Bruce Wall Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 (edited) I wonder whether Salenko is going to join the US tour for Don Q as there are a lot of performances to cover. I would think the Royal Ballet would want to showcase their own established principals when away from home - especially as they are the ones who have had key exposure in the RB cinema broadcasts internationally. Still, one never knows ... and, of course, it will I suppose be hinged on Ms. Salenko's availability as she is a principal with the Berlin State Ballet as is her husband (and I'm sure Mr. Duato will want to be using her gifts as well) and the injury demands of the Royal's female principal contingent at the time of their US tour. Is Ms. Salenko known in the US? I know she has danced with Daniil Simkin (an ABT principal) in Europe .. but has she appeared with a major American company previously? Mr. McRae certainly has as he participated in an exchange programme between the Royal and ABT which I do not believe is currently on-going. ABT now seem to have a similar arrangement with at least one major Russian company.) Certainly Golding will be known in the US - even though he has not participated in a RB cinema transmission - as he was previously in the ABT corps and would have danced in all of this tour's venues. Edited January 20, 2015 by Bruce Wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Really looking forward to seeing Lamb/Bonnelli tomorrow but even more to Salenko/MacRae on Thursday I agree such a shame Valentino is not doing Espada I was looking forward to seeing his take on the part I am sure he would have been very exuberant! Just hope my newly sprained ankle will see me up the stairs at ROH in one piece!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Without Salenko the RB has four female principals who dance DQ one of whom is Marquez who seems to have had a long period of injury. Is that enough to cover two weeks (around a dozen performances) of DQ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 (edited) Without Salenko the RB has four female principals who dance DQ one of whom is Marquez who seems to have had a long period of injury. Is that enough to cover two weeks (around a dozen performances) of DQ? Personally, if the RB were in need of another Kitri for the USA tour I would love to see them give a chance to Laura Morera rather than importing a - with all due respect - and I mean that sincerely - less than international star name - to take nothing away from the quality of her dancing. It would, I should think be well deserved and surely Ms. Morera would be familiar with the production having been with this particular Acosta take from its earliest inception. Moreover, she would have had RB cinema exposure. I assume that Osipova will be dancing Kitri on the tour as well - having fully rehearsed it in London. That should do wonders for the Washington/Chicago box office I should think as her name is well linked to DQ in the States. Edited January 20, 2015 by Bruce Wall 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Bonnelli is out tonight being replaced by McRae just hope McRae will be OK for tomorrow too! The injuries have been terrible this run....assuming it is an injury that's put Bonnelli out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Bonnelli is out tonight being replaced by McRae just hope McRae will be OK for tomorrow too! The injuries have been terrible this run....assuming it is an injury that's put Bonnelli out. The announcement did not mention injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 No indeed I know now why but am sworn to secrecy by the informer. All will be revealed. To the performance last night. Hmm well I don't think it was Sarah Lamb's best work by a long mile, possibly due to the last minute change of partner. She didn't quite make a full 32 fouettes by my count more like 28 but to her credit she did put her arm above her head a couple of times. She came out of the fouettes very untidyily. The fish dives looked really awkward and one nearly didn't work. Then there was a stand en pointe that crumbled maybe the shoe broke? I also found she did not dance one solo bit anything like Nunez or Takada it was in Act3 down a diagonal line where usually tiny steps are taken but her version was not the usual. No definitely not her night. Steven McRae was very flighty and seemed to enjoy himself but I think tonight with Iana will be even better. Matthew Golding was great as Espada I liked him a lot in that role. I do not think Gamache is Hirano's role he should stick to Espada I have seen him twice as Gamache but Thomas Whitehead and Johannes Stepanek are my preferred Gamaches. The corp de ballet were very good and I enjoyed all their scenes. The Dream Scene was lovely with Kaneko as Queen and Maguire as Amour so so pretty. Those tutus are gorgeous. The gypsy scene and guitars were all good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scheherezade Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Later posts about Don Q have been far more favourable than the earlier posts. I am not