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English National Ballet, A Tribute to Rudolph Nureyev, London, July 2013


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And Elena Glurfjidze!

 

 

Yes, absolutely - ELENA GLURDJIDZE. What  I loved so much about her last night was not just the beauty of her dancing but her warmth. When she extended her arms and hands towards the audience she seemed to be welcoming us to join her and enjoy with her - and we did. A performance to cherish.

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I saw the matinee and really liked the triple bill.  I loved the opening film which set the scene, I think little films like this work really well with ballet (wonder if the Ballet Boyz were behind it?) I am reminded of the lovely interview/films of Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur at their farewell gala.  Petrushka was my least favourite piece as there is not a huge amount of actual ballet in it, but it was colourful.  How lovely that BRB kindly loaned their sets and costumes to ENB for the performances.  As Raymonda was presented is association with RB I wonder if they too loaned the set and costumes?  Anyway it was all a feast for the eyes.  Wayfarer danced by Fabian Reimar and Francisco Bosch was lovely - I liked how Francisco had the most fabulously fluid "Odette" arms.  The singer Nicholas Lester did a lovely job too.   Raymonda was what I had really come to see and I was not disappointed.  Tamara was a lovely Raymonda and her balances en pointe are always a treat.  The corps seemed well in time and looked super and the variations were all lovely to watch.  I enjoyed seeing James Streeter get a prominent role in both Raymonda and Petruskha.  I think I could watch Raymonda Act 3 over and over the music is wonderful and so well played by the orchestra loved it!!

I could see buckets of flowers sitting in the uppermost box stage left - so there WAS a flower throw last night ahh what a shame I missed it but so happy for the dancers it must be a rarity for ENB to get a flower throw - lovely idea!

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(Btw, who did the bouquets for Esteban and Vadim come from?)

 

My impression with ENB from the past is that flowers (and alcohol, back in the days) always came from the Company.  Whether that's the same under the new regime, I don't know.

 

The Song of a Wayfarer was mesmerising. It was the first time I had watched Berlanga properly and now he's off! Such an emotional goodbye. And Muntagirov was even better than I had been led to believe. He's one of those dancers who let one (well, me anyway) relax because I know that nothing is going to go wrong, and that what I am seeing is completely sincere. Those qualities he shares with (the very different) Ed Watson, I think.

 

Well, maybe the latter one: I'm not sure I'd necessarily agree about the former :)

Both Muntagirov and Berlanga, good as they were on the first night, had upped their performance by a few notches by the last night, I felt.

 

Yes, absolutely - ELENA GLURDJIDZE. What  I loved so much about her last night was not just the beauty of her dancing but her warmth. When she extended her arms and hands towards the audience she seemed to be welcoming us to join her and enjoy with her - and we did. A performance to cherish.

 

Yes, indeed.  The first ballerina I've seen since her retirement who didn't have me totally missing Miyako Yoshida in the role (I'm not counting the Trocks in on that one).

 

I saw the matinee and really liked the triple bill.  [snip]  How lovely that BRB kindly loaned their sets and costumes to ENB for the performances.  As Raymonda was presented is association with RB I wonder if they too loaned the set and costumes? 

 

Thanks for reporting on the matinee, DQF.  I'd originally been intending to go to that one to catch the cast changes, but a sandal crisis forced me to reassess my priorities, so I got an inexpensive ticket for the evening instead.  It was no hardship watching Muntagirov and Berlanga in Song of a Wayfarer again, certainly ;) (and pleased to find a Béjart piece I actually like - many thanks to Tamara Rojo for bringing this back into the rep after far too long an absence).  I'd meant to check my programme to see where they'd borrowed the sets and costumes from - good to see the companies helping each other out in these difficult times.

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I saw the Saturday matinee and thought this was a decent triple bill.  Raymonda is not my thing - Glazunov churning out tosh by the yard with some "very quite ok" choreography - but it was competently danced, not only by Rojo and Acosta but also the variations by Shiori Kase and Lauretta Summerscales. I suppose they have to do something like this for that large portion of the audience which want tutus and easy tunes.

