Bernstein Centenary Encore

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Royal Ballet Bernstein Centenary Encore 14:00 Leeds Showcase Cinema

I attended the Bernstein Centenary triple bill at Covent Garden on 17 March 2018 (see Bernstein Centenary 18 March 2018). I enjoyed it very much but there were gaps in my comprehension and appreciation of the three ballets. Many of those gaps were filled by yesterday's Encore in which Ore Oduba interviewed Bernstein's biographer, Humphrey Burton and Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarlett and Christopher Wheeldon who created the three works that were screened yesterday.

In my previous review I wrote:

"I liked all the ballets in the programme. Yugen and The Age of Anxiety appealed immediately. Corybantic Games was different. I admired the choreography, the geometric sets and, of course, Bernstein's music and I am an enormous fan of Lauren Cuthbertson but I think I will have to see it again and probably more than once to appreciate it properly."

Yugen remained my favourite but I learned a lot about The Age of Anxiety and a little more about the Corybantic Games.

I love the Chichester Psalms at any time but I was particularly receptive to them yesterday having heard the magnificent choir and organ of Bradford Cathedral at choral Eucharist few hours earlier.  In that service the congregation was allowed to sing another great choral work, namely Handel's Hallelujah Chorus which certainly lifted me aesthetically as well as spiritually.  Once again the beauty of the 23rd psalm was sublime and the figures in red became angelic. I will never tire of this work. It is one of a very small number of abstract ballets like Meisner's Embers and Ashton's Monotones that are too beautiful for words.

The Age of Anxiety started with shots of the posters on the walls, the labels of the bottles and details such as the maple leaf and "Canada" flash on Emble's uniform which I had missed before even though I was pretty close to the stage on 17 March.  I also caught significant bits of choreography that i had missed before such as the goosestepping of the four strangers with a Hitler salute and the futile haling of taxis on the way back to Rosetta's flat.  I also began to appreciate the dynamics of the relationships with its triangular affections and sense of betrayal as Emblem drop's Malin's business card in the gutter.  But there was still the glory of the Manhattan morning skyline which must have made me sigh, "Shut up Jane" my companion hissed at me.  Sarah Lamb was Rosetta in yesterday's screening but the other dancers were Alexander Campbell, Bennet Gartside and Tristran Dyer,

According to Burton the music for Corybantic Games was inspired by Plato's Symposium.  We also learned that Corybantic is the adjective of Κορύβαντες who were worshippers of a Phrygian goddess given to wild dancing. Although some of the poses reminded me of the figures on Greek pottery the ballet has a period field to it.  In my review of the 18 March I compared the show to Symphonic Variations which was a postwar work. It still had a period feel but after seeing the crimping of the women's hair and the group poses it reminded me more of 1920s Ballets Russes than Ashton.  I have still not digested the work though I like it just a teeny bit more than I did two weeks ago.

I should say a word about Ore Oduba. It was the first time that I had seen his presenting a screening from Covent Garden on his own and he did it very well.  On previous occasions he has appeared with Darcey Bussell and other dancers whom I love dearly and admire greatly but are just  not presenters. Like Pathé Live's Katerina Novikova, Oruba is a broadcaster and it shows. He was a bit raw when I first saw him calling 90 yer old ballet dames by their first names but he has grown into the job.  He has now seen enough ballet to talk about it authoritatively but not too much to cease to be enchanted by its beauty. Long may be occupy that sweet spot.

Bernstein Centenary

Leonard Bernstein 1918-1990

Photo Jack Mitchell

Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 international

Source Wikipedia

Royal Ballet Bernstein Centenary (Yugen, The Age of Anxiety and Corybantic Games 17 March 2018, 19:30 Royal Opera House Covent Garden

This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, one of the most popular classical composers ever. One of the reasons for his popularity is that he did not work entirely in the classical idiom.  Consequently, many of his tunes appeal to an audience who have never entered a concert hall.  They are simple and memorable - easy to sing, hum or whistle. To celebrate the anniversary the Royal Ballet revived Liam Scarlett's The Age of Anxiety and commissioned new works form Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon, namely Yugen and the Corybantic Games.

I liked all the ballets in the programme. Yugen and The Age of Anxiety appealed immediately.  Corybantic Games was different. I admired the choreography, the geometric sets and, of course, Bernstein's music and I am an enormous fan of Lauren Cuthbertson but I think I will have to see it again and probably more than once to appreciate it properly.  Happily I will get that opportunity when the programme is streamed to cinemas on 28 March 2018.

Recently Gary Avis, the work's ballet master, tweeted that Yugen was breathtakingly beautiful. On seeing the tweet my first reaction was that he would say that - but he was right. I literally gasped for breath from the moment the stage revealed the geometric set with the dancers clad in red at first glance almost exactly alike. McGregoor had interpreted Bernstein's Chichester Psalms (extracts from the psalms including the 23rd sung in the original Hebrew) in movement and the result can only be described as sublime. I was enchanted by the whole performance.

The Age of Anxiety could not have been more of a contrast.  According to the programme notes it is based on W H Auden's poem which I have yet to read.  Wikipedia states:

"The poem deals, in eclogue form, with man's quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialized world. Set in a wartime bar in New York City, Auden uses four characters – Quant, Malin, Rosetta, and Emble – to explore and develop his themes."

Well everybody must have got the New York bar bit but the coming to terms with industrialized world bit bypassed me. The ballet seemed to be about 4 people getting progressively drunk until the barman throws them out. They repair to Rosetta's flat with a magnificent view of the New York skyline. One of them passes out.  The last scene reveals Manhattan at dawn and the dancer's wonder at the sight.

Well Rosetta was  obviously Sarah Lamb and she was splendid in that role as she always is.  Luca Acri was Emble, Yorkshireman Thomas Whitehead was Qant and James Hay was Malin. I always give Whitehead an extra loud clap or cheer whenever I see him on stage because ........ well, we Northerners have to stick together, don't we.

For some reason or other the Corybantic Games reminded me of Ashton's Symphonic Variations even though Bernstein's music is so different from Cesar Franck's as is Wheeldon's choreography from Ashton's. I think it may have been because of the classical allusions. I seem to remember my old classics master telling me that the Olympic games were only one of a number of games in which the Greek city states competed. I surmised that the Corybantic Games must have been another. The dancers were clad simply as athletes and their movements were pretty extraordinary too. The work was divided into five movements with Matthew Ball, William Bracewell, Yasmine Naghdi accompanying Cuthbertson in the first. Beatrix Stix-Brunnell on her own in the second, Navarra Magri and Marcelino Sambé in the third, Cuthbertson, Naghdi, Ball, Ryoichi Hirano, Stix-Brunnell and Bracewell in the fourth and Tierney Heap leading the ensemble in the fifth.

The crowd applauded politely at the end of Corybantic Games - especially when the leading ladies received bouquets - but the applause ended before the lights came on again. Nothing like the sustained clapping and cheering for the other two works.  I think the Wheeldom will become a well loved staple of the repertoire in time but audiences need to get to know it better.  Perhaps a different title would have helped.