The Royal Ballet: Ceremony of Innocence / The Age of Anxiety / Aeternum

[Bruce]

I would like to read Clement Crisp's review. Is there a way I can do this without registering on the F.T. site? I can't get past that sign in/ register box anymore.

 

If you visit newspaper pages via a Google search they will often be shown to you straight away.

 

Bring up Google search and then click on the News option.

 

In the search box type :

Royal Ballet FT

 

The first result will likely be the one you are after and clicking on it should bring up the page. Enjoy!

[Jacqueline]

If you visit newspaper pages via a Google search they will often be shown to you straight away.

 

Bring up Google search and then click on the News option.

 

In the search box type :

Royal Ballet FT

 

The first result will likely be the one you are after and clicking on it should bring up the page. Enjoy!

Many thanks Bruce. I found the review as you suggested and I did enjoy reading what Mr Crisp had to say. Both his and Jan Parry's reviews of this triple are excellent.

[tabitha]

Just seen on Facebook that tickets for tomorrow (14 November) are half price! Call the box office for details.

Edited November 13, 2014 by tabitha

[alison]

If you visit newspaper pages via a Google search they will often be shown to you straight away.

 

Bring up Google search and then click on the News option.

 

In the search box type :

Royal Ballet FT

 

The first result will likely be the one you are after and clicking on it should bring up the page. Enjoy!

I take it that doesn't work for The Times, though?

 

Actually, I had a word with the librarian at our local library the other day. She told me you can access The Times online using your library card, but I can't remember the details now. 

[John Mallinson]

I take it that doesn't work for The Times, though?

 

No.

[aileen]

I saw the first two ballets in this programme this evening. I quite liked the Brandstrup which was considerably enhanced by the searing score. I loved the wave effects, and the lighting wasn't as dark as I feared it would be. It was a bit thin choreographically and I felt that the ballet ran out of ideas before the end. I felt that the Scarlett was severely restricted by the difficult and rather undanceable score. Again, the ballet was thin choreographically and I felt that the whole thing was rather style over substance. The sets were good although, as with Sweet Violets, using a right angled set does mean that a lot of the stage is unused. I haven't read the poem. It's probably very complex but in this ballet it's distilled down to a rather simple story.

[Bruce Wall]

Went to the 'Anxiety' triple last night for a second time to see its second cast.  I don't know if it was because my expectations were rather low - as they were - based on my rather sloping impressions of its premiere, but I came away much more satisfied than i had anticipated I would be - short of my take on AETERNUM which I continue to feel ambivalent about although I was most impressed with Sambe - in fine animalistic mode - in the middle solo segment created for Hay and the smooth, dramatic partnering of Underwood in the first.  My responses to both 'Ceremony' and 'Anxiety' were much improved.  

 

In specific regards to 'CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE' the clarity of my new-found appreciation may in no small part be due to the fact that they simply turned up the lights.  Literally.  YEAH!  T’was a triumph for the common man - or at least those poor people (like myself) heatedly clutching Amphitheatre standing tickets.  T45 was a much more comfortable position last night.  At the opening the stark lighting on the dancers - surrounded as they were/are by the ever fascinating illumination of the magnificently threatening cinematic projections - was rendered almost entirely from the sides.  The resulting black shadows cut hollow caverns into the dancers' shape.  The brilliant light was gouged out precipitously much as I imagine Philae - in its current lateral repose on that comet – must find in its forbidding surround.    Undoubtedly each forages in an almighty monochrome mass.  Unquestionably it is harsh.  Indeed the battery which charges my own eyes was - similarly - seriously challenged at that time.  What a difference a few days can make.  Perhaps that doyen of theatrical illumination, Jennifer Tipton, (who, alongside Mark Stanley, simply rules - as they have done for decades – their field in granting audiences'  that prized confidence in knowing that they will always be always able to see and, therefore, relax), spoke to the current powers that be at the ROH.  