 

Petrushka I love and have never seen live before so was really interested and thought the lead role was beautifully and appropriately pathetic. As a period piece (Diaghilev and Fokine selling Parisians the version of peasant Russia they wanted to see) it is absolutely fascinating.  However, I think the orchestra was a LONG way from being able to cope with Stravinsky's score.  His use of woodwind and brass (instead of the usual strings) as "background" was too much for those sections.  There were many errors and the trumpet solo which the ballerina is supposed to be playing on stage was woeful.  The whole thing needs to be much tighter.

 

Song of a Wayfarer was interesting enough and well danced, particularly by Francisco Bosch.

 

As triple bills go, I like Tamara's programming approach of throwing in contrasting styles so there is "something for everyone" and will definitely carry on buying tickets.  But please please please more effort to go into the music!

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Sometimes I wish I had the talent of a Glazunov, a Petipa, a Nureyev, even the competency to dance their version of Raymonda.   When real life gets really tough, I console myself for my utter ordinariness with a brief wallow in tutus and lush music.   :)

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Most of the flowers presented to individual ENB dancers are from members of the audience. Unfortunately, only one bouquet ever seems to be handed over on stage when, sometimes, ballerinas have many. It would be nice if the others could be put at their feet as is the case at the ROH.

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I have a feeling the last Petrushka we saw in London was the Bolshoi VIkharev reconstruction in 2010 (?) with Ivan Vasiliev in the title role.  I am less than happy that someone decided to turn to Isabelle Fokine, are there no notations of the wonderful Nicholas Beriosoff version that the company used to cherish? 

Sadly no.  In 1986, when I was Librarian of the Benesh Institute, I compiled a catalogue of all usable Benesh Movement Notation scores in company libraries at that time.  Festival Ballet's list did not mention "Petroucnka", although they had notated Beriosoff's productions of "Scheherazade" and 'Spectre'.  If there is any (Benesh) notation of his  "Petrouchka", it would just be rough sketches and not enough to restage the whole ballet. 

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My review of the last two performances is a little late but I thought I would post it anyway, just in case anyone who didn’t see the programme is interested.  The Saturday matinee saw the debut of Crystal Costa as the Doll in “Petrushka”.  There is not much to be done with this role of the airhead who prefers a glittering fool to sincere love, but Costa used her huge eyes and beautifully clean technique to great advantage and her fall onto the bed with legs in the air was certainly the most comical of all three casts that I saw, probably because it was so appropriately wooden. On my second viewing of this piece, the orchestral tempo had picked up a fraction but the crowd scenes were still on the dull side and I noticed how cheap and tawdry the sets and costumes are compared with the company’s own beautiful ones from thirty years ago which I understand have sadly disintegrated. (A tantalising clip is included in the Herbert Ross film, “Nijinsky”).  Francisco Bosch and Fabian Reimair impressed once again in “Song of a Wayfarer” and there was something very poignant in the delicacy of Bosch’s movements compared with the power of Reimair’s. “Raymonda” saw debuts (unmarked on the cast sheets) in several Variations.  Shoiri Kase gave a spirited account of the whirlwind Variation 2, Laurretta Summerscales was all elegance and sweeping movements in Variation 3, and Alison McWhinney was a delight in Variation 4.  Tamara Rojo danced Raymonda at this performance and, for me, she lacked the aristocratic authority that seems to be innate in Elena Glurdjidze’s dancing.

