KENNETH MACMILLAN: A NATIONAL CELEBRATION

KENNETH MACMILLAN: 

A NATIONAL CELEBRATION

Royal Opera House

19.10.2017

Marking the 25^th anniversary of the choreographer's death, a unique mini-season of mixed bills, performed by five of the UK's great classical dance companies.

A very varied triptych opened with Birmingham Royal Ballet in Concerto, an abstract piece from 1966 set to Shostakovich’s second piano concerto. The opening and closing movements are precise patterns, the corps in red, ochre and yellow. The finale had the yellow team in an almost Soviet drill. The dreamy central movement has legato lines and lifts to match the lyrical pianism of Jonathan Higgins; beautifully danced by Jenna Roberts and Tyrone Singleton.

Most interesting perhaps, was Scottish Ballet's rare revival of MacMillan's original Baiser de la Fée from 1960. Like Stravinsky's music, the piece has a post-classical feel, with the choreography striving to respect the traditions of Romantic ballet – peasants, fairies, Hans Andersen – while bringing some realism to the tale of the young man kissed by a fairy when but a baby, and stolen away by her on the eve of his wedding. Andrew Peasgood brings a boyish energy to the role, with Bethany Kingsley-Garner outstanding as his betrothed, joining him in an urgent, emotional pas-de-deux, and Constance Devernay as the wickedly sensuous fairy. The moment when the two women dance around him, as four friends look on, was a dramatic highlight, as was the dying fall of the final moments, set in the bleak, cold Land Beyond Time and Place.

A crowd-pleaser to finish – Elite Syncopations, MacMillan's ragtime ballet danced to Scott Joplin and his contemporaries. A delight from Sunflower Slow Drag to Cataract Rag, with turns from all five companies, in the casual setting of a dance hall, with Robert Clark's band at the back. A witty duo from Karla Doorbar and Mathias Dingman [BRB] in The Golden Hours, four chaps from the home team in an energetic Hot-House Rag, a witty, virtuosic Friday Night from Northern Ballet's Riku Ito, a wistful and sassy solo from Precious Adams [English National Ballet] in Calliope Rag, a hilarious pas de deux from Marge Hendrick and Constant Vigier [Scottish Ballet] in the Alaskan Rag, and a stylish solo – cane and striped pants – from the Royal Ballet's Akane Takada, who joined Nicol Edmonds for a polished Bethena Concert Waltz.

production photograph: Tristram Kenton

ONEGIN

ONEGIN

The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

27.02.15

You can never have enough Romantic Russian ballets, and this example, choreographed by John Cranko for the Stuttgart Ballet in 1965, is a splendid example.
Maybe Pushkin's original is not well served, maybe Tchaikowsky's offcuts make you long for the opera's wondrous score. But we have a ballet, with its two-dimensional scenery, and classic “AO” gauze front-cloth, which gives marvellous opportunities for the soloists, and for the corps-de-ballet, generously employed here as party guests, peasants and the St Petersburg gentry. A lovely grand galop at the close of Act I, amongst many delights.
Impassioned choreography and emotional intensity are the watch-word here.
Laura Morera makes a gentle and vulnerable Tatiana, fatally attracted to the black-clad romantic dream that is Federico Bonelli's rather stiff Onegin. The Act 1 pas de deux, when he steps through her bedroom mirror and sweeps her into his arms is boldly staged, with supple embraces. The moment is echoed at the very end of the ballet, when she dismisses him forever through the door placed precisely where the mirror once stood …
The poet Lensky, whom Onegin kills in a duel, was danced with some style by Donald Thom,  a noted Mad Hatter in the Alice revival; his Olga Yhui Choe.
Ballet Master Gary Avis gave his Prince Gremin, modest and chivalrous, and the Nurse was danced by Jacqueline Clark.

Nostalgic pleasure in this retro revival, even if Stolze's bloated arrangements are quickly effaced in the memory by the great themes of Eugene Onegin as Tchaikowsky imagined him.

DON QUIXOTE

DON QUIXOTE

The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

08.01.2015

It's a packed pit, for Minkus's romantic score, arranged for Carlos Acosta's 2013 staging by Martin Yates, who's conducting here.

A packed stage too, with a busy town square set, and the versatile corps de ballet rushing around as gypsies, bull-fighters, dryads and more. Amongst all this local colour, the more classical pink tutus of Quixote's dream are a welcome moment of calm, superbly staged to some of the work's most attractive music.

The prologue, with our hero visited, like Scrooge, by apparitions in his bedchamber is nicely staged with an effective balance of drama and slapstick. Christopher Saunders, who played an important part in this new staging, is the errant knight, touchingly characterized, with Philip Mosley padded up as his fat companion.

Alas, after this, Cervantes' central characters tend to be relegated to the sidelines, envious onlookers, wall-flowers at the dance. Though he does get to tilt at a windmill, and has an impressive entrance with a warhorse Rosinante on wheels. The action – I don't say plot – revolves around young lovers Kitri and Basilio. Rather as if The Merchant of Venice were rewritten around Jessica's love life.

Sarah Lamb does not look especially Spanish, but enjoys the humour and the sun-kissed silliness of it all, ably partnered by Federico Bonelli,, with fluent leaps and lifts. Eye-catching work in support from Ryoichi Hirano as the fop Gamache, and Lara Turk in the Gypsy and Fandango divertissements.

