Bang, bang, bang
Principal Ballerina Sarah Lamb warned us at the start “Don’t try this at home!”
I won’t!
She was talking about her upcoming set of pas de deux with male lead Steven McRea.
The intensity of the ballet drained us. Act 2’s brothel scene was a masterpiece of shapes and moves in and out of unison, ending with a love scene utterly erotic, athletic and frenetic. A tour de force, doubled... for Rudolph and Mary.
The physicality of the pair, the pace and demand on stamina was killing.
... and at the end, like the two leads, I was completely shot.
7 comments add one below
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Neville Hunt about 4 years ago
Please forgive me for re-posting this after over a year. It’s just that the same performance we saw in 2019 was shown as a recording this evening on BBC4 and it affected me the same way. Such a powerful story and ballet.
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Neville Hunt about 4 years ago
Spoiler alert! Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and teenage lover Mary Vetsera have a suicide pact in 1889. He shoots her, then himself. Silly bugger! The end.
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Christopher about 4 years ago
I remembered you doing one about ballet but I didn't exactly remember this in particular. Before I read your first comment I was prepared to tell you about the one time I went to a ballet, but when you said this was a repost I'm almost positive I did that last time.
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Neville Hunt about 4 years ago
I’m a ballet lover and I am sure I will have done several different ballet drabbles (for different ballets). This particular performance of the ballet Mayerling has in it spectacular, breathtaking and almost unimaginable dancing by the two principal dancers, American Sarah Lamb and Australian Steven McRea (who incidentally is married to the cousin of one of my great friends). It is deeply moving albeit tragic.
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Christopher about 4 years ago
I won tickets from a radio station to a Christmas ballet when I was about 17. A friend and I went and I enjoyed it. It isn't something I would want to engage in with any degree of regularity, but I did enjoy it.
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shaun about 4 years ago
Great drabble. I love the motion of attempting to emulate what one is witnessing. At home is one thing, but in Stalls, row D, seats 17 and 18?
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shaun about 4 years ago
*notion.
