The Cellist and Dances at a Gathering ballet program performed 2020 at the Royal Opera House:
The Cellist. Choreography by Cathy Marston. Music by Philip Feeney. Stars Lauren Cuthbertson (The Cellist), Marcelino Sambé (The Instrument), Matthew Ball (The Conductor), Emma Lucano (Cellist as Child), Lauren Godfrey (Sister as Child), Kirsten McNally (Mother), Thomas Whitehead (Father), Anna Rose O’Sullivan (Sister), Gary Avis, Nicol Edmonds and Benjamin Ella (Cello Teachers), Luca Acri, Paul Kay, and Joseph Sissens (Musical Friends). Scenario by Cathy Marston and Edward Kemp. Set by Hildegard Bechtler; costumes by Bregje van Balen; lighting by Jon Clark; dramaturgy by Edward Kemp.
Dances at a Gathering. Choreography by Jerome Robbins. Music by Chopin. Stars Marianela Nuñez, Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi, Laura Morera, Fumi Kaneko, Alexander Campbell, Federico Bonelli, William Bracewell, Luca Acri, and Valentino Zucchetti. Costumes by Joe Eula; lighting by Jennifer Tipton; staging by Ben Huys.
Andrea Molino conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Concert Master Vasko Vassilev). Features Hetty Snell ( cello) and Robert Clark (piano). Directed for TV by Ross MacGibbon. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+ for Gathering; B+ for The Cellist
Dances at a Gathering
On the keepcase art, Opus Arte lists The Cellist 1st and Dances at a Gathering 2nd. But Gathering is the older piece, was performed 1st live, and begins the recording. Robins made Gatherings in 1969. It was already a classic in 1975 when Balanchine included it in his book 101 Stories of the Great Ballets. Balanchine’s 17-page story on Gatherings was written by Robins himself! Robins dissects each dance segment in detail (while identifying the Chopin music played for each scene). All this effort is impressive for an abstract dance with no plot.
Gatherings starts with solos and small groups and ends with several larger formations. Our first screenshot below comes from the end. The 10 dancers are (from left to right): Luca Acri (Brick), Federico Bonelli (Purple), William Bracewell (Green), Marianella Nuñez (Pink), Alexander Campbell (Brown), Yasmine Naghdi (Apricot), Laura Morera (Green), Francesca Hayward (Mauve), Fumi Kaneko (Blue), and Valentino Zucchetti (Blue):
Robins states there are no stories in the work. None of the dancers are romantically connected—all are just friends. But in the evening, when things are dark and cooler, some of them seem likely to pair off. Next below, solo portraits of Campbell and Hayward:
Plenty of charming duets, for example, Bracewell and Hayward and then Bonelli and Nuñez:
Campbell and Nuñez are joined by Kaneko in a trio:
One of the friends must have a camera. Below are souvenir snapshots—the newcomer is Zucchetti in blue (looks gray on my display). Robins insists that the dancers are only enjoying an outing. They are not putting on a show. We are just hiding in the bushes watching:
Here Yasmine and Luca flirt:
Are these below The Three Graces? They are more brunette than as painted by Botticelli (Uffizi Gallery Florence):
My favorite dancer, Morera, is hanging in there with the juniors. She gets the most dramatic role. But what she is doing in solely up to you. Some think she is frustrated from lack of attention. Others think she is above it all:
These screenshots seem so simple. But it is devilishly hard to get decent screenshots when everyone is constantly moving! Towards the end of the hour, the formations become more complex:
Robins told his dancers to forget the audience. They should dance for each others’ pleasure. Robins provided a huge palette of moves. It’s up to the dancers to turn those steps into visions of potentialities. The Royal Ballet scheduled this performance on short notice after cancelling a new work by Liam Scarlett. All the dancers were thrown into the-show-must-go-on mode. Could the emergency have contributed to making this performance of an old piece seem vital and immediate?
Print critics who saw this live warmly approved. I ran the numbers on Ross MacGibbon’s video. The pace is a stately 12+ seconds per segment, an excellent score for MacGibbons, who has in the past tended to chop up his videos like steak tartar. Only 63% of his video clips have the whole bodies of the dancers, which we would normally say is too small. But for this show, MacGibbons wisely moved in closer than usual—the two handfulls of dancers look tiny in shots of the full stage. I think this is an A performance of a classic. I add a + for beautiful video content.
