Miyako Yoshida trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent most of her career dancing in the United Kingdom, first with Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and later the Royal Ballet. She rose quickly to principal and has won all sorts of awards, including the Order of the British Empire. She is now Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Japan, which she will bring to London between 24 and 27 July 2025.
The company will perform Giselleat Covent Garden. It will be Yorshida's own production with designs by Dick Bird and lighting by Rick Fisher. Judging by the YouTube video of Yoshida's rehearsal, audiences are in for a treat. The National Ballet is located in the recently opened New National Theatre in Tokyo, which it shares with the National Opera and the National Theatre of Japan. There are 75 dancers in the company, which enables them to perform everything from The Nutcrackerto Kaori Ito's Robot, l'amour éternel.
The company has its own ballet school, which offers a two-year full-time course to prepare students for a professional career. The school also offers a two-year preparatory course for younger students. Details of the curriculum and profiles of some of the students appear on the ballet school webpage.
The National Ballet is not the only company in Japan; The Tokyo Ballet and the K-Ballet are also prominent companies. According to Wikipedia, ballet was introduced into Japan by the Italian ballet master Giovanni Vittorio Rossi in 1912. Rossi trained several Japanese pupils, some of whom entertained troops and factory workers during the Sino-Japanese War, much in the way that Vic-Wells, Rambert and other companies did here (see Yukiyo Hoshino Use of Dance to Spread Propaganda during the Sino-Japanese WarAthens Journal of History Vol 1 Issue 3 pp 191 - 198).
Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet(Rehearsal) Royal Ballet & Opera, 4 March 2025, 12:30
I have been a Friend of the Royal Ballet & Opera off and on for nearly 60 years, but I had never attended a Friends' rehearsal before 4 Mar 2025. That is because I have spent most of my life outside London, and Friends' rehearsals tend to take place on weekdays during working hours.
On 23 Feb 2025, I was invited to give a talk to the students at King's College at 18:30 on 4 Mar 2025. As this was an evening event, I felt justified in taking the afternoon off in lieu. I checked the Friends' page of the Royal Ballet & Opera's website. There seemed to be a few spare seats scattered about the auditorium, but the website would not let me book any of them. I called the box office and was told that the rehearsal was sold out, but a few returns might come back on sale. That proved to be the case and I secured the very last standing room only place at the very top of the auditorium.
The view of the stage from that eyrie was surprisingly good. I have always enjoyed good eyesight, and I could recognize some of the more distinctive dancers and follow their movements, though obviously not their expressions. Had I been casting the show, I would have selected Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales for the title roles. It was they whom we got. Of all the principals in the Royal Ballet, they are the ones who most closely look the part. I remember Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour in those roles when I first took an interest in ballet. Though I have never seen a better Romeo than Gable or indeed a better Juliet than Seymour, several other dancers have come close. Hayward and Corrales are among the closest.
The rest of the cast was also impressive. Christopher Saunders was an imperious Lord Capulet full of gravitas and swagger. Also full of swagger was Benet Gartside as Tybalt. Even though everyone in the audience knew the outcome, Tybalt's sword fights with Mercutio (Daichi Ikarashi) and Romeo were gripping. Mercutio's death throes as he stumbled around the stage, mistaking his sword for a lute or mandolin, were poignant. The role of the nurse is often overlooked in many productions, but it is important. It is she who shares Juliet's excitement at her first grown-up ball. She delivers Juliet's note to Romeo and is mobbed by the Montagues for her pains. She accompanies Juliet to Friar Lawrence. She tries to defend Juliet from a bigamous marriage. Kristen McNally discharged that role perfectly.
It had been some years since I had last seen the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, and one of the features that I remember from previous times was a gorgeous backcloth by Nicholas Georgiadis that reminded me of the work of Leon Bakst. I was looking out for that backcloth, but couldn't spot it. That made me wonder whether Georgiadis had redesigned the set or whether I had imagined that backcloth.
As always, the orchestra was magnificent. The conductor on this occasion was Koen Kessels.
I was unable to return to London to see a live performance of Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden, but I did see a recording of the live broadcast on 23 March 2025 at the Leeds Showcase. That was another polished production with a different cast. Fumi Kaneko was Juliet, Vadim Muntagirov was Romeo, Benet Gartside was Lord Capulet, Ryoichi Hirano was Tybalt, Francisco Serrano was Mercutio, Thomas Whitehead doubled as Friar Lawrence and Lord Montague and Olivia Cowley was the nurse. Kessels also conducted the orchestra.
As I said in Swan Lake at the Leeds Showcaseon 30 May 2024, a screening is not the same as a live performance (probably because there is no interaction between artists and audience) but there are compensations. We could follow Juliet's emotions through the expressions on Kaneko's face. It was clear from her interview that she understands Juliet very well. It was also good to hear Lady MacMillan. The Friends' rehearsal combined with the film was the next best thing to seeing the ballet live on stage.
Royal Ballet Onegin Royal Ballet and Opera House, 15 Feb 2025, 13:00
Cranko's Oneginis 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.
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 Giselleswhile 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.
The appointment of Ernst Meisner as the next Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet is excellent news and nowhere will it be welcomed more than in this country. He trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent the first 10 years of his career with the Royal Ballet. While he was here he staged a gala at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford at which he invited Leanne Benjamin, Alina Cojocaru, Zenaida Yanowsk, Ed Watson, Filip Barankiewicz and four dancers from Russia to perform (see Mara Galeazzi Ernst Meisner: My Project in Dartford 4 June 2005). Since returning to the Netherlands in 2010 he has maintained many connections with us.
