DVD/150: SLEEPING BEAUTY (Ross MacGibbon, Matthew Bourne, 2013)

Matthew Bourne completed his Tchaikovsky trilogy with his Gothic SLEEPING BEAUTY.

It's a darkly romantic tale of Aurora, her love for the palace gardener Leo and the other-worldly creatures who alter their destiny.

Bourne starts in 1890, the year of SLEEPING BEAUTY's premiere, when the childless King and Queen forget to thank the dark fairy Carabosse who helped them get a daughter so she curses the child to die on her 21st birthday. 

However the good fairy Count Lilac alter it so Aurora will fall asleep for 100 years.

In 1911, Aurora celebrates her 21st birthday with gardener Leo who loves her. Caradoc, the now-deceased Carabosse's son appears and enacts her curse leaving Aurora in a deep sleep.  Here Bourne adds his own delicious take - Count Lilac bites Leo's neck, turning him into an ageless vampire.

In 2011, Leo and Count Lilac must rescue Aurora from Caradoc's clutches..

Shelf or charity shop?  A definite shelfer.  I thoroughly enjoyed reliving the sheer Gothic romanticism of Bourne's reimagining, his always entertaining choreography, the excellent performances of Dominic North as Leo, Hannah Vassallo as Aurora and Adam Maskell as Carabosse/Caradoc and the tireless ensemble.  Les Brotherston's set design and costumes are marvellous - I particularly liked the punk elegance of Count Lilac and his retinue with their frock coats and distressed layers of lace and silk - while Paule Constable's lighting design also contributed towards the success of the production, filmed here at Bristol Hippodrome.  Oh and I had forgotten the mischievous Baby Aurora puppet!

DVD/150: SLEEPING BEAUTY (Clyde Geronimi, 1959)

Eight years in production, Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY only recouped it's budget thanks to 1970s and '80s reissues.

Disney wanted a different style to previous films and asked a recently-employed background artist Eyvind Earle to give it a unified look.  A designer had already suggested a theme based on Medieval tapestries which Earle pursued.

Of course the characters have the unique touch that Disney's animators gave them so the main characters - Aurora, the three fairies and Maleficent - really pop from the austere backgrounds.

When the original director became ill he was replaced by Eric Larson who also delivered the forest sequence where Aurora sings to woodland creatures and meets The Prince. 

He was replaced by Chuck Geronimi whose bickering with Earle led to the latter leaving Disney in 1958.

Wolfgang Reitherman joined Geronimi to direct the climax where Maleficent transforms into a dragon.

The lush score derives from Tchaikovsky's ballet.

Shelf or charity shop?  A keeper... SLEEPING BEAUTY is still not everyone's favourite Disney but I have always liked it's tug-of-war between it's painterly austere backgrounds and standard Disneyisms like the cute woodland characters - I am a sucker for the squirrel and the two rabbits!  Of course I also love the pure evil of Maleficent, superbly voiced by Eleanor Audley and animated by Marc Davis.  He also animated Aurora who likewise has excellent vocal casting with 29 year-old soprano Mary Costa, the only cast member still with us at the time of writing.  All together now: "I know you / I walked with you / Once Upon A Dream..."

SLEEPING BEAUTY at Sadler's Wells - arise Sir Matthew!

The last show before Christmas was a traditional delight - a visit to Sadler's Wells to see the Xmas Matthew Bourne production and this year it was a revival of his Gothic retelling of Tchaikovsky's SLEEPING BEAUTY.

I first saw his version in 2013 but it was in the fraught, ugly surroundings of the Wimbledon Theatre with a clueless audience and even worse front-of-house management so my enjoyment was curtailed by such circumstances.  But here we are, in the familiar surroundings of row K in the Sadler's Wells stalls so let the show commence...

Bourne's take on the classic ballet is to keep it in 1890, the year of the musical's premiere.  A King and Queen have asked the dark fairy Carabosse to help them have a child - the ins and outs are not explained! - but when a daughter is born and Carabosse is kept away from the christening, she appears and casts a spell for the girl to die on her 21st birthday.  Luckily Count Lilac and his rag-tag retinue of fairies are on hand to amend it so Aurora will only sleep til woken by a kiss 100 year later.

This opening scene wins one over straight away with the appearance of a puppet baby princess who scampers around the stage much to the courtier's frustration. Flash forward to 1911 and Aurora's 21st birthday party which takes place on the palace lawn in full Edwardian dress.

She loves Leo the gamekeeper and they dance a marvellous pas de deux but a handsome, tall stranger appears to give her a rose with tainted thorns.  When Aurora succumbs to the thorns, the stranger is revealed to be Carabosse's equally nasty son Caradoc. 

But how does Bourne get around the plot flaw that if Aurora has to sleep for 100 years, what then of Leo?  But here he puts his own radical spin on the tale by having the First Act end with Count Lilac biting Leo's neck turning him into an ageless vampire - result!  Lilac swooping on Leo's neck got a big "Ooooo" from the audience and it's an excellent close to the act as the music quietly pulses away as Leo twitches in spasms.

The second act starts in 2011 as Leo enters the palace's magical moonlit gardens to awaken Aurora but he is foiled by Caradoc who awakens Aurora instead to become his prisoner bride.  Count Lilac comes to Leo's aid again to rescue Aurora from being wedded to Caradoc in the ominous black and red nightclub which is the haunt of his evil retinue.

As before there was so much to enjoy - Lez Brotherston's wonderful set and costume designs conjure up both the real and other-worldly and Paule Constable's lighting design was wonderfully atmospheric.  As usual the company were excellent and Bourne's choreography always involving and entertaining.

