Tag Archives: Matthew Golding

Giselle, Royal Ballet, ROH, Covent Garden, February 2016

For the opening night in this new run of Giselle, Sarah Lamb took over the title role at short notice from Natalia Osipova and delivered a flawless performance. Her emotional energy and light, floating steps in Act I portrayed the slightly out-of-this world girl she represents before her beautifully executed mad scene, and in Act …

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Royal Ballet Mixed Bill: Viscera/ Afternoon of a Faun/ Tchaikovsky pas-de-deux/ Carmen, ROH, Covent Garden, October 2015

The big draw of the evening was Carlos Acosta’s new Carmen, but the three preceding ballets, all superbly danced, were arguably worth the whole evening. Liam Scarlett’s Viscera made a welcome return after its first performances three years ago, with Leticia Stock and Nehemiah Kish in the tranquil pas-de-deux that shows the tentative attraction between …

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Swan Lake, with Osipova and Golding, Royal Ballet, ROH, Covent Garden, February 2015

The performance on 21 February was the best I’ve seen so far in the present run, not least because Boris Gruzin in the orchestra pit gave a superb rendering of Tchaikovsky’s score. It was far better than the brash energy of the first night — given no doubt after insufficient rehearsal time, since Gruzin has …

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Royal Ballet Triple: Serenade/ Sweet Violets/ DGV, Covent Garden, May 2014

Liam Scarlett’s dark narrative ballet Sweet Violets was beautifully framed here by Balanchine’s Serenade and Wheeldon’s Danse à grande vitesse. The Balanchine work, his first in America, originated from a series of evening classes he gave in New York, the seventeen girls at the start being the number who attended the first class. Among sixteen …

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Sleeping Beauty, Choe and Golding, Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, 27 March 2014

Tonight Natalia Osipova was supposed to have made her role debut for the Company as Princess Aurora, but a day earlier she fell in rehearsals and was hospitalised. Her replacement, Yuhui Choe was the star of the evening, sensational in the Rose Adagio of Act I, looking her princes in the eye and moving with …

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Sleeping Beauty, with Cuthbertson and Golding, Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, 22 February 2014

This is a brief review of the Saturday matinee on 22nd February, in which Matthew Golding made a wonderful replacement for Rupert Pennefather as the Prince. The easy grace of his entrance in Act II, followed by his solo adagio exhibited a glorious lightness of being, complemented by an air of quiet authority as he …

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Le Corsaire, with Rojo and Golding, English National Ballet, ENB, London Coliseum, 11 January 2014

Congratulations to artistic director Tamara Rojo for overseeing the ENB’s hugely entertaining production of Le Corsaire. Its central section is the pirates’ lair of Act II where Medora foils the assassination of her beloved Conrad by his Lieutenant Birbanto, following gloriously exuberant dancing by the lovers and Conrad’s slave Ali. The thrilling choreography for Ali …

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