The Royal Ballet: Woolf Works, Spring 2015

[Booklover89]

After seeing this on Wednesday, and enjoying Parts I and III, my next thoughts were how they would revive it. Does it necessarily need an older female lead to convince? And would it be as good without Ms Ferri?

 

I would really like to see Zenaida Yanowsky in the Ferri role...has she ever done any McGregor?  She doesn't seem to be in his group of regular dancers...

[alison]

Both she and McGregor comment about age and using a dancer in her 50's, with all the experience and 'baggage' she brings. 

 

This reminds me of a recurring thought through the various performances I've seen: if she'd been at the Paris Opera Ballet, she'd have been forcibly retired a decade earlier.  I think that says pretty much all there is to say about that policy.

[ambros1a]

After seeing this on Wednesday, and enjoying Parts I and III, my next thoughts were how they would revive it. Does it necessarily need an older female lead to convince? And would it be as good without Ms Ferri?

 

Can't imagine this without Ferri...

[Ian Macmillan]

..... and that might very well consign this piece to the archives after a single run?

[Sim]

Ferri is an incredibly tough act to follow....but I can imagine it with Zen or Laura Morera.

[Geoff]

Ferri is an incredibly tough act to follow....but I can imagine it with Zen or Laura Morera.

Or how about Viviana Durante (remember her Anastasia, just one example)? She lives in London too. Edited May 25, 2015 by Geoff

[Bruce Wall]

Or how about Viviana Durante (remember her Anastasia, just one example)? She lives in London too.

 

Does Ferri LIVE in London, Geoff?  I had thought otherwise.  Another suggestion - one - although not resident in this fair city as far as I am aware - but who had certainly guested for a few performances with the RB in the past and is without hesitation 'a name' cherished by balletomanes of a similar vintage to those emboldened by the heights of Ferri's prime - would be Nina Ananiashvili.  In the picture below provided by ABT principal M. Gomes yesterday you can see that she is still taking class en pointe.  I should think - should the RB management be again searching for someone 'outside' their current realm - (and I agree that both Yanowsky and Morera - or, say, the glorious Deirdre Chapman of the more recent RB acclaim as I suggested in an earlier post - would be more than fine in this assignment) - that she might - just might - make a good fist of the death throws of McGregor's VW.  I would love to see Muntagirov or Ball in the Bonelli string. 

 

https://instagram.com/p/3EnSqiiuRh/

Edited May 25, 2015 by Bruce Wall

[zxDaveM]

If Ms Ferri can't do the next run (and I'd be amazed if they didn't run it at least one more time in the near future), then Mara Galeazzi would appear the natural choice, as she has been cover for this run...

[Beryl H]

I think the fact that Alessandra Ferri has danced every performance is why there has been no second cast for the Federico Bonelli roles, it would be nice next time to have at least 2 really different casts for every ballet, I could see Lauren Cuthbertson as Virginia Woolf, she has the artistry and maturity to dance an older person, and we are happily accepting Bonelli as the husband, who was as old as Virginia surely?

 

I'm so pleased the rail strike was cancelled and I can see it for the 4th time tomorrow, if there were more performances in the summer I would be trying to get tickets!

[Fonty]

No offence to Galeazzi, whose performances I used to enjoy very much, but she isn't quite the superstar that Ferri was/is. 

 

I think it really does need someone with both the maturity and the exceptional artistic skills to pull it off, and I am sure her name pulled in a lot of people as well.  I don't know that much about Ananiashvili, but love the idea of Durante.  

Edited May 25, 2015 by Fonty

[Geoff]

Interesting that London is currently home to both Guillem and Ferri

Does Ferri LIVE in London, Geoff? I had thought otherwise.

Perhaps the two of you can argue this out, I have no further information! Edited May 25, 2015 by Geoff

[JennyTaylor]

Actually this did convert me to Wayne McGregor and I only booked because I was lucky enough to sit on the same table as Gary Avis at the Ballet Association dinner and he talked about it . I thought it was stunning and was blown away by Alessandra Ferri who I had never seen live on stage.  Act 1 was my favourite, Act 2 my least.  But overall, the experience was very exciting. 

[MargaretN7]

Am I the only one who can see the oak tree in Act 2?

(In the novel the tree itself and the poem Orlando is writing about it feature throughout)

[alison]

I can't say I noticed it: where was it?

[Sim]

I hadn't either, but being in row W of the amphi I probably missed a lot!  Will keep an eye open tomorrow night when I will be sitting lower down.

