Royal Ballet 2022-2023 season

[California]

The Royal Ballet has announced ballet and dance through June 2023: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events?event-type=ballet-and-dance

Highlights include Mayerling, Sleeping Beauty, and the Ashton Cinderella. 

Edited April 6, 2022 by California

[Ashton Fan]

I admit that my initial response to the announcement of next season's bill of fare was to identify the performances I feel no need to attend . Somehow  I think it unlikely that the casting ,when it is announced, is going to make me change my mind. about the extended version of Crystal Pite;s' Flight Patterns which I fear will damage a  theatrically powerful and tightly constructed work by over extending it; the revival of Woolf Works or the triple bill of contemporary works which includes a new work by Wayne McGregor, a revival of Wheeldon's Corybantic Games and Anastasia Act III. All in all this part of the season's programme does not seem that attractive. As far as the rest of the season's repertory is concerned it is restricted to four established works, Mayerling which is apparently not being staged because Lady MacMillan wants to make money but to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the choreographer's death; the now inevitable Christmas Nutcracker which only became a seasonal fixture during Dowell's directorship; a revival of Sleeping Beauty and a  revival of Cinderella. I think that all four works have been allocated  far too many performances . It will interesting to see at what point the demand for tickets dries up. Personally I think that management would have been well advised to revive a fifth ballet such as Fille or  stage a really interesting mixed bill with a genuine bonne bouche in the form of a revival of Apparitions or Daphnis and Chloe.

I don't think that I am being churlish when I say that it seems to me that the  choice of repertory this season reveals even more starkly than usual Kevin's weaknesses as director of the company. He is much better than his predecessors in developing his dancers and giving them real career development opportunities allocating roles with less concern about dancers' place in  the company's hierarchy than in the past  but  at the same time he is far weaker in his understanding of the importance of the company's twentieth century  repertory of which he is merely the temporary custodian. He says the right things about Ashton  and the Ashton repertory, "He made us who we are",but when it comes to repertory choices you can't help thinking that he sees the Diaghilev and Ashton masterpieces in the store cupboard as a barrier to further and greater creativity, if only because of the deman they make on time in the studio and on stage. There have been far too many occasions on which Kevin has given the impression that he sees the bulk of the  company's twentieth century repertory as disposable works which do not require regular revival to keep them in pristine condition ; to   maintain the chain of transmission and sustain a performing tradition as part of a living experience within the ranks of the company.

I don't want to be misunderstood I am relieved to learn that  Cinderella is to be performed after more than a decade's absence, it means that the stand off over the designs  has been resolved and that with any luck we shall not be faced with  coarsely inappropriate designs as we were with the new production first staged in the 2003-4 season.My rapture at the announcement of the new Cinderella production is however somewhat modified by a lack of faith in the rights owner's ability to capture that elusive quality of magic and mystery which can make Cinderella  so compelling in performance. With any luck the new production will have designs which capture the mood of the ballet which Ashton created rather than evoking the world of pantomime. I know that everyone has to start somewhere but I find it rather worrying that neither of the designers involved in this important new production  seem to have any experience of designing for ballet.Somehow that seems something os.f a weakness.

[Mashinka]

It is pretty dismal, though the casts may be interesting.  I note a celebration of 60 years of The Friends, but remain amazed that there appears to be nothing to mark the Queen's jubilee in at what is after all the ROYAL Opera House.

[Ashton Fan]

I seem to recall the late chairman of the Royal Opera House Board complaining that the name of the building put people off attending performances there so perhaps the failure to arrange  a gala or other celebratory event is part of a deep laid plan devised by him or there again it could be  yet another oversight. One of the problems may be that Alex Beard who is responsible for the day to day running of the organisation has experience  of working for arts institutions such as the Tate Gallery rather than theatrical institutions which are expected to mark state events and stage the occasional gala.It would not be the first time that an important event has escaped the notice of the powers that be at the ROH..My recollection is that Kevin managed to overlook the Fonteyn centenary or, putting it another way, nothing was announced when when the 2018-19 season was originally published and the event suddenly appeared in the schedule at quite short notice. I think that the thing that strikes me most is the sudden apparent obsession with marking anniversaries. Does the fact that we are to mark the thirtieth anniversary of MacMillan's death mean that we are now to mark that event at five yearly intervals? Then there is the weird programme to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the Friends organisation which, as far as I am aware, includes nothing originally supported by the Friends

[Mashinka]

This time last year  I complained about the RB's failure to celebrate the jubilee.  A year on we are on the eve of a  coronation, the first in seventy years, and what is the ROH's response - zilch.

I've been told there was a week of special performances in 1953, Ashton created Homage to the Queen and Callas sang.

Alex Beard has to go.

