ENB - Romeo & Juliet (in the round at Royal Albert Hall)

[JennyTaylor]

An interesting aside. I was sitting next to someone who asked to see my cast list. She looked the 2 principals and said "never heard of them, I wanted to see Carlos, Tamara or Alina" . I explained the context of today and that this partnership might actually be quite good. She looked sceptical but at the end of Act 1,  turned to me and said - you were right, that was amazing. At the end of the performance, she was on her feet, just like everyone else. I'm just hoping the principals didn't notice all her fan waving which was right in their eyeline during all the most dramatic pieces. We were seated by the aisle where Vadim made all his exits/ entrances (joy for me). 

[nottsballetlover]

What a wonderful, special, emotional, forever to be remembered and treasured performance by Daria and Vadim this afternoon and the whole cast. I was so elated to be there. Words are not enough so I won't try!

[alison]

For my third visit this week (Saturday night), I was sitting in the fourth row of the Stalls and, although people around me experiencing it for the first time loved being so close, I did find it irritating to have my view of various crucial moments obscured by townsfolk and guests.  There were times when I would have loved to have asked them to move out the way! 

 

Take it from me: it's even worse in the 2nd row!  I missed so much of the ballroom scene from there

 

Interestingly, in the last scene he dropped his cape before running past the candles.

 

And Vargas drew his cape in rather more closely to him, as opposed to Muntagirov, who did more what I'd call a "Nureyev" run in with it.

[BristolBillyBob]

Take it from me: it's even worse in the 2nd row!  I missed so much of the ballroom scene from there

 

I was 2nd row stalls too, and was in exactly the same boat.

 

(I'll write up my thoughts in full later. )

Edited June 23, 2014 by BristolBillyBob

[Bruce]

As everybody says it was a special performance by Daria and Vadim yesterday and she was pretty shell shocked at curtain down and buried her head in his chest. After a while the company came out and Daria regained her composure and could enjoy the flower throw and love from 5,000 people all standing to give her their farewells. As she was taking her shoes off you could see a bloody knee and then her bloody and strapped up toes and you realise again the price of such elegant perfection. Two weeks ago Rojo tweeted a picture of her Juliet knees:
https://twitter.com/TamaraRojo1/status/475890679361859584

During the performance I had my own little special moment: as Daria made one of her exits through the audience her trailing shawl fluttered over my shoulder - touched by one of the all time greats I thought.

Great to see the production again which I liked all the more this second viewing. Its matured well and I hope it comes back more regularly.

Re where to sit, I note the company put critics and writers in stalls rows 7, 8, and 9. They give enough elevation to see over the corps and street scenes. I think Row 9 is the best - ideally opposite the orchestra and on a gangway. But £60 a pop is not cheap.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Bruce

[John Mallinson]

4 nice photos by Laurent Liotardo on his Facebook page.

[aileen]

A lovely end to Daria's long career. I thought that the balcony and bedroom pdds, were really superb and Juliet's death was really well done; Daria clearly showed how Juliet was fearful and uncertain about taking the sleeping potion. It is clear from the tribute at the end and from all the photographs and messages by the dancers on Twitter how much respect and affection they have for Daria as a person and as a dancer. I hope that Vadim will go on to form a memorable partnership at the RB. I noticed that he wasn't too grand to carry one of the large boxes of flowers out of the arena yesterday. If there are any write ups of the performance yesterday please would someone alert the forum.

[BristolBillyBob]

I don't really want to sour my review too much of what was ultimately a jolly nice afternoon at the ballet with my rant about sight lines, so I'm going to split them out into separate posts. If you just want mostly the positives, by all means skip this. If, on the other hand, you'd prefer to hear a thirty-five year old man have a tantrum, then you're in the right place.

 

I was in the second row of the stalls for this, right by the centre aisle, and paid top whack for the seats. I'm in two minds whether to write to ENB to have a bit of a whinge, because in a few scenes they must have been the worst seats in the house.