I first made his acquaintance in 2013 when he responded to my review of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's first performance at the Stadsshouwburg in Amsterdam on 24 Nov 2013. The company was about to take its show on a tour of the Netherlands, Having attended the recording of an outstanding performance of The Messiah by the Huddersfield Choral Society at the Huddersfield Town Hall I sent the Junior Company the DVD of the recording to play on the road. The next year he asked Richard Heideman, the company's press officer, to arrange for me to interview him and his remarkable young artists (see Jane Lambert Meet Ernst Meisner and His Remarkable Young Dances6 Dec 2014 Terpsichore), On their next performance at the Stadsshouwburg Ernst invited me to meet him the dancers and their families at a reception after the show. I have kept in touch with many of them ever since.
Two weeks after the Junior Company returned to London in 2015 the Dutch National Ballet Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella at the Coliseum. I saw it on 11 July 2015 and loved it (see Jane Lambert Bend It Like Cinders - My Take on Cinderella18 July 2015 Terpsichore), Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding danced the lead roles but several of the members of the Junior Company whom I had met in Amsterdam were given roles in Cinderella.
Every year the company presents extracts of its work from the previous year as well as other short pieces at a gala and throws a party. I attended the gala on 8 Sept 2015 which I described without any hyperbole as The best evening I have ever spent at the balletin Terpsichore. Following my visit I joined the Friends of the Dutch National Ballet and have been a fan ever since.
When I first met Ernst he was the "artistic coordinator" of the Junior Company. He is now its Artistic Director. He later became Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet Academy and is now the Associate Director of Talent Development. Above all, he is an exceptionally talented choreographer. I cannot watch Emberswithout tears welling up but my all-time favourite is No Time Before Time. This work expresses perfectly the energy and exuberance of the Junior Company. In my lifetime the Netherlands has produced three towering figures; Rudi van Danzig, Toer van Schayk and Hans van Manen. It is no idle flattery to mention Ernst Meisner in the same breath.
I have illustrated this article with a frame from Ernst's Online Ballet Class video. He gained a whole new worldwide audience from those classes during lockdown, Those classes kept us moving and gave us hope. I followed every single class and am enormously grateful for them.
When Ernst Meisner becomes Artistic Director, the Futch National Ballet will be in excellent hands.
Royal Ballet Manon Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 2 March 2024 13:00
While watching Manonon Saturday I was struck by the similarities to MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet. Not so much with the libretti perhaps though Manon loses Lescaut and Juliet loses Tybalt and both sets of lovers come to a sticky end. The similarities I had in mind were the choreography with its spectacular duets including one around a bed and great sword fights. Also, Nicholas Georgiadis created the sets and costumes for both ballets.
Although this was an original thought as far as I was concerned I doubted that it was novel. I ran a Google search on "similarities between MacMillan's Manon and Romeo & Juliet" The only comparison that came to light was Robert Gottlieb's Manon and Romeo and Juliet. Mr Gottlieb does not seem to have been at all impressed. He described Manon as "a piece of junk" and complained that Romeo and Juliet was "tedious at times" though "relatively stage-worthy."
Some pretty uncomplimentary things have been said about the ballet by such critics as Mary Clarke and Jane King but the public seem to like it. It will celebrate its half-century in a few days and it has been performed by the world's leading ballet companies. The House was packed to the gunwales on the afternoon of 2 March 2024 when I saw it. Not a few patrons rose to their feet at the curtain call which does not happen for every show. I agree that the leading characters, Manon, des Grieux, Lascaut and Monsieur GM are morally flawed and the story is pretty sordid but that did not make it a waste of the lovely Antoinette Sibley or any of her successors.
For those who do not know the ballet it is summarized on the Royal Opera House website. It is based on the novel Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost which had already been dramatized, made into several films, at least one other ballet and Puccini's popular opera Manon Lescaut.MacMillan did not adapt Puccini's score even though it would have been familiar to many members of his audience. Instead, he commissioned Leighton Lucas to compile a score from Jules Massenet's collected works
The advertised dancers for the lead roles were to be Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae. McRea was unavailable on Saturday so the role of des Grieux was danced by Ryoichi Hirano. Lamb reminds me a little of Antoinette Sibley who first danced Manon and Hirano is the sort of chap who could be expected to handle the eye-catching lifts and fish dives with ease. James Hay danced Lescaut, not an easy role as he had to project a range of emotions. In one scene he is drunk manhandling his mistress Meaghan Grace Hinkis in one of the few comic scenes from the show. Shortly afterwards, he is dragged in chains and roughed up by Monsieur GM, That role was danced by the venerable Christopher Saunders who has been dancing in the Royal Ballet for almost as long as I have been following it.
As for the creatives, Koen Kessels conducted the orchestra, Laura Morera staged the performance and Christopher Saunders was the rehearsal director.
I lost count of the number of curtain calls. Sarah Lamb received enough flowers to set up in business as a forest. There were also some for Hirano which would never have happened in Dame Anroinette's day, She used to select one of her choicest blooms and present it to her partner who would sniff the perfume in gratitude. In a reversal of the old tradition, Hirano presented one of his flowers to Lamb.
There are now two different versions of this ballet in this country: the Royal Ballet's version with Georgiadis's designs and English National's that I mentioned but did not review inFrench Revelation: "The Three Musketeers" on 9 Oct 2018. The main difference between the two is that ENB's came from Denmark and uses the designs of Mia Stensgaard.
