A new Royal Ballet Swan Lake?

[bangorballetboy]

Always wonder why Lez Brotherstone is not used to design for the Royal Ballet... such a fabulous artist who understands the needs of ballet...

Didn't Lez design Seven Deadly Sins?

[Tony Newcombe]

He did

[MAB]

I rather liked Hansel and Gretel.

[dances43]

I'm not sure that it's correct to say that Deane "owns" Ashton's choreography for Lac. According to the Ashton Foundation's website and http://ashtonballets.com/ it belongs to Anthony Russell-Roberts - perhaps Deane has leased it from him?

Edited February 17, 2015 by dances43

[James]

For a designer, I'd go to Bob Ringwood. His designs for ENB's Le Corsair were splendid.

 

As others have pointed out, whoever is asked to choreograph would have very limited scope to be radical. Ivanov's Act II must surely be sacrosanct, as is, probably, Petipa's Black Swan pas de deux. The tragic ending would also have to be retained, I think. Amongst British productions, only Deane's arena production has a happy ending, and I get the feeling that is more for pragmatic than artistic reasons.

 

On the ownership of Aston's choreography, all I can add is that, according to the programme note for Natalia Makarova's production for Festival Ballet in 1988, Ashton "gave" her the dances which he had created "at various times" for Covent Garden. These included the pas de douze (i.e. the waltz) and the pas de quatre in Act 1, the Neapolitan Dance in Act III and the pas de deux for Odette and Siegfried in Act IV. Ashton died before the premiere of that production, and the first performance became a gala in his memory.

[toursenlair]

For those curious about Wheeldon's Swan Lake, Pennsylvania Ballet has program notes on their website:

http://www.paballet.org/swan-lake

 

But Pennsylvania, and Joffrey, which also do this Swan Lake, are much smaller companies than the RB

[Sim]

For a designer, I'd go to Bob Ringwood. His designs for ENB's Le Corsair were splendid.

 

As others have pointed out, whoever is asked to choreograph would have very limited scope to be radical. Ivanov's Act II must surely be sacrosanct, as is, probably, Petipa's Black Swan pas de deux. The tragic ending would also have to be retained, I think. Amongst British productions, only Deane's arena production has a happy ending, and I get the feeling that is more for pragmatic than artistic reasons.

 

On the ownership of Aston's choreography, all I can add is that, according to the programme note for Natalia Makarova's production for Festival Ballet in 1988, Ashton "gave" her the dances which he had created "at various times" for Covent Garden. These included the pas de douze (i.e. the waltz) and the pas de quatre in Act 1, the Neapolitan Dance in Act III and the pas de deux for Odette and Siegfried in Act IV. Ashton died before the premiere of that production, and the first performance became a gala in his memory.

The happy ending is one of the things I really don't like about the Russian productions.  Call me morbid, but I prefer everyone to die!  That is what the music is saying to me, that there is death and then redemption and eternal happiness! 

[alison]

The tragic ending would also have to be retained, I think. Amongst British productions, only Deane's arena production has a happy ending, and I get the feeling that is more for pragmatic than artistic reasons.

 

He has pretty much said so: there was nowhere for his lovers to throw themselves into the lake in the original production.

 

The happy ending is one of the things I really don't like about the Russian productions.  Call me morbid, but I prefer everyone to die!  That is what the music is saying to me, that there is death and then redemption and eternal happiness! 

 

Absolutely, Sim.  Mind you, some productions I've seen get around that by omitting that part of the music

[Jan McNulty]

For a designer, I'd go to Bob Ringwood. His designs for ENB's Le Corsair were splendid.

 

On the ownership of Aston's choreography, all I can add is that, according to the programme note for Natalia Makarova's production for Festival Ballet in 1988, Ashton "gave" her the dances which he had created "at various times" for Covent Garden. These included the pas de douze (i.e. the waltz) and the pas de quatre in Act 1, the Neapolitan Dance in Act III and the pas de deux for Odette and Siegfried in Act IV. Ashton died before the premiere of that production, and the first performance became a gala in his memory.

