Terpsichore: Onegin

Showing posts with label Onegin. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 February 2025

My Third Attendance at the Royal Ballet's "Onegin"

https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/onegin-details

Royal Ballet Onegin Royal Ballet and Opera House, 15 Feb 2025, 13:00

Cranko's Onegin is a compelling watch. its subject is a man who toys with the emotions of two young women and their champion kills a man in a duel without any apparent legal or social consequences and attempts to seduce a married woman in her boudoir whom he had previously humiliated. An utter rotter who deserves to be horsewhipped and yet his only punishment is to be sent packing. My sense of justice was outraged.

I had seen the Royal Ballet's production twice before (see Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell 21 Feb 2016 and The Royal Ballet's "Onegin" 8 March 2020). The ballet is performed by many of the world's leading companies and I have published reviews of the Dutch National Ballet's version by Remco van Grevenstein (see Dutch National Ballet's Onegin 11 March 2017) and La Scala's by Helen McDonough (A Tale of Two Onegins 12 Nov 2017). The aspects of the ballet that had impressed me in the past had been Cranko's choreography, Stolze's score and Rose's designs. They impressed me again but on this occasion, I also had memories of Matthew Golding and Thiago Soares as Onegin to compare to Matthew Ball who danced the role yesterday.

Ball was a very convincing Onegin. He is an excellent actor and his looks remind me very much of Alexander Pushkin's image of his creation. I have learnt a lot about Onegin's character from each of the performances that I have attended but yesterday he came to life to me. In fact, Ball reminded me of all the Onegins I have met in real life and raised my indignation to the point of anger. On the train back to Wakefield I posted to Facebook a reflection that cads like Albrecht and Onegin seem to escape the consequences of their wrongdoing. Sarah Lambert pointed out that Albrecht gets his comeuppance in Dada Masilo's version which I reviewed in A Brace of Giselles while Bo Zhang observed pertinently:

"I don’t see why ballet the artistic form, instead of the dubious ideology of the authors/writers of these stories, has to bear the blame."

Perhaps because he is the most recent Onegin that I have seen, Ball was the most memorable. But then he must know the ballet like the back of his hand as he danced Lensky when I first saw the workin 2016.

The other leading characters resonated with me too. Just as Ball had been Lensky 9 years ago Yasmine Naghdi who had been Olga in 2016 became Tatiana yesterday. I think she was the most memorable Tatiana I have ever seen. Again because she is a superb dance actor. Osipova was a great princess and Itziar Mendizabal was a vulnerable and impressionable young woman but Naghdi was impressive both as the young Tatiana and the grown-up one. Leo Dixon won the audience's hearts as Lensky. We felt his ire as Onegin flirted with a playful Olga. In previous reviews, I had overlooked Olga as simply Tataian's empty-headed sister but Olga had to grow up quickly when Onegin picked up Lensky's gauntlet. It is actually quite a substantial role and Anna Rose O’Sullivan who danced Olga explored every aspect of it. I had not previously noted Harris Bell but I shall follow him in future because of his impressive role as Prince Gremin.

I learnt a lot about Pushkin's work yesterday. Possibly as much as anyone could short of learning Russian and reading the original text.

Tuesday, 29 December 2020

Dutch National Ballet's Christmas Gala

Artur Shesterikov in Hans van Manen's 5 Tangos

Dutch National Ballet Christmas Gala 19 Dec 2020 19:15 GMT

Even though it was performed without an audience and I watched it on a tiny laptop, I think I shall remember the Dutch National Ballet's Christmas Gala for as long as I live. It will stand out in my memory like Scottish Ballet's performance of David Dawson's Swan Lake at the Liverpool Empire on 3 June 2016 (see Empire Blanc: Dawson's Swan Lake 4 June 2016) or the first time I saw the Junior Company at the Stadsshouwburg in 2013.

Although there was no grand defilé, Radius Prize or reception after the show, it was very similar to the opening night gala in September which is always one of the highlights of my year. The show took place in the National Opera and Ballet's auditorium. The company's Director of Music and Principal Conductor, Matthew Rowe conducted the National Ballet Orchestra. The artists performed the following: short ballets or extracts from longer ballets:

Balanchine's Who Cares?
Echoes of Tomorrow by Wubkje Kuindersma to the music of Valentin Silvestrov
Wayne McGregor's Chroma
Grand Pas Classique by Valentin Silvestrov
David Dawson's Metamorphosis I to the music of Philip Glass
5 Tangos by Hans van Manen to the music of Astor Piazzolla
Rudi van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet
Ted Brandsen's Classical Symphony
Christopher Wheeldon's Duet
Hans van Manen's Solo
John Cranko's Onegin, and
The Nutcracker and The Mouse King.

