News Clippings 71

The Times Monday, March 29, 1971 John Percival	The apprentices' sorcery, Chant du compagnon errant Forest National, Brussels romantic songs by Mahler and Maurice Béjart's iconoclastic choreography would probably make an unstable mixture anyway. Add a cast comprising only two exceptionally gifted male dancers appearing together for the first time, and the result becomes positively explosive. Is it fair to do this to the "Lieder eines fahrenden Gisellen" as Béjart has just done for Rudolf Nureyev and Paolo Bortoluzzi in Brussels? Fair or not, it works. Taken at face value as the inspiration for a ballet, the words which Mahler wrote for this song cycle suggest the most conventional of "boy meets then loses, girl" themes. Béjart takes more generally the ideas of love and sorrow and the "knife in the breast" which are the subjects of these poems. His programme note emphasizes the struggle between self and loneliness, drawing parallels with medieval apprentices in search of their destiny and their master, or a romantic student pursued by fate. Put like this, Nureyev's role is simply another variant on that suffering traveler through life which he has already played in ballets by Van Dantzig and Petit. This time, however, the absence of supporting characters (because Bortoluzzi's role seems not another person but a shadow or reflection of his own) and of any specific dramatic content brings a concentrated, almost ferocious intensity, which I have rarely seen equaled and never surpassed. Bortoluzzi dogs Nureyev's footsteps in close pursuit. sometimes he seems to represent the fears or regrets that hold back the traveler; sometimes the hopes that comfort and give him strength. A strong dancer and a strong personality, Bortoluzzi all the same slips completely into the background in this context. What you watch, solely and with a kind of awe, is how Nureyev without plot, character, setting or decorative costume, with nothing but the accompanying songs and the steps, plays on the emotions of an audience... As if this tour de force, lasting almost 20 minutes, was not enough, Nureyev decided almost at the last moment to learn and dance Béjart's Rite of Spring also. In this version there are two chosen sacrifices, a boy and a girl, and as usual in Béjart's ballets the male role is the more important. The only objection you could make to Nureyev's performance was that at the beginning, when he should be unnoticeably one of the group of young men, he could not help catching the eye by the sharp clarity of his movements. Once singled out as the victim, his expression of fear mixed with some pride was uncanny, and he seemed to inspire the rest of the company to extraordinary efforts too...
The Times Monday, July 12th, 1971 John Percival	Something good from Buffalo, Les Biches La Sylphide, Philips Halle, Dusseldorf "The most famous male dancer in the world," announced the posters and it did not need the name in big letters to identify the photograph of Nureyev grinning happily from every hoarding. And what was he doing on tour in Europe with an American Classical Ballet of which nobody had previously heard? If you saw their production of La Sylphide you would no longer need to ask, but we shall come to that in a moment. The company itself is actually known in its home town of Buffalo, NY as the Niagara Frontier Ballet. Most of the dancers are young from the school which Kathleen Crofton (English, and one of the "Pavlova's girls") founded there four years ago. They make an attractively harmonious ensemble with a smooth alert style... For her company, Miss Crofton has secured ... the collaboration of Bronislava Nijinska as choreographer... This makes a fine setting for two outstanding guest performers Miss Cosi ... is a far better dancer than we could have guessed from her one appearance so far in London... Good as she is, Nureyev as James is the undisputed star, in a blazing performance that illuminates everything around it. James Reuben is one of the two great classical roles in his repertory (Basilio in Don Quixote is the other) which, through oversight or lack of imagination, he has never been asked to dance in London, except for short extracts, and London has missed a treat in consequence. Even while simply sitting asleep in his big armchair at the beginning, dreaming of the Sylphide, the intensity of his slightest movement makes it clear how expressive a performance this is going to be; an impression confirmed as soon as he starts responding either to the Sylphide's temptations or his fiancées anxious inquiries. Then with the first solo, springing into the air with the cleanest, highest entrechat I have seen for a long time, cutting great arcs with his grands jetés, bounding into marvellously strong, exact tours en l'air in both directions, he shows how well Bournonville's open, bold-hearted and virile choreography becomes him. Simply as a virtuoso display, this would be a staggering performance, but it is more than that: it is virtuosity used to create a character, to show the impetuous nature which drives the hero off to chase his dreams and leads him into the trap where he loses everything. From this moment on, there is no pause in the hero's mad and tragic rush to self-destruction. With such an interpretation at the heart of the ballet, it is no wonder if the supporting company were overshadowed and much to their credit that they were never eclipsed.
