Haglund's Heel

Cojocaru and Kobborg quit The Royal Ballet

. . . to pursue "other artistic challenges" so says the press release.  Their future plans will be announced "shortly."

Let's hope those challenges are not located at ABT.

The press release says that their final London performance will be this Wednesday's Mayerling, and the two plan to keep their July tour commitments with the RB.  Any wagers on that last part?

It really does look like Cojocaru was dumping challenging performances of Symphony in C at the RB in order to save herself for guest artist challenges (and accompanying Koch money) at ABT.

Who needs this sort of professionalism?  If she's too injured to dance there, she's too injured to dance here.

Let Sarah Lane dance Swan Lake with Herman Cornejo.

 

Mayerling – not here

From London's Daily Express today:

WHEN it comes to exploring the darkest corners of the psyche through ballet there is nobody to touch the late choreographer Kenneth MacMillan. And they don't come much darker than Mayerling.

Based on the true, if veiled, account of the tragedy that befell Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and his semi-psychotic son, Crown Prince Rudolf, who ended up shooting his 17-year-old mistress before turning his gun on himself, it is replete with sex, death, guns, drugs and politics.

Not the usual subjects for dance but Mayerling isn't your usual ballet.

MacMillan's last great narrative work goes far beyond the customary tropes of classical dance to produce one of the defining masterpieces of 20th century ballet and remains one of the crowning glories of The Royal Ballet.

. . .

If the narrative complexity requires foreknowledge of the story, it is a small price to pay for an evening that goes way beyond polite appreciation.

A rare and precious night of dark alchemy.

Many believe that Mayerling is one of MacMillan's "greatest narrative works" but ABT has never performed it despite having an embarrassment of wealth of dramatic heavy-weights who could deliver Crown Prince Rudolf's character with such complex darkness that it would make the ballet one of ABT's "crowning glories," too.  The company completely wasted the opportunity to have one of MacMillan's hand-picked original cast members pass down her principal role and historical knowledge to ABT's dancers when it had Georgina Parkinson as its ballet mistress.  Today, in its ranks, it's lucky enough to have a dancer who has actually prepared and performed the principal role of Princess Stephanie in the Royal Ballet's production of Mayerling, but that is going to waste, too.

Lady Deborah MacMillan wants ABT to perform Sir Kenneth's masterpiece, but Kevin McKenzie doesn't think the New York audience would understand the story.  No doubt, he's also afraid of critic Alastair Macaulay's certain scathing reviews, because Macaulay is on record as despising Mayerling and carries a disrespectful attitude toward most of MacMillan's work. 

We're missing a lot by not seeing this fine work performed by an American company.  Someone needs to do it:  ABT, Joffrey, San Francisco Ballet. 

If we wish for it, it will come ....

Mayerling

 

Miss "This stage is not big enough for me" jumps from ABT to the Royal Ballet beginning this fall

Let's hope that things just got a bit brighter for ABT's homegrown artists.

My favorite part of this article from Ismene Brown's Arts Desk:

Kommersant reports that ABT's director Kevin McKenzie has reacted with frustration to the news of [Osipova's] Royal Ballet contract.

From Kommersant (via Google translator)

[Osipova's] manager said, "I was able to discuss the new situation with Kevin McKenzie, he did not hide his frustration, as the spring season in London coincides with New York, but this is a new reality that will have to somehow deal with. It is difficult to say how it shall be settled in the future, but the fact remains that there is a conflict of interest, let's hope for the wisdom of the leaders of the two campaigns. "

. . .

However, according to "Kommersant", Ivan Vasiliev also going to leave a regular place premiere of the Mikhailovsky Theatre. However, in contrast to his partner, while remain a freelancer, not under contract with any particular troupe. Impresario artist said that the next few months Vasilyev fully itemized. In particular, in the spring season, ABT, he will perform in different "Le Corsaire" three different parties - Ali, Conrad and Lankedema. Scheduled to debut in the third part of George Balanchine "Symphony in C" in "Sleeping Beauty", he will dance the Blue Bird in "Swan Lake" - Rothbart, and will take part in a Los Angeles tour ABT, while Osipova will dance Odette-Odile in "La Scala".

The biggest joke in this is that the Royal Ballet's announcement features a picture of Osipova in Swan Lake as though to imply "This is why we want her so badly."  Oh Lordy.  And yet, it's pretty clear that their plans for her revolve around Carlos Acosta's new Don Q, a ballet that she has indicated she's tired of performing.  Reportedly, she may have other "commitments" which would conflict with her performing in this new production, but Natalia's definition of "commitment" is, well, you know....