The Royal Ballet MayerlingRoyal Opera House, 29 Nov 2022 19:30
Schloß Mayerling is now a Carmelite convent. In 1889 it was a royal hunting lodge where Rudolf, the 30-year-old Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and Mary Vetsera, an impressionable 17-year-old, killed themselves. Details of their deaths were suppressed for many years but the truth eventually emerged. In 1978 Sir Kenneth MacMillan created a ballet on the story to the music of Franz Liszt with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis. I saw the work in the cinema in October and on stage at the Royal Opera House on 29 Nov 2022.
While not exactly a barrel of laughs it is one of MacMillan's most frequently performed ballets. It is not hard to see why. It has exciting choreography, enchanting music, elaborate sets and lavish costumes. For many years the Royal Ballet was the only company to stage Mayerling. There are now several others in the United States, Germany and Scotland. Scottish Ballet's was based on Sir Kenneth's choreography and staged with his widow's cooperation. I missed it because I was recovering from a hip injury when it was on tour.
The performance that I saw last Tuesday evening was one of my best nights at the ballet in a lifetime of theatre-going. That was despite last-minute cast changes resulting from an injury to Steven McRae. Having seen Ryoichi Hirano on screen I had been looking forward to a very different interpretation from McRea. I also wanted to see Kristin McNally as Sissi, Anne Rose O'Sullivan as Rudolf's long-suffering wife and Bradfordian Thomas Whitehead as Colonel Bay Middleton. Having said that I was not in the least disappointed by those who took their place.
The role that MacMillan created for Prince Rudolf is pretty close to the historical character. An exceptionally privileged individual who could literally get away with murder (or at least manslaughter) but also a very trapped one. A figure readily deserving contempt but also sympathy and compassion. Hirano stimulated all those emotions in me. Contempt as he humiliated his bride in a brothel or threatened women with his pistol but compassion as he drank himself crazy minutes before he blew his brains out. The role requires outstanding virtuosity. It requires a rare talent to carry all that off but that is exactly what Hirano did.
There are four important female roles in Mayerling:
Mary, Baroness Vetsora who agreed to die with him
Mitzi who most certainly would not
Rudolf's wife, Princess Stephanie of Belgium, and
his mother, Empress Sissi.
Akane Takada brought Mary to life with her sweetness and delicacy. Perhaps more than brought her to life because the real Mary was little more than a child when she met Rudolf. Leticia Dias was a streetwise Mitzi, picking herself up and carrying on even after a police raid. Yuhui Choe danced Stephanie. Her indignation was palpable as she was dragged to a brothel. Itziar Mendizabal danced the Empress exactly as I would have imagined her,
The Hapsburgs who had ruled Austria since the 13th century were approaching their end by the late 19th century. Like contemporary Britain, they faced challenges from nationalists represented in the ballet by the 4 Hungarian officers, Luca Acri, Benjamin Ella, Joseph Sissons and David Yudes. There was more than a little sleaze as represented by the sex workers. A flawed royal family had their extra-marital support in such characters as Sisi's lover Colonel Middleton danced by Nicol Edmonds.
Royal BalletRomeo and Juliet Cinema 14 Feb 2022 19:30
Last Monday's screening of the Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet was quite different from previous ones and all the better for it. Gone were the gushing tweets from cinema audiences around the world and the presenters' platitudes. In its place were interviews with Edward Watson and Leanne Benjamin with Dame Darcey passing on her wisdom and experience to Anna Rose O’Sullivan. Exactly how I want to see one of the greatest ballerinas of my lifetime.
Not only that but there was very clever camera work that caught O'Sullivan's ecstasy in the balcony scene or James Hay's pain after his stabbing by Tybalt. I noticed details in the screening that I had missed before. Consequently, I learned a lot about the ballet on Monday even though I had been watching MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet on screen as well as on stage since the 1960s.
Although I must have seen them many times I had never really noted Anna Rose O'Sullivan or Marcelino Sambé until now, but I am a fan of both of them now. There is something about O'Sullivan that reminded me of Antoinette Sibley. Sambé is very different from Dowell but I think we may have seen on Monday the start of a partnership between him and O'Sullivan which will be remembered like that of Sibley and Dowell.
There were two other dancers who particularly caught my eye who happen to be my all-time favourite Drosselmeyers. One was Thomas Whitehead who danced Tybalt with menace earning what appeared to be isolated pantomime villain boos at the reverence as well as cinema vibrating roars. The other was Gary Avis who danced Juliet's well-meaning dad, puzzled and exasperated by his teenage daughter's apparent inability to grasp in Paris a dishy, decent husband and a comfortable future.
All in the cast danced brilliantly, James Hay as Mercutio, Nicol Edmonds as Paris, Kristen McNally as Lady Capulet, Philip Mosley as Friar Lawrence, Romany Pajdak as the nurse. There were also Prince Escalus, harlots, mandolin dancers, knights and their ladies and the street folk of renaissance Verona. All deserve commendation but if I mentioned more names this would look less like a review and more like a telephone directory.
Nevertheless, my review must acknowledge three of the creatives: Laura Morera who staged the show, the conductor Jonathan Lo who first came to my notice at Northern Ballet, and the late Nicholas Georgiadis whose designs remind me of the work of Leon Bakst. If there was a weakness in the screening it was that the richness of Georgiadis's sets did not always come through. That always seems to be a problem with ballet on film.
Last Monday happened to be my birthday. It was a delightful day with calls and cards and presents. But the screening was definitely a high point. So many thanks for that, Royal Ballet.
Readers who missed the performance have a second chance on Sunday.
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.