I enjoyed all the works in the programme. It was very well balanced and must have satisfied every possible balletic preference: Broadway razzamatazz in Who Cares?, modern masterpieces such as van Manen's 5 Tangos and McGregor's Chroma, twentieth-century classics like Romeo and Juliet and Onegin, works that had never been heard before and The Nutcracker.

The evening was introduced by Milouska Meulens who is a presenter on Dutch television. She interviewed Ted Brandsen, Maia Makhateli Floor Eimers and members of the children's choir who provide the vocals for the snowflakes scene. That was a lovely touch because the children are usually hidden in most productions. Though the conversation was in Dutch it was clear that the children appreciated the attention.

Rafael Valdez, Edo Wijnen, Sho Yamada

The last time that I saw the National Ballet live on stage was at the Zuiderstrandtheater, a seaside theatre just outside The Hague on 17 Nov 2019. They performed a triple bill entitled Best of Balanchine which included Who Cares? (see Balanchine by the Beach 20 Nov 2019). Who Cares? is a favourite of American companies. but very few companies outside the United States can carry it off as well as the Americans. The Dutch National Ballet is one that can. This was the third time that I have seen the company dance the work and last Saturday's performance was the best, They danced Somebody Loves You with Salome Leverashvili, Khayla Fitzpatrick, Naira Agvanean, Erica Horwood and Floor Eimers, Bidin' My Time with Edo Wijnen, Giovanni Princic, Sho Yamada, Rafael Valdez and Dustin True, The Man I Love with Jessica Xuan and Martin ten Kortenaar, Stairway to Paradise with Nina Tonoli, My One and Only with Riho Sakamoto, Liza by Ten Kortenaar and I've Git Rhythm by the cast of that piece.

Salome Leverashvili and Timothy van Poucke.in Echoes
of Tomorrow

The first of two works that were premiered at the gala was Echoes of Tomorrow by Wubkje Kuindersma. Kuindersma is one of three choreographers who have recently been appointed as young creative associates of the company. Set to the music of Valentin Silvestrov's In Memory of Tchaikovsky for violin and piano the work represented a dialogue of two souls reliving an event in the past that they once shared. It was performed eloquently by Salome Leverashvili and Timothy van Poucke. Readers will remember the banter between Leverashvili and van Pouck in their blog which I mentioned in Missing Amsterdam! on 18 Feb 2018. Van Poucke is a remarkable young man. He has been in the company only since 2916 and he has already risen to grand sujet. In 2018 he won the Radius Prize which is normally awarded to principals.

Maia Makhateli and Vito Mazzeo in Chroma
Photo Hans Gerritsen © 2020 Dutch National Ballert

The next work was the pas de deux from Wayne McGregor's Chroma. I had seen the Dutch National Ballet perform the whole ballet in 2015 when they included it in their Cool Britannia. mixed bill. I had also seen performances of the work by Alvin Ailey and the Royal Ballet. Maia Makhateli and Vito Mazzeo danced it exquisitely. Even though they could not have heard me on the other side of the North Sea I clapped and cheered until my voice was hoarse and my palms were raw. My only reservation was that I am not sure that the pas de deux succeeds as a standalone work. The ballet's appeal lies in the combination of McGregor's choreography with Talbot's score and Pawson's architectural set designs. That did not quite come across in the extract.

Victor Gsovsky's Grand Pas Classique was new to me. The reason why I had not seen it before it that it is an exhibition piece to display the dancers' virtuosity. It had been created for Yvette Chauviré and Vladimir Skouratoff at the Theatre des Champs-Élysées in 1949. It could be regarded as a mid-twentieth century hommage to the Imperial Russian Ballet perhaps in the same way as the third act of Jewels. The ballerina is resplendent in a blue and white classical tutu. With spectacular jumps for the man and lots of fouettés for them both, it cannot be easy. Jessica Xuan and Jakob Feyferlik performed it with great flair and precision.