 

 

[volcanohunter]

18 hours ago, Mashinka said:

I've been told there was a week of special performances in 1953, Ashton created Homage to the Queen and Callas sang.

Perhaps part of the problem is that there is no Ashton and no Callas. Could McGregor choreograph something suitable for the occasion? The ROH could book, say, Kaufmann, but he could cancel at the last moment. 

[Mashinka]

To the best of my knowledge Kaufmann still has voice issues.  Bryn Terfel  will sing at a special coronation concert, location not yet given but mainly pop music.  Arranging a gala for a Sunday at ROH would be relatively simple.  Any singer between engagements would enjoy the prestige of appearing on such an occasion.  Making it a gala at enhanced prices would pay artists fees. 

btw, I'd rather hear Klaus Florian Vogt than Kaufmann any day and it would be a wonderful opportunity for rising star Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha  to claim the international mega stardom she deserves.

 

[volcanohunter]

I agree wholeheartedly about Rangwanasha. She has a once-in-a-generation (or two or three) voice.

[Josette]

13 hours ago, Mashinka said:

...and it would be a wonderful opportunity for rising star Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha  to claim the international mega stardom she deserves.

 

Yes, indeed!

 

[Ashton Fan]

Perhaps the explanation for the lack of Royal Opera House based celebrations has less to do with the absence of an Ashton or a major compo=oser available to write an opera  to mark the coronation and more to do with the King's apparent desire to make the coronation appear less.elitist than it has been  in the past. It would seem. from what has so far leaked that the King wants a sort of  people's coronation rather than one in which he is surrounded by the peerage and the political  great and the good. My guess is that the palace has not approached the ROH to lay on some sort of gala because it wants to avoid any suggestion that the King is remotely interested in elitist art forms.It is one thing for him to go to the opera or ballet quietly and sit in the royal box quite another to do so with the sort of adverse coverage that the Sun and the Mail might unleash on a royal gala at a time of financial challenger. The strange  mixture of composers  engaged to provide music for the coronation combined with the list of performers lined up for the coronation celebratory concert suggests that the aim is to appeal to what is perceived to be popular taste and to avoid any idea that any member of the the  royal family is anything other than safely  middle brow and that the King  in particular shares the tastes of his people,

[Mashinka]

As a working class woman I can never buy into the belief that opera and ballet are elitist.

[volcanohunter]

I can believe that kind of perception persists, and Buckingham Palace may not be aware of ROH efforts to cast off an elitist image.

 

[California]

In email today from the Royal Opera House, their plans for the Coronation:

THE CORONATION CONCERT FEATURING THE ROYAL BALLET AND THE ROYAL OPERA

---

As part of the Coronation Concert, The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal College of Music and The Royal College of Art will come together for the first time ever to create a spectacular one-off performance featuring Ncuti Gatwa. Based on themes of love and togetherness, the piece will combine music, dance, art and theatre in what will be the ultimate Royal collaboration.

At the centre of the show, The Royal Shakespeare Company will perform excerpts from a Shakespeare play, featuring Ncuti Gatwa alongside Mei Mac, Olivier Award nominee for My Neighbour Totoro. The Royal patronages will perform a beautiful arrangement of a classic song from West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, accompanied by the Chorus of The Royal Opera House singing a choral version of the song. The Royal Ballet's Principal dancers, Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé, will also perform a bespoke piece of choreography for the occasion. The visual backdrop projected onto Windsor Castle and the stage will showcase artworks by students from The Royal College of Art. Alongside the other performers, a string quartet of four Royal College of Music students will perform as soloists: Betania Johnny and Katherine Young on violin, Declan Wicks on viola and Marion Portelance on cello, who will be playing His Majesty's cello, which is currently kept by The Royal College of Music.

[volcanohunter]

So Bernstein and Sondheim fit into this on the grounds that...West Side Story is based on a Shakespeare play? Because no British composer ever set a Shakespeare text to music? And, say, Vaughan Williams would be elitist? 

Edited April 21, 2023 by volcanohunter

[Mashinka]

It all seems greatly removed from Britten's Gloriana created for the last coronation.

[Josette]

I have read for months that the coronation was to be significantly scaled down from Queen Elizabeth's coronation.   I just checked again online and read that the scaling down is due to the "UK's cost of living crisis".  See, e.g.,  https://www.livemint.com/news/world/king-charles-last-minute-decision-for-coronation-causes-logistical-challenges-11679980502140.html.  The coronation is funded by the British government, i.e., British taxpayers.  

[Mashinka]

Much of the scaling down is to do with security concerns.  Unfortunately London is a hot spot for terrorism and the police don't have the resources to deal with the kind of celebrations that took place in 1953.  The cost is estimated at a mere 100 million pounds, a piddling amount compared to the welfare state, but the net income from tourism etc. will cover that cost.