ENB Sleeping Beauty

[aileen]

I can't believe that I'm saying this, having previously said that I wasn't that keen on Sleeping Beauty as a ballet, but I actually ended up seeing five performances with five different casts (although Esteban was in two of them). I absolutely loved this production, far more than a previous (different) production which I had seen. I have "reported" on Begona's and Ksenia's performances already. I also saw Erina's, Elena's and, last night, Tamara's. They were all excellent. I really feel that Erina is rather overlooked. She has wonderful technique (probably best Rose Adagio) and looked the part. Elena was, as spannerandpony said earlier, radiant and did a lot of acting. As someone who has never been a particular fan of Tamara, I have to say that I really enjoyed her performance last night. She did "show off" a bit but I personally didn't mind and nor did most of the audience who applauded really loudly after her Rose Adagio. She was the star on the stage which is probably why some people thought that she wasn't very convincing in the role. She seemed quite relaxed and she and Vadim looked comfortable with each other. As for Vadim, well he is elegance personified. Others, eg Yonah Aconah, can jump and turn really well but where Vadim (who can also jump and turn really well) distinguishes himself is in the slower dancing. He was the only one who danced the first slightly odd solo for Prince Desire really convincingly. I think that he is developing his acting as well. There was some good interaction between him and the Countess (a possible fiance, rather than a sister, I hope, Janet!). He really is an exceptional dancer.

 

There were many very good individual performances in this production, too many to mention, as well as some lovely groups. Yonah and Shiori were excellent as The Bluebird and Princess Floriane. In fact, Shiori was unbelievably good in everything she did. She has marvellous technique and is confident and poised on the stage. I'm really surprised that the RB didn't take her on. I suppose that other dancers just seemed better at the time. I really enjoy watching her in everythong she dances.

 

[capybara]

We also found ourselves attending 5 performances with different casts. We thought that Vadim Muntagirov (as the Prince), Erina Takahashi, Elena Glurjidze and Ksenia Ovsyanick (as Aurora), Daria Klimentova and Laurretta Summerscales (as the Lilac Fairy), James Streeter (as Carabosse), Shiori Kase (as Princess Florine) and the ENB Corps were absolutely outstanding. Those of you who did not get the the Coli missed a real treat in terms of performances and the production.

[alison]

Worth pointing out, then, that it tours to Oxford and Southampton next month.

[alison]

Just had an email through from ATG Theatres offering £5 off the top two prices for Wednesday and Thursday evening, 20th and 21st February (which is the same as the ATG Theatrecard discount) for Oxford.  Code is "DAN".

[alison]

BTW, can anyone remember what the running time for this was?  My last cast sheet said "approximately 3 hours", but I thought it was actually a bit shorter than that.

[capybara]

Sometimes it seemed to be around 2 hours and 50 minutes but, on other occasions, it ran very near to the 3 hours.

[Irmgard]

 

This review has turned out to be much longer than intended but I hope it makes up for all the ones I didn’t get round to writing over the
Christmas period!

 

