Dutch NB La Dame aux Camelias

[Don Q Fan]

I saw the premiere of Neumeier"s La Dame aux Camellias last night in Amsterdam. Will write more when I am home but interested to hear if anyone else went and what your thoughts are.

Initial thoughts are that it had a lot of huge lifts and a lot of hard work for the main roles. M&A played by Igone de Jonge and Marijn Rademaeker looked physically and emotionally exhausted at the end with Igone looking close to tears. The piano playing was shared by 4 wonderful pianists. John Neumeier joined the cast on stage for the curtain calls. It was a red carpets night as celebs were being photographed mo idea who tho!!!

Edited April 11, 2015 by Don Q Fan

[Don Q Fan]

The premiere performance of La Dame was really good.  Marguerite was Igone de Jongh and Armand Marijn Rademaker with the roles of Manon and De Grieux played by Maia Makhateli and Artur Shesterikov and Armand’s father played by Casey Herd. It is a long time since I saw La Dame - once previously in Paris at POB so it was really a totally new experience again. The choreography was complex and the acting compelling, telling the sad tale of Marguerite and Armand and the end was really quite emotional. The ballet is full of huge lifts for the men and several extended pdds for M&A, especially in Act 2. I counted 9 different costumes for M all of which were lovely.  I liked very much the corps de ballet in Act 2 where they are all dressed in white and the ballroom scene in Act 3 - however, as La Dame features 2 sort of side stages it was hard to know where to look because you had M&A acting on a side stage with the corps dancing on the main stage. Not knowing the ballet too well I opted for watching M&A on the first night certainly.  I really enjoyed the little excerpts from Manon - I would though as I am very fond of Maia Makhateli's dancing after her performances in Jewels. I also liked a short solo that Artur Shesterikov performed as De Grieux with lots of pirouettes.  Again I really enjoyed Young Gyu Choi who played a very lively Gaston Rieux and he partnered Vera Tsyganova as Prudence Duvernoy.  The music throughout was just beautiful the orchestra sounded great to me and the piano soloists were fabulous.  I think the choice of Chopin’s piano concertos for La Dame is perfect.   At the end of the premiere performance it was quite something to see just Igone and Marijn standing together on stage taking the first applause – they were totally stunned I think by the emotion and their own achievement, I will never forget the look Igone gave Marijn.  At the end of the curtain calls the dancers were joined by John Neumeier, the choreographer which was a lovely touch.

The Saturday performance was danced by Anna Tsygankova and James Stout as Marguerite and Armand.  Knowing the story a bit more from the day before helped to enjoy the performance even more and even though I had only seen it the night before I saw new things.  The roles of Manon and De Grieux were danced by Jurgita Dronina and Vito Mazzeo.  Gaston and Prudence were danced by the same dancers as on the Friday and much of the corps was the same.  I felt overall that I enjoyed the Saturday performance more – the dancing itself was just as good as the Friday but I think it helped that I understood the story line more.  I also really liked Anna Tsygankova as Marguerite as she seemed to really suit that role.  James Stout is a First Soloist rather than Principal so maybe he will be on his way up the ranks after this!  Either way both performances were really excellent.

As I came away from the second performance I could not help but think Steven McRae would be phenomenal in the role of Armand as the role has so much to do and so much opportunity to demonstrate the skill of the dancer, I think he would be rather good – especially if Natalia Osipova were his Marguerite - that combination could be dynamite!! 

If you have the opportunity to catch DNB’s La Dame aux Camelias then grab it with both hands I say!

 

(Mods please can you correct the post title I dropped an 'a' thanks )

Edited April 15, 2015 by Don Q Fan