4.5.06
Ron Howell visto pela crítica internacional
Sobre Ron Howell, o homem que coreografou o recente bailado da ópera Lauriane de Augusto Machado, vou lendo na imprensa internacional e na internet críticas muito negativas. Será que lá fora como cá as reputações se fazem de lendas e não de factos? O que é certo é que o bailado a que assisti no dia da estreia de Lauriane foi paupérrimo para não dizer pior, parece que alguma crítica internacional já se tinha deparado com trabalhos muito fracos de Howell. Parece que até houve pateada no Met...
The Midsummer Marriage (Tippet)
Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London, 31 October, 3, 8, 11, 16, 18 November 2005
"The production itself is in many ways dreamy. Graham Vick's direction is detailed without being fussy, entering into both the bizarre Magic Flute-ish mysticism and the comedy of the secondary characters with great style. Designer Paul Brown's sets are marvellously elegant; the stage isn't cluttered, yet all the big moments carry great spectacle. I wasn't too keen on Ron Howell's choreography for the Ritual Dances, which were played with a velvet sheen by the orchestra; to me the dancing was repetitive and pretentious, but it could be a matter of taste I suppose."
Dominic McHugh in http://www.musicomh.com
Opera: No winners in the mating game
Independent, The (London), Nov 2, 2005 by Edward Seckerson
So what to take away from this long and dispiriting evening? The zest and dappled beauty of Tippett's orchestral writing, of course. But then again, for all the energy of Richard Hickox in the pit, the glorious Ritual Dances of Act II were so successfully hijacked by Ron Howell's risible choreography that one wished Tippett had never added the word 'dances'.
Outra sobre Moïse et Pharaon de Rossini:
And, saving the worst for last, the choreography of the ballet by Ron Howell was, in a word, ridiculous. If any San Franciscan out there remember Margo Sappington's Dance of the Hours in the '79 Gioconda, increase the silliness factor by about 1000 and you'll be close. With all the hootchy-kootchy hippity-hopping, rolling in the dirt, hands-to-head making animal horns and splashing in the U-channel, an appropriate name for this mishmash (which bore no relationship to Rossini's beautiful ballet music) would be "BAMBI AND HIS FRIENDS ON DRUGS RAMPAGE THRU THE FOREST".
In this semi-mosh-pit extravaganza, the point seemed to be who could get their clothes the dirtiest (long billowy white dresses for the wonem, long black pants and untucked loose shirts for the men). The audience greeted the spectacle with hearty booing both at the end of the ballet and (lesser) at the curtain call.
Opera Archives
After narrating the elaborate setting for Moise et Pharaon, Zurletti praises director Graham Vick but blames Ron Howell for a poor choreography. "During Act I the chorus and extras manage to give a thrilling moment when - using a blue ribbon - they outline the star of David, but when in Act III the actual dancers come on stage, it's a disaster because of lack of ideas."
Zurletti
Publicado originalmente em La Repubblica (11, 12 e 22 de Agosto de 1997)
Thou shalt adore Rossini; MUSIC
Independent, The (London), Aug 24, 1997 by Michael White
The set is abstract, vaguely Frank Lloyd Wright, with an enormous cantilevered mirror overhead. The images are purposeful (except for Ron Howell's choreography, which flounders).
"Ron Howell's ugly and endless ballet included such divertissements as a scat orgy, old men smothered in dry- cleaning bags, and Hassids getting sucked off through glory holes."
James Jorden a propósito de Moises und Aron de Schönberg no MET.
Milano - Teatro alla Scala: EVGENIJ ONEGIN - Janeiro 2006
La recensione di OperaClick
Ma se è simpatica la coreografia della danza russa popolare nel primo quadro del primo atto, deludente appare quella miserina dell’inizio del terzo quadro, dove le contadine abbracciate e a passettini attraversano da destra verso sinistra il palcoscenico. Infine il “pas de deux” , durante la polacca, ha il sapore di un insignificante déjà-vu.
Successo per i protagonisti e soprattutto per il direttore, ma non particolarmente caloroso.
Ugo Malasoma
Making a drama out of a costume
Evening Standard (London), Jul 17, 2000 by TOM SUTCLIFFE
DON GIOVANNI
Glyndebourne 2000
...
"She's utterly unfazed by Graham Vick's jokey, dislocated, eager- to-shock staging, which feels quirky, incoherent and inadequately achieved.
Bruce Ford's Ottavio sounds glorious too. But in such an idiosyncratic staging it seems preposterous purism to cut his "Dalla sua pace" because this is the Prague 1787 version.
Richard Hudson's "rehearsal room" set is now dominated by a mound of excrement, with brown handprints smeared on the back wall - and the Don's cheek.
While Andrew Davis drives the score (and the LPO) energetically, Vick gives us the Don's view, supposedly nihilistic and hopeless, where everybody shares his guilt and it's hell on earth.
Forget any notion of a morality about heroic self-indulgence and redemption.
Ford and Sandra Zeltzer's Elvira are main victims of Vick's beastliness.
She has to struggle with spoof rococo marriage frocks and hideous wigs. When the trio aim to apprehend the Don in mid debauch, Ford is ridiculously confined in black frock
and feathered dowager's hat.
The peasants - wearing 1950s C&A best suits and dresses - are dead drunk, and choreographer Ron Howell is busy sending up the Gay Gordons. Natale de Carolis's sympathetic, sexy, longhaired Giovanni (rather like Ferdy in "This Life") doesn't connect much with Alessandro Corbelli's Leporello. Nathan Berg's noble-sounding Masetto and Patrizia Biccire's attractive Zerlina scarcely impact on the plot either.
...