The Cellist
This is a biographical ballet about the exciting life and sad death of the famous British cellist, Jacqueline du Pré (Jackie). People in England know a lot about Jackie. Even bumbkins in places like Texas also know about her because of the A Genius in the Family book and the movie Hilary and Jackie. I took my wife to see the movie in Dallas. After that she bought the CD with the soundtrack. I then heard the Elgar Concerto several times a day for months.
Biographical ballets are rare because it’s so hard to express in body movements details like dates, ideas, events, identity of characters, etc. Marston accepts this challenge valiantly. In The Cellist she uses a ballet technique often for which I don’t know the name: having dancers represent inanimate objects. In our first screenshot, we see Jackie as a child (Emma Lucano) hearing a recording of a cello for the first time. Instead of using an old record player as a prop, Marston has 4 dancers representing a table, the player box, the turntable, and the needle. In the second shot below we see how The Instrument (Marcelino Sambé) takes possession of little Jackie’s mind.
Much has been written about Marcelino’s artistic ability to impersonate a cello. H’m. Everything that man has invented arises from his biology. The voice of the cello is similar in range to that of the human voice. So it’s no accident that the cello has a torso about the size of a person and the vocal cords of the cello are arranged on what looks like a human arm. Marcelino takes it from there. He is convincing as a living cello in the image below left with Lauren Cuthbertson as the adult Jackie. But I don’t get the image below right in which Cuthbertson becomes a piano keyboard for The Conductor (Matthew Ball). The piano has 88 fingers and hundreds of vocal cords—not very similar to a human tummy. Well, the piano case is adequately represented by Jackie’s musical friends wearing red (Joseph Sissens), purple (Luca Acri), and blue (Paul Kay):
In terms of literature, Marston’s story is an apprentice novel with a sad ending. Here we see the Mother (Kristen McNally) starting Jackie off on the cello:
Jackie grows up. The sweaters have an important part in the story as mom overprotects her daughter:
Jackie gets better teachers—this one played Ben Ella (I think):
Marstons strives to keep as many dancers on stage as she can, even if this becomes overwhelming to the audience. Next below are two screenshots showing Jackie meeting the Conductor in a gig. The Conductor is, of course, Daniel Barenboim. He was already famous way back then. He survives in 2021 at about age 79 and is probably the most important working musician on the planet. Here it’s easy to see that the corps dancers represent the members of an orchestra:
Jackie and her two great loves:
The wedding. Lots of dancers on the stage:
Below left is the wedding night of Jackie and Daniel. The Cello feels neglected leaning against the wall. This seemed familiar. Yes, on the right is the wedding night of Queen Victoria and Albert from Marston’s Victoria ballet:
I never figured out what is happening below:
In the next image below Jackie is about age 30, and already knows she has multiple-sclerosis. The Mother and the Sister (Anna Rose O’sullivan) take care of Jackie. I feel sorry for the dancer on the left. Here’s something I think happened to him:
He: “Hey, Honey! I got a part in The Cellist !” She: “That’s great, Sweetheart! Are you playing the Conductor?” He: “Well. . . no.” She: “Then what part did you get.” He: Well, it’s a moving part. She: “What part?" He: “I’m a floor lamp.” She: “How does a floor lamp move?” He: My left hand makes a switch. My right hand is balled in a fist like a light bulb. When someone touches the switch, my fingers spring out like rays of light.”
Enough of quibbles. The grief of the lovers is effectively portrayed by Marston and the dancers:
The print critics were fascinated by Marston’s concepts and acknowledged that the Royal Opera Ballet had spared no expense to make this successful. But all decried her expansion of a “chamber ballet” about three lovers into a “symphonic” work with too many characters and events to keep up with. Few said much about Philip Feeney’s music, which comes across strongly in the recording. I think Feeney contributed excellent original “soundtract” music. He worked in passages from warhorses like the obligato Elgar Cello Concerto. Schubert’s Trout Quintet is featured because Jackie was part of a famous recording of that work. The Trout is surprisingly delightful when quoted by the full symphony orchestra. The ballet is too complicated. If it hangs around, Marston will be able to improve it with pruning. I think this is a B level show for most viewers and a B+ for those who know a lot about Jackie’s life. (I didn’t check on video content. I suspect the pace is too fast,, but I don’t think I would move my grade for this in either direction on account of video content.)
Here’s an official clip from The Cellist:
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