kristen McNally (Sissi)

I have never seen Kobborg+Cojocaru dance together in a full-length ballet. So e-x-c-i-t-e-d.

[alison]

Well, fingers crossed for you, then.

[Arky]

Sim - your thoughts on the matinee performance with Soares/Hamilton/Nunez/Choe echo my feelings exactly. It was a wonderful performance, weren't we lucky to experience it?!

[Sim]

Indeed we are, Arky.  I'm lucky enough to be seeing this cast again on the 12th.  Can't wait!

[Marieve]

Sim - your thoughts on the matinee performance with Soares/Hamilton/Nunez/Choe echo my feelings exactly. It was a wonderful performance, weren't we lucky to experience it?!

I saw the Soares/Hamilton matinee too and also feel incredibly lucky to have been there. It was so moving.

[DavidW]

In case anyone has missed the news - Wednesday's Mayerling will be both Cojocaru and Kobborg's final performance with the Royal Ballet. Good luck to anyone trying to get a last-minute ticket, they'll be like gold dust!

[Arky]

Sim,

 

Lucky you going again on 12th to see the same cast. Another night to remember!

[Sim]

I hope so....this Wednesday should be as well!!  For sad reasons, though....

[bangorballetboy]

In case anyone has missed the news - Wednesday's Mayerling will be both Cojocaru and Kobborg's final performance with the Royal Ballet. Good luck to anyone trying to get a last-minute ticket, they'll be like gold dust!

 

Final performance in London; they're doing two shows in Tokyo.

[Ritaza]

In case anyone has missed the news - Wednesday's Mayerling will be both Cojocaru and Kobborg's final performance with the Royal Ballet. Good luck to anyone trying to get a last-minute ticket, they'll be like gold dust!

I've had fairly rotten luck lately with tickets an cancellations...but the gods must have been on my side when I booked those tickets for THE 5th Joy of joys! 

[alison]

Tix for all performances apart from the 5th (sorry) currently available on ROH website.

[blackqueen]

SAW THE SATURDAY MATINEE. OMG WHAT A GREAT BALLET.

LOVE THE STEPS. THIAGO SOARES WAS FANTASTIC FROM THE

VERY BEGINNING AND MARIENELA VERY ALLURING. WOULD SEE

THIS BALLET AGAIN AND AGAIN.

[Marieve]

Me too, Blackqueen. It was my first time of seeing it and to be honest, I found Thiago's performance so moving that I almost feel like I don't ever want to see anyone else dancing Rudolph.

[Coated]

I wish I hadn't read these last few posts, I've now gone off and acquired a ticket for the Soares Mayerling and pretty much blew through my yearly ballet allowance. Soares has been amazing in everything I have recently seen him in, and it's my firm believe that he could partner a tailor's dummy and make it look amazing.

 

I saw Watson on Saturday, and never mind his dancing - he managed to give off such palpable despair just sitting at the table that I forgot to watch Bratfisch.

[alison]

(Bratfisch was doing very well, thank you).  Fortunately, I was in such a position that I could keep them both within my line of sight at once

[Coated]

Thankfully I did manage to watch Bratfisch's first turn, and Ricardo Cervera did very well indeed.

[Marieve]

I saw Watson on Saturday, and never mind his dancing - he managed to give off such palpable despair just sitting at the table that I forgot to watch Bratfisch.

That's exactly how I was during that scene on Saturday! Paul Kay was fantastic but I couldn't tear my eyes away from Thiago and Melissa.

[Sim]

A very emotional farewell to Alina and Johan at the ROH tonight.  Both were in fine form....although you could see that Johan hasn't danced for a while.  But tonight, it didn't matter.  He acted his socks off and touched our hearts, as he always has.  Alina was in great shape and they both were totally engaged with each other and with what was happening to them and around them, as they always have been.

 

I was remembering all the performances I've seen of theirs these past ten years, way too many to count, but I was remembering their superlative Giselles, Manons, R&Js (no-one screams a silent scream louder than Alina did), Mayerlings and, best of all, those Onegins which reduced me to tears each time and which I can't imagine being bettered in my lifetime. 

 

A huge thank you to them for providing me/us with those memories that will never fade, and all best wishes to them for their future happiness and success.  We saw them off with a flower throw, loads of bouquests on stage, and we all sang Happy Birthday to Johan.  I'm sure this will be one he never forgets!

[GTL]

Thank you, Sim.   When I have to miss an event like this, it's good to get the little details that the official reports normally leave out.   My thoughts turned to the Royal Opera House a few times this evening.

[penelopesimpson]

I seem to be on a weird role with this production of Mayerling.  The opening night with Edward Watson was sublime and I have just got home from watching Kobborg and Cojoharu, only to discover that it is, apparently, their last performance on the stage of the ROH.  Tragic.  Totally and utterly tragic.  How can we lose this wonderful pair?  The management announcment is about as low key as it can be 'I have enjoyed their perfromances' says Kevin O' Hare.

