Intermezzo

More ballet - Sweet Violets debuts

 

Liam Scarlett's Sweet Violets was the second premiere on the Royal Ballet's Thursday night triple bill (Carbon Life post here). Scarlett didn't make his first narrative ballet easy for himself, devising own subject matter and fitting it to Rachmaninov's unprunable Trio élégiaque (beautifully played) . His main character is Walter Sickert, an artist and therefore an observer - not so easy to express in movement.

What he comes up with is not a conventional linear story but a series of atmospheric vignettes, based on Sickert's Camden Town paintings (studiously evoked in John Macfarlane's sets). They provide the visual framework; the artist's fascination with London's lowlife,  Jack the Ripper in particular, the dramatic stimulus.

The gruesome murder of a prostitute in a tatty Victorian bedroom sets the scene. From then on, things get a bit confusing. Tamara Rojo rolls around half-dressed on a bed. We watch a music hall show from the wings. Some top-hatted gents bust into the artist's studio and cart off his companions. A demonic figure lurking in the background (Steven McRae) appears to be Sickert's alter ego.

Until you read the programme notes, which I didn't do until afterwards, it's hard to follow. There are too many characters, too many events and too many blokes walking across a room: Scarlett's preference for naturalism limits the amount of dance. What there is often has a frantic, compelling quality that brings the erotic and morbid elements of Sickert's paintings to thrilling life. Somewhere within the fifty minutes a taut, exciting forty minute piece is hidden.

All performances were superb on opening night - Laura Morera's madhouse scene deserves singling out.

*more photos below*

Carbon Life - Mark Ronson does ballet

Eric Underwood in Carbon Life - Bill Cooper

Wayne McGregor's new short ballet Carbon Life premiered last night at the Royal Opera House as the finale to a triple bill that began with Christopher Wheeldon's 2001 Polyphonia and Liam Scarlett's new Sweet Violets (of which more later).

The promise of costumes by Gareth Pugh lured fashion faces like Rick Owens and Pam Hogg, but if Mark Ronson's live music had pulled in any popstars, I'm afraid I failed to spot them. Not that there would have been any room - the show has been sold out for weeks.

An orchestra was originally scheduled. But the pit remained empty. No idea why. It seems to have been a late decision: the programme still mentions 'orchestrations'. Is this why there were a couple of loooong silences in the middle of the piece?

Instead, Ronson and his band lined up at the back of the stage and nothing but their loud dancey rock pounded out of the speakers.  Alison Mosshart from The Kills did most of the singing, sometimes prowling amongst the ballerinas in her hedgerow hair and flowing coat, and a long lineup that included Boy George  pitched in for the rest.

Anyone who went purely for the choreography may have been disappointed at the lack of anything truly groundbreaking. The twitchy contortions harked back to earlier McGregor pieces. The large scale ensembles that opened the work were plain and repetitive, though the later pas de deux showed more expressive imagination.

But the movement complements the music's aggressive edge and the brutal simplicity of Gareth Pugh's costumes. Beginning in flesh-coloured underwear, the dancers graduate to black, then develop strange crystalline excrescences on their heads and limbs, culminating in origami tutus and the 'how do you dance in that' block-toed black cuissardes seen in the photo at the top. An alien-like glow surrounding each dancer at the start of the work was the most spectacular of many fabulous lighting effects.

*more photos below*

the Dame and the dictator - a story that belongs on stage

Secret government papers declassified today under the 50 year rule describe the extraordinary involvement of Dame Margot Fonteyn in a failed coup to overthrow the Panamanian government. Led by Dame Margot's husband and financed by Fidel Castro, the plotters eventually failed due to a last-minute blunder.

But not before Britain's greatest ballerina had been thrown in jail after helping to supply them with guns.

Her brief incarceration made headlines at the time. An outline of the almost unbelievable events has been public knowledge ever since.

What the newly-released papers do is fill in vital details and explain the extent of her involvement - how for example her accidentally-discarded address book led Panamanian officials to believe that John Wayne (yes, that one), one of the entries, was somehow involved.

The bizarre episode was touched on in the recent TV bio, Margot. And a few commenters in the press have suggested a movie should be made.

But is the prosaic naturalism of the movie screen big enough to carry a story of guns, passion, revolution, prison, scandal and a beautiful woman ready to sacrifice everything for love? Surely what a story of these credibility-straining dimensions needs is a medium to match its scale. In other words, an opera. Anyone care to write one?

en pointe - Royal Ballet's 2010-11 season revealed

Baffled by ballet? The Ballet Bag is a brilliant blog that demystifies the world of tights and tutus. It's centred around the Royal Ballet, and the ever-accumulating posts about the individual works and dancers are a great help to those of us who don't visit that often and need help deciding what to go and see.