Anna Öl and James Stout

The second work to be premiered on 19 Dec was David Dawson's Metamorphis I. He is an Associate Artist of the Dutch National Ballet and he has created a lot of pieces for that company though my favourite of his works is his Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet. Metamorphosis I reminded me a little of Swan Lake possibly because Swan Lake is also about metamorphosis. The choreography and even the costumes seemed to echo that work. However, Philip Glass's music was different, A piano piece played by Olga Khoziainova. The dancers were Anna Öl and James Stout. Immediately after seeing this piece, I tweeted:

Ooh! A new work by @doublediamond1. Metamorphosis danced by Stout and Ol. It would be worth flying to Amsterdam just to see that short work again.
— Terpsichore (@jelterps) December 19, 2020

That just about sums up my impression of the work.

Hans van Manen was an important influence when I first took an interest in dance at the end of the 1960s. He has created a vast body of work over the years. Many - and I include myself in that number - regard him as the world's greatest living choreographer. One of his most popular works is 5 Tangos to the following pieces by Astor Pizzolla: Todo Buenos Aires, Mort, Vayamos al diablo, Resurrección del angel and Buenos Áires hora cero. In this context it is important to remember that tango is more than a style of social dancing. It is an art form in its own right in Argentina. Pizzolla helped to elevate tango music from something that was played on the streets of the immigrant neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires to the world's concert halls. The tango as it is performed around the River Plate is a swaggering dance for alpha males and vampish females which van Manen captured in his work. For the gala, Artur Shesterikov danced the solo Vayamos al diablo (literally "Let's Go to the Devil") with energy, flair and machismo. It was one of the highlights of my evening which is why Shesterikov's photo is at the top of this review.

Qian Liu and Semyon Velichko in Romeo and Juliet

The other great Dutch choreographer of our time is Rudi van Dantzig. He created the Dutch National Ballet's Romeo and Juliet which I have yet to see. I have however seen productions of Romeo and Juliet by MacMillan, Lavrovsky, Maillot, Pastor, James and others. Having seen the balcony scene danced by Qian Liu and Semyon Velichko it is now a personal priority to see the complete work. The leading roles must be the most difficult for any principal to perform because they have to imagine themselves as impulsive teenagers even though they are expected to be mature adults in nearly every other role they dance. A good test of a Romeo and Juliet is whether the audience can imagine them as kids despite their 'life and stage experience. Qian Liu and Velichko passed that test in my eyes.

Jared Wright, Martin ten Kortenaar, Vito Mazzeo and Daniel Robert Silva
in Classical Symphony

More Prokoviev in Brandsen's Classical Symphony and a chance to review his male dancers: Martin ten Kortenaar, Sem Sjouke, Joseph Massarelli, Daniel Montero Real, Dingkai Bai, Michele Esposito, Manu Kumar, Alejandro Zwartendijk, Isaac Mueller, James Stout, Daniel Robert Silva, Pascal Johnson. Giovanni Princic, Leo Hepler, Bela Erlandson, Giorgi Potskhishvili, Vito Mazzeo, Nathan Brhane, Rémy Catalan, Fabio Rinieri, Bastiaan Stoopm Dustin True, Rafael Valdez, Conor Walmsley and Sander Baaij. With their jumps and turns, the virtuosity and athleticism of those artists were impressive. Balanchine is reported to have said that ballet is "a purely female thing" but this piece showed the fallacy of his remark.

Anna Tsygankova and Constantine Allen in "Duet"

As its title suggests this gem of a work by Christopher Wheeldom to a piano piece by Ravel is a duet. This was yet another ba;let that I had not seen before but long to see again. According to the programme, Duet was created in 2012 but I have not yet found out for whom it was created and when it was first performed. It could well have been made for Anna Tsygankova and Constantine Allen for they made it their own. This is a work that was particularly well suited for Tsygankova because she is an accomplished pianist. Having seen her performance as Cinderella in London I thnk she has a special understanding of Wheeldon's work (see Wheeldon's Conderella 13 July 2015). I imagine she would be a great Hermione in his Winter's Tale and I hope that she may be cast in that role one day.

Sho Yamada in Solo

Solo was the second van Manen masterpiece in the programme. Originally created for the Netherlands Dance Theatre Junior Company in 1997, this is a work for three male dancers. to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was performed on 19 Dec 2020 by Sho Yamada, Daniel Silva and Remi Wörtmeyer. This was another highlight of my evening.