Should we hope that McKenzie will see some light and instead of spending money on flakey principal imports, he will spend money on importing a battalion of superb, completely qualified coaches so that ABT can grow its artistic product organically? 

Just throwing this out there:  Georgina Parkinson's daughter-in-law, Leanne Benjamin, a stellar principal with the Royal Ballet, is set to retire this year.  Let the bidding begin.

 

Collateral damage

Troubling news in the ballet world:  Wayne Eagling, Artistic Director of the English National Ballet, is leaving his post effective in August.  

Follow the sequence of events:

• ABT's Kevin McKenzie armed with his Koch money goes poaching after Eagling's star principal, Vadim Muntagirov and the Royal Ballet's principal Sergei Polunin. 
  
  
• Polunin can't get a release from the RB to guest at ABT so he has a meltdown and quits the Royal Ballet, loses his permit to work in the country, and recedes into despair with a series of way-too informative comments on Twitter.  The Royal Ballet clearly expresses its hope that Polunin would return.


• Wayne Eagling offers Polunin a "lifeline" to come and train at the English National Ballet as a way of securing Polunin a visa and hopefully persuading him to dance at ENB, and most importantly, plugging the anticipated hemorrhage involving Muntagirov.


• Wayne Eagling is suddenly out as the English National Ballet's artistic director. 

Perhaps when the Royal Ballet is trying to persuade its talent to return and plug its own hemorrhage, it may not view kindly another company down the road giving the star talent negotiating points - no matter what the circumstances.  It all may have been the last straw for Wayne Eagling.

Good work, McKenzie.

 

Blimey! Marcelo the Magnificent @ the RB

Our very own Marcelo Gomes is off to London next week to fill in at a performance of Ashton's The Dream at The Royal Ballet on Thursday, Feb. 9th. 

Hopefully, while he's there, Dame Monica will introduce him to a little bit of Mayerling - just enough to whet the appetite - it won't take much.  Then, he could come home and perform the charming Wedding Night PdD with our little Stephanie-in-Residence, Gemma Bond, on Opening Night of ABT's Met Season.   YE-E-E-E-O-O-O-W!!!!

Dearest Dame Monica and Dearest Lady Deborah, pul-l-l-e-e-a-a-z-ze don't let this opportunity slip by!

If we wish for it, it will come.  Mayerling.  If we wish for it, it will come.  Mayerling.  If we wish. . . .

 

Poluning strings ta getcha money

So who needs a bottom of the top-tier or top of the middle-tier male ballet dancer who disrespects the company that gave him his profession and his colleagues to the point of walking out on them without giving professional notice, who publicly suggests that he's a heroin user, who publicly muses about just not showing up for a big performance, whose public behavior suggests that while he may have artistic talent, he does not possess the maturity and professional ethics expected at the world's top ballet companies?   Who needs someone like that?  No doubt, Kevin McKenzie thinks he does.   And he'll probably even use ABT donors' money to sponsor a stint at Hazelden for the kid.  Think of the media coverage it would bring.  Maybe ABT could even spin it into another "defection" story - the artist defected from his contract for monetary freedom. 

You know it's coming, People, you just know it.

The Biggest Performance of R&J EVER

This weekend The Royal Ballet will present four performances of Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet in London's mammoth O₂ Arena complete with giant video screens which will capture the action and faces up close.  This rock star sized ballet production is the first for London and it has the potential for elevating the art form to the same degree of public adoration and spectacle that Julio Bocca achieved in Argentina and Roberto Bolle in Italy.  The Ballet Bag Ladies are in place and are already Tweeting like crazy, complete with photos.   Set your dials, folks.

The O₂ better have the old O₂ ready to administer to the crowd when Carlos takes over the stage! 

 

Also on the news front, the MacMillan website has uploaded some new video clips including excerpts from Concerto, Elite Syncopations, The Invitation, Song of the Earth, Triad; unbroadcast rehearsal footage from the ITV documentary A Lot of Happiness;  additional rehearsal video of Lynn Seymour coaching Tamara Rojo and Edward Watson in Romeo and Juliet; and footage from a BBC Omnibus documentary showing excerpts from the early ballets  Danses Concertantes and House of Birds, along with Kenneth MacMillan talking about his work. 

We are so-o-o-o missing Kenneth MacMillan in New York this spring.

Ballet in Cinema – Giselle at a theater near you

Even if you've been stuck under a big snow drift these past few weeks, chances are you're looking forward to the next Great White Act that is coming your way courtesy of Emerging Pictures Ballet in Cinema program.