sure whether this is due to the change of casts or the fact that the production has now bedded in. In the last run, I saw the Nunez and Acosta pairing, which although enjoyable - I felt that the more considered, narrative element gave more meaning to the performance -felt a tad insipid when compared with the fabulous Bolshoi Vasipova vehicle. I saw two performances in the current run, the Osipova/Golding debut, which I thought showed a lot of promise before the very real shock of Osipova's fall and, inevitably, the extraordinarily long interval destroyed the continuity, making it difficult to form a true impression of whether this ballet truly fell within the company's comfort zone. The general feedback on Golding and Tsygankova would suggest that Golding could really make something of this role with the right partner and I am sorry that I wasn't there to form my own impression. As for McRae and Salenko - wow! I can only echo the comments of the other posters. And isn't McRae's showmanship exactly what this ballet needs? Pizzazz, technique, charisma - and, in his first performance in this run, easily the longest overhead lift I have ever seen. I also loved Fumi Kaneko as Queen of the Dryads. She made the technical demands look effortless, unlaboured. There was an easy serenity to her dancing. I felt that she inhabited this role far better than Melissa Hamilton in last year's run. I can't remember who danced in the Osipova/Golding performance. This is possibly because she was overshadowed by Francesca Hayward, who was so exquisite as Amour, and perhaps Anna Rose O'Sullivan made slightly less of an impression in the McRae/Salenko performance because Fumi Kaneko was so good. Comparisons are inevitable, aren't they? I was looking forward to Zucchetti's Espada as I felt that he would have the necessary bravura for the role but he did not impress me as much as Hirano and I feel that the same is true of almost anyone's Mercedes when compared with the sassiness of Laura Morera, who holds the eye like almost no-one. I can only reiterate the sentiments of everyone who wonders why she hasn't yet been cast as Kitri, a role which seems tailor-made for her. I don't necessarily agree with the criticisms of the costumes and sets. Whilst the lilac costumes of Kitri's friends may be less than inspired, I have no real problem with the remaining costumes which, along with the white-beige hues of the village square, have more than a hint of sun-bleached southern Spain during a long, hot summer. And I love the hallucinogenic quality of the giant flowers during the dream scene and the oppressively tangled branches framing the gypsy encampment like a Grimm illustration against the setting sun. I may again be in the minority, but I also enjoyed the gypsy scene, which again had the flavour of authenticity and did not overstay its welcome (unlike the tedious caucus race in Alice). All in all, I feel that this Don Q rewards with repeated viewings and, with the right principals, provides a satisfying and even thrilling experience. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I think what bugs me most about the outfits for Kitri's friends is that they don't get different dresses for the wedding (and, depending on what pairing you get, the dresses can be vastly different in colour). Now, what friends of the bride would simply turn up to her wedding in their normal daywear and just stick a fascinator in their hair?! The other thing that has got me every time I've seen this run is Basil's "suicide". Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but every one I've seen has to my mind fallen totally flat, compared with, well, virtually every other production I've seen, narratively *and* comedically, if there is such a word. I don't know whether it's a fault with the comic timing or what, but it hasn't once worked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I saw this tonight for the first time this run and the third time for the production. I'm not an admirer of McRae but can see this is a good role for him, flashy and cheeky without any real gravitas or acting required and I thought his first act was excellent. In the grand pas though he went for technical whizz over musicality and characterisation - too gimmicky and preening and the first series of tours and turns in his variation were so far off the music that it was painful to watch. But Salenko was lovely and he was a decent partner so no real complaints about the leads. Some lovely supporting performances too, Hirano played the camp for laughs very successfully as Espada and I thought Mayara Magri as Mercedes has the makings of a future Kitri. By the way, I did see Laura Morera do Kitri, back in the Ross Stretton era (standing in for an injured Cojocaru) and can confirm that she was very good so it would be nice to see that again. That other performance I loved back in 2001 was Yanowsky as a beautiful Queen of the Dryads and I wonder why she is no longer dancing that role? I have seen three different Queens in this production and they have all had serious issues. Tonight it was Fumi Kaneko, who had a