Anna Ol and Jozef Varga in Onegin

The last full-length ballet that I saw before the lockdown was the Royal Ballet's Onegin with Thiago Soares in the title role, Itziar Mendizabal in the lead roles. The penultimate scene from John Cranko's Onegin was a poignant reminder of a lost year. It is the denouement where Onegin shows up after years of exile to look up his old flame Tatiana. Earlier in the story, Tatiana had declared her love for Onegin in a letter which he heartlessly destroys in front of her. That led to a duel in which he killed his best friend and was forced into exile. Tatiana would have been heartbroken but she found a good man to marry and was living very happily until Onegin returned to seduce her. In the final duet, Tatiana is still attracted to the cad and for a second we fear that she will throw her new life away. But she doesn't. Instead, she screws up Onegin's love letter in front of him and sends him on his way. A dramatic scene danced passionately by Anna Ol and Jozef Varga. Although the ballet was created by a South African it was based on a poem by Pushkin which Ol will have known well. Like Osipova who danced Tatiana in London in 2015, she seemed to have injected a je ne sais quoi which only a Russian could do.

Snowflakes

The gala ended with scenes from Wayne Eagling's The Nutcracker and The Mouse King. The first was the Snowflakes scene which the members of Powerhouse Ballet had intended to learn on 14 March. We had booked Mark Hindle to teach it to us but we had to abandon the workshop at the last minute to avoid the risk of infection. The first thing we shall do once this virus is eradicated will be to fix a new date for the workshop. I was delighted to see that the lead dancers in the Snowflakes scene were Maria Chugai and Jingjing Mao. I am a very big fan of both dancers but particularly Chugai who impressed me with her performance as Myrthe in Heerlen in 2018. During the lockdown, she has given us two unforgettable online classes and been our guest at The Stage Door,

The other scenes in the gala were the Chinese, Russian and Greek divertissements and the grand pas de deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier. The Chinese dance was performed by Kira Hilli, Fabio Rinieril Dustin True, Rémy Catalan and Dingkai Bai. I had noticed Hilli when the Junior Company visited Covent Garden and it is good to see that talented young artist has made the main company. The soloists in the Russian dance were Sandra Quintyn and Pascal Johnson.

Floor Eimers and Nathan Brhane in the Greek scene

If anyone is wondering, the Greek dance was what other companies call the mirlitons. With a ruined temple as a backdrop with mythical beasts, it was danced superbly by Floor Eimers Sem Sjouke, Nathan Brhane and Daniel Montero Real. Wayne Eagling also produced The Nutcracker for English National Ballet when he was its Artistic Director but I do not recall that scene.

Maia Makhateli and Young Gyu Choi

The evening was perfected by the final pas de deux. Makhateli was a delightful Sugar Plum. Seldom have I seen her solo danced so beautifully. Young Gyu Choi, a powerful athletic dancer, who gas impressed me in everything that he has performed, was a worthy cavalier.

This has been a miserable year for balletgoers but this gala is a positive memory. Many who lived through the Spanish flu pandemic blocked 1918 from their recollection and we may do the same. Whatever else I remember or choose not to remember of 2020 I shall never forget that outstanding gala. My congratulations to all the dancers, musicians, technicians and other staff who made it happen.

Sunday, 8 March 2020

The Royal Ballet's "Onegin"

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Royal Ballet Onegin Royal Opera House 18 Jan 2020, 13:30

The last time I saw the Royal Ballet's Onegin, I wrote:

"That night I saw something wonderful. Cranko's Onegin danced by Matthew Golding in the title role, Natalia Osipova as Tatiana, Matthew Ball as Lensky and Bennet Gartside as Prince Gremin. It was quite simply the most enjoyable performance by the Royal Ballet that I had seen since the days of Sibley and Dowell." (See Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell 21 Feb 2015).

Although I knew what to expect and saw a very different interpretation with Thiago Soares in the title role, Itziar Mendizabal as Tatiana, David Donnelly as Lensky and Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Olga, I was as thrilled second time around as I had been the first time I saw the ballet.

As before, it was the choreography that thrilled me. In my 2015 review, I described John Cranko as my favourite choreographer of all time and so he remains. I said: "Cranko understood and interpreted music in a way that produces a fluency that is instantly recognizable but hard to describe". But that was not all. I added: "He was also a great storyteller with a sense of humour." Not so much humour perhaps as in The Taming of the Shrew which remains my favourite work by Cranko but there is a great story of which many of us in the English speaking world would otherwise have been unaware.