Standard YouTube Licence The Royal Ballet The Nutcracker17 Dec 2019 19:39 Screened to cinemas worldwide
Yesterday I discussed the screening of the Bolshoi's version of The Nutcracker on 15 Dec 2019 in The Nutcracker #2 - The Bolshoi Screening.Two days later the Bolshoi's screening, the Royal Opera House screened a recording of the Royal Ballet's version of The Nutcracker. For the reasons that I explained yesterday the twp productions are very different. The Bolshoi's records Marie's transition into womanhood while the Royal Ballet's is a fantasy with more than a little in common with Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Lookingglass.
The Royal Ballet's production was created by Sir Peter Wright who took a bow at the end of the show. The recording was made in 2016 which coincided with Sir Peter's 90th birthday. In Sir Peter's version, the nutcracker is Drosselmeyer's nephew who is imprisoned in wood. He can come back to life only through the love of a young woman. This is an adaptation of ETA Hoffmann's story of The Nutcracker and the Mouse Kingand it is a detail that most versions of the ballet overlook. This makes Drosselmeyer a much less sinister and more likeable character than in the Bolshoi's or most other versions of the ballet. Sir Peter's ballet opens in Drosselmeyer's workshop as he wraps up his present for Clara. The workshop is also where the show ends as the nephew - restored to human form - embraces his uncle.
Sir Peter's ballet requires two ballerinas, namely the young girl known as Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy, and two premiers danseurs nobles, that is to say, the nutcracker and the Sugar Plum Fairy's prince or cavalier. There are also meaty roles for the mouse king, Harlequin and Columbine in the first act and the soloists in each of the divertissements of the second. The climax of the production is the pas de deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her beau. Probably, the most famous dance of the whole ballet is the Sugar Plum Fairy's solo to the slightly otherworldly sounds of the celesta.
In the recording, Drosselmeyer was danced by the company's principal character artist, Gary Avis whom I once had the pleasure of meeting at the London Ballet Circle's 70th-anniversary celebrations. I can report that he is as gracious in real life as he is graceful on stage. Clara was danced by Francesca Hayward who was perfect in the role. Her nutcracker was Alexander Campbell who, like Xander Parish, shares my passion for cricket as well as dance. The Sugar Plum Fairy was danced by Lauren Cuthbertson, my dancer of the year in 2016. and she was partnered by Federico Bonelli, another favourite. With an orchestra was conducted by Maestro Gruzin it is hard to think of a stronger cast by any company anywhere in the world. The sets, costumes and technical effects match the choreography and dancing. It is a sumptuous production.
On Sunday I shall see Sir Peter Wright's production for the Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall. That will be the last Nutcracker that I shall see this season and indeed the last ballet of this year. The version that is staged at the Hippodrome is my favourite version of The Nutcracker. If the Hippodrome version can be scaled up forthe Royal Albert's stage I suspect Birmingham Royal Ballet's will be my favourite Nutcracker for this year.
Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet CoppeliaRoyal Opera House and Cinemas 10 Dec 2019 19:30
For me, this conversation between Merle Park, Darcey Bussell and Marianela Nuñez was the high point of Tuesday's live screening of Coppelia. Park was at the height of her career when I first took an interest in ballet. I saw her many times in many toles and admired her greatly. It was good to see her again after many years and even better to see her name on a cast sheet again as one of the principal coaches.
There were other interesting discussions during on Tuesday night. The conductor, Barry Wordsworth, spoke about the score. The wardrobe mistress explained how technology had transformed costume preparation and maintenance over the years. At one time the flower on a bodice had to be painted by hand. Nowadays it can be printed out by computer. Members of the corps spoke about rehearsals and how their ballet master coaxed our their best Those conversations are the one big advantage of live streaming, Even though Bussell said on Tuesday (as has been said before) that the cinema audience have the best seats in the house it is not really true. Ballet is three-dimensional and screens can only accommodate two and there can be no two-way communication between artists and audience as there is in theatre. The insights that can be gleaned from conversations and interviews.
Nuñez danced Swanilda on Tuesday and I think that is a role that suits her well. I had long admired her virtuosity in roles like Kitri but I had never seen her bring a character to life in the way she did in that performance. Coquettish and playful but also with a heart. Her facial expressions when the Burgermeister tried to reconcile her and Franz after she had caught him flirting with the robot in the window of Dr Coppelius's workshop.
The principal male role in Coppelia is not really Franz who saves his entrechats and tours en l'air to the very end but the inventor, Dr Coppelius. A lot of people think he is too much over the top but having run inventors clubs and pro bono patent clinics in the North of England for nearly 20 years I can testify that folk like Dr Coppelius really do exist. Gary Avis, a brilliant character dancer, represented him perfectly.
I have to say that I am not really sure about the morality of this ballet. It seems to celebrate elder abuse. It surely can't be right for the local toughs to rough up the old body on his way to the pub. Or for ladettes to break into his laboratory and set off his robots as they make their escape. Or indeed for Franz to climb into his premises through the window. Or, worst of all, Swanilda tearing pages out of his lab books. Never mind! The old chap is compensated at the end, albeit by the local aristocrat and not by Swanilda. And he is generous enough to raise a glass to Franz and Swanilda at their wedding,
Although Arthur Saint-Léon who created the ballet in 1870 may not have envisaged it, the interaction of humans with humanoid robots is very much a topic for our times. At two recent conferences, one on copyright last week and the other on life sciences the week before, there were no less than five presentations on artificial intelligence and whether a machine can invent things for which patents can granted or create works of art in which copyright subsists.