 

Most of act one was completely ruined by cast members just milling around the outside of the stage as if out for a Sunday stroll. I don't really know why they were there, because they didn't really add much. Derek Deane must have planned them as a kind of 'moving' scenery. He also must have been conscious that they would block the view of anyone in the lower stalls, because he kept them moving, pausing for a few seconds before sauntering off. However, this meant that I simply couldn't see anything that was going on during a lot of the first act, including pivotal moments. Even when I did have sight of some dancing, I couldn't see it for long enough to enjoy the flow of the choreography. 

 

I'm sure the moment Romeo and Juliet first meet is beautifully moving, but I couldn't see it because I was looking at somebody's arse instead.

 

"Ballet dancers have lovely bottoms, though," I hear you cry, "so at least you had something nice to look at," and you would be right, if it weren't for the fact that the stage was lit from the centre. So I just had a big, black silhouette instead of the top-class dancing I'd paid £60 to see. No dancing, and not even a pair of pert buttocks as a consolation prize. Boo.

 

Sorry. Can you tell I'm annoyed?

 

I was so intensely irritated by it, I seriously considered calling "Could you get out of the [insert choice anglo-saxon word ending in '-ing'] way, please?", or clambering onto the stage and physically moving them myself. It was only a desire not to ruin Klimentova's last performance that stopped me. I'm not sure even my innate Britishness would have been enough otherwise! 

 

I understand that Derek Deane was trying to make it look impressive from all parts of the Hall, and I fully expected there to be moments where, from the stalls, I wouldn't be able to see very clearly, but I expected my view to be obscured by, oh I don't know, dancing of some sort, not just people stood around like lemons*. I expected the bulk of the scenery, props or cast members, to have been moved largely to the back for the pivotal scenes. It simply staggers me that nobody thought to mention to Deane that the sight lines of the first five rows of the stalls might be a little important.  Someone have a word, please?

 

Right, rant over.

 

 

 

* My old drama teacher used to say this. Are lemons renowned for their standing? 

Edited June 23, 2014 by BristolBillyBob

[BristolBillyBob]

Right, non-ranty review time. 

 

I'd booked my tickets to this the minute I heard about Daria's retirement. I didn't want to miss seeing her after all the lovely comments I read about her on here and after thoroughly enjoying her autobiography. So Sunday was to be my first and last time seeing her dance. And because it was my mum's birthday, she was my guest and ballet buddy for the day!

 

This production, a classical ballet re-imagining of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 original hit movie Romeo + Juliet starring Clare Danes and a young Leonardo Di Caprio, was (issues of previous rant aside) a jolly good production, with real drama. 

 

It was also, according to my mum, "the best thing she'd ever seen".

 

The sight lines issue in act one affected my enjoyment a lot, and it wasn't until act two that I really settled into the show. Having said that, there was a lot to like before the first interval. The orchestra played beautifully and the staging of the ballroom scene did seem spectacular (although I bet it was more impressive from higher up), with its moody lighting changes and dark, broody costumes.

 

Daria's inhabitance of the role was sublime. The way she, as a 42 year old dancer literally on the brink of retirement, brought to life the teenage Juliet was amazing. I've often read about how the fireworks of technique might fade ever so slightly with age, but they are more than compensated by the maturity of the acting, and this was the clearest example of this I've ever seen. Brilliant. Her scenes with Paris were sweetly entertaining. 

 

Anton Lukovkin was terrific as Mercutio, with a real swagger and cheekiness to his dancing. He really seemed to be enjoying himself! Mercutio's death scene though was almost comedic in its length. Honestly, it makes Giselle's demise seem positively instantaneous.

 

The production's greatest moments, though, were predictably enough, the PDDs between the title characters. The balcony scene was amazing, and the chemistry between Vadim and Daria was writ large for all to see. And if there was an award for 'Most Devastating Forlorn Look Offstage Of The Year', Nancy Osbaldeston, previously a shoe-in for the title for her performance in Stina Quagebeur's Vera, would have serious competition. Honestly, I couldn't take my eyes off her, no matter how hard I tried. Simply heartbreaking. It's one of the strengths of Deane's choreography, the way he uses stillness to brutal effect, and Klimentova takes full advantage. 