In the evening, I saw the “Petrushka” cast of Reimair, Nancy Osbaldeston and Shevelle Dynott for the first time and the performance was lifted to new heights.  Reimair’s Petrushka was all sawdust and soul, where every part of his body was emotionally expressive and truly moving.  Osbaldeston brought an unusual innocence to the Doll which worked very well.  But the revelation was Dynott as the Moor.  Whereas Acosta’s lack of make-up (understandable these days) had seemed to me to make him too human, Dynott surmounted this by keeping his face taut, like a mask, using only his hugely expressive eyes and occasionally his mouth which he opened and closed like an automaton so that there was never any doubt that he was only a puppet.  The little touches he brought to this were outstanding, down to letting his head continue to wobble after the rest of his body had stopped moving.  I hope his immense acting skills will be put to good use from now on.

Berlanga and Muntagirov danced “Song of a Wayfarer” , made even more poignant for being Berlanga’s last performance with ENB.  Bejart’s is not great choreography but it is made great by the integrity of the performers, especially these two who so perfectly match each other. They surely must have the two most beautiful pairs of feet of any male dancers and to see them both in perfect harmony was an absolute joy.  Berlanga is going to be sorely missed by the audiences and by his colleagues who made a touching presentation to him between shows.

With Glurdjidze and Gruzdyev  in the leads, “Raymonda” was given a spirited and very stylish performance by dancers and orchestra alike and received a rousing ovation from a very appreciative audience. With such superb dancing from Glurdjize in particular, it is a great surprise that she does not seem to have been cast in the new production of “Le Corsaire”. A word of appreciation for Fernanda Oliveira who danced Variation 1, with its releves and sustained balances, at all five performances.  With two performances of the Doll as well, her toes must have taken quite a bashing!  It was lovely for the company to have such a rapturous reception from the audience as it included several members from Alfa Bank, the new sponsor, who could see how well their money is being spent!

 

 

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Sadly no.  In 1986, when I was Librarian of the Benesh Institute, I compiled a catalogue of all usable Benesh Movement Notation scores in company libraries at that time.  Festival Ballet's list did not mention "Petroucnka", although they had notated Beriosoff's productions of "Scheherazade" and 'Spectre'.  If there is any (Benesh) notation of his  "Petrouchka", it would just be rough sketches and not enough to restage the whole ballet. 

 

I am  a little surprised only notations are used, is video considered inferior?  The Paris Opera Ballet also have a Beriosoff staged version which can be viewed on an old video called, I think, Paris Dances Diaghilev.

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I am  a little surprised only notations are used, is video considered inferior?  The Paris Opera Ballet also have a Beriosoff staged version which can be viewed on an old video called, I think, Paris Dances Diaghilev.

Video is a very useful supplement to a notated score and I know dancers do refer to youtube for solos etc. but for the busy choreography of crowd scenes it is almost impossible to see all the detail and therefore not ideal for staging a complete work.  Having said that, letting the dancers have a go at deciphering the crowd scenes from a video might have resulted in something more exciting than the staging they were subjected to!  However, it may also have been that ENB no longer has the performing rights to the Beriosoff version and the Fokine estate might have stepped in to ensure ENB had an 'authorised' version.

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One other authentic version of Petrushka exists in the UK apart from Beriosoff's and that is the Serge Grigoriev version danced by the Royal Ballet, there is also the Vikharev reconstruction danced by the Bolshoi, but It varied somewhat from these two familiar and similar versions.

 

Cyril Beaumont wrote extensively about Fokine and his powers of description were excellent, when confronted by radical choreographic changes, I start to mistrust my memories so have on occasion gone back to his book 'Michel Fokine and his Ballets' to check changed passages and usually find I am right to dispute some new interpolation.

 

If Petrushka looks bad, Scherherazade is far worse with the famous death of the Golden Slave now omitted by all the Russian companies that have adopted Ms Fokine's adulterated version.  I am very sorry this lady has now gained a toe hold in Britain.

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I agree, especially your comments about Beaumont's book.  Incidentally, the Grigoriev/Tchernicheva version was notated by Joan Benesh herself in 1956 when Benesh Movement Notation had just been adopted by the Royal Ballet.  There are also notations of productions by other people but whether the Fokine estate considers any of these 'authorised' is anyone's guess!

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