SWAN LAKE
Birmingham
Royal Ballet at Birmingham Hippodrome *****
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s revival of Sir Peter Wright’s
timeless production and choreography of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, together with
the ballerina Galina Samsova, to whose recent memory this season is dedicated,
comes up fresh and sparkling. Philip Prowse’s designs are breathtaking, not
least the set for Act III’s ballroom (reminding me of nothing so much of the
Hall of the Grail in Wagner’s Parsifal – more of that composer below), and the
costumes are stunning, worn and danced in with style and aplomb.
Heading the cast on this opening night were Miki Mizutani,
graceful, elegant and vulnerable as
white swan Odette, proud, haughty and mesmeric as black swan Odile (that
amazing sequence of multiple spins). Her partner was Cesar Morales, his
Siegfried conveying melancholy throughout, his liftings of Mizutani lofting her
to the heavens, where they are finally seen as translated spirits much like
Senta and the Flying Dutchman in Wagner’s opera.
Haoliang Feng conveyed both concern and capability as Siegfried’s
friend Benno, and Jonathan Payn was a commanding, sinister Rothbart. His
eventual unmasking after Siegfried defeats him and redeems Odette was
brilliant.
More than I have ever noticed was the success of gesture and
body-language in the unfolding of this tale of the supernatural. Every
motivation, every response was so clear in this narration.
Chorus work was remarkable, but paradoxically it was the
disciplined stillness of the swans in Act II as the cygnets cheekily showed off
that sticks most in the memory.
After a slightly thin beginning, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia
bloomed magnificently, with wonderful violin and cello solos, a glittering
display from the piccolo, and warm, secure, fanfaring brass. Conductor Paul
Ellis’s clear beat was directed as much to the dancers as to his musicians.
Yet there were factions in the audience whose chatter was
more important to them than the music emerging from the pit. The curtains had
yet to open, after all, so there was nothing to bother about. As I have written
before, we are going down the Strictly route, when we can’t wait to whoop.