Herald Tribune May 16, 1971 By David Stevens	Paris, May 13 - Rudolf Nureyev seems to thrive on work and variety, and his appearance last night at the well-filled Palais des Sports for the first of a series of 15 performances of "The Sleeping Beauty" found him in top form, dancing with untiring power and brilliance and with more than his share of dramatic conviction. There is a neat symmetry to his appearance here in this great classic role a decade after he bolted Leningrad's Kirov Ballet during its visit to Paris, in June 1961. In the intervening years he has used his independence to explore many of the frontiers of the dance world, to develop his inclinations as a choreographer and to continue to grow in the roles of the classic repertory.... The choreography, "arranged and staged by Rosella Hightower, after Petipa and Nijinska" probably owes something to the fact that earlier this season Nureyev revived his own production at La Scala. In any case, his variations were of such formidable difficulty as could only have been conceived with him in mind..
Dance and dancers October 1971 Pages 34 - 35 excerpts By Peter Williams	Royal Balance Sheet The Royal Ballet's 1969/70 season ended on one of the most triumphant notes of possibly any year since the company has been in business. In an expression of love, almost unique in ballet history, the company put on a gala performance of farewell to Sir Frederick Ashton, a performance which was not only a retrospective vision of highlights from his creative career but showed the company at the very pinnacle of its form. The Royal Ballet's 1970/71 season ended on a very different note with Sir Fred's successor, Kenneth MacMillan, being warned not to take a call as somebody had heard a rumour that a claque might repeat the hostile demonstration after Anastasia's first performance... Meanwhile, back at the Garden, the winter season had continued in much the same way that winter seasons usually have. Apart from some performances of MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, the repertory was mainly of triple bills. It was not sensational, but then sensation is rare and not always desirable in an Opera House situation. The fact that Fonteyn and Nureyev were dancing very little with the company - she not at all; he only in early performances of Dances at a Gathering - created a certain lowering of temperature, though others were getting more opportunity. the corps de ballet were less good than formerly; the orchestra for ballet was on the whole pretty bad and it was not apparent that any particularly interesting new blood was emerging from the school... When the larger company returned to London in May it found itself in competition not only with itself (or rather with its smaller section at Sadler's Wells) but also the first London season of the Robert Joffrey City Center Ballet at the Coliseum. Such clash of dates was not the fault of the Royal Ballet since it had already changed the dates of the Sadler's Wells season so as not to clash with Ballet Rambert at the Jeannetta Cochrane. Whether it is a good idea to show the two Royal Ballets together in the same city at the same time is not so certain, particularly as some of the smaller company's programmes coincided with Fonteyn and Nureyev performances as well as a number of interesting cast changes at Covent Garden. It did mean that there could be a far greater interchange of artists between the two companies than would have been possible if they had not been playing in such close proximity.
