Matthew Bourne/New Adventures - Swan Lake 2013/2014

[alison]

I think most, if not all, of the London seasons did.  Trouble is, I've seen it so many times outside London that I may be getting confused.

[LinMM]

Another ballet I STILL haven't seen I'm going to see if I can book while still at Sadlers but haven't checked the run there yet!

 

Mostly inspired and I hope she won't mind me saying by meeting nottsballetlover at R and J on sat night at ROH and was enthusing about this Bourne swan lake too she was going to see next day! It's time I went definitely!!

Edited December 9, 2013 by LinMM

[nottsballetlover]

The 8 week run of Swan Lake at Sadlers ends today. I was really lucky and got a front row stalls for the matinee yesterday (a return I assume, as it was totally sold out). 3rd performance so far for me in this run and the best so far - just keeps getting better and better. The whole cast is now dancing so harmoniously (including the harmonious hissing!) with fabulous precision and interaction. The supporting roles of Queen, Girlfriend and Secretary are brilliantly performed.

 

Yesterday afternoon, it was Jonathan Ollivier and Sam Archer as Swan/Prince respectively. Lucky lucky me. What a fabulous partnership. So emotional to watch. I actually started crying in the opening 2 minutes......Sam Archer played the Prince in such a complex way that he shows a huge spectrum of emotions and you are watching this character just fall apart and be tortured into both love and insanity by The Swan and the Stranger. It was heartbreaking to watch. Ollivier meanwhile was incredible and indescribably superb - so swanlike as The Swan and so devastatingly sensual and mean as The Stranger.

 

Next show - Nottingham in March!! Unless I magic more tickets.....

[Ian Macmillan]

I've known this production from DVD for some time but, at long last, I caught my first live performance last night.  Most impressive - cleverly staged, strongly danced and, whilst I cannot speak for what happened upstairs, with a Stalls-wide standing ovation at the end.  I'd wondered beforehand whether the cast might be showing signs of weariness after a long run, but not a bit of it, and I can happily endorse Nicola's remarks, above, as applying equally to the evening cast - Chris Trenfield (Swan/Stranger), Liam Mower (Prince), Saranne Curtin (Queen), Kerry Biggin (Girlfriend), Jack Jones (Private Secretary). 

 

As a footnote, I found that the orchestra, with a much-reduced weight of strings than used in larger houses, allowed woodwind and brass to be more prominent. It made the big Swan themes interestingly different.

[Fonty]

I went to see this again a couple of weeks ago.  Sadly, we didn't get a cast list in our programme, so I am not sure who we were watching.  But it was absolutely brilliant.  We sat right up in the gods, as they were the only tickets we could get, and the swans were superb.  And I had forgotten how good the Cygnets' dance was! The music was certainly played at a faster pace than the last time I saw it at the ROH, which added to the drama. And I just lusted after that red dress worn by the Queen. 

 

I felt quite wobbly of chin at the end, it was so moving. Now, when is it coming round again?

[alison]

They never do supply cast lists: the casting is displayed down in the box office (although personally I don't see why they couldn't post an A4 sheet of it by the doors on each level - they do for other productions sometimes).

 

Wimbledon New Theatre in April, if you're London-based?

[Fonty]

They never do supply cast lists: the casting is displayed down in the box office (although personally I don't see why they couldn't post an A4 sheet of it by the doors on each level - they do for other productions sometimes).

 

Wimbledon New Theatre in April, if you're London-based?

 

 

Yes, I don't know why they don't do that, either.  Seems a bit mean, both for the audience and for the performers.  I forgot to check when I came in, and at the end all I want to do is get public transport home. 

 

Yes, I am London based, but not sure I want to see it again that soon! 