 

When I booked the tickets, I knew that even if the ballet was hopeless, it would be worth it for the curtain call, and it proved to be. She broke into tears clutching Vadim right as the as audience rose to their feet, an appreciation of the last 18 years with the company. Only having seen her dance once, I can only imagine how moving it must have been for those who've spent the best part of two decades enjoying her performances! I wish her all the best in her future endeavours. 

 

With careers ending, though, I think it's only right to mention careers that are still largely beginning. A fair part of my applause was for Nancy Osbaldeston, who is without question my favourite dancer (I might have mentioned this before!). I wish her all the best in RBF, and I hope we'll get her back to the motherland before too long. Hopefully I'll be in a theatre somewhere, twenty years hence, celebrating her own glittering twenty-year career.

Edited June 23, 2014 by BristolBillyBob

[Irmgard]

 

I don't really want to sour my review too much of what was ultimately a jolly nice afternoon at the ballet with my rant about sight lines, so I'm going to split them out into separate posts. If you just want mostly the positives, by all means skip this. If, on the other hand, you'd prefer to hear a thirty-five year old man have a tantrum, then you're in the right place.

 

I was in the second row of the stalls for this, right by the centre aisle, and paid top whack for the seats. I'm in two minds whether to write to ENB to have a bit of a whinge, because in a few scenes they must have been the worst seats in the house.

 

 

I expect it might be worth dropping a note to ENB about the poor sightlines, especially if you are complimentary about the rest of the show!  I expect they would be delighted to reduce the size of the extra corps de ballet for financial as well as aesthetic reasons!  At one performance I think a couple of people in the front row must have complained to the staff because they were moved further back before the start of Act II.  Of course, there weren't that many seats going spare for yesterday's show.  However, one does not really expect to have a 'restricted view' seat for £60 at the Albert Hall.

[aileen]

BristolBillyBob, I agree that Act 1, particularly the ballroom scene, was most affected by the corps blocking the action (I was sitting in row 3 for the Cojacaru / Vogel performance). It's a shame that Nancy wasn't a Harlot yesterday. She was as characterful as ever and very convincing! I don't know where she got her inspiration from! Like you, I'll miss Nancy and I hope that one day we see her back dancing in the UK.

[alison]

However, one does not really expect to have a 'restricted view' seat for £60 at the Albert Hall.

Precisely. I suspect there would be a good case for reducing the prices in the first few rows, and/or the sections right round by the orchestra, where the view isn't brilliant, either. But then for Swan Lake they like selling them as "lakeside seats", don't they?

 

BBB, I've just "liked" your rant, because it fits so well with my feelings. I got an upgrade, so can't really complain, but if I'd paid top whack I would be really furious about the viewing restrictions.

[Anna C]

I'm even more relieved now that my Access ticket was not only an aisle seat but also the back row of the stalls, right in front of the boxes. We couldn't see faces terribly clearly but we did get a glorious view of the stage and could see right over the top of the milling extras.

 

Even so, I found the sheer number of people on stage somewhat distracting. There was so much going on which made it tricky at times to spot the main characters. Fortunately most of the time the follow spotlights helped to at least pick out Romeo and Juliet. I thought there was far too much movement in the Ballroom which for me took a lot away from the moment where Romeo and Juliet first set eyes on each other. No offence to the children from Tring Park but I didn't see the need for any children in the production; they simply added to the vast number of people on stage.

 

I thought the Orchestra sounded fantastic. I also liked the lighting and thought the candles were a lovely addition to the atmosphere. Some of the choreography was a disappointment to me, particularly in the Balcony scene. There is such a heart rending and climactic moment in the music where I was expecting a beautiful lift but instead Juliet is standing still under the balcony, and Romeo, running towards her, drops to the floor. To be fair, I am probably biased towards the MacMillan choreography which I absolutely adore.

 

Disappointing choreography aside though, I felt utterly privileged to be there yesterday. The dancers were all boundless in their energy - incredible at the end of a run - and Daria and Vadim danced their hearts out. I could have watched them forever. The finality of their last R&J together made it seem as if they didn't want the performance to end. I certainly didn't. Their chemistry was extraordinary and the emotion of the other dancers was clearly so genuine that it made the performance even more memorable; especially Amber Hunt's Nurse whose pride in and love for Juliet was so touching.