very promising start with lovely phrasing, building the height of the side developpes nicely instead of going all out on the first one, but then she came to grief on the fouettes as did the other two Queens I saw in the last run. I wonder have I just been unlucky or is the RB under casting this role? I have seen three Don Qs by Russian companies in London over the years and this solo was always cleanly done and I wondered how other companies manage? Is this solo so technically difficult that it needs a principal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 That other performance I loved back in 2001 was Yanowsky as a beautiful Queen of the Dryads and I wonder why she is no longer dancing that role? Since she no longer dances Myrtha because it's too much jumping, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) I was at the DQ Thursday evening and, while I certainly continue to find much of this production NOT to my taste - above all its orchestration which (as conducted [as it was at that performance] and construed by Martin Yates) is delivered by seeming way of the pump room in Bath - I do heartily applaud Stephen McRae, Thursday's Basilio, for doing considerably more than his level best - which is, heaven knows, considerable - as towards imaginatively filling in and through the gaps that have in some other instances arisen herein. His efforts and their dedicated elan - most keenly in some of Acosta's rather ungainly choreographed partnering demands - were enormously appreciated and deserve our hearty applause (as does this coupling's outstanding hair colour co-ordination being - as it is - aflame.). Sadly this was not a performance where Ms. Salenko's noted technical acumen was showered consistently throughout and, even more unfortunately, Fumi came rather a cropper in her Vision Sequence solo as the Queen of Dryads I fear. (While I am delighted to read that others saw RB representatives/soloists who were able to deliver the Italian fouettees as the Dryad Queen during this run, they were - I fear - not in the selection who attempted such at the performances I paid to attend. Who, I wonder, is minding that aspect of overall RB quality control? ... and I ask that having seen a total of five performances of the Acosta DQ. I must say it made the consistency of ENB Company's deft discipline in all areas of their recent two week string of Swan Lakes even more laudable in my memory.) For this reason alone the petite Anna Rose O'Sullivan came tonight as somewhat of a welcome relief as Amour - if not entirely (and understandably) in the same league as the breathtaking Ms. Hayward who - even in her corps assignment within this performance - managed to stand out. A final special note of sincere thanks during this performance for the ever imaginative Bennett Gartside. His Gamache offered a plethora of comedic detail for which I - as but one of but a full capacity many - was entirely grateful. Edited January 23, 2015 by Bruce Wall 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunrise Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Since she no longer dances Myrtha because it's too much jumping, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here too. She was a soloist or at newly promoted principal back in 2001 wasn't she? I think the Queen of the Dryads is more of a soloist role and I guess that more senior principals would prioritise principal roles. I do miss Yanowsky's Myrtha though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Thanks Alison - I wondered whether it might be a technical demands thing with Yanowsky, although I think she still does Odette/Odile and the Queen of the Dryads doesn't have nearly as much jumping as Myrtha. And yes Sunrise, the RB does seem to be treating it as a soloist role but I suppose I am questioning whether that is the right thing to do if your soloists are defeated by the technical demands. Or is it the quality of the soloists? When I saw Yanowsky's Queen, Cojocaru was Amour and Nunez the Streetdancer and I'm not sure whether they were soloist or principals at the time (Rojo who was Kitri was definitely a principal). Anyway it seems that casting went deeper in terms of talent back then, yet we are always hearing about these amazing competition dancers who can do incredible tricks and come from all over the world to join the RB. So why can't they find someone who can reliably perform a series of Italian fouettes? Do other companies cast this at principal level or do they simply have better soloists? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I think I said earlier in this thread or the thread on the previous run that ABT were having Italian fouette issues in their run last Spring. I've seen many dancers I've admired over the years coming a cropper with them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 That's interesting Janet. Do you know whether ABT were using principals or soloists for the role? By the way I am under no illusion that it is an easy solo! Just interested that top ballet companies are regularly fielding dancers who can't complete it cleanly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I've no idea Lindsay as I don't follow ABT. I just read the comments on an American ballet forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 The other thing that has got me every time I've seen this run is Basil's "suicide". Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but every one I've seen has to my mind fallen totally flat, compared with, well, virtually every other production I've seen, narratively *and* comedically, if there is such a word. I don't know whether it's a fault with the comic timing or what, but it hasn't once worked for me. I thought the mock-suicide scene lost a lot of its usual impact by being played too far upstage - I'm not sure why that should matter but it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunrise Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) And yes Sunrise, the RB does seem to be treating it as a soloist role but I suppose I am questioning whether that is the right thing to do if your soloists are defeated by the technical demands. Or is it the quality of the soloists? When I saw Yanowsky's Queen, Cojocaru was Amour and Nunez the Streetdancer and I'm not sure whether they were soloist or principals at the time (Rojo who was Kitri was definitely a principal). Anyway it seems that casting went deeper in terms of talent back then, yet we are always hearing about these amazing competition dancers who can do incredible tricks and come from all over the world to join the RB. So why can't they find someone who can reliably perform a series of Italian fouettes? Do other companies cast this at principal level or do they simply have better soloists? I think that Cojocaru was promoted to principal the season before Don Q, and Nunez was promoted the season after in 2002. It was a funny season though, with Stretton in charge, and I remember some disquiet about dancers cast above and below their rank, and Cojocaru and Nunez straddling principal and soloist roles and were dancing a lot of everything (Cojocaru cast as both Tatiana and Olga in same run of Onegin comes to mind ). Of the principals now who still do what I usually think are soloist roles, I can only think of Morera. Maybe there just isn’t enough rehearsal time to do everything or it's not worth risking overworking the dancers. As for whether its the right thing to do, maybe too much fluidity in casting isn't good for company/dancer morale? The Queen of the Dryads is such a tiny role and not even central to the plot, so I can see why even though it's difficult, it's reserved for soloists. Edited January 23, 2015 by Sunrise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Well you could say the same about the Sugar Plum Fairy who only has the pas de deux in Act 2, but some principals dance that. I personally think that a company of RB's standing should not put out dancers who are going to visibly struggle in a solo, however insignificant the role. Better to redesignate it a principal role and then principal dancers should not feel that it is beneath them to dance it. Of course management has to have an eye to morale in the company but if they are not putting out high quality performances then what is the point of any of it? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLOSS Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 The Acosta production of Don Q is evidence, if evidence were needed, that being a great dancer does not guarantee that you will be any good at staging a ballet. I have had a chance to see the DVD of Ratmansky's production of Don Q for Dutch National Ballet and it is so much structurally tighter and better designed except for the tutus worn in the last act.There are no points at which everything stops while we wait for something to happen;Kitri gets a better first entrance than she does in Acosta's production;there is no Gypsy encampment; no shouting; the orchestration does not lurch between town band and palm court orchestra and the music may even be played in the order that Minkus intended.I'm afraid that I find the ballet's comedic elements heavy handed and unfunny whoever performs them.I do agree that Basilio's death is ineptly staged.Is Acosta just trying too hard to be different or hasn't he watched it from the front? Perhaps the difficulty that the Royal seems to be experiencing in casting a half decent Queen of the Dryads or Lilac Fairy is evidence that some of the much vaunted improvement in technique are not all that they are cracked up to be.Perhaps the ability to put your foot in your ear or to hold a balance interminably regardless of what the choreographer intended or the music permits is impressive to audiences and former dancers trained to a satisfy a different aesthetic but it's not much help if a company does not have dancers able to meet the choreographic requirements of ballets that are central to its repertory such as Beauty. I know that Kevin O'Hare has expressed a wish to develop his dancers but I think that some of the casting decisions have done no one any favours.I am not asking that we should always see the current equivalent of Deanne