The Sleeping Beauty, The Royal Ballet 24/11/2009

Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty is a 'chocolate box ballet' not entirely dissimilar to the Nutcracker. The set and costumes are overwhelmingly sweet and fluffy, almost entirely in sugary pinks, lilacs, powder blues and whites. The dancing too is frilly, and showy, much more about technique and physical ability than drama or emotional performance.

With a prologue and three acts, Beauty is a long production, and the glue that holds all acts together is the Lilac Fairy who engineers the plot and guides the audience through the story. In the prologue, she and her fairy troupe defend the infant Princess Aurora from the wicked Carabosse and his troupe of evil rats (!). In Act I she ensures that Aurora only sleeps after pricking the fated finger, in Act II she guides Prince Florimund to his sleeping princess, and in Act III she oversees the frivolous celebrations following their marriage. Unfortunately, Laura McCulloch's Lilac Fairy felt tired and heavy throughout. She was outshone by a spritely Akane Takada (Fairy of the Enchanted Garden) and the regal and refined Laura Morera (Fairy of the Golden Vine). In fairness the choreography for the Lilac Fairy's prologue solo is cumbersome in places, and particularly for a tall dancer like McCulloch, doesn't exactly lend itself to a graceful and spritely performance.

Lilac Fairy aside, things picked up dramatically in Act I with appearance of the wonderful Marianela Nunez. Flashing, exuberant, she woke the audience up with probably the best Rose Adagio I have seen yet. I find watching Nunez so easy - I never feel like I need to worry about her falling off balance, or missing a turn, which meant that although I was still on the edge of my seat during the series of nail-biting balances, I could actually really enjoy them for a change. She is perfectly suited to flashy technical roles such as this and was a real joy to watch.Sadly, Thiago Soares's standards were not quite up to the same dizzy heights. He danced reasonably enough but seemed oddly unsteady on his feet.

In Act II, the dream sequence engineered by the Lilac Fairy to introduce Florimund to the sleeping Aurora has strong echoes of Swan Lake, and is probably the better for it - it is the first proper departure from twee glitzy fairytale into the more ethereal world of ballet magic. However, this Act ends in a hurry, with no real sense that the Prince has battled with or done anything to deserve his Princess prize. He is merely guided through some drapes by the Lilac Fairy, finds the sleeping beauty, kisses her, pops the question and then the curtains fall. I can't help but feel that this section needs reworking - he needs some torturing, some challenges en route, rather than being sheepishly led past Carabosse by the Lilac Fairy.

Following on from Act II comes the ridiculous Act III; a series of dances completely unrelated to the story of Sleeping Beauty - indeed Aurora and Florimund have to come and stand at the back of the stage for a minute or so purely to remind you they still exist. I enjoy some of the dances in this Act, but I feel like they should be in a separate ballet, or else somehow merged with the Prologue or tagged onto Act II. Red-riding hood (pictured) and Puss-in-boots could easily be pruned, but Laura Morera and Kenta Kura were fantastic as Princess Florine and the Bluebird, and Sergei Polunin, Akane Takada and Yuhui Choe were also eye-catching as Florestan and his sisters (even if Choe lacked a bit of her usual energy), and it would be a shame to lose these dances.

Sleeping Beauty is at it's exuberant best when Princess Aurora is on stage; the rest is padding..and there's rather too much of it. Acts I and II are the definite highlights, but the prologue and Act III could do with some reworking. However, as a very traditional Petipa ballet that is unlikely to happen. It could be made less of a twee chocolate box ballet with some production changes - would it not feel more magical if the fairies were more earthy and ethereal (perhaps more like something out of a Midsummer Night's Dream?) rather than in pastel tutus? And Carabosse would feel far more malevolent without rodents for minions! Go, enjoy the spectacle, and the technical flashiness, but don't expect to be swept off your feet by the story.

Agon/Sphinx/Limen, The Royal Ballet, 8/11/09 & 18/11/09

I never quite know how I feel about the Royal Ballet's triple bills. They are often rather hit and miss, and generally it's the sandwich filling that disappoints, and Agon/Sphinx/Limen was no exception to this trend.  

Agon is a classic George Balanchine work - a series of dances definitely best viewed from a face-on seat as it depends heavily on symmetry, the steps themselves being sometimes rather jerky and angular. Balanchine's ballets are always staged simplistically, perhaps none more so than Agon - all dancers are in the standard black and white leotard and tights/leggings combination. With such simplicity it is essential that the dancing keeps you interested and is as neat and tidy as the costumes, which was in general managed quite well, although better on the 18th than the 8th November. Yuhui Choe drew everyone's attention in her pas de trois - lovely arms - followed by some good jumps from Brian Maloney. Then the pas de deux. It irritates me that a series of dances which is generally symmetrical doesn't sandwich the main pas de deux in the middle of the two pas de trois, but then I suppose it is the climax of the whole work. Originally choreographed with a black male dancer, it was great to see Eric Underwood dancing. As the most senior of less than a handful of black dancers in the company at present, he is somewhat in demand!He and Nathalie Harrison pulled off an exuberant performance with some nice lines, although Underwood has long arms and large hands, which he could be more careful with - they have a tendency to flap at times! All in all, Agon was clean and refreshing, and a good opener for the triple bill. 

