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Post by tmesis on Feb 18, 2020 13:26:20 GMT
Most of the pre-publicly for this was for the second item in this double bill, Cathy Marston's new ballet about the life of Jaqueline du Pre. I found this dragged a bit and was not as moving as it should've been. The three main dancers were excellent but it was padded out unnecessarily with lots of other dancers that added nothing to the overall effect. It would be much more effective as a half hour ballet with just the three main performers.
Vastly superior was the first offering, an exquisite abstract ballet to a selection of Chopin's sublime piano music with Jerome Robbins providing the most breathtakingly apposite choreography. I keep mentioning this but the RB are on stunning form at the moment and this showed them off at their very best. There was a high quota of principal dancers last night, Marianela Nunez, Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi, Laura Morera, Alexander Campbell and the ageless Federico Bonelli all at the top of their game. I love Robbins' choreography - it has all the classical grace you could wish but with a dose of American sassiness that is just irresistible. He also dares in the final Nocturne to have all ten dancers stand mainly stationary - an effect that I find unaccountably very moving.
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Post by catcat100 on Feb 18, 2020 15:44:25 GMT
I am completely, 100%, the opposite to your views on the two ballets here.
Really enjoyed the cellist, liked the modern staging, thought the idea of the additional dancers representing different parts of the orchestra a nice touch and reflective of the individual cello dancer. Storyline easy to follow and kept me interested for the full hour.
Which I couldn't say for the First ballet. Just wasn't feeling any passion for it. Dancing was of course excellent, but really didn't get into it and thought it dragged.
As a note for anyone wanting to book, a lot happens stage right, if you're on the very left side of the auditorium as you face the stage you likely to miss these and to a much greater extent to other ballets. I would have preferred being at the back at the top rather than in balcony standing on the left.
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Post by theatrefan77 on Feb 20, 2020 13:26:44 GMT
I enjoyed both, but I prefer Dances at a Gathering which was excellent with all the dancers on top form.
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Post by tmesis on Feb 21, 2020 10:16:32 GMT
Further thoughts on The Cellist...
I think one of the main problems with this was the music. The credit for this was Philip Feeney who is a very experienced composer of ballet scores. Quite rightly he incorporated a hefty chunk of Elgar's Cello Concerto and musically and choreographically this was the most satisfying part. Elsewhere there was a truly horrible arrangement of Schubert's Trout Quintet to reference on stage the famous Christopher Nupen documentary and then, when he actually did some proper composing, there was a terrible stylistic mismatch, his own efforts sounding bizarrely like something John Williams might reject from the score of Harry Potter.
As I said earlier this would work much better as a 30 minute ballet and, since that's more or less the length of the Cello Concerto, I think that, exactly as it stands, should have been used as the score.
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 22, 2020 18:39:53 GMT
Further thoughts on The Cellist... I think one of the main problems with this was the music. The credit for this was Philip Feeney who is a very experienced composer of ballet scores. Quite rightly he incorporated a hefty chunk of Elgar's Cello Concerto and musically and choreographically this was the most satisfying part. Elsewhere there was a truly horrible arrangement of Schubert's Trout Quintet to reference on stage the famous Christopher Nupen documentary and then, when he actually did some proper composing, there was a terrible stylistic mismatch, his own efforts sounding bizarrely like something John Williams might reject from the score of Harry Potter. As I said earlier this would work much better as a 30 minute ballet and, since that's more or less the length of the Cello Concerto, I think that, exactly as it stands, should have been used as the score. Without actually seeing the ballet, I think that is a brilliant idea, tmesis.
As someone who was actually acquainted with Jacqueline du Pré as a near neighbour when she and Barenboim lived near Baker Street and who is familiar with her musical talent extremely well through working for EMI Classics for many years, both when she was performing and subsequently, the idea of creating a ballet using just the Elgar Cello Concerto would seem to me to be a particularly inspired way of doing honour to Jackie in a ballet with both skill and taste. But, alas, that has not happened!
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