[zxDaveM]

Am I the only one who can see the oak tree in Act 2?

 

 

The one with the yellow ribbon round it?

[Vanartus]

:-) brightened up my morning! Re earlier thread re alternatives to Ferri: I'd add Leanne Benjamin to the list. I would have loved to have seen second cast for second part, but stupidly double booked Guillem. Still two friends of mine are very happy! I saw first and second performances and it still resonates. An amazing piece. And I don't think I heard people talking so much about what they'd seen in the intervals. Or people being so moved after the performance. I know it would be treating WW as a Matthew Bourne type show, but I could see a three week run (given more than one complete cast) outside of the actual season and possibly in a new venue (if technology allows). Really pleased most of the critics really liked it, but thought Telegraph surprisingly and unfairly harsh.

[Jacqueline]

Perhaps the two of you can argue this out, I have no further information!

For clarity, regarding my comment about London 'currently being home' to both Ferri and Guillem, I was referring to the fact that both dancers are appearing in London theatres at this time. 

I felt it interesting to be able to compare and contrast these two uniquely talented women. Close in age, one about to retire from dance and the other returning to the stage. I presume London is their home for the duration although I understand Miss Ferri lives in America and Miss Guillem mainly in Switzerland.

[alison]

thought Telegraph surprisingly and unfairly harsh.

 

Me too, having read the review the same day I went to see the performance.  But he's a critic, and critics are paid to have opinions ...

[Vanartus]

Me too, having read the review the same day I went to see the performance. But he's a critic, and critics are paid to have opinions ...

[Vanartus]

...Jann Parry surprisingly harsh too...

[aileen]

There was another very harsh review from, I think, The Arts Desk.

[capybara]

 but thought Telegraph surprisingly and unfairly harsh.

 

Interestingly, quite a lot of people seem to concur with the kind of view expressed in the Telegraph but they are saying so rather than going into print on the Forum. Someone mentioned to me that it had become fashionable to like WW and it was therefore difficult to swim against the tide.

[Vanartus]

I guess The Spectator captured both views in Ismene's review...

[alison]

Interestingly, quite a lot of people seem to concur with the kind of view expressed in the Telegraph but they are saying so rather than going into print on the Forum. Someone mentioned to me that it had become fashionable to like WW and it was therefore difficult to swim against the tide.

 

Well, swimming against the tide can be very difficult, it's true, but if people didn't do it then where would we be?  If you ask me, there's not enough of it.  And God forbid that "fashion" should influence anyone's views on anything.

[alison]

...Jann Parry surprisingly harsh too...

 

There was another very harsh review from, I think, The Arts Desk.

 

Parry's, I thought, was fair.  I decided to ignore the Arts Desk one.

[MargaretN7]

The one with the yellow ribbon round it?

If the oak tree in Act 2 had a yellow ribbon round it, DaveM, it was tied in slow motion 

[Jamesrhblack]

Looking forward to tonight. Astonishing though that with a sold out house and a queue for returns there are no programmes available (and the Amphitheatre restaurant isn't open either). Very pleased I made the effort to read Mrs Dalloway (can't say I enjoyed it much) and to find summaries of Orlando and The Waves online, Impresions of the piece to follow in due course.

[aileen]

I saw the 'second' cast in Becomings last night and, for me, the leads didn't have the same impact as those in the 'first' cast, although the solo to the piano music was very expressive. They couldn't match Osipova and McRae's blazing dancing.The opening actually felt rather flat; strangely, the music didn't seem as loud.

 

I do wonder whether the programme would ever be as effective without the key figures of Ferri, Watson, Osipova and McRae but I suppose that that's been said before in relation to other new work.

[Sim]

I thought that Olivia Cowley outdid Osipova last night.  Campbell was good but didn't have McRae's 'wow' factor.  Itziar Mendizabal was also excellent.   A choreographer friend I was with thought that the opening to Becoming was the best part of it, and thought that it was beautifully done.  I will try and write a few impressions later.

[zxDaveM]

Fumi Kaneko tore up the stage too, I reckon.

[capybara]

Fumi Kaneko tore up the stage too, I reckon.

 

This is good to hear. She is a real talent.

[RuthE]

Just out of curiosity, does anybody know whose voice the solo soprano in the score of Tuesday (The Waves) is?

 

Finally discovered the answer to this in passing on Twitter - either Kiandra Howarth or Lauren Fagan (both Jette Parker Young Artists).  I didn't actually realise it was a live singer - I assumed the voice had been sampled - but Lauren said she and Kiandra had each sung 4 shows.