Returning to the ballet, Vadim Muntagirov danced Franz with his usual flair and grace. In the first act, I enjoyed Mayara Magri's peasant dance. In the dance of the hours, Claire Calvert was a delightful Aurora and Annette Buvoli an angelic Prayer. I must also congratulate Mica Bradbury, Isabella Gasparini, Hannah Grennell,Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Romany Pajdak and Leticia Stock who danced Swanilda's friends. They are on stage almost as long as Swanilda herself and their dancing is barely less demanding. At one point in the first act, they have to follow each movement of Swanilda exactly. In the transmission, Nuñez traced the start of her career in Coppelia to her first performance as one of Swanilda's friends and it is obvious why.
This was one of the Royal Opera House's better live streamings. In this show, the programme maker made much better use of Darcey Bussell. The Royal Opera transmissions are still not quite as good as the Bolshoi's and they won't be until they engage a presenter as knowledgeable and personable as Ekaterina Novikova. But it was still a good show.
Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet Triple Bill: Concerto, Enigma Variations and Raymondastreamed from the Royal Opera House to cinemas worldwide including Leeds-Bradford Odeon, 5 Nov 2019, 19:15
If the Royal Opera House had subcontracted the streaming of its live performances to PathéLive or at least recruited Ekaterina Novikova, yesterday's screening of the Concerto, Enigma Variations and Act III of Raymonda would have been perfect. The double act between Anita Rani and Darcey Bussell just did not work. Alexander Campbell and Kristen McNally who recently hosted World Ballet Day were so much better.
Also, I probably saw the screening at the wrong cinema. I was at Leeds Bradford Odeon which has been promoted as a super luxury auditorium. Each seat has an airline-style tray enabling patrons to chomp away as you watch the feature. Fine for Disney perhaps but not for ballet. Also, the transmission started late. No more than 5 minutes before the curtain was raised. Nobody in the cinema had bothered to print the programmes even after I had given a member of their staff the URL from which they could be downloaded. The ladies' loos on the first floor were a disgrace because they could not be flushed properly.
Happily, my mood changed the moment Maestro Sorokin entered the orchestra pit. Soon I was enchanted by the music of Shostakovich and MacMillan's choreography. Concerto is a very short piece but it must require considerable strength, stamina and concentration to do well. The dancers were Anna Rose O'Sullivan, James Hay, Yasmine NaghdiRyoichi Hirano and Mayara Magri. The set was very simple. Just a red disc like a setting sun for the second movement. So, too, were Rose's costumes. They filled the stage and uplifted even the cinema audience.
In the interval, Rani and Bussell interviewed Wayne Sleep and Alfreda Thoroughgood. They were the leading dancers of my youth and it was so good to see them again. They had, of course, aged but they were still beautiful. I am not sure that I ever saw Thoroughgood in Enigma Variations but I certainly remember Sleep, Anthony Dowell and the wonderful Antoinette Sibley as Dorabella. When one associates a role with a dancer it is always difficult to watch another artist a generation later fill her shoes but I was more than happy with Francesca Hayward in Sibley's role. I was also delighted with Laura Morera as Lady Elgar and Christopher Saunders as Elgar. I think is my favourite Ashton work. It is certainly my favourite of his short works. I can't remember when I last saw it but it was good to see it again.
The last work was a treat with Natalia Osipova in the title role and Vadim Muntagirov as de Brienne. Having seen the Bolshoi's performance of Raymonda on 27 Oct 2019, I would dispute that it is a silly story or not much of a story as Bussell or someone else last night. I think there is a love triangle between de Brienne, Raymonda and Abderakhman and anyone restaging the ballet might want to develop that. Abderakhman/s treatment could be explained by Islamophobia or racism. To my mind, the last Act, which is one big divertissement, is the least interesting of the ballet. But it provides plenty of scope for virtuosity, Being Guy Fawkes day, Osipova and Muntagirov excited us as well as any pyrotechnics outside.
So my thoughts of the evening are as follows: All credit to the Royal Ballet's dancers and creatives last night, If only the presenters and techies were as good.
Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet Don Quixote30 March 2019, 13:30, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Except when I was a graduate student in Los Angeles, I have visited Covent Garden several times a year, every year, since 1969. Seldom have I enjoyed a performance at the Royal Opera House more than last Saturday's matinee of Don Quixote. I had already seen that production several times in the cinema and once on television and had been somewhat underwhelmed by those transmissions (see ¡Por favor! Don Quixote streamed to Huddersfield17 Oct 2013). I think that must be because no screening comes close to communicating the colour, movement and energy of the live show.
Although Gerard Davis referred to this production by Carlos Acosta as a remake in the programme notes, it seems to be pretty much the same as other companies' versions of the ballet. The prologue begins with the dotty Don Quixote sheltering the shoplifting Sancho Panza. The rogue kits the old man out with a bedpost for a lance and a shaving bowl for a helmet. He is dubbed a knight by an imagined dulcinea and is confronted immediately by equally imaginary hooded demons. As in other versions, he meets Kitri and Don Basilio in the town square and helps them elope. On their travels, they meet gipsies. He falls ill fighting ambulatory windmills. In his delirium dreams of dryads or tree spirits. They return to the town where Kitri's suitor is partnered up, KitrI marries Don Basilio and Don Quixote and his squire slip away for more adventures. I understand that the score had been rearranged and reorchestrated by Martin Yates but I did not detect any variations even though I know the music well. Aspects of the show that impressed me particularly were the lavishness of Tim Hatley's sets and costumes and the slickness and energy of the dancing.