Soares's Onegin was very different from Golding's. I had described Goldring's portrayal as "steely, amoral but ultimately foolish" but I saw complexities in Onegin's character that I had missed before. I believe that he was conflicted and he had certainly matured between his duel with Lensky and his reacquaintance with Tatiana in St Petersburg. Maybe I would have picked that up from seeing the ballet again but I am not sure. Soares has the ability to communicate mood and maybe even thought.

I also learnt something new about Tatiana from Mendizabal. With Osipova I sensed revenge in the last act but Mendizabal seemed much more conflicted. It was if she still had feelings for Onegin despite the way he had humiliated her at her party and the quite unnecessary duel with Lemsky. She must have known that running away with him would have ruined her. She would have thought that if he was capable of dropping her once he could do it again. She had a good husband. All that anyone could want. And yet, She was tempted. Happily, she listened to her head rather than her heart and sent Onegin packing. Some ballets do have a happy ending.

Grace Hinkis was a great Olga and Donnelly a loyal but headstrong Lensky. Watching the run-up to the duel was like watching a video of a train crash in slow motion. A bit like the scene in Romeo and Juliet where Mercution picks a fight with Tybalt that possibly end well.

There are some steps for the corps that must require lots of rehearsing. For instance, the folk dance towards the end of Act I with the girls' jetés on the arms of their partners who march off stage but do not run.

Jurgen Rose's set designs, particularly of the outdoor scenes and especially the venue for the duel, impressed me as much as they did the first time I saw them. The first rays of dawn were a triumph of lighting design. The costumes were gorgeous. I am not a big fan of rearranging music that was never intended for dance I make an exception for Kurt-Heinz Stoltze's score.

I had expected the matinee to be eclipsed by English National Ballet's gala at the Coliseum which I saw a few hours later but, if anything, it was the other way round. Onegin is a great classical ballet created in our own time which is why so many leading companies around the world stage it.

Tuesday, 7 August 2018

Cartoons

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Northern Ballet is promoting its revival of David Nixon's ballet The Three Musketeers with thius animated film. It is still early days but I think it is a great idea.

The Dutch National Ballet has been doing that sort of things for years. Here is its animation of Giselle

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La Bayadère

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and Ted Brandsen's Coppelia:

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Other companies do it well too. Here's the Canadian National Ballet's Onegin.

Though not strictly an animation I rather like this office parody by Houston Ballet:

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Dangerous things snakes. Especially if you are a pigeon.

Sunday, 2 April 2017

Onegin

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Between now and Easter Sunday the Dutch National Ballet are dancing John Cranko's Onegin. We already have an excellent review from Remco van Grevenstein (see Dutch National Ballet's Onegin 31 March 2017). The Royal Ballet danced Onegin just over two years ago and I reviewed the performance in Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell 21 Feb 2015.

This work is conventionally regarded as Cranko's best ballet - though I have a personal preference for The Taming of the Shrew (see Cranko's "Taming of the Shrew": Now's our chance to see one of the Ballets everyone should see before they die 21 Sept 2013). As I noted in that article:

"He was one of the great choreographers of all time. Born in South Africa in 1927 he choreographer Pineapple Poll in 1951 when he was only 23. In 1961 he was placed in charge of the Stuttgart Ballet when only 34. There he created great full length ballets such as Onegin, Carmen and, of course. Shrew. Sadly he died on the way back from New York at the early age of 45. Think what he would have achieved had he survived."

Happily I see the influence of Cranko in two modern choreographers whether they are conscious of it or not. One of them is Christopher Marney. The other is Ernst Meisner of the Dutch National Ballet. They are both young men. I think they can achieve in their careers what Cranko would have done in his had he lived,

Friday, 31 March 2017

Dutch National Ballet's Onegin

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Remco van Grevenstein

Dutch National Ballet, Onegin, Music Theatre (Stopera), Amsterdam Wednesday 29 March 2017, 20:15

Today I went to see Onegin performed by the Dutch National Ballet at the National Music Theatre in Amsterdam. Not knowing the story of Onegin or the Music I was going in unprepared. Normally when I go see a ballet I go to the Dutch introduction so I have an idea what to expect. That day I was a little too late for that part so I had to do without it.

What I had learned from the trailer is that it was a love story: and that is what I saw. It was a true love story.