Bergsma cast as the Lilac Fairy or that Myrthe should always be danced by the current equivalents of Monica Mason and Deanne Bergsma but it would be nice to think that there were some dancers of their artistry,consistency and technical strength lurking somewhere in the company. On Monday night I thought that the company had finally found a decent Queen of the Dryads in Kaneko. The comments of those who attended last nights performance makes clear that she is not, at least at present,a consistent dancer. Is the problem lack of skill or too many casting decisions made to give dancers the chance to have a go regardless of their ability?In a company the size of BRB it may sometimes be necessary to make compromises in casting a ballet but that should not be necessary in a company the size of the Royal Ballet.If the Covent Garden company has to make casting compromises that suggests that something has gone wrong with recruitment to the company. Perhaps it is simply that in his desire not pigeonhole dancers in the company's old emploi categories Mr O'Hare has completely ignored their suitability or unsuitability for certain roles? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I hope that the company will resolve its QotD problem before the tour as the American audiences may not be as forgiving as its loyal home fans. American critics make many of their British counterparts sound like fluffy primary school teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunrise Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) Well you could say the same about the Sugar Plum Fairy who only has the pas de deux in Act 2, but some principals dance that. I personally think that a company of RB's standing should not put out dancers who are going to visibly struggle in a solo, however insignificant the role. Better to redesignate it a principal role and then principal dancers should not feel that it is beneath them to dance it. Of course management has to have an eye to morale in the company but if they are not putting out high quality performances then what is the point of any of it? I think Nutcracker's a bit of a special case - apart from it being such a starry vehicle, principals barely have anything else to do in a run of Nutcrackers (and if Nutcrackers didn't completely sell out anyway I'd make the point that the principals influence ticket sales too.) In a Don Q run, the most technically able dancers are probably dancing Kitri anyway - I don't think it's a great use of their resources to increase their workload with the Queen of the Dryads role too. Edited January 23, 2015 by Sunrise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scheherezade Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I thought the mock-suicide scene lost a lot of its usual impact by being played too far upstage - I'm not sure why that should matter but it did. I think that you have hit the nail on the head here, Jane. This scene calls for the dancers to ham it up to such an extent that it has to be played with a figurative wink to the audience and that sense of complicity is lost when the scene is played so far upstage. On Monday night I thought that the company had finally found a decent Queen of the Dryads in Kaneko. The comments of those who attended last nights performance makes clear that she is not, at least at present,a consistent dancer. Is the problem lack of skill or too many casting decisions made to give dancers the chance to have a go regardless of their ability?...... Perhaps it is simply that in his desire not pigeonhole dancers in the company's old emploi categories Mr O'Hare has completely ignored their suitability or unsuitability for certain roles? I, too, was disappointed to read that Kaneko's later performance(s) did not match up to Monday night's impressive showing. Could this have something to do with her earlier injury or has she not yet reached the necessary level of consistency? I think it has been suggested that since experience can no longer be gained via a touring arm of the company, castings made on a 'have a go' basis should perhaps be restricted to matinees but whilst this might solve the problem of unsuitability for a particular role, it would not resolve lack of consistency. What, then, is to be done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLOSS Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 The whole point about the origins of this ballet and Petipa's other later works such as Raymonda, Swan Lake,Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty was that they were created to display the Imperial company's abundance of dance talent.It's the reason for all the divertisements which hold up the action which are feature of these ballets. The Jardin animee in Le Corsaire is a prime example of a scene which exits for no other reason than to show off the corps and the choreographer's ability to display them to best advantage.The vision scene in Don Q is another example of display for its own sake. It seems to me that there is no point in Mr O'Hare acquiring a ballet unless he had dancers capable of performing it or was prepared