Mayerling
by DEBRA CRAINE for the Times
published: April 11, 2007

On Monday night the honours fell to Carlos Acosta (there are three other Royal Ballet casts between now and May 7). His strategy is to waft through the initial stages of the ballet with an air of bored disinterest. It’s a strategy that works against dramatic excitement; even his anguished appeal to Zenaida Yanowsky’s sumptuously regal Empress failed to ignite on Monday.

Royal Ballet: Mayerling
by JUDITH MACKRELL for the Guardian
published: April 11, 2007

At every twist and turn of Edward Watson's debut as Rudolf, the emotionally mutilated hero of Mayerling, there are glimpses of the damaged child behind the man.

Mayerling, Royal Opera House, London
by ZOE ANDERSON for the Independent
published: April 11, 2007

Now 30, Watson is a striking figure, long, lean and red-headed. He's a favourite with choreographers, who have shown off his extreme flexibility, but his progress in mainstream repertoire has been slower. His classical technique is thin, while his slight frame can't have helped in partnering. However, over the last season Watson has visibly pumped up.

Lethal mix of sex and drugs
by MARK MONAHAN for the Daily Telegraph
published: April 11, 2007

... this was the work with which Kenneth MacMillan's lifelong fascination with the sinister side of the human psyche reached its fullest expression, and that saw him stretch his medium to near breaking-point.