As you know Constant Reader, my final pre-lockdown theatre trip was to see the late Liam Scarlett's SWAN LAKE at Covent Garden so how odd it was to visit it again twice in as many days; a bit wary but we did it. The main reason was to see two favourite dancers who illuminate The Royal Ballet company.
The first was a ballet amuse-bouche, only 70 minutes, but what a remarkable 70 minutes! It was Maurice Béjart's L'HEURE EXQUISE from 1998, a dance adaptation of Samuel Beckett's HAPPY DAYS. Becket without the words? It sounds a stretch but the ballerina playing 'She' does speak occasionally, enough at least to put the piece into some context.
Actually I like HAPPY DAYS so I found it enjoyable but missed the profound quality that the play has: Winnie finds her life shrinking: buried up to her waist in earth but still able to apply her make-up, play with her parasol, sort through her capacious handbag - sure in the knowledge that the gun she has could be used in the last resort = and all the time chatting away to her husband Willie, just out of sight to her. But all changes in the second half as she is now buried up to her neck, all she can access are her memories, but Willie is still there and she remembers the words to their love song "The Merry Widow waltz".
In L'HEURE EXQUISE, Winnie is now named She, an aging ballerina buried up to her waist in her old ballet shoes and as she chatters away to her partner He, she remembers her career. Luckily for the audience, the mound of shoes parts and we watch She as she recalls dancing as a child to reaching success, dancing many roles and seemingly ending up in a vaudeville routine - all the time helped and hindered by He as her father / dance partner / manager. Only three dancers have danced the role professionally: the late Carla Fracci who originated it, Maina Gielgud and now Ferri (under Gielgud's staging).
Ferri chose this to celebrate her 40th anniversary with The Royal Ballet which is no small achievement in the life of a ballet dancer - even one who is a prima ballerina assoluta. In the 120+ years since the first assoluta was named there have only been thirteen dancers granted that title: there are three still living but only Ferri remains dancing. She is simply glorious; when she dances you believe every gesture, every movement - she is an actress without needing words but here she handled both with ease. She was partnered by Carsten Jung, ex-principal with the Hamburg Ballet.
Our second visit was to see the return to the Covent Garden stage of our favourite male dancer Steven McRae, it was a performance that we needed to see... On 16th October 2019, we were overjoyed to see him on stage at Covent Garden again, after nearly two years injured. We were nearly at the end of the 2nd Act of Kenneth MacMillan's MANON and McRae was dancing alone on the stage: two leaps, two pirouhettes - then he froze for a few seconds, and hopped into the wings as the curtains closed but not before hearing chilling, unforgettable howls of pain. Kevin O'Hare, Director of the Royal Ballet, appeared onstage to confirm Steven was injured and would be replaced for the rest of the performance.
It later transpired that he had endured a full rupture of his Achilles tendon and we followed his slow, determined rehabilitation back to full dancing strength and here we were, two years after that ghastly night, to see him dance again. Could he? Would he?
A massive cheer greeted his first appearance and as wonderful as it was to see him again, we were on the edge of our seats right up to the last chords of Prokofiev's score, but he absolutely triumphed. Giving us a Romeo of passion and verve, Steven was greeted with an enormous ovation at the end.
It must have been very special for him to share his return with his frequent stage partner Sarah Lamb who emotionally pushed him forward to take a solo bow and joined in the rapturous applause for him. Sarah Lamb was an exquisite Juliet, her grace and elegance turned by her secret love into determination and ultimately devastation. What a marvellous partnership they have on stage!
MacMillan premiered ROMEO AND JULIET in 1965 with the iconic pairing of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev but it wasn't meant to be them. He had created the roles for the younger Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour but they were demoted to the second cast when demands for box-office names for the subsequent US tour won out - Gable and Seymour even had to help teach the more famous pair their roles due to time constraints in rehearsals.
The unhappy situation resulted in MacMillan leaving The Royal Ballet the following year but returned to be it's artistic director from 1970 to 1977 when he became it's principal choreographer until his death backstage during a revival of his MAYERLING in 1992. Along with his other great works, ROMEO AND JULIET has remained in the repertoire and is still a glorious creation, it grips from the start with a thrilling choreographed sword fight in the city square which results in five bodies piled up centre-stage; in McMillan's Verona, danger is only a hair's breath away.
John B Read's lighting and the original evocative set design by the late Nicholas Georgiadis are still wonderful while McMillan's truly thrilling choreography is staged this time by Christopher Saunders and Laura Morera. Sergei Prokofiev's score sounded excellent played by the Opera House orchestra under the baton of Koen Kessels.
There was good support from James Hay and Bennet Gartside as Mercutio and Tybalt, Christopher Saunders was also a controlling Lord Capulet partnered by Elizabeth McGorin as Lady Capulet and Kristen McNally's bustling Nurse. The night we saw it marked the 514th performance of MacMillan's masterpiece: here's to many more - and welcome back Steven!
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