to invest the necessary time in training and coaching them until they were capable.The technical weaknesses were obvious during the last revival of Beauty when none of the Lilac Fairies were up to the mark and again when this production was first mounted.I would have expected to have seen real improvement among those cast as Queen of the Dryads this time round and at least one or two who had achieved real mastery of the role. It is a Principal's role or a role for a dancer whose technical strength and artistic ability mean that she is destined for the rank of Principal. If you have not got that sort of dancer readily available then common sense would suggest that you look among the young and eager who are technically secure and confident and, who, have not, yet, been persuaded that the role is beyond them.We might have expected Acosta to have plucked someone from the core for their potential,much as Makarova did when she selected a very young and inexperienced dancer called Lauren Cuthbertson to dance the Lilac Fairy in her new production of the Sleeping Beauty. But perhaps he does not have a good eye for potential either.It is worrying that we have had a series of casting decisions relating to roles which require a strong technique. Myrthe, Lilac Fairy and now Queen of the Dryads which are either evidence of a lack of suitable dancers for a role within the ranks of the company or an inability to identify them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachelm Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 When I saw Yanowsky's Queen, Cojocaru was Amour and Nunez the Streetdancer and I'm not sure whether they were soloist or principals at the time (Rojo who was Kitri was definitely a principal). Cojocaru and Nunez were first soloists, if my memory serves me correctly. I suspect Yanowsky also was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 With the greatest respect to Cuthbertson, I read fairly recently on this forum that she struggled painfully through the Lilac Fairy variation in the early days. Certain classical roles really expose lack of technique which is disguised by the drama and excitement of the MacMillan roles which so many dancers aspire to dance. It makes you wonder what the RBS, from which most of its dancers are recruited, is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 .It makes you wonder what the RBS, from which most of its dancers are recruited, is doing. Certainly producing some pretty fine young male dancers if recent outings by recent graduates from both Britain and abroad are anything to go by. And the fact that Matthew Ball, Donald Thom and Nicol Edmunds are cast as Lensky so early in their careers speaks volumes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 That's true, capybara. I was really thinking of the women. I've seen several lacklustre Lilac Fairies, Myrthes and QotDs danced by at least half a dozen different dancers and there are reports of less than stellar performances by other dancers in these roles whom I haven't seen on this forum. It's quite worrying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) And the fact that Matthew Ball, Donald Thom and Nicol Edmunds are cast as Lensky so early in their careers speaks volumes. And speaks highly of K. O'Hare in terms of his fulfilling his stated philosophical commitment to building the company from the bottom up. Next year's RBS graduating class has at least two more thrilling male dancers and I oh, so hope he brings those on board sooner rather than later if at all possible. (One is even British born!!!) It was lovely to see both as supernumeraries in Thursday's DQ performance. Edited January 23, 2015 by Bruce Wall 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I think that you have hit the nail on the head here, Jane. This scene calls for the dancers to ham it up to such an extent that it has to be played with a figurative wink to the audience and that sense of complicity is lost when the scene is played so far upstage. Not only that - although I think it's related - but it's never been clear to me what Kitri's thinking during that scene. Is she completely in on the deception from the start, what is she trying to accomplish, and so on? There seems to be a lot of gesticulation, but it's almost as though she keeps changing her mind, and the picture is fuzzy. At least from the amphitheatre. I think the additional distance certainly does contribute here, but am not sure it's at the root of the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Certainly producing some pretty fine young male dancers if recent outings by recent graduates from both Britain and abroad are anything to go by. And the fact that Matthew Ball, Donald Thom and Nicol Edmunds are cast as Lensky so early in their careers speaks volumes. Except that Nicol Edmunds was from Elmhurst, wasn't he? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Except that Nicol Edmunds was from Elmhurst, wasn't he? Whoops! So he was! All credit to them too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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