My enjoyment of the show was facilitated greatly by the casting of Alexander Campbell as Don Basilio. A year or so ago I read about his taking part in a scheme by the RAD and MCC to encourage kids to take up ballet and cricket. Perfectly natural in my view as I have always had a passion for the two. I think it was Arnold Haskell who observed that cricket had predisposed the British to ballet pointing out many parallels between the two. Like another of my favourites, Xander Parish, Campbell had been a promising cricketer as a boy. I had long surmised that that might be the case before I had read that article for Campbell commands the stage like a batsman at the crease. There is something about his manner - perhaps his grin - that makes it impossible not to like him. He wielded his guitar while wooing the coquettish Kitri as an extension of himself just as a batsman holds his bat. As he seized her fan in the same scene I imagined his diving for a catch. In his jumps and lifts, he is much an athlete as an artist. It may be a figment of my imagination as it may be have been years since he last played the game, but I think that his youthful cricketing prowess has contributed more than a little to his appeal as a dancer.
Campbell's Kitri was the Brazilian first soloist, Mayara Magri, She excelled in that role. I was told by a well-informed acquaintance whom I met in the interval that last Saturday's matinee had been her debut. If that was the case, her performance was all the more impressive. I mentioned her coquetry in the previous paragraph but the role also requires virtuosity and prodigious stamina. She displayed those qualities in abundance, particularly in the last act where she dances in the pub and in the final pas de deux where she performs lots of fouettés. She dazzled me with those displays.
Other artists who particularly delighted me included Itziar Mendizabal as Mercedes, Claire Calvert as the queen of the dryads. Lara Turk as the Dulcinea and, of course, Gary Avis as Don Quixote. It was also good to see Jonathan Howells as Sancho Panza. I had been looking forward to seeing Thomas Whitehead as Gamache. I am one of his fans and that is not just because he comes from Bradford. That role was danced by Benet Gartside whom I also follow. I hope that Whitehead's absence was not the result of injury or illness but, if it was, I wish him a full and speedy recovery. Valentino Zucchetti had been advertised to dance the matador and he was also indisposed through illness or injury. I wish him a full and speedy recovery too. He was replaced if my memory is correct, by Reece Clark but sadly he was also hurt and had to be replaced (I think) by Thomas Mock. Like the rest of the cast, Mock and Clark danced well. I wish Clark too a full and complete recovery. I congratulate everyone who took part in that performance.
I have been lucky enough to see two other fine performances of Don Quixote. On Christmas day of 2017, I saw Mathieu Ganio and Isabella Boylston in the ballet company of the Paris Opera (see Paris Opera Ballet's Don Quixote28 Dec 2017). I wrote:
"Spectacular choreography needs virtuoso dancers and Isabella Boylston is a virtuoso par excellence. She launches into grands jetes almost as soon as she appears on stage and hers seemed as graceful and effortless as any I have seen before. She danced Kitri who ends the show with spectacular fouettés. I have seen plenty of those from lots of Odiles but the excitement that Boylston generated with hers at the Bastille last night could not have been exceeded by Legnani herself."
A few weeks later, on 28 Feb 2019, I was delighted again by Sho Yamada and Riho Sakamoto in the lead roles in the Dutch National Ballet's performance of that work (see A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote1 March 2018). I enjoyed that show a lot:
"I don't think I have ever seen a better Don Quixote even though I have seen artists like Isabella Boylston and Marianela Nuñez dance Kitri and Carlos Acosta dance Don Basilio. Above all, I don't think I have ever seen the Dutch National Ballet dance better."
Comparisons between three great performances by three great national companies would be odious. They all had strengths. For me, the Royal Ballet's were Hatley's designs and the casting of Campbell, Magri and Avis. It is enough for me to say that the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote is right up there in my esteem with the Paris Opera's and HNB's. Without wishing to be too political I had booked my ticket to Don Quixote to cheer me up for what had been scheduled to be the day after brexit. As it happened it wasn't but that has prompted me to think of parallels. Don Quixote lived in the past and looked back to a mythical golden age. In that regard, he reminds me very much of our brexiteer MPs living in the past with their notions of English exceptionalism being the modern equivalent of courtly love and chivalry. The battle with the windmills raises obvious analogies with our noble ministers battling against an intransigent commission. Cervantes intended his novel to be a satire. He would have had a field day had he been alive now.
Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet La BayadèreRoyal Opera House 3 Nov 2018 13:30
It is often said that only the Russians can do La Bayadère. In one online forum to which I subscribe, I have read the suggestion that the Royal Ballet should not even bother to stage that ballet "because the Russians do it so much better." While it is true that only the Russians didLa Bayadère until very recently I find it a very curious argument. Nobody says anything like that in respect of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker or any of the other 19th century Russian classics. As it is set in Golkonda in India by a French-born choreographer to an Austrian composer's score, the ballet is not actually all that Russian.
Yesterday's matinee performance of La Bayadère by the Royal Ballet is the fourth that I have seen. The others were by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre in August 2015, the Dutch National Ballet in November 2016 and the Mariinsky last year. Each of those productions including yesterday's had its good points. The Royal Ballet's lay in the set and projection designs except for the appearance of a Buddha in what was supposed to be a Hindu temple. I watched the show with one friend who is a Hindu and another who comes from Japan which is a predominately Buddhist country and I don't think either was impressed by that solecism. Notwithstanding that niggle, it was a very slick and polished production with a well-rehearsed corps and particularly good performances by the shades (Yuhui Choe, Fumi Kaneko and Beatriz Stix-Brunell) and the bronze idol (Valentino Zuchetti).