I already knew some of the dancers who were to perform the lead roles. For Onegin, DNB cast Jozef Varga whom I had seen a couple of times in other shows. For Tatiana, DNB cast Anna Tsygankova whom I loved in Mata Hari. She was also the lead in my second ever live ballet performance - The Nutcracker and The Mouse King. For Olga (Tatiana’s sister), DNB cast Qian Liu whom I don’t know. And for the part of Lensky (Olga’s boyfriend and best friend of Onegin), DNB cast Remi Wörtmeyer whom I could only remember from one other show. That was Balanchine's Tarantella Pas de Deux and I did not like him very much in that role.

All four of them played an excellent part in their own way.

The love from Qian and Remi felt so real that I wished them all the happiness in the world. Qian as the playful sister who sees the joy in life in every corner. Remi as the somewhat jealous boyfriend who tries to make her happy. In the first act, first scene they danced a duet together as two lovers who had not seen each other in a long time.

The love that Anna had for Jozef was a childlike passion for the new guy on the block. Jozef just saw Anna as a little child who had read too many romantic novels. In the second scene of the first act, Anna and Jozef dance a duet together. I’m not sure if it is just me (I did not hear anyone else speaking about it) but I saw a red ‘’aura’’ around Anna while she danced in a dream with Jozef. It could have been the lightning and the dress or it could also have been my imagination. If it was the dress and the lighting design it was an excellent result. The red ‘’aura’’ looked like there was a lot of passion coming from Anna. If it was just my brain and my eyes. then I would have been the only one who had this great experience. :)

In the second act, there is a big dance scene with lots of other dancers where Onegin is dancing with Olga. I’m not sure if he just liked Olga or if he tried to make Tatiana believe that he does not like her or to make his friend Lensky jealous. If it is about his friend, it worked. Lensky got so jealous of his friend dancing with his girlfriend that he slaps Onegin with a glove, telling him he wanted a duel to the death. While both Olga and Tatiana try to change Lensky’s mind with an interesting dance between the 3 of them Lensky does not want to look like a coward and keeps insisting that he wants the duel. Even Onegin tries to change the mind of his friend explaining to him it was all for a laugh. At the end of the second act, the duel happens and both men draw their guns and fire.

****Spoilers****

After the duel, Onegin looks like the winner of the duel and at the same time. Tatiana starts to cry while seeing her sister crash to the ground.

At the start of the 3rd act, lots of dancers are on the stage like it is a mannequin challenge prompting a great round of applause from the audience.

When Onegin comes on stage he is wearing a moustache and he has some grey hairs giving the impression that some time has passed between this ball and the dual. While Onegin is trying to find his way into life again, Tatiana is dancing a duet with prince Germin whom she married. Onegin finds out that the princess is the little girl he once turned down. Seeing her reminds him of his past and the emptiness of his life. In the second scene of the 3rd act, Onegin comes into Tatiana’s bedroom bearing a letter declaring his love for her. While she might still love him, she tells him that he is to0 late. She tells him to leave her alone forever. Tearing up his letter and giving it back to him, you can see the despair in his eyes.

For me, this is the best role I have seen Jozef perform. I so believed his emotions after he shot his best friend when he saw Olga crashing down and leaving Tatiana running and screaming as he left the stage in silence. I got so emotional from his acting that I had to dry my eyes.

The emotion coming off the stage into the audience was so good and so real for me that I can only say this was a job well done by all members of the cast and the live music directed by Ermanno Florio and the Dutch National Ballet orchestra.

After what I have seen today I would love to see more of Quin Liu and Remi Wortmeyer. I know from Mata Hari that Anna Tsygankova is a great performer and now Jozef Varga is my new ballet hero.

If I could give this production 5 stars I would give it a 4.9. I’m still wondering what happened to Olga in the 3rd act. I would have loved to see the love between the sisters at the end.

Since this is my first blog a little bit of information about me.

I’m a 45-year-old (or young) autistic man from the Netherlands. I came into contact with ballet a little over 2 years ago while visiting an Open House at the Dutch National Ballet (on 8 April 8th there is another Open House with the DNB in Amsterdam). Since I saw my first live ballet I fell in love with the art and try to watch all shows in Amsterdam. But as you can read I don’t know enough about ballet to tell you what kind of dance they are dancing. I can only tell you what I see and how I see it as an autistic man.

