Opening Celebration, Covent Garden, 4/12/99
Lynette Halewood
headache: attempting to put together a series of items which illustrate the
Royal Ballet’s history at the ROH is a tricky business. It’s like compiling
an anthology - there will always be complaints over what is left out. Not to
mention who does what. Dowell seems to have come up with quite a popular
selection, which despite a few quirks, worked very well on the night and was
very crisply and efficiently presented.
There were some odd features: Durante didn’t appear with Mukhamedov; we saw
very little of Sarah Wildor. The Ashton items were peculiarly chosen: either
so short (a tiny, tiny snippet of Symphonic Variations - less than a minute)
or from the fluffier end of the spectrum (Stepsisters, the clog dance) as if
the Royal think of him only as charming and rather lightweight. We got
rather longer and more substantial views of the MacMillan repertoire by
contrast. But aside from that there were some lovely moments, and some
quite unexpected and unfamiliar items which tuned up.
Presenting the items in the chronological sequence of their appearance at
Covent Garden gave the programme a structure, though the final few items
perhaps lacked the grand flourish to finish the evening. It was a very nice
touch to open the evening with Sleeping Beauty, of course, and in the
original 1946 costumes. This had to be danced by Bussell, and she went all
out for the big effects, perhaps trying too hard to sustain the balances and
not take the proffered hand. This didn’t quite work and was rather too
wobbly for perfection (the televised version was better), but we love her
anyway.
Gala nights are really opportunities for the soloists, and the corps don’t
get much of a look in. But I’d like to say that the corps did get their
chance in Ballet Imperial, and really looked quite impeccable, very
beautifully ordered and together. They had only a few other chances to
shine, for instance in the nods to the classical heritage - a frustratingly
brief excerpt from Bayadere (with Yoshida & Mukhamedov) and Raymonda
(Yoshida again, very delicate and precise).
Presenting snippets from narrative works is always difficult. Excerpts from
abstract works, or pure variations, always seem to work better in a gala
context, where the dancers do not have to work at presenting all aspects of
a character in their allotted three minutes or whatever. The variations from
Napoli and Corsaire are pure crowd pleasers - and Kobborg and Acosta duly
did their stuff. Acosta is already a great favourite with the RB audience,
and always gets a great response. I don’t know why Corella, in the Bronze
Idol variation, didn’t get such an ecstatic reception: Kumakawa could always
be relied on to bring the house down with this. For some reason, although it
was performed with some panache, it didn’t generate the same level of
excitement.
The big excerpts from Macmillan narratives which were presented came over
quite differently: Cope and Guillem in the Manon final pas de deux received
the biggest response of the evening by far: they really did manage to distil
all the passion and suffering into such a short space. Watching Durante and
Corella in the Romeo and Juliet balcony pas de deux was a very different
experience: whereas Cope and Guillem have clearly developed a telepathic
partnership, Durante and Corella, although both dancing very beautifully in
their ways, look as if they belonged in slightly different productions.
Durante was dancing and acting exquisitely, in the Royal Ballet tradition,
with every tremor of Juliet’s conflicting emotions expressed through her
body: Corella’s dancing was quite fabulous in his speed and attack, but it
was disconcerting to see him wear the same broad grin throughout as if was
all just a bit of a lark. The difference between the two was much more
marked live than it was in the televised version
I can’t imagine anyone making a ballet now called The Good Humoured Ladies,
especially where the cast appear in the kind of gowns Madame de Pompadour
might have rejected as over elaborate. Ballets made today seem constrained
to have the cast all dressed in black and something vaguely threatening or
violent in the title. As a pensive Christina MacDermott drifted gently
across the stage in a very restrained and delicate solo, I felt an
unexpected bout of nostalgia for an age of ballet I’d never really seen -
something ordered and harmonious rather than athletic and aggressive for
once. Yanowsky also projected a cool and brittle elegance as the hostess
from Les Biches - this is returning to the repertoire in spring, and I hope
we see her in it then, because this was one of the best things I’ve seen her
do.
Of the more modern items, as the evening drew to a close, those that made
more impact included the zebra section from Bintley’s Still Life at the
Penguin Cafe, and the pas de deux from Gloria. The ROH Orchestra sounded as
if they were playing the Penguin Cafe music with gritted teeth - I suppose
it’s a long way to move from Wagner in a single evening - but the zebra
remains an audience favourite, and Liu made a very good job of it. Gloria
was much more powerful than I remembered: last performed here about six
years ago, it returns to the repertory in January in the MacMillan bill,
with Benjamin and Saunders, as here, in the cast. Benjamin has always been
a very strong MacMillan dancer, and this was a lovely performance of some of
his more inventive, but restrained, choreography: it looked a lot stronger
than the pas de deux from Prince of the Pagodas which followed later.
The final items from the last few years did look a bit thin by contrast.
Page’s Fearful Symmetries isn’t a work from which you can cut neat segments
for a gala very easily. The cast went at it with gusto, as ever, and it
looked much better live than the rather flat effect given by TV. Tharp had
evidently made a special compilation from Mr Wordly Wise for Irek for the
occasion: although it was well performed, it’s not many people’s favourite
work. Still, if the programming had been left to me, I would be unable to
cut the list of what I wanted to see down to less than three whole evening’s
worth, I suspect. It was a suitably festive occasion, and the final tableau
was quite affecting.
Great to have them back. Looking forward to the first ballet programme
tomorrow night.
regards
Lynette
LWindreich
was the fact that so few dancers were identified. At the end the voice-over
gave credit to most of the principals, but those of us who have not seen the RB
for many years do not know many of the dancers by sight.
The cuts must have been massive. We did not see Balanchine, Massine, Nijinska
or Tharp pieces, even though they are listed in the credits at the end.
No one I know enjoyed the opera selections, and the choice of the heaviest of
GERMAN music (instead of English) was faulty. Naturally, we would prefer to
have had the whole two hours devoted to ballet.
Incidentally, a rather fascinating statement was made by the architects of the
auditorium, who have eliminated the royal box. The Queen and family now sit in
dead center of the first tier, just like the common folk around them.
LW
Lynette Halewood
LWindreich wrote in message
<19991207121217...@ng-fr1.aol.com>...
>Incidentally, a rather fascinating statement was made by the architects of
the
>auditorium, who have eliminated the royal box. The Queen and family now
sit in
>dead center of the first tier, just like the common folk around them.
>LW
In fact the Royal Box, and its private retiring room, are still there, on
the right hand side of the auditorium. But the sight lines from there aren't
that good, and H.M. had the seat with the best view instead - front row of
the grand tier.
LH