 

I will miss seeing Daria and Vadim together but feel honoured to have been there yesterday. It was very special.

[AnneMarriott]

In response to BristolBillyBob's rant (post No. 74 above), we felt very sorry for the people in the front few rows of the stalls on Sunday afternoon.  It wasn't just the cast members standing around that were blocking the view, it was the rather tall market stalls around the perimeter of the arena.  Admittedly they were moved from time to time by "stall holders", but in a couple of instances the audience members who seemed delighted when a stall was moved out of their sight-line looked very gloomy when an even taller one replaced it seconds later!  But even from the rarified heights of Row 9 I found the general hustle and bustle on stage made it difficult to spot significant moments during Act 1.  Otherwise a highly recommended place to choose especially for such a significant performance.

Edited June 24, 2014 by AnneMarriott

[BristolBillyBob]

This production, a classical ballet re-imagining of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 original hit movie Romeo + Juliet starring Clare Danes and a young Leonardo Di Caprio...

 

This was a joke, by the way. I just suddenly had a paranoia attack. Tell you what, though, I do have the urge to watch the Baz Luhrmann movie again after seeing this production! Speaking of which, I think a ballet version of his Moulin Rouge would be terrific. But that's for another thread.

[aileen]

BristolBillyBob, what did your mother particularly like about the performance?

[BristolBillyBob]

BristolBillyBob, what did your mother particularly like about the performance?

 

She didn't go into specifics, actually. It's only her second ballet - I took her to see one that I thought was awful before but she seemed to enjoy it all the same - so maybe she didn't feel confident in picking anything out. She might have also been being polite as it was my birthday present for her. I'll ask her and report back!

[Sim]

I was in the third row this time because I wanted to be close to the action, as it were.  The previous time I had been in row 9 or 10 and it was great.  This time I was blocked a fair few times;  at one point in the ballroom scene a couple of dancers come and stand on the bottom of the steps for a few minutes (looked like they were about to enter a skating rink!) and that completely blocked me.  However, people and things moved quickly enough that it was never for too long, but as BillyBob says for £60 tickets you don't expect that! 

 

The other thing was that we were sitting in a row that had a few blind people just next to us.  They were all using the audio headphones in that they were being narrated what was happening onstage.  Whilst these are wonderful things, the RAH really needs to get noise-blocking headphones.  We could hear everything that was being said, and throughout the performance we had these annoying voices in the background, even during some of the quietest moments of the pdd.  I didn't say anything on the day because of course I didn't want to spoil it for anyone, and would never want them to stop being used or the service altered, but again having splurged on good tickets for once we really had to work on blotting out the voices, but it only worked to varying degrees.  Everyone around us kept looking round as it really sounded as if audience members were chatting.  The RAH needs to sort this out and invest in some good quality headphones....that's all it would take.   On the positive side, it was fascinating to hear a ballet being verbalised, and even more wonderful to see the reaction of one of the wearers....he was smiling, he was sitting on the edge of his seat, he was really involved.  Great stuff. 

[BristolBillyBob]

I'm guessing it's a tricky balancing act for the theatre, picking headphones for this. Ensuring the sound doesn't bleed out of the headphones, annoying other theatregoers, would probably mean blocking the sound of the orchestra out for the wearer, necessitating piping it through the headphones themselves. And doing that would slightly negate the point of hearing it live. Tough one. I guess they need headphones that aren't fully enclosed, but are über-directional at sending the voice into the wearer's ears and nowhere else?

 

On the positive side, it was fascinating to hear a ballet being verbalised, and even more wonderful to see the reaction of one of the wearers....he was smiling, he was sitting on the edge of his seat, he was really involved.  Great stuff. 

 

Sound bleed issues aside (which must have been a bit off-putting), this last line really made me smile.

