THE FIREBIRD / A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY / SYMPHONY IN C at Covent Garden - Rushin' Russian

In a recent blog I mentioned that The Royal Ballet's mixed programmes can sometimes be a tricky balancing act but no such problems with their last of their season, three ballets with a markedly Russian theme.

First we had Mikhael Fokine's 1910 sensation THE FIREBIRD which marked a number of firsts: the first ballet score by Igor Stravinsky, the first original work that Diaghilev's Ballets Russes had presented in Paris, and the first based on Russian folklore.  The Royal Ballet is using Natalia Goncharova's stage designs for the Ballets Russes 1926 revival and they add a whole unexpected level to the piece.

THE FIREBIRD made it's London debut at the Opera House in 1912 and it was also a big success.  That connection amazingly continues to this day: the original Firebird was danced by Tamara Karsavina - a role which catapulted her to the Ballets Russes top table - and she in turn coached Margot Fonteyn in 1954... who coached Monica Mason in the late 1970s... and who is now on hand to help the new generation; I think it's only in ballet that you can find connections like this.

The plot is minimal: Tsarovich Ivan captures the mythical Firebird while hunting in a hidden part of the forest but she persuades Ivan to free her in exchange for one of her feathers which will summon her should he ever be in danger.  Ivan discovers a group of princesses captured by the evil Magician Koschei and falls for the most beautiful but is quickly surrounded by Koschei's army of enslaved humans.  He waves the magic feather and The Firebird appears to confuse and confound Koschei's army who all collapse in exhaustion; the Firebird also shows Ivan where Koschei keeps a magic egg which holds his immortal soul.  Ivan smashes it and frees the enslaved people who stage a magnificent wedding ceremony for Ivan and his princess.

The tale might be trite but Stravinsky's thumping score sounded fresh and vivid and Christopher Carr's staging is an excellent showcase for Fokine's intriguing choreography and the elaborate staging of the climactic ceremonial procession where row after row of costumed extras fill the stage, it might not be ballet but it certainly is a spectacle!  It was great to see a favourite dancer Itziar Mendizabal playing the lead role of the flashing Firebird; she was imperious while always in fluttering flight.  It was just a shame that The Firebird doesn't make an appearance at the coronation.  There was a bit of a "whoops" moment when Nehemiah Kish's Ivan was brandishing the magic egg to the ensemble... and the top fell off and rolled across the stage!

The mood changed totally for the next ballet, Frederick Ashton's 1976 adaptation of the Turgenev play A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY.  As elaborate and colourful as THE FIREBIRD was, Ashton's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY was nuanced and intimate. 

As in the play, Natalia Petrovna rules her country home with a charming grace, adored by her husband Ysiaev, her son Kolia, her ward Vera and their close friend Rakitin.  Her life is turned upside down however when her son's new tutor arrives, the handsome student Baliaev.  He returns Natalia's affections but when Vera discovers them together, she jealously alerts the whole family to their subterfuge; Baliaev and Rakitin leave the house and Natalia is left alone with her lovelorn feelings.

Dame Peggy Ashcroft told Ashton that his version of the play was better than the original play and at only 40 minutes it certainly doesn't waste time getting on with the central plotline.  It has Ashton's clean, classic tone and economic story-telling, leaving it to the dancers to interpret his characters with the depth they need, but he also provides delightful solos for others including a character dance for Natalia's son Kolya, created for Wayne Sleep and danced splendidly here by Luca Acri.

It is a haunting cameo of a ballet, perfectly matched to a selected score of music by Chopin. The cast were all fine: David Hallberg was good as the tutor Baliaev as was Meaghan Grace Hinkis as the impressionable Vera.  But the heart of the ballet was provided by the remarkable Natalia Osipova - languorous lady of the manor at the start, she slowly blossomed into a woman in love only to be left crushed and alone, slowly walking towards an uncertain future.  It is remarkable that only three weeks ago she was the vengeful and tragic Medusa.