But.. but.. but.. there is something about it that leaves me a little unsatisfied about it.  The relationship between Aurora and Leo was excellently danced by Ashley Shaw and the always-watchable Dominic Shaw but the relationship is so thinly drawn that it is difficult to be drawn emotionally into the characters.  It just all feels so perfunctory, maybe I should have a view of the dvd to be able to give myself over to it? 

Special mentions to Christopher Marney as Count Lilac and Tom Clark as Caradoc/Carabosse who are the only other characters to feature prominently however it was nice to see familiar Bourne names in the ensemble such as Chris Trenfield and Kate Lyons.

It was great to hear the news so soon after seeing SLEEPING BEAUTY that Matthew Bourne was to be knighted in the 2016 New Years Honours.  I have been a fan of his work since 1992 and he has consistently shown to be a master storyteller through his works as well as being a great ambassador for contemporary dance and for the outreach work that New Adventures has done in the past... well done Matthew!!

Bourne's Beauty

 

Quite a few months ago I went with Owen to have my senses well and truly shaken at the latest Matthew Bourne production SLEEPING BEAUTY.

Having missed it at Sadler's Wells we caught up with it on it's subsequent tour at Wimbledon.  How good that New Adventures, after playing in a major London venue for a month and a half, still include a London date on their tour.

Despite the best efforts of the shambolic Wimbledon Theatre staff - obviously conditioned to dealing with half-empty houses for the tribute act tat that is their usual fare but go into utter meltdown when faced with a sold out show - as well as the shockingly poor audience I was in the middle of, I have retained enough of a memory of the show to blog for you, Constant Reader.

My only experience of the SLEEPING BEAUTY ballet was being taken by my school to a English National Ballet production back in the day.  Indeed my only real memory of it was the teacher's long and laborious explanation of why we had to be vigilant for the 'Rose Adagio' danced by Princess Aurora in Act 1.  In the interval she then quizzed us on it but I guess I had nodded off or was looking at something else.

2012 saw the 25th anniversary of New Adventures and with SLEEPING BEAUTY Bourne completes his Tchaikovsky trilogy after his productions of NUTCRACKER! and SWAN LAKE which have both done so much to bring ballet to a wider audience.  His version of SLEEPING BEAUTY ditches Petipa's traditional tale and gives us a darkly romantic tale of Aurora, her love for the palace gardener Leo and the other-worldly creatures who alter their destiny.

Bourne retains the basic storyline but sets the start of the story in 1890, the year that SLEEPING BEAUTY premiered.  A childless King and Queen, having sought the help of the dark fairy Carabosse to have a baby, forget to invite her to their daughter's christening.  Carabosse appears and casts the famous spell that will see the Princess Aurora die at the age of 21 by pricking her finger. 

However The Lilac Fairy and his rag-tag retinue of fairies called Feral, Tantrum etc. arrive and mollify the spell so Aurora will not die but fall asleep for 100 years.  This scene introduced us not only to Liam Mower's wonderfully characterised Lilac Fairy but to Bourne's ingenious idea of having the baby Princess represented by a puppet who garnered laughs as she scampered around the stage and even up the curtains.

 

Flash forward to 1911 and Aurora's Edwardian 21st birthday party which she steals away from to spend time with Leo the gardener who loves her.  However a tall dark stranger appears who turns out to be Caradoc, the vengeful son of the now-dead Carabosse.  He implements his mother's plan and Aurora falls into a dead sleep as does the whole court.

 

But here Bourne encountered the problem of the story's insurmountable plot flaw - if Aurora has to sleep for 100 years, what then of Leo?  Here he has introduced a great zeitgeist idea of his own and the First Act ends with The Lilac Fairy biting Leo's neck turning him into an ageless vampire.  That's got the teenage girl audience sewn up!  This act introduced us to Hannah Vassallo's spirited and delightful Aurora, Bourne regulars Dominic North as Leo and Adam Maskell as the evil Caradoc (he had also played Carabosse).

 

 

The second act takes place in 2011 as Leo enters the palace's moonlit gardens to awaken Aurora with true love's kiss but he is foiled by the nasty Caradoc again who awakens Aurora instead to become his prisoner bride.  Leo and The Lilac Fairy then have to rescue Aurora from her fate worth than death and the climactic fight to the death between Leo and Caradoc takes place in the moody surroundings of a black and red nightclub which is the haunt of the evil retinue of Caradoc. 

 

Will Leo triumph?  Well, this IS a fairy tale... and there was also a delightful surprise at the end of the production which guaranteed it a massive round of applause.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the sheer Gothic romanticism of Bourne's reimagining, his always entertaining choreography, the excellent performances of his lead dancers and tireless ensemble, and Les Brotherston's marvellous set design and costumes.  I particularly liked the punk elegance of The Lilac Fairy and his retinue with their frock coats and distressed layers of lace and silk.  He thoroughly deserved his Olivier award nomination.  Paule Constable's lighting design also contributed towards the success of the mis en scène.

 

If I did have a tiny complaint it's that not enough time is spent establishing Aurora and Leo's love story.  They had one lengthy pas de deux but that was all, it all felt a bit rushed and just assumed.  This is no reflection on the dancer's who were a delight to watch but on the sometimes thin quality of Bourne's scenarios.  Oddly enough it is usually felt most in establishing the love between his principal romantic couples.

 

This small quibble aside, I hope there will be another opportunity to see this wonderful addition to Bourne's canon of work again in the not too distant future.  I certainly wouldn't want to have to wait 100 years.