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Double Dutch Delights

The Stopera, Home of the Dutch National Ballet

Photo: A J Haverkamp

Source Wikipedia

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As well as seeing Mata Hari and Ballet Bubbles on Saturday and Sunday (see Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016 and Brandsen's Masterpiece 14 Feb 2016) I attended a presentation on the new opera and ballet season on the 13 Feb 2016 and a tour of the Dutch National Ballet's premises the following morning. Both events were arranged for the Friends of the Dutch National Ballet.

The presentation took place on Saturday afternoon and consisted of interviews with officials from both companies and performances of scenes from the forthcoming shows. The ballet season starts with an opening gala on 7 Sept 2016 and consists of excerpts from the company's repertoire followed by a party. I was there last year (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 Sept 2015) and I certainly hope to be there this year. A list of the forthcoming productions has now been published on the Dutch National Ballet's website and they include some real treats:

Dutch Masters to mark Toer van Schayk's 80th birthday with works by Hans van Manen and Rudi van Dantzig as well as by van Schayk himself between 14 and 25 Sept 2016;
Makarova's La Bayadère between the 5 Oct and 13 Nov 2016;
Ted Brandsen's Coppelia which was last produced in 2008 with modern decor and costumes between 10 Dec 2016 and 1 Jan 2017;
Made in Amsterdam with a new work by Ernst Meisner as well as ballets by Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Krzysztof Pastor, David Dawson and others between 11 Feb and 4 March 2017;
Onegin from the 29 March to 16 April 2017; and
Best of Ballanchine from the 2 to 20 May 2017.

Also, the Junior Company which should have some new members by next year will tour the Netherlands with Juniors Go Dutch and Ernst Meisner's The Little Big Chest. No plans have been announced for a visit to England but we live in hope. The ballet interludes included pas de deux from the last act of La Bayadere with Anna Ol as Nikiya and Young Gyu Choi as Solor and from Apollon Musagete with Sasha Mukhamedov and Artur Shesterikov.

La Bayadere is one of my favourite ballets. I have actually had a go at the descent of the shades in class at Northern Ballet with Jean Tucker. It is not performed all that often here though I did catch the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's production in London last summer with Denis Rodkin as Solor (see Blown Away - St Petersburg Ballet Theatre's La Bayadere 24 Aug 2015). I long to see it done by a great national company. I am now Mr Brandsen's #1 fan so there is no question of my missing his Coppelia and as I have now been Mr Meisner's #1 fan for some time wild horses won't keep me from Made in Amsterdam. The same is true of Onegin especially if Matthew Golding dances the title role as he did last year in London (see Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell 21 Feb 2015). The airlines, railway companies and Amsterdam hoteliers will get a lot of business from me next year.

I missed the start of the Stopera tour because I had to polish off my review of Mata Hari and was then directed to the wrong place. I caught up with the crocodile in the laundry as a lady was washing the dancers' underwear and hosiery in an outside washing machine. We proceeded to the wig department where we saw some of the creations for the Moulin Rouge scene in Mata Hari, then wardrobe and shoes. We were shows a whole cabinet of pointe shoes, one for each dancer. There is a young lady of my acquaintance who makes a point of asking woman dancers the supplier of her favourite pointe shoes. "Well, Miss, I know that answer in respect of all the members of the Dutch National Ballet". We were shown the dressing rooms, gym, rehearsal studios (very like Northern Ballet's) and were actually allowed to watch the barre session of company class. All the big stars were there as well as the soloists, coryphees and corps de ballet. I sat a few feet away from Michaela DePrince. It was she who had led me to the Junior Company and from there to HNB as I had started to follow her career even before she came to Amsterdam (see Michaela DePrince 4 April 2015). The highlight of the tour for me was to be allowed on stage. The Stopera is a massive auditorium but the seats are arranged on levels so that everyone has a good view of the stage. From the audience's perspective the theatre is massive but from the performer's it has quite an intimate feel.

The tour finished at 13:00 and I had to get to the Meervaart theatre by 14:30. From the moment I set foot in the Stopera (minutes after the train pulled into Central Station it was wall to wall ballet. I had a lovely weekend. I just can't think of a better way of spending it. Dank U HNB!

Saturday, 21 February 2015

Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell

When I was young I practically lived at Covent Garden. I was a Young Friend which meant that I got lots of ticket vouchers. I saw all the greats - Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, Merle Park, David Wall, Lynn Seymour, Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn - and on two occasions Robert Helpmann and Fred Ashton. I loved the House with its all pervading smell of mouldering vegetation. The flunkies who presented enormous bouquets to the ballerinas. The littering of the floor with cut flowers thrown by zealous members of the audience. And above all the ballets. Particularly those that are not performed so much nowadays such as Monotones, Jazz Calendar and, above all, Enigma Variations with Sibley as the adorable Dorabella.