Last was George Balanchine's stupendous SYMPHONY IN C, a celebration of classical ballet and it's dancers.  We saw this last year where it joyfully stood out in a rather dour mixed programme but here it complemented the previous two very well.  

Danced to a score by Bizet, Balanchine originally premiered it in Paris in 1947 but he re-choreographed it for New York City Ballet the following year.  Balanchine was inspired by his early years dancing first with the Russian Imperial Ballet and then his years with the Ballet Russes during the 1920s.

Four couples dance to four different movements and Balanchine provides a whirlwind of pure classical technique: it's like every classical ballet finale only in abstract - no narrative, no named characters - so you can relish the solos, pas de deux and ensemble routines.  With over 50 dancers all dancing in unison onstage as it reaches it's conclusion, it is wonderfully thrilling.

All in all, a wonderful night of ballet which helped having the cohesive Russian feel. Ironically, the Royal Ballet will be having a rest over the summer months while The Bolshoi Ballet jet in from Russia for a season, but this was an evening to savour.

Theatre of War: WAR HORSE at the Lyttelton Theatre; THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER Mixed Programme at Covent Garden

As was expected, the theatre also marked the Centenary of the end of Word War I in November and I saw two of the productions that marked the event.

First off was the more obvious one, the National Theatre's game-changing production of WAR HORSE which had been on manoeuvres around the country before reaching the Lyttelton Theatre stable for an extended stay until the start of January.

As Mr and Mrs World know by now, WAR HORSE is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo about Albert Narracott who, although under-age, joins up to find his beloved horse Joey who has been sold to the army and is somewhere on the Western Front; while there boy and horse both experience the carnage of war at first hand.  I was lucky to see both the original 2007 production and the 2008 revival, both at the Olivier Theatre and both were very moving, involving productions - just ask Stephen Sondheim who was a blubbing wreck in 2007 on the night we went!

It then moved to the New London Theatre where it had an amazing run from 2009 to 2016.  Joey has since become a mainstay of many Remembrance celebrations, a genuine iconic presence.  I had such vivid memories of the show that it was a surprise that it was nearly ten years since I had seen it last so another visit was definitely on the cards.

The good news is that Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris' production - here re-directed by Katie Henry - still delivers the emotional crescendo which had the Lyttelton audience sobbing and sniffing and there are certain images that are indelible once you have seen them, however...  it is a given that no one really goes to see WAR HORSE for the cast's performances - Nick Dear's adaptation is more weighted towards Joey, his equine rival Topthorn and the Narracott's family goose - but even by these standards the anonymity of the performances was quite astonishing.

Thomas Dennis as Albert hardly registered and, as his irascible father Ted, Gwilym Lloyd huffed and puffed to very little effect.  There is also a very odd performance from Ben Ingles as the supposedly-sympathetic officer Lt. Nicholls who promises to care for Joey - it was nothing I could really pinpoint but I wouldn't trust him with a My Little Pony toy, let alone our plucky Joey.  Even the usual laugh-generator role of the f-ing Sgt Thunder went for nothing in Jason Furnival's hands.

However I would like to praise Peter Becker as the caring German officer Friedrich Muller who helps Joey and Topthorn when they are captured on the wrong side of No Man's Land, he at least convinced that Muller was a three-dimensional character.  Jo Castelton as Rose Narracott also found some depth as Albert's careworn but worried mother and the John Tams' songs were well sung by Bob Fox.

The best performances were unsurprisingly by the Handspring life-size puppets of Joey, both foal and horse, Topthorn and - yes - the goose.  The puppeteers invested them all with character and emotions which made it very easy to forget the actors and concentrate on them.  In particular, the scenes where  Joey and Topthorn were commandeered by the German army as pack-horses were full of unspoken pathos, none more so than Joey's gentle nuzzling of Topthorn as he dies, exhausted and broken.  The excellent touch of Topthorn's demise being made real by having his puppeteers slowly emerge from the puppet and slowly walking offstage is incredibly effective.