First up, the Royal Ballet's Giselle (Marianela Nunez & Ruppert Pennefather) will be streamed LIVE in theaters next Wednesday afternoon, January 19th, at 2:30 pm Eastern time with Encore Presentations at other locations.

Then on Sunday, January 23rd, at 11:00 am, the Bolshoi's performance of Giselle (Svetlana Lunkina & Dmitry Gudanov) and Class Concert  will be streamed LIVE.

To find the theater near you that is presenting either of these Giselles, follow this link to the Ballet in Cinemas website and type in your zipcode in the bar at the top of the page.  The website is not perfect.  So, if you're having trouble maneuvering through it to get your information, call 212-245-6767.

Come on, People – especially you complainers who complain about never getting to see other big companies' productions while you're complaining about what's available in your own town – get thee to the cinema.  If you want to see more of this type of programing, you have to support it.

 

RO2YAL BALLET – Bringing the art to the masses!

Oh, this is big – literally.  The Royal Ballet is going to present three performances of MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet in the mammoth, multi-purpose, state-of-the-art
O₂ Arena in London on June 17, 18 and 19.  Since it’s opening in 2007, the O₂, which has 20,000 seats, has presented Paul McCartney, Beyonce, the Royal Philharmonic, The Boss, The Stones, Streisand, Disney on Ice, church services, film screenings, the Boston Celtics, opera stars and much more. 

 

From the BBC report:

Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg will dance the principal roles in the production of Romeo and Juliet.

Up to 2,000 tickets for each performance will be available for £10 on a first-come-first-served basis.

The rest of the tickets will sell for £60 and £95 and will be available from 5 December.

A filmed introduction will be shown on giant screens in the venue at the beginning of each act.

Director of the ballet company, Dame Monica Mason, said she was "thrilled" about the production being shown in such a huge venue as it would "introduce our work to so many new people".

Tony Hall, chief executive of the Royal Opera House added: "This opportunity fits perfectly with our commitment to ensuring that as wide an audience as possible is able to enjoy live performances by The Royal Ballet at affordable prices."

The June 17-19 performances are being staged in association with impresario Raymond Gubbay, who staged the first opera at the London arena earlier this year.

We'll be following the Ballet Bag in London as they report on this story throughout the year.  Tickets go on sale December 5th.

Update: Emerging Pictures/Opus Arte

According to today's info on the Emerging Pictures website, the Kew Gardens Theater in Queens, NY will screen The Royal Ballet's January 19th performance of Giselle on February 13th.  No casting listed yet.  The Bolshoi's Les Flammes De Paris (Osipova, Savin, Vasiliev) will be screened at this cinema this coming December 18th.

Symphony Space and Big Cinemas Manhattan are still TBA but the UIEX has already reported that EP disclosed that Symphony Space plans to carry all of its Opus Arte offerings.  The EP Opera in Cinema page has an interactive feature that invites you to input a zip code to find a participating movie theater.  It appears that The Royal Ballet's Giselle will be screened LIVE in Pasadena, Encino and LA on January 19th.  A theater in Schenectady will apparently show Giselle LIVE on January 19th as well. 

UIEX: Royal Ballet's Giselle LIVE in HD

Emerging Pictures has now  formally posted the January 19, 2011 Royal Ballet's performance of Giselle as one which its participating cinemas will carry.  The website's interactive cinema search engine confirms Symphony Space and Big Cinemas Manhattan (on East 59th Street) as two theaters which will carry as-yet-unnamed performances.  Also on the list is Kew Gardens Theatre which lists an October screening of Tosca at the Teatro Carlo Felice.  It seems that we may see Shakespeare from the Globe Theatre as well!

This is all looking very promising, isn't it? 

UIEX: Breaking News Emerging Pictures/Opus Arts Screenings

BIG news that will make you crazy!

 

An inside source at Emerging Pictures reports that it is" 99% sure" that Symphony Space in Manhattan will carry "ALL" of EP's Royal Opera House transmissions via Opus Arts including – hold on to your hats – the Royal Ballet's LIVE performance of GISELLE on January 19, 2011!  The inside source said that the Symphony Space scheduler (who shall remain nameless so s/he isn't pestered) is on vacation and so it's still possible that Symphony Space may elect to show it on a delayed basis - because of the time zone difference.  However, wouldn't it be an absolute blast to go to Symphony Space at 12:30am for a LIVE performance.  OMG¹⁰⁰ !  What a freakin' party that would be!

 

Also, EP (and "99% sure" Symphony Space) will be screening the Bolshoi Ballet in Le Flammes de Paris in the fall.  How freakin' wonderful is that!