[Terpsichore]

Last night I saw Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at the Bradford Alhambra. It was great entertainment: gripping drama, humour, spectacular choreography and powerful dancing. It is easy to see why this production won so many awards and ran and ran on Broadway and in the West End. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

When I reviewed Bourne's Sleeping Beauty on 6 April 2013 I asked "Why can't I be nicer to Matthew Bourne?" Well, this time I think I can. That does not mean to say that I don't have reservations about his work.  As I said last year: 

 

"I have mixed feelings about Matthew Bourne. He has won so many awards. His ballets are dramatic. His choreography spectacular. I have seen Cinderella and Nutcracker as well as Sleeping Beauty. Two of those performances were at the Alhambra and the third was at the Wells. On each occasion the crowd went wild. And the crowd is part of the ballet. And yet...... The trouble is that one can sometimes be too clever by half and Matthew Bourne is very, very clever. He knows how to raise a laugh from the audience with the puppet baby Aurora. And then to make them shiver as she climbs the curtain. Brilliant! But is it ballet?"

 

Bourne's Swan Lake was even less like conventional ballet than his Sleeping Beauty with no tutus (except in a spoof romantic ballet with monsters and an axe-wielding maiden), hardly any (if any) dancing on pointe and no great ballerina roles but if ballet can be defined as dance drama there was plenty of that.

For those who have not yet seen the work there is a good synopsis in Wikipedia.  The fairy tale about a handsome prince falling in love with a princess under the spell of a wicked magician is jettisoned.  In its place is inserted a study of an insecure and unstable individual who is heir to his country's throne but cannot quite live up to the responsibilities for which he is being groomed. He is briefly distracted by a brassy, flashy blonde who makes a thorough nuisance of herself in the royal box during the performance of the absurd ballet and later snubs him when he shows up in his underwear in the Swank (Swan + K get it?) bar. His mother, the queen, (a Volumnia type who places public duty before everything including her son) denies him any signs of affection.  Haunted by nightmares of menacing swans who first show him love and then molest him he eventually flips.  He produces a pistol, shoots at everybody in sight, is committed to a secure hospital where he receives something like convulsive electric shock treatment and after more nightmare images of molesting swans he eventually dies. With its corgi on wheels it was the best propaganda for republicanism since the days of Cromwell. It is perhaps no coincidence that the ballet was first staged in 1995 just a few years after so called annus horibilis.

According to a notice board in the foyer of the theatre, the prince was danced by Liam Bower, the swan by Chris Trenfield, the queen by Saranne Curtin and the brassy flashy blonde by Anjali Mehra. I am not sure how accurate that was because the photos in the programme seem a little different from the faces I saw on stage (albeit from a distance and some height) and there was no cast list but whoever danced those roles last night did an excellent job. Growing up as I did in Molesey by the Thames I have no illusions about swans. Nasty hissing brutes that chased small dogs and indeed small boys they had far more in common with Matthew Bourne's boys in feathery breeches than with the sweet teenage girls of Ballet West last Saturday  or even Wayne Sleep's in his Big Ballet.

There were two other stars of this ballet, Lez Brotherston who designed the sets and costumed. I was amazed how he transformed the prince's bed into a balcony from where the prince and queen acknowledged the cheers of the adoring crowds. Gently teasing the Bradford audience he dressed the brassy, flashy blonde in a pink dress that was very similar to several outfits that I spotted in the theatre bar. Clearly the blonde was cast as a "Brat-ford" lass. It is no wonder that she raised a massive cheer when she took her bow. The other star creative was Rick Fisher who arranged the lighting. The enormous shadows of the clinicians in the hospital and the swans in the last two scenes were striking and frightening.

There was so much in this ballet that I liked - the way Bourne reworked some of the familiar old tunes like the music to the 32 fouettés and the divertissements, the kiss that the prince gave to a bag lady who had come to feed the swans as the curtain fell on Act II - I am so glad I can be nicer to Matthew Bourne. He deserves some praise. 

[alison]

The casting information is usually accurate, Terpsichore - unless possibly there'd been a matinee before the performance you'd seen and it was still the casting for that.

[Terpsichore]

You are probably right because Chris Trenfeld retweeted one of my tweets that contained a link to the article.

 

Just before Christmas the Theatre Royal Glasgow distributed the wrong cast list for Hansel and Gretel to everybody. I pointed out the error to the front of house manager and he emailed me the correct cast list a few days later.