17th December, 1969 Letter from Sir Robert Helpmann Garden Flat 72 Eaton Square London S.W.I.	My dear Rudi, I am sending you this letter by John Lanchbery. I am not able to get to Vienna and will have to leave our meeting until you arrive back. I do not leave for Australia until January 11th and I understand from Joan that you will be back on the 6th, which is the date of my performance of Cinderella at Covent Garden. I should be most grateful if you would explain to Mr. Novotney that the order of Don Quixote will be changed. It will not affect him as far as the dances are concerned and Jack has written in some music for a duel. I hope, before I leave, that we will have a few moments to discuss Hamlet. I will mount it on the Company in Australia and you will learn it a few minutes as you have already done it. Your costume is there and there is a marvellous boy to make the boots for you which can be done in 2 days. I hope all is well with you. I can't tell you the excitement in Australia about your visit. The houses in Adelaide are completely sold out and also in Melbourne. I can assure you that your visit is creating far more interest than Queen Elizabeth. I am sure she will be grateful that you will have left the country before she arrives in May. I send you my love, Robert
International Herald Tribune Paris, Monday, November 8, 1971 by Oleg Kerensky	Nureyev's Exuberant 'Don Quixote' Marseilles, Nov. 7 If, as is hoped, Rudolf Nureyev's production of "Don Quixote" goes to Paris for a Christmas season, the box office should be besieged. It was worth the trip from London to Marseilles. It is basically the same version of the 19th-century ballet that Nureyev made for the Australian Ballet, which toured it a year ago in the United States. And it is appropriate that the first European company to stage it should be the one which the American ballerina Rosella Hightower is building up in Marseilles. for Marseilles was the home town of Marius Petipa, the founder-choreographer of the Imperial Russian Ballet, who made "Don Quixote" in St. Petersburg in 1869. Nureyev's version owes a great deal to the Petipa he remembers from Russia, but it is Petipa as Petipa might have staged the ballet today. Static mime scenes, which bore modern audiences have been almost eliminated but there is just enough story left to prevent the ballet becoming a mere series of divertissements. Sir Robert Helpmann (imaginatively but inaccurately described in the Marseilles program as "founder of the Royal Ballet" - surprise for Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton) gives his strong dramatic presence to the Don, providing the necessary link between scenes, attacking a charming children's pantomime and, of course, the windmills and ending with a farcical fight with Camacho, presented by Simon Simenoff as an exaggerated Restoration-comedy fop. Nevertheless, the ballet is mainly an excuse for a variety of exuberant and difficult dances. Demanding Nureyev has given himself, as Basilio the romantic hero, what must surely be one of the most demanding male roles. The celebrated "Don Quixote" pas de deux, so often performed as a concert piece, comes at the end of this three-act ballet; I lost count of the number of solos and pas de deux which Nureyev and Lucettte Aldous, his ballerina, performed before it. I particularly admired his first solo, vaguely based on a Spanish jota but with far higher jumps and more complicated footwork than can be expected from fold dancers. How Nureyev has the energy to stage a production on this scale, teach it to an unfamiliar and fairly inexperienced company, and dance the leading role (twice on Sunday) with such humour, vivacity and virtuosity is a mystery. But few roles have shown him so carefree and exuberant. He is fortunate in his ballerina. Lucette Aldous's return to Europe from her native Australia as Kitry in "Don Quixote" leaves no doubt that she is now a major international star. Her small figure, speed, balance, joie de vivre and dazzling technique suggest comparisons with the Bolshoi's Maximova or even with the celebrated Lepeshinskaya. She has a delightful cheeky personality of her own, yet dances the classical dryad interlude with impeccable pure style. Marina Gielgud, en route from Bejart's company in Brussels to the ballet in West Berlin, gives strong support in the second ballerina role (she dances Kitry at one performance) and so do Eileen Jones, a charming young American dancer, as Cupid, and Denys Ganio, as the toreador. but the whole of Miss Hightower's company enters into the various gypsy, Spanish and classical divertissements with dash and enthusiasm and with a convincing show of the right grand manner...
The Times Monday, Nov. 22, 1971 John Percival	Field Figures - Covent Garden For Rudolf Nureyev to dance Field Figures at Covent Garden on Saturday was rather like an actor tackling his first Pinter. Glen Tetley's choreography, like Pinter's writing, uses traditional materials in a new way, adds some entirely novel elements and makes points by what it leaves out as well as what it puts in. Another similarity is that playwright and choreographer both need complete trust from their performers to do things absolutely as set but still gain a lot from old-fashioned star qualities of personality and projection. Created on a dancer (Desmond Kelly) whose best qualities are very different from Nureyev's, this role gets right away from the prototype of most of those made specially for Nureyev. Although the ballet has no pilot it contains dramatic situations, solos and confrontations within an abstract collage. If these had been resolved into a narrative, I think (and this is only a personal interpretation), it would be about a couple going through a crisis in their life together. ... Nureyev takes his part as if it had been made for him. Not that he does the steps, in total, any better than Kelly, although there were certain moments (a breathtaking sideways-twisting leap, for instance) when he gave his own astonishing clarity to the movement. Nor does he have the most obviously brilliant dancing to do; this goes to Nicholas Johnson, as the younger figure who is either an ideal or a rival, and he, as did all the rest of the cast, danced like people inspired. Nureyev does however, catch perfectly the essential point of the role, the sense of guarding an established relationship against a threat whether from outside influence or its own internal stresses. He brings out more strongly than before a kind of animal imagery, implicit in the movement and in Nadine Baylis's enclosing decor, which expresses the human content in terms of guarding territory. Also, he projects this with all the force of his own dominating personality, giving a satisfying impact to a rewarding but by no means ingratiating ballet.
