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"Manon" Osipova-Shklyarov "Friday the 13th" April

mnacenani

By mnacenani
in Royal Ballet

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mnacenani

mnacenani

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Considering my history with Osipova, and recently Hallberg, and the interesting "day-date" combination, I flew in resigned to my fate and picked up the cast sheet with more than slight apprehension - not this time ! It would have been real cruel fate if either Natasha or Volodya had dropped out during the day, added to the indescribably bad BA flight and the 65 minute wait in queue to gain admittance. A few words, no pix (all were terrible - if anyone can recommend a mobile with camera which will not blur out the "white faces" at curtain calls I will be much obliged) :

Macmillan's ballets I take with a pinch of salt : they do not comply with my minority view that ballet should be self-explanatory through dance+mime and music only, that one shouldn't have to go to a pre-performance lecture and memorise the synopsis and keep the cast sheet in hand to be able to make out the story and connect with it. On this basis Mayerling fails on all counts, Manon is slightly more accessible, only Romeo&Juliet passes but this isn't original Macmillan !  Again, there are too many "mothers-in-law" in Manon too, maybe not as much as in Mayerling which will one day surely get surtitles setting out where in the storyline one is and who Rudolf is dancing with (tbc)

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mnacenani

mnacenani

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I find Macmillan a real master of the PdD, his creations so original (for me) and "emotional", but his ensemble choreos are imho too "cluttered" if one can say so : too many characters doing too many things, the ubiquitous "harlots" (forgot whether there were harlots in Mayerling too)(PS - sure there were, whaddyaexpect?), dances which can be interchanged between his ballets with just a change of costume ...... do I make sense ?? (tbc)

Osipova I liked, once again making good use of her God-given talent for mime. Shklyarov is my default Romeo, 1/3 of the cause of my instant addiction to Russian classical ballet (2/3 being Vishnyova as Juliet). The two bedroom scenes, avant and apres G.M. were imho excellently executed. The final scene, was it Gnossie who wrote "good luck with those swamp PdDs", was also excellent. But was there any "real chemistry" between Manon and Des Grieux ?? I am a bit doubtful, cannot say I picked up any strong electric current flowing, am not sure. But "bravo" to Shklyarov who had only 3 weeks to learn the role from scratch, no mean feat with all those high-risk throws and all. What an excellent, elegant dancer he is, in any role.

PS : re "those swamp PdDs" :  did anyone see Aurelie Dupont's farewell Manon at POB, live or on webcast 3 years ago ? Noticed how she came within 1 inch of getting her face smashed up in spite of Bolle partnering her ??

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mnacenani

mnacenani

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Marcelino Sambé as Lescaut : no doubt he is an excellent dancer, but in my view somewhat miscast in role - looks too young and "naive" to fit the "scheming brother" role but my subjective take only.

Gary Avis, "that old war horse" once again pulling off his role in excellent fashion - wonder who RB will find to replace him once he retires.

Now, my discovery of the evening : Yasmine Naghdi as Lescaut's mistress. We have real talent here Ladies & Gentlemen, don't think I am getting too big for my boots but I know one when I see one. Great presence, would anyone second it if I said she has an "air" of the young Tamara Rojo about her ?? Again I don't want to stir up controversy but :  you can tell in a couple of minutes that a dancer who catches your eye must be Russian, by her eyes, her aura, her "electricity". Even if I didn't know her name I would have detected that YN must have some "hot blood group" - could have thought she was Spanish.

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mnacenani

mnacenani

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PS :  I have a slight "hangup" regarding Natasha - I would like to see her always as Kitri (never could), Swanilda, Lise, Jizel, Silfida ..... as much as "maya lyubimaya artistka" she is, could not really click with her as Vetsera and Mehmene Banu, though somewhat clicked with her Manon.

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Jane Simpson

Jane Simpson

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42 minutes ago, mnacenani said:

Now, my discovery of the evening : Yasmine Naghdi as Lescaut's mistress. We have real talent here Ladies & Gentlemen, don't think I am getting too big for my boots but I know one when I see one. Great presence, would anyone second it if I said she has an "air" of the young Tamara Rojo about her ?? Again I don't want to stir up controversy but :  you can tell in a couple of minutes that a dancer who catches your eye must be Russian, by her eyes, her aura, her "electricity". Even if I didn't know her name I would have detected that YN must have some "hot blood group" - could have thought she was Spanish.

For those who don't know her and may be a little confused by this, Naghdi has a Belgian mother and an Iranian father. She was born and brought up in London, where her outstanding talent has been recognised for quite some time.