Not the greatest ballet – much loved by the Russians, whose style it suits perfectly. But in this colourful revival, danced with verve and style against Tim Hatley's charming designs, it can hardly fail to please the festive crowds in Covent Garden.

THE WINTER'S TALE

THE WINTER'S TALE

Royal Ballet at Covent Garden

12.04.2014

The many thousands who enjoyed Joby Talbot's Alice in Wonderland score will instantly recognise the musical idiom here. Accessible, heavy on tuned percussion, but, understandably,  less jolly and more obviously minimalist than in the earlier piece. The huge forces are conducted by David Briskin.

This ambitious narrative ballet reunites that Alice team to excellent effect.

Bob Crowley's design includes monumental columns, and the shadows they cast, landscape paintings as backdrops, and, in Act Two, a wonderful tree, dripping with golden ornaments, where we discover Florizel languishing faun-like in its roots. There is projection, too, with ships and storms, and a bear on a billowing silken sheet. A gangplank, a tall narrow staircase, which Mamilius [nimbly danced by Joe Parker] and his teddybear descend as he watches his mother's beautifully crafted solo. There are lifelike statues, too, preparing us for the climax, in which, movingly, Leontes, overjoyed by Hermione's awakening, reaches out to the figure of the boy Mamilius, forlornly hoping for a further miracle ...

Christopher Wheeldon's choreography is eloquent and often poignant – Sarah Lamb's Perdita is given some lovely flowing movements. And the [?over-] extended rustic dances in Bohemia are most enjoyable, pastoral but not pastel – the autumn colours have a Balkan feel. And the narrative arc is clearly and simply delineated.

It's not a simple task to deliver the poetry of Shakespeare's original in dance form. Edward Watson's Leontes, tortured by jealous doubts, is an impressively expressive performance, and Lauren Cuthbertson's Hermione is touching and physically convincing. Steven McRae is typically athletic and outgoing as young Florizel, but with some touching moments with Perdita. And Zenaida Yenowsky is a marvellous Paulina, a strong pivotal figure in the story's unfolding.

A new, full-length narrative ballet, bringing 21^st century energy and freshness to Shakespeare's classic tale.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Royal Opera House at the Duchess Theatre

25.01.14

Covent Garden's Christmas treat transferred to the West End [a first, this, I think] and starring the inimitable Tony Robinson [in his first stage role in ages]. As last year down in the LinburyStudio, it is a magical production combining dance, music and narration.

The avuncular Robinson, as magician/author Kenneth Grahame, seems very much at home in his attic study, gesturing with his wand/pen as he sketches the characters.

Robinson's is an engaging performance, sharing the dream with his young audience; the final envoi is particularly moving.

All the other characters make their mark – Will Kemp is still Ratty, the boat-man, Cris Penfold's Toad is green with envy when he sees his first motor car, and there's a lovely Jailor's Daughter from Ewan Wardrop, hoofing it to folk tunes from A Shropshire Lad.

Like all of Martin Ward's evocative music, this is skilfully adapted from the oeuvre of George Butterworth, whose work is so redolent of the Edwardian world Grahame conjures up.

The poetical narration, by former Laureate Andrew Motion, is sometimes wordy, occasional clunky, but at its best – aping Auden for the train, say, or reaching out to the child in us all at the end – it is a superb gloss on a familiar much-loved story.

So let them rise again! Let time roll back 
And sunlight, not this graveyard-attic-light, 
But silken early sunlight ripple down! 
Let Mole peep from his burrow 
At the sudden brazenness, and Otter 
And the whole quick rabbit-clan! 
Let Ratty paddle into view, and let 
His river-currents play at fast and loose! 
Let Toad Hall stand there on its eminence! 
Yes let all this return! Return, and live 
As new and easy as the warming wind 
Which - listen! - strikes the willow-wands and draws 
A shower of music from their silver strings. 

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden

24.03.12

Finally caught up with this ambitious new three-acter from the Royal Ballet.

Christopher Weeldon's choreography is always workmanlike, often inventive, but it's really Joby Talbot's score and the special effects and the designs that make it such an enjoyable show.

The moment when Alice opens the door and peers into the auditorium, and the disjointed Cheshire Cat, are just two of the delights, and then there are divertissements for all sorts of Tenniel-inspired characters.

The prologue, and its book-end epilogue, provide a context for the surreal, hallucinatory nonsense in between.

A late start to this midday matinée [stage crew problems] and both Pennefather and Nunez replaced [injury]. Fine performances, though from Nehemiah Kish and Beatriz Stix-Brunell as The Knave of Hearts and Alice. Barry Wordsworth in the pit.

LES PATINEURS / TALES OF BEATRIX POTTER

Royal Ballet

17.12.09

A rink in a forest glade. Chinese lanterns. Assorted skaters preened, pirouetted and took the occasional tumble on the ice in Frederick Ashton's magical evocation of an Edwardian skating party. The finale saw snow, and left us with a single dancer, the Blue Boy, spinning in the spotlight like a doll in a snow-storm dome.

After the interval, Sir Fred's other Christmas hit, the perennially popular Tales of Beatrix Potter, with Philip Mosley as Mrs Tiggywinkle and Ryoichi Hirano as a lithe Jeremy Fisher.

A tale of two audiences, and little girls out for a Christmas treat. Flashing baubles, plastic trays of greasy chips. Bratz. Lamé boleros [and in one family, three lads in matching knickerbocker outfits] and a surreptitious satsuma. Ballet Shoes. The only point in common between this evening and last the “skating” and the ticket price. We're a long way from the classless society.