I could not fault the lead dancers, Sarah Lamb, Ryoichi Hirano or Claire Calvert who were Nikiya, Solor and Gamzatti respectively. At the curtain call, Lamb was presented with a very respectable bouquet from which she selected one rose for Hirano and another for the conductor, Boris Gruzin but Calvert received even bigger bouquets (presumably from a well-wisher in the audience) which is something I have never seen before in over half a century of ballet going. The lead dancers were well supported by Yorkshireman Thomas Whitehead as the brahmin (earning an especially loud cheer at the reverence from our little section of the stalls on account of his Borealian provenance), Bennet Gartside as the rajah and Liverpudlian Kristen McNally as the aya.
Although I liked yesterday's show I preferred the Dutch National Ballet's two years ago. I think that is because of the superb performance by Sasha Mukhamedov who will always be my Nikiya. The Royal Ballet's production like the Dutch National Ballet's was created by Natalia Makarova. There is another version of the ballet by Stanton Welch for the Houston Ballet with designs by Peter Farmer and an arrangement of the score by John Lanchberry that I would love to see. Birmingham Royal Ballet appealed for funding to bring it to the UK to which I actually contributed (see A Birmingham Bayadère26 Nov 2016) but that idea was abandoned when the local authority cut its funding to the company (see How Nikiya must have felt when she saw a snake 21 Jan 2017).
Yesterday was my first opportunity to see the result of the building works that have been carried out around the Royal Opera House over the last few years. We snuck downstairs to the Linbury bar and lobby which now looks very smart and we had a cup of tea at the new cafeteria at the entrance to the lobby which also doubled as a cloakroom. All very new and shiny but a little confusing. One obvious inconvenience was the ladies' loo has been moved and there was inadequate signage to its new location. Another is that there is nothing like enough space in the cafeteria. As free wifi is provided, I suspect that some of those spaces were occupied by folks with laptops with no particular interest in opera and ballet, but that may not be a bad thing.
On the whole, we three musketeers from the North had a good day in London and it was good to meet in the interval a worthy D'Artganan, namely Marion Pettet who was until recently the chair of the Chelmsford Ballet upon which Powerhouse Ballet is modelled. Marion has given us a lot of tips and encouragement over the last few months and it was good to see her again.
The ballet will be screened to cinemas in the UK on 13 Nov 2018 and I recommend it strongly. It may not be the very best (but then there is only one Mukhamedov) but it is still a very good production. Lots of drama, some beautiful solos, the mesmerizing descent into the kingdom of the shades, some great projection technology. There is nothing wrong with our Bayadère and if the Russians, Dutch or Texans do better ones, never let the best be the enemy of the good.
Royal Ballet Swan Lake12 June 2018 Live streaming to cinemas worldwide from Covent Garden
I was lucky enough to see the Royal Ballet's Swan Lake from the stalls of the Royal Opera House on 22 May 2018 and reviewed the performance in Scarlett's Swan Lake23 May 2018. I saw it again last Tuesday at the Leeds Showcase against my better judgment and really wish I hadn't.
In Flowers for Dreda9 June 2018 I wrote that ballet should never be a passive experience and that is the difference between watching ballet in the cinema and watching it live. You can marvel at Legnani's 32 fouettés from your local flicks just as much as you can in the theatre. Arguably you can even get a better view. Certainly more than you would in rows L to Q of the amphitheatre. But however loudly you clap or cheer Nuñez or Nikulina can't hear you. They are 200 or in the case of the Bolshoi 1,500 miles away and their dialogue is with the living, breathing, thinking audience a few feet away. Not the hot dog munchers or cola quaffers of Birstall, Bergen or Brescia.
There are some advantages to ballet in the cinema.
You can see details that you might want to see such as the dancer's facial expressions, Rothbart's picking up the crown at the end of act III or Odette's mime in act IV when she breaks the news that they have to spend the rest of their lives floating around a slimy pond because Siegfried has blown it. On the other hand you also see some details that you don't like the brush strokes or bricks on the backdrop or loose threads on the costumes.
The other big advantage of cinema is that audiences can gain insight into the production or performance that they would never get in the theatre by interviewing the choreographers, composers or designers who created the work or the conductors and dancers who are about to perform it. Generally, that is something that Pathé Live and the Bolshoi do so much better than Covent Garden. One of the reasons the Bolshoi get it right is that they employ a multilingual journalist with good dress sense and an excellent knowledge of the ballet.
One feature of the Royal Ballet's transmissions that I wish they would drop are the gushing tweets. Most seem to state the obvious - namely that ballet is a remarkable spectacle (it wouldn't be worth watching otherwise) plus their locations. Social media could have a role. For example, it could be used to put questions to the creatives. I would love to have quizzed Liam Scarlett on why and how he developed von Rothbart's role. Covent Garden just seem to use it as a marketing tool or perhaps just simple vanity.
In watching the cinema transmission I was reminded of the story of Plato's cave.
Standard YouTube Licence
I first heard of it from my father long before I started to learn Greek. Live transmissions of ballet are rather like the shadows of reality from the fire in the cave. They may be better than nothing and they have their place but don't let anyone tell you that they are ballet because they are not. The analogy works quite well with live transmissions because some things that look good in the theatre just so not show up well on screen. John Macfarlane's designs are a case in point. The screen images did not do justice to them.
I expressed these views on a ballet goers' website some years ago and got roasted. I was accused of elitism by a lady who makes her living from translating foreign language patent specifications and was excoriated a man of the cloth. I was reminded of the fate of the man who broke free of the cave and tried to warn the remaining troglodytes and gave that website a miss for many years. I am now very careful about what I post to that website confining myself to reviews of performances that most subscribers would not have seen lest I be offered a pint of hemlock.
