Intermezzo

Director spat leads to ballet walkout

The Royal Opera House have announced Johan Kobborg has withdrawn from choreographing  the massive ballet scene in October's new production of Les Vêpres siciliennes "as a result of artistically differing approaches to the project between Johan Kobborg and director Stefan Herheim". Not only that, but the Royal Ballet have pulled out from the opera project too.

After last week's shock announcement that Kobborg (together with partner Alina Cojocaru) is to leave the Royal Ballet at the end of this season, it's unsurprising that he's no longer involved in the Herheim production.

But "artistically differing approaches"?

The suddenness of Kobborg's departure - and the lack of explanation - led many to wonder whether there was more behind it than an injury-plagued season and the inevitable pressures of age (at 40, Kobborg was virtually geriatric in ballet terms). Speculation must now centre on how much the Herheim clash contributed to his decision.

Herheim is no stranger to artistic confrontation - most publicly with Daniel Barenboim.

Tickets for Vêpres went on sale last week to the ROH's highest-level patrons, some of whom pay thousands for the privilege of advance booking. The ballet fans amongst them will be furious the ROH didn't announce the change immediately.

Goodbye Tamara, au revoir Sergei

There were tears on stage and off at the Royal Opera House last night as Tamara Rojo danced for what will probably be the last time on the Covent Garden stage. Partnering her in Marguerite and Armand was Sergei Polunin. Like Rojo, he's no longer with the Royal Ballet, but unlike Rojo, he doesn't have a ballet company to run, so it's hoped he'll manage many more return visits.

After the truly heartbreaking ballet - not a dry eye in my corner of the house at any rate - it was time for the celebrations. The audience rose to their feet as Tamara and Sergei took their first bows of the evening.

Carlos Acosta wasn't included in the evening's dancing, but he came on stage to add to Tamara's stack of bouquets with an exquisite bunch of white lilies. Then it began raining. Raining flowers.  A stream of white chrysanthemums began their descent from the balcony boxes on both sides. More than one managed to whack Tamara on the head, accidents she took in good grace and humour. Out she slipped from between the velvet curtains and back in again, more times than I counted. Eventually Sergei picked her up and carried her off, but back she came for one last bow. Usually Covent Garden audiences can't wait to escape. This time the applause continued long after Tamara had gone.  It wasn't enough to tempt her back.  Every farewell must eventually be final.

More pictures below, and official pictures here.

Salzburg Festival mini-marathon

Hagen Quartett / Zürcher Ballett -  Felsenreitschule, 28 July 2012
Orchestra Mozart Bologna / Arnold Schoenberg Chor / Claudio Abbado - Haus für Mozart, 28 July 2012
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg / Ivor Bolton -Mozarteum, 29 July 2012

Dance is not a core element of the Salzburg Festival, but new Intendant Alexander Pereira's old buddy Heinz Spoerli stepped down as head of the Zurich Opera Ballet last month. And what better way to mark a retirement at the age of 72 than to spend weeks working like a dog producing three one act ballets that will only be seen twice?

Metamorphosis Titian at the Royal Opera House

Metamorphosis Titian 2012 - Royal Opera House, 14 July 2012

In place of the customary gala, Dame Monica Mason has chosen to mark her retirement from the Royal Ballet by commissioning three new one-act ballets.

Stimulated by a timely request from the National Gallery, all three are inspired by three Titian paintings recently 'saved for the nation'.  Their subject is the myth of Diana and the hunter Actaeon. He caught the goddess bathing naked; she punished him by turning him into a stag, to be eaten by his hounds. Not conventional ballet material perhaps, but neither is the approach.

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*