The Guardian Dec. 4, 1971 Philip Hope-Wallace	A Nureyev night at the Garden is now what a Melba night must have been for our grandparents. Just as it was said you didn't want Melba signing "Comin' thru' the rye" when she could sing "Bel raggio", so, with all respect to modern choreographers, it is in the grand classical-romantic Tchaikovsky roles, the noble bravura prince parts, that one wishes to see the flying Russian. This is a very well trimmed "Lac," with almost all of Frederick Ashton's emendations and additions sheer gain, though one has to wait until act three for the real earth shakers and even if Mr. Nureyev was not flying his highest this time, his assurance and as it were hidden strength, to say nothing of the unforced impact of the characterization are most impressive...
Daily Telegraph Dec. 15, 1971 Fernau Hall	Magnificence of Nureyev & Merle Park The plans made for the gala performance by Royal Ballet at Covent Garden last night went somewhat awry because of the indisposition of three of the leading artists: Lynn Seymour, David Wall and the guest artist, Natalia Makarova....Unexpectedly, we saw Merle Park and Rudolf Nureyev bringing the second section of the programme to a magnificent climax by their interpretation of Nureyev's version of the big pas de deux from "The Nutcracker". Here the choreography included some lifts of extreme difficulty, with the ballerina turning smartly in the air before being caught by her partner, but both artists danced throughout the pas de deux with the greatest charm, ease and ebullience. The third section of the programme also ended effectively with Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dancing the balcony scene from Kenneth MacMillan's version of "Romeo and Juliet". From the first hesitant meeting centre stage they moved in perfect unison through the many changes of pace of the main body of the dance, making every detail count.
Daily Mail Dec. 17, 1971 By David Gillard	Tears for Fonteyn and Rudy - The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House. Rudolf Nureyev Royal Opera Archive Exhibitions Royal Opera Exhibitions The new production of Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun flanked by a revival of Ninette de Valois' Checkmate and Ashton's ever-emotive Marguerite and Armand proved a formidable triple bill. Checkmate has been revived to celebrate Sir Arthur Bliss's 80th birthday year, but the ballet never quite comes off for me. Nureyev made strong work of the Red Knight, though he was not at his best. Robbins' pas-de-deux danced to Debussy's music and inspired by Nijinksy's Faun, is set in a ballet rehearsal room - 'a room with a mirror', the programme calls it. It is a haunting, if unsensational little work. Marguerite and Armand is, of course, the grandest of grand finales. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev are exquisite as the ill-starred lovers and they, plus Liszt's music, wring floods of tears. Love Story has got nothing on this.
Dec. 17, 1971 John Percival	You must imagine that the proscenium opening is filled by one of those huge mirrors they have on the walls of ballet rehearsal studios, so that when the two dancers on stage stare intently towards you, what they are actually seeing is their own reflections. This is the setting of Afternoon of a Faun, which Jerome Robbins has mounted for the Royal Ballet. The Debussy music of course is the same as Nijinsky used for his masterwork, happily preserved in Ballet Rambert's repertory. Robbins's approach is so different that there is no need to choose between the two versions; both can be enjoyed on their own terms.... It is almost 19 years since Robbins created Faun for New York City Ballet, and about 12 years since his own company first danced it in London, but it has a timelessness which makes it look absolutely contemporary. Checkmate, revived on this same programme, is less than twice as old but seems very much a museum piece. Still, it is a part of our short ballet history, and the chance to see it is worth taking.