[Ellie]

A couple of years ago I was involved in a dance workshop for blind people...It was absolutely amazing. (sorry, off topic, I know) x

[Terpsichore]

I saw the evening performance of Romeo and Juliet on the 14 June and enjoyed it very much. The principals were Friedemann Vogel and Alina Cojocaru. I chose to see Vogel because he comes from Stuttgart which was the company of Marcia Haydée and Richard Cragun. I believe that it was Cranko's version with those dancers that inspired MacMillan.

 

It turned out to be a good choice.  There were also fine performances too from Arionel Vargas as Paris, Max Westwell as Tybalt, Fernando Bufalá as Mercutio, Luke Haydon as Friar Lawrence and Jane Howarth as Lady Capulet.

 

Although she was not dancing a major role it was an opportunity to see Sarah Kundi before she leaves for Spain. Even in the corps she was distinctive. I am quite a fan of hers.

 

It was the first time I had seen ballet in the round and I enjoyed it very much, The space allowed the dancers opportunities to gather momentum and elevation. It was good to see the orchestra on a platform instead of huddled in a pit.  

[annamicro]

Quite late, but here are some impressions on the shows I saw: I’ve been lucky to see the first three casts on stage and the quality was so high I’d have loved to see also the others.

 

I’ve seen very little of Daria Klimentova in the past and I regret this. Her Juliet was very credible as an innocent and than a passionate girl and her dancing excellent, fluid and eloquent. She looks such in top form that it’s almost incredible that she is quitting with dancing: what a pity! Vadim Muntagirov was an ideal partner for her and an ideal Romeo, he is very young and so is his superb dancing, fresh and energetic. His Romeo was the more enthusiastic when offering himself on his knees and with open arms in the balcony scene. Klimentova and Muntagirov were lovely together, a beautiful partnership. I wish I had seen more of them.

 

Juliet is one of those roles able to make Tamara Rojo run free on stage. One of those dramatic roles that make her forget of technical tricks and of acting: only spontaneity and passion are left. One of her “magic” roles. She is in great form and her acting is natural and fresh: her Juliet is forever 20 on stage. Carlos Acosta is a great dancer, but I’m not sure he is a good actor neither that he has ever been a good Romeo. His dancing has lost part of his energy, not counterbalanced by an artistic improvement. Compared to the other two Romeos I have seen and to his Mercutio and Benvolio, he looks heavy and static: the run all around the stage doesn’t looks exactly the same when done by Acosta or by Muntagirov and Vogel. Still he is a very good partner for Rojo, they have real understanding of each other and a technical compatibility; they look good together, but I’d love, one day, to see Tamara dancing with a partner able to match her dramatically and able to fully share and enhance the emotions she creatse on stage, something I’ve very rarely seen so far and this is a sad misfortune in such a magnificent career.

 

Alina Cojocaru and Friedemann Vogel, especially in their second show, were fireworks. The enthusiastic reports from La Scala tour in Tokyo, when they danced together for the first time in MacMillan Romeo and Juliet were not an exaggeration: they have a surprising and exciting affinity and their dancing exudes the joy to be on stage together. I’ve seen Vogel rarely live (amazingly my first time was in my only previous visit at the RAH, for an ENB Swan Lake few years ago), but I’ve seen Cojocaru dozens of time and with more than 2 dozens of partners and I’m delighted to have seen this rare magically instinctive relationship explode on stage. It’s something different from the deep and warm connection that Alina has with Johan Kobborg, it has not that sense of trustful abandon and complete comprehension and condivision nor its subtlety, but, on the other side, this one has exuberant freshness and dynamism and conveys an excited and exciting sense of discovery that works incredibly well especially in this ballet. Vogel is in his full maturity (I think he is 34), but his Romeo has boyish impetuosity and explosive energy, the dancing is clean and aerial. Cojocaru is in a top form physically and artistically. In the last 11 months she has danced 4 different Juliets (Moricone, McMillan, Neumeier and Deane) and I’ve seen 7 of those10 shows.

Her first act has become more natural with the artistic growth and the personal maturity: when younger she sometime was looking as trying to act as a young person, when at the same time she was full at ease and natural, projecting with great power and intensity, in the more dramatic part. Now she is also able to BE young on stage.