The Makarova production premiered in Bradford and Sir Frederick Ashton was still very much alive as Ms Makarova persuaded him to join her on stage during the curtain calls. It was a very exciting evening and that was the icing on the cake! Maybe he had passed away before the London premiere.

[Bruce Wall]

The Makarova production premiered in Bradford and Sir Frederick Ashton was still very much alive as Ms Makarova persuaded him to join her on stage during the curtain calls. It was a very exciting evening and that was the icing on the cake! Maybe he had passed away before the London premiere.

 

Oh, the lucky, lucky people of Bradford on that occasion.  I'm so pleased that ENB still continues the tradition of opening major productions outside of London.  ENB's radiant Le Corsaire production opened in Milton Keynes I seem to recall. 

[alison]

Well, wouldn't you, given the option?  When do you ever see, for example, BRB or NB premiering works in London?

[Bruce Wall]

When do you ever see, for example, BRB or NB premiering works in London?

 

True, Alison, but those companies - BRB and NB - have their established bases in centres other than in London, i.e., Birmingham and Leeds respectively.  It would, I think, be most strange if they chose to premiere the majority of their new works in centres other than in their own committed territories.  ENB is, after all, - if not always historically - the English National Ballet, and I would assume that they would be under somewhat more pressure to premiere their new works in the 'English' capital which remains, I believe, London (much, say, as the extraordinary Lest We Forget triple bill was).  Of course in 1991 (the time of the Makarova SL) ENB would still have been known as LFB and BRB would have been in only the first year of its use of that title as opposed to its former name, Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Bruce Wall

[Jan McNulty]

The Makarova Swan Lake premiered in 1987 (autumn).

[Don Q Fan]

I wondered if Scarlett would be in with a chance...interesting IF it is him to see what he does with it. Yes a good move on O'Hares's part keep things interesting. I mean RB SL can't be much worse than it already is can it?!

[Bruce Wall]

The Makarova Swan Lake premiered in 1987 (autumn).

 

Bless you, Janet.  I did try to quickly look it up - but was obviously trying to do too many things at once.  They mistakenly list 1988 on Makarova's Wikipedia listing so at least I am not alone in that confusion.  At that time, 1987 of course, BRB would have been SWRB ... and it would have been the first year of Christopher Gable's extraordinary tenure in shaping (the then) NBT. 

Edited February 19, 2015 by Bruce Wall

[Ian Macmillan]

Ismene Brown has joined in on this in The Spectator:

 

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/arts-feature/9446622/will-the-real-swan-lake-please-stand-up/

[Anna C]

Not to mention that £$%^%$& Jester, and the lack of mime. (And, for that matter, drama, quite often)

Annoying jester aside, I have to step in in defence of the Mariinsky's production designs and costumes for Swan Lake - my favourite production of the ballet in terms of visual appeal. :-)

[billboyd]

I love the Jester.

[Angela]

Whilst Wheeldon has much to recommend him, is he capable of choreographing interesting and attractive dancing for the corps, including the swans, to the traditional music?

 

aileen, I've seen Wheeldon's Swan Lake at Karlsruhe Ballet in Germany (here's a short trailer), and the corps de ballet scenes were especially beautiful - what I did not like so much were acts 1 and 3, also the character of Rotbart, who actually looked a bit like Wayne McGregor . Wheeldon had the unusual number of 18 or 19 swans, as the production was made for a smaller company (Pennsylvania), but what he did with them was really, really great - a pure white act as it should be, where much reminded of Ivanov. I don't remember how close it was to the traditional versions, it was some years ago. The "gimmick" of his production are the Degas girls in act 1 - you see Paris Opera at the times of Degas. For a smaller company, it's a great production, I liked it very much. Which does not mean you could adopt the concept for a big company, I rather doubt that.

[aileen]

Thanks for posting this, Angela. The clip is very interesting. The dance of the cygnets looks like the 'traditional' one. The costumes for the ball scene look a bit strange. Who is the woman twirling around in the black shorts? More generally, is Swan Lake a staple of German ballet companies? I don't remember seeing any reviews of performances listed in the Links section of the forum.