 

The Theatre Royal Glasgow (which is managed by the same company that manages the Palace in Manchester)  charged me what Ferrovie dello Stato call a supplementario that was a hefty proportion of the ticket price for the privilege of booking on-line and paying by debit card.

[Kitschqueen_1]

I don't think any of Matthew Bourne's work could be accurately described as "ballet" . He reworks the classics in his own creative style and is quoted in the programme for Swan Lake as saying " it's sometimes called a ballet, which worries me, as there is not a pointe shoe in sight (apart from in the little spoof 'ballet' in Act One). I would say it is more aptly described as contemporary dance/theatre".

 

I for one am beyond excited to be seeing this again in Bradford on Saturday and am praying to the gods of dance that Jon Ollivier will be dancing lead swan/stranger! :-D

[Bruce]

I don't think any of Matthew Bourne's work could be accurately described as "ballet".

Yes - not ballet trained but Laban trained. Agree that "contemporary dance/theatre" is more correct. Some have referred to his full evening story works as dancical's and I think there is a lot in that.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Bruce

[alison]

I for one am beyond excited to be seeing this again in Bradford on Saturday and am praying to the gods of dance that Jon Ollivier will be dancing lead swan/stranger! :-D

And I'm praying that he'll be dancing the performance I've booked for in Wimbledon!

[Kitschqueen_1]

Well sadly no Jon Ollivier for me in Bradford last night but Glenn Graham was a revelation as the lead swan/stranger.

I have seen him dance many times with Phoenix Dance Theatre, his movement and characterisation were superb and for me demonstrated what a versatile dancer he is.

Liam Mower was the Prince....wow, Billy Elliot has grown up!!

Goes without saying that the Swans continue to be amazing.

Another full house, another standing ovation!

[alison]

Well sadly no Jon Ollivier for me in Bradford last night but Glenn Graham was a revelation as the lead swan/stranger.

 

He's a new one on me?

[Jan McNulty]

We saw him at The Lowry where he made what I believe was his debut.  He was fabulous!

[nottsballetlover]

Another great performance tonight in my home town. Chris Trenfield and Liam Mower playing Swan/Stranger and Prince: both superb.

 

The company have been touring the show for several months now and you would think they would be tired but no; the whole cast were as fresh, vibrant and utterly sensational as ever. 

 

Interesting news from the Nottingham theatre foyer today. They were advertising Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands - apparently coming to Nottingham in January 2015, tickets on sale this Friday. I cannot put this on the news section as I can find no press release on the New Adventures website. It indicates that they will be touring this as a revival production next season?? For me, this is fantastic news.  Swan Lake is my Bourne tops of course but if I had to chose a next best, it would be Edward Scissorhands. I saw it when it first toured a few years ago and absolutely loved it. So I'm very very excited it will be back! 

[Ja Sm]

I am going to see this in May with my two daughters. It's months and months since we booked the tickets, and it seemed ages off at the time. Reading this thread, I am getting well and truly excited! We loved both Nutcracker andSleeping Beauty.

[alison]

Expecting to get Jonathon Ollivier tonight as the Swan (and presumably Simon Williams as the Prince) in Wimbledon, since Chris Trenfield and Liam Mower did both last night and the matinee today.  Fingers crossed, and I'll report back later.

 

(Tickets were still available when I looked yesterday)

[Euan]

Is Bournes Swan Lake still the same story in effect? I had trouble getting my head round the story but still loved it. He said that his one is part based on Darrell's version where the prince died at the end. To be honest I get the stories more of his other productions but my view is you cannot go wrong with him and I love all he does.

 

The Romantic pas de deux in the Carman I loved. Sad how the bullied guy turned into a bully? Correct me if wrong?

[Terpsichore]

Is Bournes Swan Lake still the same story in effect? I had trouble getting my head round the story but still loved it. He said that his one is part based on Darrell's version where the prince died at the end. To be honest I get the stories more of his other productions but my view is you cannot go wrong with him and I love all he does.

 

........................................................

 

There are certainly parallels and analogies but Bourne's work is a departure from Petipa and Ivanov's.

