ROB Modern Program features three modern ballet performances:
Within the Golden Hour. Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon. Music by Ezio Bosso and Antonio Vivaldi. Directed by Christopher Saunders. Stars Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Vadim Muntagirov, Francesca Hayward, Valentino Zucchetti, Sarah Lamb, and Alexander Campbell. Costume design by Jasper Conran; lighting design by Peter Mumford.
Medusa. Choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Music by Henry Purcell. Electronic Music by Olga Wojciechowska. Stars Natalia Osipova (Medusa), Olivia Cowley (Athena), Ryoichi Hirano (Poseidon), and Matthew Ball (Perseus). Also features soprano Ailish Tynan and counter-tenor Tim Mead. Concept and set design by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and ROH Production; costume design by Olivia Pomp; lighting design by Adam Silverman; Associate Choreographer Jason Kittelberger.
Flight Pattern. Choreography by Crystal Pite. Music by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Directed by Deidre Chapman. Stars Kristen McNally, Marcelino Sambé, and Artists of the Royal Ballet. Also features soprano Francesca Chiejina. Set design by Jay Gower Taylor; costume design by Nancy Bryant; lighting design by Tom Visser.
Andrew Griffiths and Jonathan Lo conduct the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Concert Master Vasko Vassilev). Directed for TV by Ross MacGibbon. Released 2020, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+
Wow! Another great triple bill from the ROB recorded in May 2019. Another three reviews to do for one title!
Within the Golden Hour
Wheeldon made this piece in 2008 for the San Francisco Ballet. I think the dancing is exactly the same as before, but the ROB went all out on gorgeous new costumes for Wheeldon’s revival. The inspiration was the gold leaf look of Gustav Klimt in his famous paintings of beautiful women. Small reflective strips were embedded in the garments that appear to be gold or silver depending at least in part, I think, on the lighting. Within the Golden Hour shows off 3 couples of star dancers backed up by a corps of 8. From left to right below are the stars Vadim Muntagirov with Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Valentino Zuccchetti with Francesca Hayward:
And next below are Alexander Campbell and Sarah Lamb:
Here’s a Klimt painting that may have inspired this costume design:
Count 14 dancers total:
Next are two shots of the full cast:
Below is the way the San Francisco Ballet looked in this. Look closely and you will see this is exactly the same place in the piece as the picture immediately above of the ROB dancers:
A multitude of different groupings show off in this work. Next below, sophisticated lighting makes the four women look gray and silver:
Each of the three star couples gets a chance to fall in love. Vadim and Beatrix are giddy to light-hearted music:
Valentino and Francesca burn quietly to slow music in a beautiful duet splendidly captured by Ross MacGibbon:
And Alex with Sarah are sophisticated:
So what is the “Golden Hour?” Nobody had an explanation, but then I realized I know the answer from experience. Long ago I had lunch with a beautiful girl at a very nice restaurant, and we made decisions that eventually led to our marriage and lovely children. My girl knew well how to dress and she presented in yellow. If Gustov Klimpt had been lucky enough to see this, he would have insisted on painting her. That was my Golden Hour. I hope you have had one too.
Below is a shot from the famous finale of this piece—full of jaunty silhouettes in frantic motion:
Medusa
This is ”Larbi’s” take on the ancient legend made as showpiece for Osipova. On the left is Natalie as Medusa, who was then the favorite virgin priestess at the temple of the goddess Athena (Olivia Cowley). On the right is the soldier Perseus (Matthew Ball). Athena is peeved as she detects a friendship between the young people:
Of course, Medusa’s feeling for Perseus are pure. She gives him a magic scarf to protect him in battle:
The God Poseidon (Ryoichi Hirano) lusts for Medusa and abuses her:
Even though Medusa is innocent, Athena mars her beauty with a new hair do: a scalp bursting with writhing, poisonous snakes! And any man who looks at her will turn to stone!
Soldiers are sent to kill Medusa:
But with a series of sexy moves, Medusa defeats the Army!
She’s going now for Perseus, but he diverts his eyes:
And armed with the magic scarf, Perseus decapitates Medusa and brings her head to Athena:
Perseus and Medusa as imagined in an earlier era:
You know that the winged horse Pegasus erupts next from the severed neck of Medusa. Well, the Royal Opera could probably handle that, but not the ballet company. So Larbi skips the flying horse. Instead, Poseidon returns to the waters to sulk while the spirit of Medusa, per the keepcase booklet, is commuted and “lives forever in the memory of those who knew her.”
There were print critics who panned Larbi’s choreography here as tacky. Well, I know I’m too old now for this now, but I thought seeing Osipova do this was wonderful. I’m sure there are many dancers who can make the Medusa moves, but few of them would have what it takes to get Poseidon worked up.
Flight Pattern
To somber music from Górecki’s Symphony No 3, Flight Pattern is a short, intense work about the plight of refugees. Most of the dance is concerned with the long march:
Only the able survive:
Although the mass seems uniform, there are many divisions within:
Only few individuals stand out, but those that do represent them all. Below is Kristen McNally as the mother whose child has died:
Kristen and Marcelino Sambé depict the helpless grief of the parents:
A burial?
Near shots of individuals in the mass:
Chaos at a choking point on the trek:
At the end of the trek, the indifference of winter:
Here are clips of each performance from the Royal Ballet:
I did a Wonk Work Sheet on each dance. From the viewpoint of video content, this is the best video work yet from Ross MacGibbon on Opus Arte. The pace of Golden Hour is 18 seconds for the average clip and the pace for the rest of the video is at 14 clips per second. Medusa is an intense narrative dance with a lot of near-views of the action, but 64% of the clips show the whole-bodies of the dancers. In the other segments, the whole-body shots average 75% of the video. The three ballets are all beautiful and interesting with plenty of variety for showing off the fantastic roster of beautiful dancers the ROB now has! This gets an enthusiastic A+.
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