 

Norwegian National Ballet have a new Swan Lake with actual water. I suspect that it's a pretty contemporary version.

[rowan]

Is this version the same as the Christopher Wheeldon version performed by Joffrey Ballet? I assume so. In which case, the woman in black shorts is performing the Russian dance - you can tell by the headdress. There's  a review of it here:  

 

http://www.pointemagazine.com/issues/februarymarch-2015/studio-stage

[Bruce]

I love the Jester.

What an annoying little twerp.

(the Jester, Bill - not you!)

[billboyd]

The Jester - super dancing!

 

I can't get enough super dancing!

[aileen]

Has the jester always been a feature of Russian productions and why is there one anyway? I thought that jesters were a feature of the Tudor and Elizabethan courts in England. Were they a feature of the Russian court at one time?

[alison]

I mean RB SL can't be much worse than it already is can it?!

 

You reckon?  I think there's a lot of room for ... disimprovement, if there is such a word?  I mean, they could kill Rothbart by pulling his wing off, have a happy ending, have loads of tubby blokes prancing around as courtiers in Act I, Odette standing on pointe on her partner's head ...  This is starting to feel like that game where you construct a person by putting together separate (and disparate) heads/torsos/legs/feet on paper/card.

 

In fact, I feel a new thread coming on: Nightmare Swan Lakes ... 

[alison]

Norwegian National Ballet have a new Swan Lake with actual water. I suspect that it's a pretty contemporary version.

 

Oh?  You mean they've dumped the Peter Wright version?

[John Mallinson]

A couple of reviews of the Wheeldon version: Penn Ballet 2004, Joffrey Ballet 2014.

[aileen]

I don't know, alison. There are references to a more traditional production (with jester!) staged by Anne-Marie Holmes. The one with the water is choreographed by Alexander Ekman and I don't think that the RB will be looking for something along those lines.......

[Angela]

Who is the woman twirling around in the black shorts? More generally, is Swan Lake a staple of German ballet companies? I don't remember seeing any reviews of performances listed in the Links section of the forum.

The girl in shorts is from one of the national dances, as rowan says. The third act takes place in some sort of cabaret.

 

And: yes, of course, all German ballet companies have a Swan Lake in their repertory, most of them specifically made for them.

Berlin has Patrice Bart, Hamburg has Neumeier's "Illusions like Swan Lake", both availably on DVD, Munich had one by Ray Barra and now has Neumeier (because it takes place in Bavaria, I guess), Dresden has one by Aaron Watkin and Stuttgart still has the beautiful old one by Cranko, which by the way influenced Nureyev's Vienna version very much. Ballet on the Rhine at Düsseldorf has no story ballets, but also smaller companies do Swan Lake: Karlsruhe, Dortmund, Essen for example. Classical or modern versions, all different. If you don't read about them online, that's because most of our newspapers are in German   

[James]

The Makarova production premiered in Bradford and Sir Frederick Ashton was still very much alive as Ms Makarova persuaded him to join her on stage during the curtain calls. It was a very exciting evening and that was the icing on the cake! Maybe he had passed away before the London premiere.

Sorry I got that totally wrong. Looks like I assumed that the gala dedicated to Sir Fred was the first performance, when clearly it wasn't. That must have been some evening.

My programme note from 1990 also says that Makarova sometimes cast different dancers as Odette and Odile. That wasn't the case when I saw it (with a young Leanne Benjamin). Who did the premiere, Janet? 

[alison]

I was about to say that I assumed the premiere was cast as on the video, i.e. Schaufuss and Hart, but in fact it was Patrick Armand, I *think* with Susan Hogard? 

[alison]

Actually, maybe not Hogard, unless they split the role on the first night?  I thought she started dancing Odette only, but could be wrong - it was just slightly before my time.

[Two Pigeons]

Janet and I were talking about this last night. She was fairly sure that Trinidad Sevilliano (probably spelt that wrongly) was Odette. You are right about Patrick Armand and Susan Hogard as Odile.