I went to graduate school in America and while I was away the fruit and veg market moved to Nine Elms. When I came back the smell of vegetables that had lingered for a while began to disperse. Fewer and fewer people threw flowers onto the stage. Then at the end of the 1990s the House closed for renovation. When it re-opened everything had changed. Though I admired Bull, Bussell and Guillem I never took to them in the way I did to Sibley, Seymour and Fonteyn. Though the Royal Ballet's performances were as polished as ever they somehow lacked charm. I fell out of love with the Royal Ballet and Covent Garden and transferred my affection to other companies like Northern Ballet, Scottish Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and most recently the Dutch National Ballet.

Until last Monday night. That night I saw something wonderful. Cranko's Onegin danced by Matthew Golding in the title role, Natalia Osipova as Tatiana, Matthew Ball as Lensky and Bennet Gartside as Prince Gremin. It was quite simply the most enjoyable performance by the Royal Ballet that I had seen since the days of Sibley and Dowell. It was like meeting an old friend after an absence of years. I also found for the first time something to like in the renovated House. I discovered the terrace next to the amphitheatre bar where I sipped my coffee while reflecting on what I had witnessed in the first act. That terrace did not exist before the renovation. Even though it was wet and chilly last Monday night it was great to step out above the street lamps and pedestrians.

But the main reason I enjoyed the evening so much was that the choreography was by Cranko - my favourite choreographer of all time. Much more than Macmillan. Even more than van Manen and Ashton. Cranko understood and interpreted music in a way that produces a fluency that is instantly recognizable but hard to describe. I see similar fluency in the work of two young choreographers of the present, Ernst Meisner in the Netherlands and our own Christopher Marney. He was also a great story teller with a sense of humour. All of those qualities are visible in my favourite Cranko work, The Taming of the Shrew. There will be more Cranko next month when the Chelmsford Ballet dance Pineapple Poll (see Chelmsford Ballet Company's Cast 31 Jan 2015).

Another reason why I enjoyed the evening was Osipova. I had admired her virtuosity when I saw her in Giselle last year and she displayed it again on Monday night, But she also showed her dramatic power. The ripping of Onegin's letter was thrilling. How the theatre erupted as the curtain fell around her as she stood proud in the centre of the stage at the end of the last act. Though this is the first season that Osipova has danced in Cranko's ballet she understood her character well. As she explains in the video above she had read Pushkin many times and learned a little more about the characters each time she read the story. Also, as a Russian, Pushkin is special to her.

Osipova was matched by Golding. Steely, amoral and ultimately foolish but somehow sexy - a bit like Austen's Darcy but without his good points. He breaks a young girl's heart on the day she should be happy. Then he shoots the inoffensive Lensky in a duel somehow getting away scot free. Simply to be sent on his way by a married woman in the last act for such a first class blighter seems like getting off lightly to me.

For those who do not know the ballet there is a short synopsis on the Royal Opera House's website. Go to the Wikipedia entry on the book and the Ballet Bag's feature for more. There are important roles for Onegin's friend Lensky and her eventual husband, Gremin. There is also some exciting dancing for the corps - particularly for the women who exited the garden in the first act with exuberant jetés on the arms of their partners. There is so much to absorb in this ballet - Rose's rich designs, Stolze's setting of Tchaikovsky's music - it is a work of which one can never tire. Although pricey the programme with its notes on the choreography, music, Onegin's character and Cranko is invaluable in helping me absorb, digest and comprehend this multi-layered ballet.

The ballet is nearing the end of its run but there are still two more shows on the 27 Feb 2015 for which tickets are still available. If you can get to one of those performances then go

Other Reviews

Zoe Anderson Onegin, Royal Opera House, review: Vadim Muntagirov lifts this revival of John Cranko’s overwrought ballet 26 Jan 2015 The Independent
Debra Craine Onegin at the Royal Opera House, London WC2 27 Jan 2015 The Times
Judith Mackrell Onegin review – riveting Osipova takes Royal Ballet to the brink of ragged hysteria 2 Feb 2015 The Guardian
Laura Thompson Onegin, Royal Ballet, review: 'an assured crowd-pleaser' 25 Jan 2015 The Telegraph

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