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kbarber

kbarber

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27 minutes ago, Jane Simpson said:

For those who don't know her and may be a little confused by this, Naghdi has a Belgian mother and an Iranian father. She was born and brought up in London, where her outstanding talent has been recognised for quite some time.

and did all of her training at the Royal Ballet School. So much for "must be Russian". There are fantastic dancers in the world who aren't Russian.

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volcanohunter

volcanohunter

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I suppose Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward, Sarah Lamb, Laura Morera and Marianela Nuñez are all chopped liver. It's only one opinion, of course, but I would choose any of them over Osipova each and every time.

Last I checked, all but two of the POB's étoiles are French, and the exceptions aren't Russian. There aren't any Russians among the Royal Danish Ballet's principals.

If there are more Russian dancers working abroad than there are non-Russian dancers working in Russia, perhaps this has more to do with living and working conditions in Russia than anything else.

Edited by volcanohunter
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mnacenani

mnacenani

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1 hour ago, volcanohunter said:

all but two of the POB's étoiles are French, and the exceptions aren't Russian.

No wonder someone said they were dancing like "civil servants" ...... with the CdB looking like "flowers on wallpaper"  :D:D (do forgive me)

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JMcN

JMcN

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I'm looking forward to seeing 2 performances next month - should have been one but Mr Campbell is now dancing Des Grieux so I have managed to get a restricted view ticket (hopefully not too restricted!).

I'm afraid I prefer the English more subtle style and the Danish to Russian bravura.  Which does not mean to say that there are not wonderful dancers from all over the world and with all different training backgrounds.

 

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mnacenani

mnacenani

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3 hours ago, JMcN said:

I'm afraid I prefer the English more subtle style and the Danish to Russian bravura

Dear JMcN it should be no surprise for you that as a Turk of Uzbek ancestry I would have little appreciation of the "subtle" ...... and at 70+ my eyesight is more attuned to six o'clock extensions and 190-degree splits than "intricate footwork" ..... I love it !  :D:D

PS - on the serious side : I have yet to learn about Bournonville, but it has been and still is an intriguing subject for me whether "English style" evolved due to Ashton having to work with "the material he had at hand". Every time I bring this up somewhere I get some backlash from the British, but this popped up in my mind when I watched Darcey Bussell's 2014 docu monologue "A Ballerina's Life" where she talked about how Guillem's capabilities had opened up the eyes of the RB director/s as to what Darcey might also be able to do (the only "athletic" dancer at RB I knew of in the Nineties). I regret having seen very little of Darcey, would have loved to see her Nikiya if I had been into ballet at the time.

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Mashinka

Mashinka

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2 hours ago, mnacenani said:

my eyesight is more attuned to six o'clock extensions and 190-degree splits than "intricate footwork" ..... I love it ! 

Not intrinsically Russian though.  It is a relatively new phenomenon introduced by a French dancer and imitated (usually with little success) worldwide.  It has no place in classical ballet whatsoever.

 

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mnacenani

mnacenani

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Just noticed on the cast sheet that Lesley Collier and Viviana Durante are coaches at RB. Saw Collier only once in the early Nineties, but Durante-Mukhamedov must have been our preferred partnership - I saw most of the ballets we had booked had them as leads when I looked up the cast sheets. Durante had this unique quality (for me) with her timing and PdB, of seemingly becoming really weightless and flying when Irek lifted her overhead.

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Vs1

Vs1

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Just now, volcanohunter said:

I suppose Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward, Sarah Lamb, Laura Morera and Marianela Nuñez are all chopped liver. It's only one opinion, of course, but I would choose any of them over Osipova each and every time.

Last I checked, all but two of the POB's étoiles are French, and the exceptions aren't Russian. There aren't any Russians among the Royal Danish Ballet's principals.

If there are more Russian dancers working abroad than there are non-Russian dancers working in Russia, perhaps this has more to do with living and working conditions in Russia than anything else.

NYCB. Although I always see the Russians when I can.

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volcanohunter

volcanohunter

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I've flown in and out of Moscow from a number of cities, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Warsaw and Minsk. Those flights are pretty much like any other flights within Europe. But the British Airways flight from London to Moscow is a surreal experience, because I swear that two-thirds of the plane is taken up by first- and business-class seats, and coach is a small area at the rear of the plane. That's an indicator of precisely what sort of Russian "punters" travel to and from London on a regular basis, and I reckon Osipova is quite effective at attracting them to the ROH. 

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