Sphinx, the sandwich filling, was a new work for the Royal Opera House, with exhausting choreography from Glen Tetley. It is based around the story of a sphinx (Marianela Nunez, pictured) who wishes to fall in love with a human, and so adopts the guise of a woman in order to tempt Oedipus (yes that Oedipus - Rupert Pennefather, pictured). Anubis (Edward Watson) - the god of the dead - warns her of the consequences of her actions before we watch them unfold - that she will lose both Oedipus and her human form forever. I was expecting an emotionally tense and sensual ballet, but was disappointed. The ballet is spoilt by the music (Bohuslav Martinu) which grates on the ears, and seldom seems to relate to what is happening on-stage. The cast danced well, Edward Watson particularly, although Pennefather didn't seem entirely comfortable with some of the trickier lifts. However, the choreography is emotionally lacking, often repetitive, pitched at the same intensity throughout and completely failed to carry the story, with no real sense of relationship built between the sphinx and Oedipus. If I hadn't bought a program I would have been entirely bemused. I was left underwhelmed.

Next on the bill, Wayne MgGregor's new work was never going to be without a good set and lighting, and Limen did not disappoint although I could have done without the ghastly blue lights at the end. Limen was a work of two halves; one of colour, and one of flesh-colour leotarded nudity. While I enjoyed both, the unifying concept passed me by, unless it was something as boring as fading colour? McGregor's ballets are always interesting to watch, because the stage is so busy and full of motion. But having seen a few McGregor works now, I get a bit bored of watching pairs of dancers scattered across the stage contorting repetitively around each other. Call me a traditionalist but I'd like to see a bit more movement in his works! He was blessed with a very strong cast consisting in the most part of principals and first soloists, and it was a very tight performance both nights I saw it. Stephen Macrae brought his usual zest and energy (although I still hold he dances much better alone than with a partner), and Leanne Benjamin gave a strong opening. Eric Underwood and Sarah Lamb's pas de deux is definitely the highlight of the work, although I wonder how effective this duet would be if they had to revive it without a black male and ghostly white and blonde female principal in the future.

An enjoyable triple bill, but nothing that exciting.

Mayerling, The Royal Ballet, 27/10/2009 & 02/11/2009

This was my second shot at Mayerling. I'd almost completely forgotten the story, perhaps understandably, given this ballet probably has more female principal roles than most other full-length ballets collectively! I was fortunate enough to see two different casts dancing, and the two performances could not have been more different.

The first cast was relatively inexperienced (Rupert Pennefather as Prince Rudolph (pictured), Melissa Hamilton as Mary Vetsera (pictured) and Marianela Nunez as Countess Larisch), while the second sported near-celebrity Carlos Acosta, with Tamara Rojo as Mary Vetsera. Mayerling is definitely a ballet that centres around the rather macabre character of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary. The identities of the various female roles that orbit around him are almost irrelevant (which is good if you're watching from the back of the amphitheatre) - the story is an inevitable spiral towards its chilling finish. He is a destructive and violent character, obsessed with death.

Rupert Pennefather and Carlos Acosta acted the part almost entirely differently. Acosta's Rudolph was an aggressive brute through and through - there was no question who was in charge in his more violent pas de deux with his new wife (Iohna Loots). And yet, somehow there was a lack of emotional complexity beyond this brutishness in his performance (something I often find with Acosta, although many disagree with me here!). Technically, however he was fantastic. It never ceases to amaze me how a man as large as him can land so softly from leaps! Rupert Pennefather played a more emotionally tortured almost passive aggressive Rudolph. Although at times while watching you felt that he needed to be more assertive and controlling with his dancing and general attitude to others on stage during the connecting scenes, I found his performance far more unnerving than Acosta's. He brought a sense of unhinged confusion and obsession to the role of Rudolph, which would have been lost in a more forceful interpretation of the role. Pennefather's performance was aided by that of Melissa Hamilton (Mary Vetsera), who brought a very believable adventurous foolishness and sexuality to her portrayal of this misled seventeen year old. If I hadn't known beforehand, I would never have realised she was ranked several tiers lower in the hierarchy than co-female lead Marianela Nunez. Tamara Rojo, although a sensational dancer (and she and Acosta really do dance so well together) didn't quite bring the same naive realness to her interpretation of the role.

All in all both casts were very strong, with other noteworthy performances from Laura Morera as Mitzi Caspar (Rudolph's mistress), and Elizabeth Harrod as Princess Stephanie (Rudolph's Wife). Unsurprisingly (the man's a genius!)Kenneth MacMillan's choreography is utterly captivating, even if I do find Mayerling a strange ballet to watch; while I can easily decipher the emotions being danced on stage, but it is difficult to get sucked in completely and engage yourself in the characters' relationships...mostly because they are all slightly twisted! The last scene sent shivers down my spine at both performances. Excellent eeriness through and through.