 

Well, Mr. Hare, I have never seen a reception like the one these two unique dancers received tonight.   The stage was covered in flowers, the shouting and the clapping and stamping would't stop and whole house was on its feet.

 

What the hell has caused this rupture - not a hint of guest appearances - nothing except goodbye.  Anyone know anything.

[Bruce Wall]

SORRY. COULD SOMEONE PLEASE REMOVE MY PREVIOUS POST.  SOMETHING SEEMS TO HAVE GONE WRONG IN THE FORMATTING WHEN IT WAS PUBLISHED.  I WILL COPY OVER WHAT I WROTE.  HOPEFULLY THIS WILL WORK:

 

Sara Compton in her article published in The Telegraph yesterday said:

 

The Royal will no doubt say that it has within its ranks dancers with great potential, and it is possible to spot a few who are undoubtedly worth keeping an eye on. But world-class dancers are born not made, and the star dust that Cojocaru and Kobborg sprinkled on all that they did does not look in plentiful supply.

 

Yesterday evening Johan and Alina reminded us all why they stepped beyond their own native born epithets and reached that rare firmament of balletic world stars of late shared with (from the RB's rich ranks alone) Rojo, Guillem, Nureyev, Dowell - and the first I actually saw albeit late in her career (and that initially being in New York where de Valois said she 'was made 'a world star') Fonteyn. Each arguably is a balletic brand of their own. You need only say their name to see them dance in one's mind's eye.

 

While reminded by certain shadows of the joy of a decade's worth of world class performances by Cojocaru and Kobborg on the ROH stage last night, there was still sufficient strength in the active presentation of their roles in Mayerling to remind us what made them uniquely special on a world stage in the first place, most especially in the case of Alina (the culmination of which Johan is obviously touchingly protective of as he, himself, noted in that moving South Bank documentary of some years ago). Both LIVED and LOVED in a moment that was uniquely theirs.

 

When the fine new Director of the Royal Ballet comes to balance his principal books - and he may understandably wish to wait to do so in this very difficult and crucially important balance - he will have to carefully ensure that the the World Class element (with contributing guest artists filling mid-term needs - this not being a race) are intertwined against the core of fine company artists who (i) rightfully appeal in terms of the company's own national/provincial make-up and (ii)HAVE ALWAYS allowed it to function fully at heart. The BALANCE of both will be KEY if the Royal Ballet's world ranking (as established by de Valois) is to be maintained, e.g., if the RB brand itself is to continue to sail beyond.

 

The established balance, of course, may well (needs must) alter. EVERYTHING needs to change - to breathe - to live. If you don't, time will.  O'Hare has clearly set out as his understandable priority a commitment to three native born sons in terms of the actual creative core (McGregor, Wheeldon and Scarlett). He may wish to change the make-up of the overall Royal Ballet to service these as his primary goal. He has also made a commitment to new narrative works shaped in their voice. This is a long-term strategy in a political world powered by 'short-termism'. It is brave.  It is fair I think to say that the dancing of the RB whole changed - as Fonteyn noted - when the balance of choreographic glory for which the company became renown passed from Ashton to McMillan and as it has arguably already done so given the last RB's director's brave (and much admired) commitment to McGregor. She, herself, noted that such marked the high point of her own considerable tenure. There is no question but that ALL three are competitors on WORLD stages today (well, rapidly becoming so in young Scarlett's case).

 

Such similar changes in style are today proudly noticable in terms of ABT's own commitment to Ratmansky whose contract now stretches to 2025. Part of the ABT's own company-threatening problems in the 90's lay in the fact that there was no established ABT choreographic recognition beyond its established label as a 'classic' company. No single choreographer (say Tharp) or coterie of such had been sufficiently resident and successful in the Company's own regard to establish/oversee a stronghold in terms of a performance style of/for its time. (While I realise that Ratmansky's appeal is not always applauded on these forum pages, the change in ABT's own performance style of the entire canon as reflected through the Ratmansky prism cannot be argued with as the NYT critic (himself British born) has noted. As Kevin McKenzie proudly exclaimed THAT has been the "highlight" of his own artistic tenure; one now extending through a period embracing those of Dowell (who proudly brought Alina and Johan as well as Guillem, Nunez, Rojo and Acosta into the RB fold), Stretton, Mason and O'Hare at the RB.

 

I pray the latter's hand will succeed in time with a similar stealth. There is no question but his is a dangerous voyage during any number of exciting things may come. The decks now seem to be clearing for the new. The danger of that excitement is the thrill we can all share in. 

Edited June 6, 2013 by Meunier

[aileen]

I agree with penelope that the tone and abruptness of the ROH's announcement suggests that it and Alina/Kobborg are parting on bad terms. I feel that there have been some sort of negotiations between the parties which have broken down. Alternatively, an opportunity or opportunities have arisen very recently which the pair feel are too good to pass up and the RB feels that it has been left in the lurch, certainly with regard to Alina. I wonder whether Natalia's arrival has any bearing on Alina's decision to leave. It will be very interesting to see what the pair do next. Subject to injuries, Alina has potentially several years of dancing ahead of her if that is what she wants to do.