The Bag Ladies have put together an indispensable guide to the Royal Ballet's 2010-11season. If you're a bit disappointed by what the Royal Opera have on offer next year, it might be just the time to try some dance instead.

 

Royal Opera House sizzles with the Sun again

After the PR success of last year's Don Giovanni, the Royal Opera House has announced it will once again open its doors to Sun readers this autumn.

Discounted tickets, subsidised by the Helen Hamlyn Trust, will be offered for Carmen on 3 October and the ballet Mayerling on 7 October, and are intended to lure "new faces, people who may not have thought that the Royal Opera House was for them". No doubt a few old faces will wangle their way in too.

Seats will be priced between £7.50 and £30 and will be allocated by ballot, allowing each applicant up to four seats per show. Full details of how to apply will be published in the Sun "later this summer".

 

The secret lives of ballerinas

Other than reviews, mainstream press coverage of the ballet world is on the skimpy side.

This week's ES magazine redresses the balance by interviewing some of the Royal Ballet's star dancers. Also an excuse for a fashion spread, with a scary bony model to prove yes, it is possible to be thinner than a ballerina.

The dancers interviewed are Lauren Cuthbertson ("it's always fun doing things on the side"), Marianela Nuñez ("I was really spoilt"), Roberta Marquez ("I love very high heels"), Laura Morera ("I have a high pain threshold"), Alexandra Ansanelli ("in my genes to perform") and Yuhui Choe ("We're always banging on the living room wall(?)").

The article can be found here and the photos, by Nicky Emmerson, are below.

Boyz next time pls.

 
Marianela Nuñez; model; Laura Morera; Roberta Marquez

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Yuhui Choe; model

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Lauren Cuthbertson; Marianela Nuñez; Roberta Marquez; Laura Morera; model

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Laura Morera; Yuhui Choe; model; Lauren Cuthbertson

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model; Laura Morera; Lauren Cuthbertson; Roberta Marquez; Marianela Nuñez; Alexandra Ansanelli

What's on this winter at the Royal Opera House

Barely a week into the new season at Covent Garden, and already we're being asked to whip out our Amexes again, this time for November to March productions. Booking opens this week for those who've paid for the privilege, and next month for the common herd.

Rolando Villazón fights through miles of curtain fabric to reprise his Covent Garden debut role in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Antonio Pappano conducts the elaborate John Schlesinger production, inching ever closer to its sell-by date. Ekaterina Lekhina (Olympia) is a new name to me, but Gidon Saks, Kristine Jepson and Christine Rice promise sturdy support (photo: Clive Barda).

Rolando also submits to a live interview on 10 November. Space is limited, so early booking advised.

The other star vehicle of the season is a new Tim Albery production of Der fliegende Holländer with (cancelitis permitting) Bryn Terfel in the title role. Anja Kampe makes an overdue ROH debut as Senta. Tickets will be restricted to two per customer for this one.

Britten's The Beggar's Opera pops up in the Linbury Studio. The new production by Justin Way (not by conductor Richard Hickox as the website currently claims - there are limits to his talents) is likely to be popular, so again, early booking advised. The excellent and underused Tom Randle is Macheath.

Also to the Linbury comes the long-overdue London debut of George Benjamin's highly-praised ("the most important new opera of the past 25 years") mini-opera Into the Little Hill , coupled with Harrison Birtwistle's Down by the Greenwood Side. The cast includes Susan Bickley and Claire Booth.

The brilliant Willy Decker production of Korngold's Die tote Stadt that I caught in Vienna finally makes its way to London.  Unfortunately Klaus Florian Vogt and Angela Denoke aren't coming with it, but Stephen Gould and Nadja Michael should be a more than passable substitute. And there's the bonus of Gerald Finley in the smaller role of Frank.

David McVicar's t1ts'n'todgers Rigoletto returns with indecent haste. Francesco Meli, Leo Nucci, Ekaterina Siurina and Kurt Rydl are amongst the few cast members who get to keep their clothes on.

Elektra isn't illuminated by Charles Edwards's jumbled production, but with Mark Elder in the pit and a cast that includes Susan Bullock, Anne Schwanewilms, Jane Henschel and Johan Reuter it should at least push some musical buttons.

Even I can't get excited about yet another Turandot revival, but include it for the sake of completeness.

On the ballet side, I have to recommend the triple bill The Seven Deadly Sins / Carmen / DGV: Danse à grande vitesse, especially for the first of these and its wonderful music. Chanteuse Martha Wainwright returns to sing Weill's evocative music, and Zenaida Yanowsky is her dancing doppelganger (photo: John Ross).