I did feel something was lost in the transfer to the proscenium stage but Rae Smith's spare design, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler's remarkable puppet design and Paule Constable's lighting still delivered, as did Adrian Sutton's score.  I am glad I experienced WAR HORSE again, but just wish that most of the human cast had invested their roles with the passion that the puppeteers did.

A few days later we saw a more intriguing response to the Centenary, the Royal Ballet's premiere of THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, which was part of a mixed programme with Wayne McGregor's INFRA and the late George Balanchine's SYMPHONY IN C.

The ballet took as it's inspiration the recorded memories of WWI veteran Wally Patch and a contemporary of his, Florence Billington, who in voice-over remember the quiet and lonely devastation they felt at the deaths of friends and a boyfriend respectively.  These spoken memories are interwoven with the lush, sombre score by film composer Dario Marianelli to create an absorbing soundscape to Alastair Marriott's choreography which illustrates the story of Florence and her beau Ted Feltham; from their meeting at a social dance before the war to his enlisting and subsequent death on the battlefield, cradled by Patch as he dies, to Florence receiving the news by telegram to Ted viewing it all from another place.

The ballet was visually stunning with a fractured, broken video playing on the scrim of contemporary footage of the call to arms in 1914 to the solemn procession of the coffin of the Unknown Soldier in 1920, which eventually raised to reveal Es Devlin's minimalist design of rotating flat panels which were played upon by Bruno Poet's stark lighting to create sweeping changes of tone across the stage while the reminiscences of Patch and Billington were heard.

There were good performances from William Bracewell as Ted and Anna Rose O'Sullivan as Florence but in the cold light of day the ballet failed to move; Marriott's choreography was nice to watch but detracted from the pathos of the spoken testimony of individual loss.  There was no profundity in the thoughts behind the movements but more importantly the very real disconnect between the spoken remembrances of the Western Front's living Hell and the precision and athleticism of the male dancers was too strong to ignore.  The piece ultimately felt like there was no real artistic need for being there, it was a commission to fill a brief in the programming.  I also read somewhere the jibe that he can't be THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER if we know his name was Ted Feltham!

The three ballets in the mixed programme seemed to have been selected to counter-point each other, there was no linear connection between them other than to show off the versatility of the Royal ballet company.  McGregor's INFRA from 2008 had twelve dancers hyper-extending in solos and groups to McGregor's signature taxing choreography while above them Julien Opie's illuminated silhouettes walked in solipsistic silence left and right.  It's an obvious leap to get what McGregor is illustrating - the tortured souls underneath those anonymous walkers - but after a while you long for a resolution.  But always good to hear Max Richter's music...

But then the mood was turned on it's head again with George Balanchine's glorious SYMPHONY IN C, danced to the music of Georges Bizet.  Premiered in 1947 in Paris but extensively re-thought for New York City Ballet the following year, Balanchine drew on his extensive knowledge of the Russian classical tradition from his teenage years with the Imperial Ballet and from his years with the Ballet Russes in the 1920s.

Broken down into four movements with new performers for each, SYMPHONY IN C is a whirlwind extravaganza of pure classical technique: it's like every classical ballet finale with the narrative and named characters removed so you can just concentrate on solos, pas de deux and ensemble routines.  With over 50 dancers onstage as it reaches it's conclusion, it felt so impossibly sumptuous and showy that I almost expected a camera crane to swoop in and a director to yell "cut", such is it's feel of a Hollywood musical idea of a big ballet number.

The four couples were excellently danced by Natalia Osipova, Sarah Lamb, Reece Clarke, Marcelino Sambé, William Bracewell, Anna Rose O'Sullivan, Yuhue Choe and Luca Acri.  It was by far the most memorable piece of the evening and rather put the others in their place.

I would definitely see SYMPHONY IN C again, I am happy to have seen THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER and INFRA but think I would pass on seeing them again.  However as I said earlier, the mixed programme was a wonderful showcase for the talents of the whole Royal Ballet company.