Her first act shows here a girl surprised by the world and eager to explore it, every moment is a new discovery. Every moment is a new emotion ad all of them can be read on her face. Cojocaru dancing is eloquent, has a rare luminosity and an extreme and personal musicality, but I really think that all those people that are watching her dancing without seeing her eyes are missing half of the show: the “stream of consciousness” flowing readable in her pupils is an imprescindible part of her artistic expression. It’s something that has always been present in her characters, but I think it has been enhanced by the work with John Neumeier: she said that never would have been the same after having danced Die Kameliendame and probably it’s true (and it’s true also for the Dame “herself”, not just for Alina). Her performances as Neumeier’s Juliet were so good to be shocking; the character and the story are a little bit different and, after so many “traditional” Juliets, it was a serious artistic challenge for her, resulting in an extraordinary success: I think it was the best I’ve seen from Alina in this wonderful and successful ballet season. In the MacMillan version Cojocaru’s most amazing peculiarity is the ability to change rapidly and continuously the way to dance, the rhythm, the physical approach when facing the other characters on stage, according to the kind of relationship Juliet has with everybody. But she had to add something to that: Neumeier works are often characterized by a cinematographic structure e and require a strong method acting; becoming his Juliet, Cojocaru was able to show all her emotions, thoughts, feelings on her face as passing from light to shadow as the sun in a clouded windy sky. Especially in the pdd of Juliet with Paris and the mirroring couple of Lady and Lord Capulet you can see on her face all the angst, the fear, the despair and every second of the future life that she is refusing but she is expected to have, following the example of her glacial and impossibly beautiful mother, dancing at her side (compliments to Alina and to Anna Laudere, but the GENIOUS here is Neumeier!) or when dancing with the dead Tybalt just after having danced with the departing Romeo.

 

As beautiful, moving and interesting were the performance of the dancers on stage, I think that Deane Romeo and Juliet (truly enjoyable in some aspects) is too simply in structure and too traditional to push the great Juliets ENB has demonstrated to have out of their comfort zone, challenging them to explore and develop new sides of the character and further deepen others; I think also that the Royal Albert Hall is not the best space to fully appreciate the dramatic qualities of the artists on stage, so relevant in this tragic story: the stage space has been cleverly used, but one of the best moment in Cojocaru’s first show was her face when seeing Romeo for the first time, the same for Rojo; in Klimentova show and in Alina’s second one in that moment I was watching their bottoms. I agree  that in some case bottoms are equally or even more expressive than faces, but, trust me, with artists of this level this is not true.

Let’s wait to see what is in the future: EBN has a Director with a wide and at the same time focused artistic vision, the hope is she will have also the instruments to make this vision become a reality. Fingers crossed and good luck! For the moment, than you to all for the beautiful shows!

Edited July 3, 2014 by annamicro

[alison]

Juliet is one of those roles able to make Tamara Rojo run free on stage. One of those dramatic roles that make her forget of technical tricks and of acting: only spontaneity and passion are left. One of her “magic” roles. She is in great form and her acting is natural and fresh: her Juliet is forever 20 on stage. Carlos Acosta is a great dancer, but I’m not sure he is a good actor neither that he has ever been a good Romeo. [snip]  Still he is a very good partner for Rojo, they have real understanding of each other and a technical compatibility; they look good together, but I’d love, one day, to see Tamara dancing with a partner able to match her dramatically and able to fully share and enhance the emotions she creatse on stage, something I’ve very rarely seen so far and this is a sad misfortune in such a magnificent career.

 

Oh, annamicro, how I agree with you there - especially on the last part.  Call it lack of serendipity, or whatever, but both at ENB and the RB I never saw her with a partner able to match her on a dramatic level, and that's something I've spent the last 15 years regretting.  It would have taken her performance to new heights, I'm sure.

[annamicro]

Oh, annamicro, how I agree with you there - especially on the last part.  Call it lack of serendipity, or whatever, but both at ENB and the RB I never saw her with a partner able to match her on a dramatic level, and that's something I've spent the last 15 years regretting.  It would have taken her performance to new heights, I'm sure.

 

I was writing "never" too, but didn't want to seem too tragic :-)