 

In any case much was now able to be revealed to me that had been far from clear in the harsh gloom of CEREMONY’s initial ROH outing.  At last I could see that the relationship between an older man (in whose mind I perceived this piece to be set) and his younger self was entirely secondary to their shared perception of dominance as rendered by their mother figure via her acts of domineering repression.  Much - as from the sea - they never escaped.  She succeeded in separating her kin from its kind and the waves were but her bell’s tow.  Deirdre Chapman vividly dominated.  She (for me) is the anchor that forces the roll of this piece whether she is on stage or not.  She is the mastermind behind her innocents.  This is her ceremony in our regard.  Her effect never departs.  it consistently stands firm.  It was/is entirely right and fitting that Chapman should take pride of place in the final theatrical call.  Brava I say to the brave.  Man (as her character so skillfully engendered) could not relate outside the definitions of her bond.  He would be as impotent in her stead as anyone else’s.  ‘You mustn’t,’ she said and mummy’s boy obeyed.  He follows but her palm.  This universal 'he' is here a social zero long before the age of the iphone made such forwardly fashionable in certain quarters.  While her world dances in its smile of seeming joy - and oh, for that glow of radiance that Kristen McNally beamed as she broke partner – her prodigal son (given that she wears the proverbial trousers) will be incarcerated in the grey of his mother’s sea.  His mind’s clutch will be fixed to turn back black on her shore.  

 

This particular bite of 'Death in Aldeburgh' would have pleased Britten I’m sure.  Certainly it was true to his vivid (and well played) score.  Suddenly I found much of Brandstrap's manipulative movietone work masterful and would happily see it again.  (I certainly didn't think I would EVER say that last week.  I was, of course, then literally 'in the dark' as to its value.)  I adored the fact that when the shadows first appear to our catalytic icon on that back wall – home to the only real (albeit fleeting) colour of the entire piece – they were full five in number from the mind of our mother Madonna.  Our anti-hero (still wrought in Sambe's shape) figures on the outer cusp of that society’s foam.  He blurs.  Washed up he can only peer at the shades of others ecstasy as he perceives.  It is reinforced in and by its repetition of purpose; a tactic endlessly employed by Mother Nature herself.  The black tide of that back wall growls grey still on her shore.  Here the repetition IS the point.  Chapman’s performance gave – FOR ME – AND FROM THE COMMENTS ABOVE – SHORT OF THE KIND REFERENCES OF THAT AMAZING COUPLE THAT IS BRUCE AND ANNE MARRIOTT – ME ALONE - fulfillment AT LAST to the mind behind Gertrude Lawrence’s long forgotten cinematic Amanda in Williams’ masterwork.  I have for much time been looking for that key to unlock her fussiness.  It had I knew all too easily been critically dismissed.  I have always felt confident an anchor to her mind must survive SOMEWHERE … and here AT LAST was HER ‘glass menagerie’.  Gartside/Kay were but her imprisoned Tom set in he effective twists.  Rise and mutely shine they did.  We ourselves lapsed but as her Laura looking on.  To paraphrase the title of the great British star’s (equally long forgotten) auto-biography: ‘A Shadow Danced’.   

 

I heartily joined in the thrill of the response of an enthralled audience on this occasion. 

 

I hadn’t the week previous.    

 

I will seek to muse further on ‘AN AGE OF ANXIETY’ should I find the time.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Bruce Wall

[John Mallinson]

Interesting piece here about Leo Warner's lighting and design for Ceremony of Innocence with photos from the Aldeburgh production giving an idea of how comparatively small the Maltings' 'stage' was.

[Jane S]

I'd say Ceremony of Innocence was at least twice as effective, in every way, at Snape.

 

Also, I gather that last night was Deirdre Chapman's last performance with the company - she's been a strong presence and there's no-one else quite like her to fill the gap she'll leave.

[Bruce Wall]

I thought Deidre Chapman was - as I had before - ABSOLUTELY exquisite in CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE which I have come to admire (once the lights were adjusted after the initial ROH outings.)  What a way to go out.  There was part of me wishing that they had been able to film it with her in it.  She was oh, so vivid.  

[Josephine]

A very strong, but also a serene presence. I'm glad to have so many lovely memories of Deirdre Chapman's performances, with both RB and Rambert. It seems sad that ROH gave no prior announcement of her last performance (unless this was her wish). But what a beautiful final show. I'll miss her very much.

[Jamesrhblack]

A very strong, but also a serene presence. I'm glad to have so many lovely memories of Deirdre Chapman's performances, with both RB and Rambert. It seems sad that ROH gave no prior announcement of her last performance (unless this was her wish). But what a beautiful final show. I'll miss her very much.

I'd hoped to get to Mknday's performance and am particularly sorry to have missed Deidre Chapman's last performance. She doesn't seem to have featured in anything much recently and my impression was that she had been taken out of many of her dancing roles but I have very fond memories of her as Myrtha and, in particular, Mitzi Caspar, whiskey earlier this year, her mime as Berthe was superb vivid, and, happily, preserved on the DVD.

[Ann Williams]

Yes, Ms Chapman will most definitely be missed, not only as a remarkable dancer but as a valued behind-the scenes organiser.  I wish her the very best of luck with her future plans.