Cinema notes

The captured cinema presentation of the Bolshoi Ballet's March 30th performance of Marco Spada, featuring David Hallberg, Evgenia Obraztsova, Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin, will be shown in NYC at the Village East Cinema on Saturday, April 12th at noon with a repeat on Tuesday, April 15th at 7pm. Immediately before the showing on Saturday, Joan Acocella and David Vaughan will offer some introductory information about the production.

The hats are to die for:

Photo: Alexander Mudrats

Many cinemas in the U.S. will receive the transmission live on March 30 or delayed on April 1st. Here is a link to the complete U.S. listing with dates for first and second screenings.

The venue at Village East Cinema in NYC is equal to or better than the Big Cinemas Manhattan on East 59th Street where we used to see these cinema-casts. One has the sense of actually sitting in a theater similar to City Center as opposed to a movie house. The house staff is very polite. The concession stand person even apologized to Haglund for having to charge $4 for a small bottle of water.

The last presentation at Village East Cinema was the Bolshoi's Lost Illusions which turned out to be quite a spectacular event. Haglund found this work of Alexei Ratmansky's to be some of his best and most enjoyable to date. However, the music was so unappealing (except for a few piano solos) that this balletomane will never sit through it again. Ever.

During an intermission, the brilliant-should-get-an-Oscar-for-something-or-other Katerina Novikova asked the composer, Leonid Desyatnikov, if writing for ballet was any different than writing for anything else, e.g., for film score or concert orchestra. Desyantnikov replied it was not with the exception of creating a regular rhythm. That may be a clue as to why his music did not help this ballet along.

Less than optimal choices of music have made appreciating Ratmansky's work difficult several times. The musical selections for On the Dnieper, The Tempest, Shostakovich Trilogy, and even Seven Sonatas, have been successful when played on the concert stage but less so when supporting the visual structure and dramatic/emotional peaks and valleys of a ballet. Some of these musical choices have dragged down the ballets considerably.

But let's get back to cinema ballet – The Royal Ballet's presentation of The Sleeping Beauty seen recently at AMC's Empire Cinema on 42nd Street was a royal treat. The production, which uses the 1946 designs by Oliver Messel, wasn't quite as imaginative as the one which Anthony Dowell supervised years ago. The costumes and scenery were beautiful but seemed like creations that could pop up in any number of big ballets. Dowell's, on the other hand, created splendor with a tad of gothic influence including a huge staircase from which Aurora descended. The staircase is now gone. Aurora simply appears from the back of a crowded stage. It felt very unspecial. When it's your own 16th birthday party, you really should make a splashy entrance.

Sarah Lamb was a beautiful Aurora with long, eloquent limbs and the serenity of a Grace Kelly. The cinema-cast cameras had us sitting on the stage most of the time; so, we saw every adjustment and imperfection that would have flown by unnoticed if we had been sitting in the house. But she was quite the beauty with a sense of modesty that made her elegance all the more attractive. Those who have declared the Royal Ballet style dead and buried should take another look at Sarah Lamb, who, by the way, hails from Boston. No mannerisms, no excesses, no pointy elbows, lovely slight curves in the wrists and hands that made the balletic line sing, body high/arms low, beautiful use of head positions, no compromises in the hips, no winging of anything – Sarah Lamb is a clear example of the Royal Ballet's careful attention to detail and company style.

Steven McCrae as Prince Floribund was attentive and conveyed his difficulty dealing with his at-the-crossroads-of-my-life decision. His jumps were grand, his form was identifiably English, but his performance didn't rise to the overall level of his partner's. Haglund kept wondering what Thiago Soares would have looked like opposite Sarah Lamb.  Maybe that's because, these days, Thiago and Marianela hang out with Haglund at the bus stop each morning in Hell's Kitchen:

Comments

[J]

I agree completely with what you wrote about Sarah Lamb. When she did her initial soutenue followed by developpé a la seconde in the Rose Adagio and her leg was not grazing her right eyebrow, I sighed with relief. No mannerisms, no strain, ever. What a joy to see beautiful classical form and grace.

[Robin]

I also thought sarah lamb was exquisite - what a class act. Her roll thru the foot penche's in the rose adagio were to die for. Steven was fantastic as well - he's brilliant. And from what I've seen on video I actually prefer thiago when he plays a bad guy, tho he's fab either way :)

[Haglund]

Oh, true, Robin, the rolling through the foot was gorgeous. I wish all Auroras would do that.

I forgot to mention what a great wake-up kiss the two principals delivered. He kissed her and then as he lifted his head back, her head rose up following right toward his face as though his energy was pulling her. It was so fabulous.

And yes, J, those extensions were lovely and never squished the tutu against her torso which was so lifted. All of it so pretty.