Curious to see how this production of “The Sleeping Beauty”translates to a smaller stage, I travelled to Oxford yesterday for the Saturday
matinee and was rewarded by another sparkling performance which played to a packed and enthusiastic house. I much prefer the more sumptuous designs for the Nureyev production in 1975 (also by Georgiadis) but the opulence of the performance more than made up for any lack of this in the costumes.  As always with ENB, the matinee was strongly cast, beginning with the fairies, their cavaliers and attendants (who get the prettiest tutus) in the Prologue. Outstanding was Crystal Costa in the second variation.  She looks so at home running and hopping on pointe that one might think she was born in pointe shoes.  Jenna Lee shone with her explosive series of Russian pas de chats in the fifth variation. Crystal Costa also  delighted in the sunny Bluebird pas de deux partnered by the supremely elegant Nathan Young.  My only wish would have been for the final diagonal to be taken at a much brisker pace.  In fact, this production does seem to suffer from some unreasonably slow tempi and, having watched several performances with
different conductors, it is obviously a quirk of the production rather than the choice of the person wielding the baton. Going back to the Prologue, this was very noticeable in the third fairy variation.  The original name for this was “miettes qui tombent” or “breadcrumbs” but these breadcrumbs were obviously
falling in extremely slow motion, so much so that the poor horns had great difficulty sustaining their long notes which underpin the string pizzicato.  However, Anaïs Chalendard coped beautifully and managed to fill every stretched out phrase.  The Entrée of the jewels divertissement also suffered from a very slow tempo.  Zhanat Atymtayev, dancing the Gold variation, which is contained within the Entrée in this production, could certainly have managed a faster tempo for his manège. The other divertissements in Act III featured an adorable Anjuli Hudson as the White Cat.  She made this role her own
during the Coliseum season when injury and illness amongst her colleagues meant she danced almost every performance and with a variety of partners as Puss-in-Boots.  Her partner this time was Van Le Ngoc who matched her feline movements very well.  Shevelle Dynott obviously enjoyed his
appearance as the Wolf with a very sweet Red Riding Hood from Jennie Harrington. The spirited Mazurka before the Apotheosis was led with great élan by the uncredited Amber Hunt and James Streeter.  I feel a special mention must be given to the Queen Mum of Tamarin Stott.  She has proved she can dance up a storm as the Chosen One in “Rite of Spring” but she is equally at home in the character roles and made this sometimes perfunctory role into a real person, a doting mother but never less than regal and with beautifully clear mime. And she carried off the changing fashions of each Act with great panache.
 

And so to the principals. The Lilac Fairy was danced by Ksenia Ovsyanick, whose London debut as Aurora I was privileged to see in January. She danced with great style and made the variation look effortless but I would like to see a bit more authority in her persona, especially in the mime, to make her more than a match for Carabosse.  Fabian Reimair was her Carabosse and he brought a surprisingly effective dignity to the part so that, when “she” took out her anger on Catalabutte, it was all the more alarming. The stand-off between Carabosse and the Lilac Fairy during the Awakening scene was all the more dramatic for not resorting to pantomime gestures.  And watching Carabosse’s power ebb away so realistically, I missed the moment of
the kiss!  Dmitri Gruzdyev was the Prince and proved yet again what a superb partner he is.  He is rather aloof in Act II and is not really at home in the fussy interpolated solo but in Act III he provided all the fireworks necessary to bring the house down.  His Aurora was Fernanda Oliveira whose
performance can be best summed up as radiant, from her first entrance through to the final pas de deux.  She is possessed of possibly the most beautiful feet in the company and uses these to perfection.  One does not always equate strength with such an amazing, bulging instep and yet she luxuriated in
leisurely balances in the Rose Adagio, with a smile for each of her suitors (here played as handsome and elegant princes, any one of them a suitable match for her).  The effect was so magical that the audience burst into spontaneous applause before the final pose.  In Act II, she uses her pretty feet and legsto great advantage in the series of enveloppées in the Ashton solo to which she gives a very soulful interpretation. However, what makes her Aurora so special is her ability to imbue this somewhat two-dimensional character with real emotion, interacting with theother characters, involving her Friends in the festivities in Act I and, instead of just grabbing the spindle from the old woman and dashing off todance with it, she acknowledges her and seems to invite her to join the party with a dazzling smile.  This was a performance that left the audience, including many young children, spellbound.

 

The company has a final week of performances in Southampton starting on 26 February and it is well worth a visit to see the wealth of
talent on display. The running time is given as three hours but can be a bit less, depending on getting everyone back to their seats from the two intervals!

 

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks for this wonderfully evocative review Irmgard. I wish I could get to Southampton to see it again.

[alison]

Yes, thanks for this, Irmgard.  I'd hoped to catch the Thursday matinee of this, but didn't think I'd make it back to London in time for the Boss Lady's show in the evening (apparently, I could have), so went for the first night instead, only to get caught out by late-night engineering works and to have to miss the last act anyway .  You mentioned the mime: I don't know whether it was just because I was watching the Royal Ballet's Tchaikovsky masterclasses from a few years back only a few days previously, but I did notice that some of the dancers didn't yet have quite the depth of clarity in the mime that I'm used to seeing from the Royal.  Still, it was a good performance - what I saw of it, anyway - and it looked handsome on Oxford's stage.

 

Wondering whether I can make it down to Southampton for a matinee next week, but I suspect work will get in the way.