© Asya Verzhbinsky RB 'Mayerling' reviews 'Mayerling' reviews Cojocaru in reviews Kobborg in reviews recent RB reviews more Suzanne McCarthy reviews

This Friends’ Masterclass was arranged in association with the Royal Ballet’s forthcoming revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, Mayerling. Mason’s and Collier’s comments both to the dancers and later in answering questions were insightful not only regarding the interpretation of this work, but also regarding a dancer’s performance generally. The main thread throughout was how much MacMillan’s choreography illustrated the character being danced, giving logic to the steps and revealing that character’s emotions. On several occasions Collier described the choreography as “juicy”, while Mason used the phrase, “steps cooking inside the saucepan”.

Fingers "trailing naughtily"

Starting with Deirdre Chapman, who has recently joined the Royal Ballet from Ballet Rambert as a First Artist, Mason rehearsed her in the role of Mitzi Caspar, a woman who certainly had her fair share of men. Mason encouraged her to express this at the start of her solo through her arm movements to illustrate Mitzi’s ability to “stir up trouble”. Later she advised her to let her fingers “trail naughtily” down her body. She mentioned later in the evening that she had used such movements in her interpretation when she had danced the role, and that Ashton had similarly liked movements that came from the elbow.

Kobborg and Cojocaru in Mayerling
Photograph by Asya Verzhbinsky ©

Lesley Collier followed by observing Kobborg (who Mason described as an excellent dancer/actor) and Cojocaru rehearse the final pas de deux leading to the double suicide. As she described it, this is a very passionate moment in the ballet where the two “get the sex out of their systems before they kill themselves”. Collier commented that, whatever the body proportions were of the dancers performing this pas de deux, the choreography was such that beautiful shapes were always the result.

"Every day felt like a marathon" - Johan Kobborg

Kobborg was asked how he had found learning the ballet. He described it as a huge challenge, and that he had never worked on a ballet as hard as Mayerling. It was both physically and mentally demanding, and that “every day felt like a marathon”. Mason and Collier later returned to the subject of the demands made by the male lead, noting hat it was essential that the man did not lose any energy, and to do that he needed to understand every move. What he could not allow himself to do was panic on stage. The girl must help him in this by precisely judging the space and timing of her own movements. This can be difficult, particularly, as in the final pas de deux, the girl is often upside down (a position which can make telling your right from your left confusing).

Discussion

In the discussion following the Masterclass a number of comments were made:

That MacMillan had taken a year to make the ballet, and that it was a very different experience to learning it in 6 weeks. There were three different couples dancing the main roles of Rudolf and Mary Vetsera who were being coached by a variety of people including Collier, Lynn Seymour, the Benesh notator Monica Parker and Donald MacLeary. Mason described the process as a “big factory”. At the start Parker had taught all the couples the basic steps of the various pas de deux together in the same room. Then they were separated so that each couple could be treated individually.

Before rehearsals had started Edward Thorpe, MacMillan's first biographer, had spoken to the company for about an hour about the period and the real people they were going to play on stage.

Cojocaru in Mayerling
Photograph by Asya Verzhbinsky ©

In replying to a question about costumes, Mason remarked that dancers often felt that they were “smothered” by what they had to wear on stage. In fact, dancers needed to be reminded that they had to dance “out of their costumes”. It was sometimes necessary, as she put it, to fight them to make them do this. Nicolas Georgiadis’ costumes were designed to recognise the role being performed. If it was a mime character, then the costume was heavier than one created for a character that had to do a great deal of dancing. Dress rehearsals were crucial, as the principals had to get the feel of dancing the part in the costumes. Sometimes dancers even wore them when learning a part. Mason told a story of when she was preparing for her performance as the Empress Elisabeth in San Francisco she discovered that the dress she had to wear for the part was so boned that she could not dance a single step. After having a good cry she proceeded slightly to “debone” the outfit. She also mentioned that dancing with a man in a jacket, such as in the Act III snow scene, is different simply because the padding makes it impossible to feel his shoulder

It was asked why this ballet was not performed more often. In reply Mason listed several factors that needed to be taken into consideration - the box office, the right casts and sufficient rehearsal time.