The second of six programmes brought to London by the Mariinsky was a triple bill of Mikhail Fokine's choreography: Chopiniana, The Firebird and Scheherazade. The Times explained the programming: In the space of two years, Mikhail Fokine created a trio of works that helped to change our perception of classical ballet. Chopinianaembodied the very idea of abstract ballet; The … [Read more...] about Critics round-up: Mariinsky at Covent Garden, Homage to Fokine
Guardian
Critics round-up: Mariinsky at Covent Garden, Swan Lake
The Mariinsky kicked off their 3-week stay at the Royal Opera House with Swan Lake. An obvious, and right, choice, Immutable is the Mariinsky’s root foundation in classical tradition. Everything they dance speaks of “schooling”. Whatever more modern works the repertory now embraces, the classic ballets provide the company’s signature — none more so in the avid public’s mind … [Read more...] about Critics round-up: Mariinsky at Covent Garden, Swan Lake
Vasiliev ‘lays his pain on the line’ as Le Jeune Homme, writes Luke Jennings
Vasiliev, his eyes wild and his muscled body quivering with barely controlled rage, compels the attention from the first. His physical acting is huge and raw, his expressions silent-era cinematic. And his leaps, as always, seem to hurl a challenge to gravity – especially a flying dive in which he seems to hang, horizontal, some six feet from the ground. He hasn't quite the … [Read more...] about Vasiliev ‘lays his pain on the line’ as Le Jeune Homme, writes Luke Jennings
Critics’ Roundup: the Mariinsky in London, Swan Lake
In a splattering of mainly four and five-star reviews it was, perhaps surprisingly, the Financial Times's Clement Crisp, maybe the hardest critic to please, who showered compliments over the company without restraint: The world’s stages are littered with productions of Swan Lake, the majority of which – as I know to my cost – are horrid and foolishly optimistic. One alone I … [Read more...] about Critics’ Roundup: the Mariinsky in London, Swan Lake
Critics round-up: Romeo & Juliet… Osipova, Vasiliev, Lendorf & Ashton
HerOsipova's Juliet starts out as a hyper teenager, whirling on brilliantly fast feet. There's an immediate abandon to her dancing, movement sweeping through her small frame. As an actress, she doesn't always find the balance between this delicate choreography and her own huge personality. The IndependentThe limpid beauty of Osipova’s dancing — all languid limbs and … [Read more...] about Critics round-up: Romeo & Juliet… Osipova, Vasiliev, Lendorf & Ashton
Opera North’s Beached goes on: “The good news is that it happened at all”
The Lee Hall/Opera North community opera has finally had its showing. The Guardian, commented on the viral storm that surrounded it: Though there are traces of Britten in the score, it's not the dark, sexualised world of Peter Grimes or Death in Venice, but the innocuous holiday atmosphere of Albert Herring. So we can relax then (though I don't think that anyone imagnied it … [Read more...] about Opera North’s Beached goes on: “The good news is that it happened at all”
Critics round-up: Sylvie Guillem at Sadler’s Wells – “Dancers have a cruelly curt use-by date. They’re better fresh. Or are they?”
She's done it again, and everyone's delighted that Guillem still has the possibility to enchant, astonish and all those other adjectives that the press have been hurling around in the last 24 hours. Here's a selection: At 46, Sylvie Guillem may have abandoned her former ballerina roles, but she is still one of the most astonishing dancers on stage today. Even though the … [Read more...] about Critics round-up: Sylvie Guillem at Sadler’s Wells – “Dancers have a cruelly curt use-by date. They’re better fresh. Or are they?”
Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel, The Stranger’s Child: “an extraordinary achievement”
Lovers of Hollinghurst's writing have been waiting a long time for the end of June 2011 and the publication of his new novel. In fact, the wait has been seven years, but now we know that it was worth it. As we sit with the book in our hands, the critics start penning their reactions. Here are some extracts from the first: Marvellously acute in its attention to … [Read more...] about Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel, The Stranger’s Child: “an extraordinary achievement”
Critics round-up: Richard III with Kevin Spacey
Well the critics loved much, if not all, of the Bridge Project's much anticipated swan song production of Richard III with Kevin Spacey. The production is now at London's Old Vic theatre before going on tour, finishing with two months at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from January 10, 2012. Spacey's performance above all wowed everyone: There have, it's true, been more creepily … [Read more...] about Critics round-up: Richard III with Kevin Spacey
Daniel Barenboim at the Wigmore Hall: ‘an interpretation that reached for the stars and at times touched them’
The hush was devout, the expectation electrifying. Daniel Barenboim playing at the Wiggy! Not for 40 years has it been possible to write that. If Salome had suddenly appeared, plus veils, to dance at Oxford Circus Tube station, the excitement and anticipation couldn’t have been greater. said Richard Morrison in The Times. It's hard living up to such high expectations, but … [Read more...] about Daniel Barenboim at the Wigmore Hall: ‘an interpretation that reached for the stars and at times touched them’