Just remember - you heard it first on Haglund's Heel - where your ballet gumshoed detective is hard at work.  He's still sniffing out that ABT October 12th performance but he could sure use some help.

Royal Ballet coming to a theater near US?!

Oh, my gosh!  This is BIG NEWS!

According to the NY Times and Variety, the Royal Opera House's production company, Opus Arte, has signed a deal with Emerging Pictures to present selected LIVE ROH performances – including ballet – in North American movie theaters!  The first broadcast will be Cosi fan Tutte on September 10th.

No further details are available.  However, Haglund has observed that the Royal Ballet is dancing Ashton's Cinderella in November and December including on Christmas Day.  Everyone say prayers that Opus Arte and Emerging Pictures have Cinderella on their schedule for us.  We wouldn't complain, though, if Manon, Onegin, Sylvia or the two rep programs were on the schedule, too.

Haglund imagines sitting in the movie theater watching the Royal Ballet live, when suddenly the camera spins to the audience, and there ... there ... there are Bag Ladies Linda and Emelia waving!  It could happen.

Macaulay trashes Sir Kenneth MacMillan – again.

Boy, today NYT's Alastair Macaulay really went over sanity’s edge in his effort to convey his sheer hate for the Royal Ballet’s The Judas Tree and the Kenneth MacMillan canon - of course, all the while hoping that readers will remember his unnatural and blind affections for everything Ashton and Balanchine. 

When Macaulay started complaining about “sexual imagery in nonsexual contexts, acrobatic hyperextension, over-manipulative partnering, and jerkily-mechanical pure dance routines,” Haglund thought that he was talking about Balanchine and Christopher Wheeldon.  In fact, it read like a description of Wheeldon’s DGV - Danse Grand Vitesse which Macaulay poured love over following a recent performance of the piece at City Center.  There were more arbitrary crotch-splitting acrobatics in DGV than are seen at the Paradise Club of New York, but the needle on Macaulay’s brand new crotch-o-meter didn’t flinch.  Maybe it depends on the crotches. 

In trashing MacMillan’s body of work, Macaulay complains “And almost every ballet he ever made remains controversial for its deficiencies in construction”  Huh?  Not quite.  The only one trying to declare deficiencies in all of MacMillan’s ballets and make them controversial is Alastair Macaulay.

Honestly, opera can engage in killing children and get rave reviews as in Jenufa.  Why does Macaulay find MacMillan choreography about sexual manipulation so reprehensible?  Well, basically it’s because he hated MacMillan and whenever there is an opportunity to give him a kick, Macaulay will.  The reason MacMillan’s acclaimed new biography hasn’t been released in the United States yet is that two NY pro-Balanchine  newspaper critics declared to the British publisher that there was no interest in MacMillan in the United States and that people only wanted to read about Balanchine.  How’s that for deceitful, underhanded, manipulative, backstabbing of a dead man and his world-respected reputation?

What a shame that The New York Times editors allow Macaulay to spew unfiltered his venom and hate at will and in doing so harm ballet as an art form and denigrate one of its geniuses of the 20th Century. 

SEE FOR YOURSELF.   To get a glimpse of the brilliant choreography about which Macaulay is complaining, go here to the Video section of the Kenneth MacMillan website.  A 7 ½ minute clip of The Judas Tree is the icon in the middle of the second row of three. (Scroll down.)  It is riveting with strong, sinister undertones, and a stirring example of how MacMillan turned ordinary human movement into compelling choreography.  The body-chalking segment where the heroine refuses to die is pure genius as dance theater.  Of course, it is all helped by Oscar-worthy dramatic performances by Irek Mukhamedov and Leanne Benjamin. 

The "Fred Step" Spurs Synchronicity

Pas de bourree on over to the Ballet Bag to check out Linda's March 29 article on Frederick Ashton which illuminates – by detail and by video of Scene 1 of La Fille Mal Gardee – the "Fred Step. " It's a very thorough article and delightful reading.  It even quotes Alastair Macaulay on Ashton.

But what a coincidence!

This afternoon (March 30) Alastair Macaulay decided to write about the "Fred Step" in his ArtsBeat blog at The New York Times as though he had just thought of it out of the blue.  He followed the same type of detail in explaining the step as did the Ballet Bag and then described his favorite instance of the use of the step as being in Scene 1 of La Fille Mal Gardee - the exact scene that Bag Lady Linda had inserted video for in her article to illustrate the Fred Step! 

It's not the first time that a New York Times dance critic has experienced unexpected synchronicity with a ballet blogger or forum.