In the second act, the set collapses. The cemetery has "living dead" arms and legs coming through the mound of ordure. Rather than a stone statue, Anna's father is a shuffling red-faced NHS pensioner in pyjamas, slippers and dressing-gown.
The menu is offal ripped out of a dead horse. Eventually, the Don slopes offstage with a crowd of lookalikes in Carnaby Street fur coats.
The Midsummer Marriage (Tippet)
Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London, 31 October, 3, 8, 11, 16, 18 November 2005
"The production itself is in many ways dreamy. Graham Vick's direction is detailed without being fussy, entering into both the bizarre Magic Flute-ish mysticism and the comedy of the secondary characters with great style. Designer Paul Brown's sets are marvellously elegant; the stage isn't cluttered, yet all the big moments carry great spectacle. I wasn't too keen on Ron Howell's choreography for the Ritual Dances, which were played with a velvet sheen by the orchestra; to me the dancing was repetitive and pretentious, but it could be a matter of taste I suppose."
Dominic McHugh in http://www.musicomh.com
Opera: No winners in the mating game
Independent, The (London), Nov 2, 2005 by Edward Seckerson
So what to take away from this long and dispiriting evening? The zest and dappled beauty of Tippett's orchestral writing, of course. But then again, for all the energy of Richard Hickox in the pit, the glorious Ritual Dances of Act II were so successfully hijacked by Ron Howell's risible choreography that one wished Tippett had never added the word 'dances'.
Outra sobre Moïse et Pharaon de Rossini:
And, saving the worst for last, the choreography of the ballet by Ron Howell was, in a word, ridiculous. If any San Franciscan out there remember Margo Sappington's Dance of the Hours in the '79 Gioconda, increase the silliness factor by about 1000 and you'll be close. With all the hootchy-kootchy hippity-hopping, rolling in the dirt, hands-to-head making animal horns and splashing in the U-channel, an appropriate name for this mishmash (which bore no relationship to Rossini's beautiful ballet music) would be "BAMBI AND HIS FRIENDS ON DRUGS RAMPAGE THRU THE FOREST".
In this semi-mosh-pit extravaganza, the point seemed to be who could get their clothes the dirtiest (long billowy white dresses for the wonem, long black pants and untucked loose shirts for the men). The audience greeted the spectacle with hearty booing both at the end of the ballet and (lesser) at the curtain call.
Opera Archives
After narrating the elaborate setting for Moise et Pharaon, Zurletti praises director Graham Vick but blames Ron Howell for a poor choreography. "During Act I the chorus and extras manage to give a thrilling moment when - using a blue ribbon - they outline the star of David, but when in Act III the actual dancers come on stage, it's a disaster because of lack of ideas."
Zurletti
Publicado originalmente em La Repubblica (11, 12 e 22 de Agosto de 1997)
Thou shalt adore Rossini; MUSIC
Independent, The (London), Aug 24, 1997 by Michael White
The set is abstract, vaguely Frank Lloyd Wright, with an enormous cantilevered mirror overhead. The images are purposeful (except for Ron Howell's choreography, which flounders).
"Ron Howell's ugly and endless ballet included such divertissements as a scat orgy, old men smothered in dry- cleaning bags, and Hassids getting sucked off through glory holes."
James Jorden a propósito de Moises und Aron de Schönberg no MET.
Milano - Teatro alla Scala: EVGENIJ ONEGIN - Janeiro 2006
La recensione di OperaClick
Ma se è simpatica la coreografia della danza russa popolare nel primo quadro del primo atto, deludente appare quella miserina dell’inizio del terzo quadro, dove le contadine abbracciate e a passettini attraversano da destra verso sinistra il palcoscenico. Infine il “pas de deux” , durante la polacca, ha il sapore di un insignificante déjà-vu.
Successo per i protagonisti e soprattutto per il direttore, ma non particolarmente caloroso.
Ugo Malasoma
Making a drama out of a costume
Evening Standard (London), Jul 17, 2000 by TOM SUTCLIFFE
DON GIOVANNI
Glyndebourne 2000
...
"She's utterly unfazed by Graham Vick's jokey, dislocated, eager- to-shock staging, which feels quirky, incoherent and inadequately achieved.
Bruce Ford's Ottavio sounds glorious too. But in such an idiosyncratic staging it seems preposterous purism to cut his "Dalla sua pace" because this is the Prague 1787 version.
Richard Hudson's "rehearsal room" set is now dominated by a mound of excrement, with brown handprints smeared on the back wall - and the Don's cheek.
While Andrew Davis drives the score (and the LPO) energetically, Vick gives us the Don's view, supposedly nihilistic and hopeless, where everybody shares his guilt and it's hell on earth.
Forget any notion of a morality about heroic self-indulgence and redemption.
Ford and Sandra Zeltzer's Elvira are main victims of Vick's beastliness.
She has to struggle with spoof rococo marriage frocks and hideous wigs. When the trio aim to apprehend the Don in mid debauch, Ford is ridiculously confined in black frock
and feathered dowager's hat.
The peasants - wearing 1950s C&A best suits and dresses - are dead drunk, and choreographer Ron Howell is busy sending up the Gay Gordons. Natale de Carolis's sympathetic, sexy, longhaired Giovanni (rather like Ferdy in "This Life") doesn't connect much with Alessandro Corbelli's Leporello. Nathan Berg's noble-sounding Masetto and Patrizia Biccire's attractive Zerlina scarcely impact on the plot either.
...
In the second act, the set collapses. The cemetery has "living dead" arms and legs coming through the mound of ordure. Rather than a stone statue, Anna's father is a shuffling red-faced NHS pensioner in pyjamas, slippers and dressing-gown.
The menu is offal ripped out of a dead horse. Eventually, the Don slopes offstage with a crowd of lookalikes in Carnaby Street fur coats.
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