In fairness, I was always going to be disappointed, for two main reasons: firstly, the last Swan Lake I saw, in October 2008 (Nunez and Soares) was utterly sublime - I was completely enchanted by the end; and secondly, Carlos Acosta was dancing Siegfried, and the undeservedly exuberant response he always gets from the crowd is quite frankly irritating.
The production is a seasoned one, so I won't dwell too much here - I don't think there are too many faults, given that when danced well this Swan Lake is magical. The problem on this occasion was scrappiness. In the first act, timing was an issue both on and under the stage; not the finest night in the pit, and made more conspicuous by the fame of the music. The Pas de Trois struggled, and while Laura Morera strived valiantly even she seemed to lack some of her usual spriteliness. Acosta was his usual smug self, although I should at least credit him with being the best thing on the stage by a country mile in this act. Fortunately, things picked up markedly in Act two, with the advent of Tamara Rojo. Some stunning balances, and really lovely lines. The corps responded and were much more together, and the pas de deux was quite spell-binding - a hint of enchantment here perhaps.
In Act Three, the national dances were done reasonably well, but again were a bit scrappy. A highlight was the neopolitan dance (Yuhui Choe and Ludovic Ondivela), which never fails to get the audience laughing. The transition between white and black swan is challenging, particularly given Tchaikovsky gives very little musical assistance, and Rojo failed to convince me as Odile, and really came across as Odette in a black tutu. Her dancing was impeccable however, showing up Acosta by quite some margin (as the man next to me on my way out put it: 'she was excellent, but he was distinctly average...[and] he needs to pull his socks up"). The dancing in the final act was fine, again the corps much better as swans (although as the attendants, Laura McCulloch's grand jetes looked clumsy next to Natalie Harrison's much more graceful movement). However, with the lack of preparation in the previous acts for the frenzied emotions, the music overpowered the dancing, and there was very little sense of the chilling magic that should be evident by this point.
An average performance of what can be an amazing ballet. Perhaps I'm turning into a grumpy old woman though, as the rapturous applause from the audience suggested that they enjoyed themselves well enough. Tamara Rojo carried this one on her own as far as I'm concerned, but let's hope the rest of the company improve for the rest of the run.
