Ratmansky's revision of Sleeping Beauty for ABT

[alison]

I've just been reading Alastair Macaulay's review of ABT's "new" Sleeping Beauty as revised/restored by Ratmansky: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/arts/dance/review-ratmanskys-the-sleeping-beauty-has-premiere-in-california.html?ref=dance&_r=1

He sounds pretty taken with it.

 

Would love to read feedback from anyone who's been to see it.

[stucha]

Here are some more reviews with photos.  I hope to see it in Milan later in the year.

 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/beauty-653012-production-ratmansky.html

 

http://www.criticaldance.org/2015/03/07/ballet-reawakened-abts-new-sleeping-beauty/

[jm365]

My goodness!  A review that makes you long to see the production.  I assume there's no chance anyone will bring it to London?

[alison]

Several reviews, in fact  Thank you, stucha - I knew I'd seen some more reviews somewhere.

 

I'd love it if ABT brought this to the UK.

[Melody]

Thank goodness someone is finally taking the classics in a different direction from the apparently inexorable march toward gymnastic displays.

[Bruce Wall]

Just want to say that IF or SHOULD Ratmansky's production of SLEEPING BEAUTY come to London it will, I think, travel under the auspices of the ballet company of La Scala and not ABT.  This is a co-production between those two entities and I would assume that for their share of the initial investment that La Scala would hold the European rights.  For this reason it is the National Ballet of Canada who has taken/will take Christopher Wheeldon's Alice and Winter's Tale to Washington, NYC and LA - given that - again as their part of their co-production bargain with the RB - they hold the North American rights to both.  I would assume that the RB could take both of the Wheeldon works to Paris, say, or Tokyo as that would be in their remit.

 

Now what would happen to future entities I wonder should the UK leave the EU?  The legalities of those listed above will, of course, already be subscribed ... but the future may well fashion a very different kind of oyster from which pearls might be thrust.  I believe the future usually does! 

Edited March 12, 2015 by Bruce Wall

[northstar]

Rather a late contribution to this thread but I saw the Ratmansky Sleeping Beauty last month during American Ballet Theatre's run at the Metropolitain Opera House in New York. I was on holiday there and it is the first time I have been to the Met. I saw two performances on Thurs 11th and Fri 12th June. Aurora/Prince were danced by Sarah Lane/Herman Cornejo and Hee Seo/Cory Stearns respectively on these dates.

 

As previous posters on this thread will already know, this production had significant differences in choreography and design to the sort of Sleeping Beauty regular ballet goers in UK might be familiar with - or one might see on YouTube. Previously I have seen (more than once) Sir Peter Wright's Sleeping Beauty danced by Birmingham Royal Ballet in Salford, which I have come to rather revere as the most perfect production of that ballet imaginable. As Melody's post above remarks, there is in this production some examples of the gymnastics that have filtered into all the classic ballets, with 6 o'clock extensions, grand jetes, and of course those famous balances. Nonetheless, I still find the overall beauty and perfection of Wright's creation quite unsurpassable. Other internet videos I've seen seem very similar to Wright's production, and I thought there was only one way to do Sleeping Beauty, that only a fool would meddle with.

 

So I did came to Ratmansky's production with some prejudice, but I am open to seeing different ideas. And indeed, it was very pleasing to see the modesty of the choreography and the restraint placed on the physical abilities of the dancers. It made the ballet charming, warm. For example, instead of a spectacular arabesque-penchee-kiss in the grand pas de deux, a gentle embrace.  Both sets of dancers I saw demonstrated ample proficiency, with radiance and delicacy appropriate to the story. The scale of the ensemble dancing and the brightness and brilliance of the costumes certainly were impressive and made a spectacle itself. It was a most interesting and impressive production that one would have to see many times to appreciate all the different facets.

 

But I must admit that for me it lacked the excitement and thrill that I am used to experiencing in Sleeping Beauty. Perhaps that's just due to being too familiar with the ballet, losing its effect as I see it more often. But some of the modesty in the dancing made it perhaps too subdued. The balances were kept, but all the demi-pointe work at first left me baffled until I read later it was a conscious decision. I kept thinking 'why isn't Aurora doing her chaine turns en pointe, and why are her knees bent?' (I know perhaps this demonstrates pathetic obsession with technique). And although I appreciated the scale of the costumes, in complete honesty I thought some of them garish, making the scene on stage appear slightly like a panto (sorry but that's the best way I can think of describing it). All the adolescent dancers used in the ensembles enhanced this effect (and this made huge ensembles, around 50 dancers in the flower waltz I think). Then there were some other brightly-dressed characters in the wedding celebration like Bluebeard, Mandarin, who didn't do any dancing as far as I recall. In my opinion, the interest and aesthetic appearance of these characters didn't substitute for their lack of performance.

 

So I didn't immediatley love this production but there's certainly much to admire. I've seen some professional reviews that are extremely complimentary. For those that want something different, but not too perverse, this Sleeping Beauty certainly provides that. For conservatives like me, there's enough of the 'classic' Sleeping Beauty to make it worth recommending.