SWAN LAKE at Covent Garden - Scarlett's swans take off...

This December I will see my fifth production of Matthew Bourne's SWAN LAKE at Sadler's Wells and I am sure I will blub again at the last scene, it gets me every time.  But three years ago, after we had our Paulean conversion to the Royal Ballet, we decided it was time to see a 'classic' production of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece.

In 2016 we saw the visiting Bolshoi production, and what a disappointment that was!  Technically proficient yes, but danced with no sense of emotion or connection to the audience - it felt like they turned up for work and did their job, no more no less.  So the news that the Royal Ballet were going to stage a new production by Liam Scarlett set us off... finally a chance to see it done properly.

The night we went marked the 1,026th performance of SWAN LAKE at Covent Garden and Scarlett's version has replaced Anthony Dowell's production which had lasted in the repertoire for thirty years!  As I have frequently mentioned, it is jaw-dropping how long productions run in the ballet and opera houses of London - can you imagine the idea of the National Theatre only ever staging revivals of productions from the 1980s and 1990s?

But SWAN LAKE goes even further back, because - as is the case with practically all productions - it is based on the version staged by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov for the Imperial Ballet in 1895.  The main body of the ballet is theirs: Petipa's choreography is used for the palace scenes, the famous lake side scene is Ivanov's while Scarlett has devised a new final scene as well as the featured dances for the visiting princesses - apart from the Neapolitan princesses dance which is by Sir Frederick Ashton!  With all these choreographic strands to be woven together, Scarlett has said that his biggest challenge is to make it flow together as if from a single vision - and he succeeded; it was a thrilling production.

With the romantic design by John Macfarlane and moody lighting by David Finn, Scarlett's production swept you up in the swirling drama of Tchaikovsky's monumental score and the oft-told tale of Prince Siegfried who, when ordered to marry by his imperious mother The Queen, falls in love with the beautiful Odette who is under the spell of the wicked magician Von Rothbart who has disguised himself as The Queen's chief courtier.

Odette is transformed from a swan into a woman only at night but Siegfried is tricked at a sumptuous palace ball by the sorcerer into proposing to the mysterious Odile who resembles Odette.  As soon as he does, Odette is doomed to remain a swan forever but can Siegfried save Odette in time?  Of course it ends unhappily but this only makes Tchaikovsky's score all the more powerful and all-encompassing.

The biggest ovation of the evening was for the orchestra, under the baton of Valery Ovsyanikov, which filled the auditorium with the full grandeur of Tchaikovsky's score

Originally we had booked on this particular night to see Steven McRae dance the role of Siegfried but a recent leg injury put paid to that so instead we saw William Bracewell who performed the role well enough but it did not stop me thinking how much more thrilling McRae would have danced the love-lorn prince.  Akane Takada danced the dual role of Odette / Odile, but while her Odette was a graceful, captivating presence I felt she missed out on the seductive danger of Odile.  I will long remember though her slowly rippling arms showing the exact moment that Odette transforms back into the Swan.

Thomas Whitehead added yet another villain to his collection as the hissable Von Rothbart, Kristen McNally was an imposing presence as The Queen while Marcelino Sambé hit all the right notes as Benno, Siegfried's friend, in particular with his dazzling leaps.  SWAN LAKE of course allows the ballerinas of the company to shine and they were glorious as the elegant, ever-watchful swans.

A special mention to the tripping cygnets danced by Isabella Gasparini, Elizabeth Harrod, Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Romany Pajdak, while Itziar Mendizabal was on eye-catching form as the Spanish princess and a special mention to the whirling excitement of Olivia Cowley as the Spanish dancer attended by Reece Clarke, Téo Dubreuil, Fernando Montano and Giacomo Rovero.

I suspect this production will be visited again in years to come; I now look forward to seeing the Matthew Bourne version with new eyes in December at Sadler's Wells.

The HUMAN SEASONS / AFTER THE RAIN / FLIGHT PATTERN at Covent Garden - joy and pain

Think of The Royal Ballet and you probably will think of the artistry of classical ballet - a heroine in white tulle, an athletic leading man to support her and a full corps in attitudes around them.  But there is another Royal Ballet and it's gaining ground in the repertoire...

Contemporary Dance has always been vital to the company in helping establish new choreographers and allowing established ones to experiment with new forms and also for the dancers in the company to explore new ways of - literally - stretching their talents.  The Royal Ballet's resident choreographer Wayne McGregor is constantly finding new ways for Contemporary Dance to connect with the Opera House's audience and last week we saw their latest triple bill of one-act ballets which showcase the work of three fellow contemporary choreographers.

The first was THE HUMAN SEASONS choreographed by David Dawson and based on a poem of the same name by John Keats.  To be honest I didn't get that coming through, Dawson's piece purportedly charts the four seasons of man's life and while it had a spare elegance - with an ever-changing set of black and gold panels and neon straight-line lighting - and standout work from Eric Underwood, Marcelino Sambé and Sarah Lamb, it also was the one that I could skate over the most.  Speaking of which, I noticed a distinct trend across all three choreographers which was to get the dancers to slide across the stage... it gets noticeable after a while.

Christopher Wheeldon's AFTER THE RAIN was next and although I had seen it last year in a Wheeldon triple bill, it's elegant simplicity was a joy to see again. Danced to the hauntingly sparse music of Arvo Part initially by four dancers as embodiments of skittish rain drops, the piece is made truly memorable by the end pas de deux, a mesmerizing combination of delicacy and concentrated energy which is the perfect length to leave you wanting more.  This wonderful showcase for two dancers was danced beautifully by Zenaida Yankowsky and Reece Clarke.

The crowning achievement of the evening was the final ballet, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite's FLIGHT PATTERN which featured a large ensemble of 36 dancers.  This was Pite's first work for The Royal Ballet and was danced to Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony.

This astonishingly sombre work is Pite's response to the eternal dilemma of displaced people: three rows of muted, cowed dancers slowly surge onto the stage from stage left, suggesting waves of people moving as a mass but made up of individuals.  They slowly move across the stage but as they do some of them break away, to fight among themselves, to seek support.

They reach a place to rest and while doing so, a man and woman break free and while mourning a lost child they are again on the move, towards a slowly closing door with gently falling snow beyond it.  The couple are left alone but this time it is the man who explodes into a violent solo as his wife sits slumped with her back to him, broken.

Crystal Pite's remarkable choreography was tensely hypnotic - only when the curtain fell could I exhale loudly - and it perfectly mirrored Górecki's haunting music.  There were such wonderful moments within the choreography that you left knowing it had to be seen again; the constant surging movements within the company - suggestive of both a death marches and mass exodus - the amazing moment when the rippling forms made a heaving wave which supported the grieving woman, the exhilarating movement of the ensemble's arms to almost suggest the wings of birds flying...

The dancing was stupendous from the whole ensemble with remarkable vignettes from Kristen McNally and Marcellino Sambé as the suffering couple.  Jan Gower Taylor's set design was hauntingly lit by Tom Visser and it was wonderful to see it on that stage, in that theatre.

A perfect evening within which to explore and experience the possibilities of contemporary dance - I would love to see them all again.