Standard YouTube Licence Royal Ballet Swan Lake Royal Opera House 22 May 2018 19:30
The curtain fell for the last time at about 22:35 yesterday and it is now 03:22 on Wednesday. Since then I have travelled 180 miles by rail and another 32 by road. I have read the programme from cover to cover. Yet I cannot sleep because I am still excited about Liam Scarlett's new production of Swan Lake.
There are hardly any gimmicks in this production. There are no new characters. The story is unchanged:
"Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night. The evil spirit Von Rothbart, arbiter of Odette’s curse, disguises his daughter Odile as Odette to trick Siegfried into breaking his vow of love. Fooled, Siegfried declares his love for Odile, and so dooms Odette to suffer under the curse forever (see the Royal Opera House's website).
There are, of course, John Macfarlane's brilliant new designs which I shall discuss later. For me the most striking innovation was the elevation of Baron von Rothbart from scary cape waving sorcerer on a rock to a an even more menacing scheming court insider reminding me just a little bit of President Putin. Although he appears in the prologue the baron's first intervention in the story is as the queen's adviser. It is obvious that he exerts considerable influence over her. The idea that the prince should marry may even have been his idea. He throws his weight around when he is alone with the prince. He reminds Siegfried of his mother's command to choose a bride. When Siegfried is about to leave the stage with his crossbow, von Rothbart gestures to him to put it down. This enhanced role for the baron affects the dynamic of the story and in my view makes it much more realistic. Particularly the third act when von Rothbart promotes his daughter as a possible royal bride.
A character who is so crucial to the story requires an artist who is as much as actor as he is a dancer and Bennet Gartside performed that role exquisitely. As I could spare the time (and money) for only one performance of the new Swan Lake I chose last night in order to see Federico Bonelli and Lauren Cuthbertson. They are two of my favourite dancers at the Royal Ballet. When I saw them in Giselle three years ago they quite took my breath away (see Cuthbertson's Giselle3 April 2016). It was on the strength of that performance that I chose Cuthbertson as my ballerina of 2016 (see The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Female Dancer of 201629 Dec 2016). Bonelli was on stage yesterday and he was as gallant and dashing as ever but sadly Cuthbertson was indisposed. Just before the start Kevin O'Hare came on stage to announce that she had been injured and invited us to join him in wishing her well which I, for one, certainly do. He also announced that Akane Takada. who took Cuthbertson's place, had danced Odette-Odile for the first time the previous Saturday. All I can say is that she was enchanting. While I hope to see Cuthbertson in that role soon I was not in the least disappointed by the casting change.
There were many other dancers who impressed me last night but this already over-long review would become as turgid as a telephone directory were I to include them all. But James Hay stood out for me as the prince's mate Benno. Not quite as big a role in Scarlett's Swan Lake as inDavid Dawson's but the character does not appear in many productions. Perhaps because I have tried to learn the cygnets' dance (see KNT's Beginners' Adult Ballet Intensive - Swan Lake: Day 116 Aug 2015) I feel a special sense of fellowship with whoever dances on it on stage. I therefore gave Elizabeth Harrod, Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Romany Pajdak and Leticia Stock who performed that piece an extra loud clap prompting an old fashioned look from the lady next to me as if to say "What's so special about them?" It would have taken me far too long to tell her. I also liked the Neapolitan dance. Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Paul Kay were lively and sparky. They performed that divertissement in the way that Wayne Sleep and Jennifer Penney used to do.
This was a ballet in which every artist performed well. Especially the corps who were magnificent. Not every man shared that view. On the stairs up to the Paul Hamlyn Bar in the first interval a pinstriped gent was holding forth that the boys were alright but the girls seemed somewhat under-rehearsed. I was amazed by that criticism. "What had he seen that I had missed?" I wondered. For me it was pure delight from beginning to end. The lady who was with the opinionated gent didn't agree. She urged him to stop it and she struck him more than once with her rolled-up cast list.
Having said that it was a very funny audience last night. Nobody joined me in clapping the principals when they first appeared. Hardly anybody applauded Takada as she was approaching her 32nd fouetté. Folk were leaving Florida style even before the first curtain call "It was only 22:30" I thought to myself, "If I can get home to Yorkshire tonight surely there must be trains to Penge." The dancers and musicians gave us there all and they deserved better from the crowd. Ballet Black got a well-deserved standing ovation in Nottingham last week as did Teac Damsa for their Swan Lake in Manchester. "What is it with stuffy old London?" I mused. Those artists deserved a flower throw and when the flower market was next door they would have got it.
I promised to say a word about Macfarlane's designs. Well, they are good. The backdrop of swirling waters for the prologue gave way to the palace gardens for act 1. Seamlessly they morphed into a lakeside with a full moon for act 2. The ballroom scene with its throne was magnificent. However, the most dramatic setting of all was the lakeside at the end. A monochrome landscape dominated by a rock. Those scene changes required ingenious lighting design and David Finn delivered it. The costumes were magnificent particularly Siegfried and Benno's and the uniforms for the men.
Scarlett shows that you don't need bikes on stage, male swans, new characters or even a new libretto to rejuvenate Swan Lake. His work is already pretty close to my favourite Swan Lake though I would hate to have to choose between it and David Dawson's. They are both excellent with their rspective strengths. I loved Anthony Dowell's Swan Lake but I think we were ready for this change.