 

I also admire Bourne's work though I prefer some productions to others.  I like his Cinderella best and his Sleeping Beauty least. I think I was irritated by the baby on strings climbing up the drapery and I was disappointed by the reworking of Aurora's wedding, particularly the absence of the cats which is a wonderful piece of choreography in the Ashton and Wright versions. But in the same show I saw Christopher Marney dance Count Lilac magnificently and that saved the evening for me.

 

I look forward to seeing Lord of the Flies when it comes to Bradford later in the year.

[BristolBillyBob]

I went to see this at the Bristol Hippodrome this afternoon.

 

I've written a review, but I'm going to save it on Notepad and let it simmer in my mind before I consider posting it up here. I'm going to read through the programme a bit more and let my brain absorb the show a little longer. I should probably go and see it again or something. Maybe draw up a list, with "things I liked" in one column, and "things I didn't like" in the other. Maybe then give each thing a score and work out some kind of weighted average? Because, and I'm disappointed to be saying this, I didn't really like it. 

 

I do reserve the right to change my mind, though. I'm sure I must be missing something.

[Ian Macmillan]

B3:  It's entirely in order not to like things on here and, personally, I'd much rather see objections than silence.  The Bourne Swan Lake is very different indeed from the 'traditional' version and, one day, you may find that you are ready for it.  That's not to say that your views now are in any way inferior to those of others - it's all a matter of how you see things, and there's certainly no need to think that you 'must be missing something.'

[proudmum]

I went to see Swan Lake last night in Bristol - I am certainly not as knowledgeable as many people on the forum but wow, did we enjoy it! Im pretty certain I sat with my mouth open for most of the performance (not a good look) - everytime I thought it couldnt get any better - it did! The Swan (I think it was Chris Trenfield but didnt see the cast list) was so powerful and just amazing, as was Simon Williams and all the Swans. Definately thought provoking.

[Ja Sm]

We'll, having had the tickets for what must be months and months, we at last went to see this production yesterday. And it was so worth the wait. To be honest, we were all a little disappointed with the first half, feeling it took a bit of time to warm up. With the exception of the amazing dance and chemistry between the prince and the queen, we felt we were missing the dancing that we were expecting. It just looked a bit static. Our last Matthew Bourne production was Sleeping Beauty, and at this point Swan Lake was lacking the beautiful original choreography that we were hoping for. But then the swans appeared in the park scene. I have to admit that for us, they absolutely stole the show! The second half blew us away. The dancing was so breath taking with its powerful sensuality, so frightening and threatening too, I think I went through a whole range of emotions that would take far too long for me to express in just one post. I am not very good at identifying faces from the programme but, looking at John Ross' wonderful photos on this thread I think the swan/stranger was Jonathan Ollivier. He had the most amazing presence and played the two roles with such emotion and strength. The prince was a perfect partner and their duet was a thing of beauty which brought tears to my eyes. Thumbs up from us too for the very clever set- loved the bit with the swans coming out from under the bed-and the fantastic lighting- the shadows mentioned in an earlier post added to the threatening and somewhat scaring atmosphere. All round an amazing theatrical experience. I wondered to myself this morning if I will ever again see dancing that so moved me in ways so unexpected and powerful.....

We are indeed privileged to have people with the creativity and talent to expand the boundaries of dance. But I do hope too that the beautiful classical ballet with pointe and tutus will never leave us.

Our next ballet, is ENB Coppelia in November. Another great I am sure.

[Amelia]

New Adventures' Swan Lake will have an excellent addition to the cast in Tokio - Marcelo Gomes will make his debut as Swan/Stranger. I wish I could be there:

 

http://new-adventures.net/swan-lake/news/marcelo-gomes

[lyn]

This finally made it's way all the way to Singapore..! The audience here absolutely loved it. Jonathan Ollivier is such a wonderful dance actor. Here's a full review if anyone's keen! http://fot4w.blogspot.sg/2014/10/matthew-bournes-swan-lake-esplanade-11.html 

[Jan McNulty]

Thanks Lyn.  It has always made sense to me that the swans are danced by men as, to me, they are such masculine birds.  I had a "swan incident" in the early 1980s that coloured my view of them and I love the way the swan movements are so realistic in this piece.