The Other Christmas Carol

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Finnish National Ballet A Christmas Carol YouTube Arte Concert 23 Dec 2024

In this country, we hear much about the Royal Danish Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, but not much about their neighbours across the Gulf of Bothnia.  One of the artists I saw on my recent visit to Tallinn was Francesca Loi who danced Cinders's stepmother in Cristiano Principato's Cinderella.  I looked her up and found that she was with the Finnish National Ballet.  I explored her company's website and discovered it was founded just over 100 years ago.  It performs in a beautiful modern opera house.  It has a very interesting repertoire and its Artistic Director is Javier Torres,  Mr Principato, a soloist with the Estonian Ballet, has urged me to break my journey in Helsinki and watch the Finnish National Ballet on stage the next time I am in his area. 

One of its productions that I would love to have seen is David Bintley's A Christmas Carol.  It was performed in Helsinki between 30 Nov and 30 Dec 2024.  The next best thing to a live performance is watching them on TV.  That has just become possible because a recording of their performance will be hosted on Arte Concdert's YouTube channel until 27 Feb 2925.  I watched the video last night less than a month after seeing Northern Ballet's production at the Leeds Grand Theatre.  As I said in A Christmas Carol - A Reflection of a Golden Age 19 J\n 2025, Northern Ballet's production is one of my favourite ballets.  It is impossible to compare a video with a work on stage but if I could see Bentley's work in a theatre I believe I would admire it just as much.

Apart from the similarities that are to be expected in a ballet that is inspired by the same novella and shares the same leading characters Bintley's ballet is quite different from Gable and Moriconi's.  The score is by Sally Beamish who also wrote the music for David Bintley's The Tempest and David Nixon's The Little Mermaid.  I described her score for The Tempest as "enchanting" in my review of that ballet and I think her score for The Little Mermaid is one of the reasons for my headline Nixon's Little Mermaid - Perhaps His Best Work Yet in my review of Nixon's work.  Beamish discusses her score for A Christmas Carol in From a Sinister Atmosphere to Joyful Christmas Sounds.  The sets, costumes and projection design were by Anna Fleischle and some of the scenes were arresting.  The Christmas Yet To Come scene was literally spine-chilling even on a flat-screen telly.  Mark Henderson designed the lighting which was mood-changing even in the recording and would have been even more so in the theatre,

Bentley followed Dickens's story faithfully but he introduced some additional scenes such as Ali Baba, Long John Silver and Dox Quixote from Scrooge's childhood imaginings.  In his flashbacks to Scrooge's childhood and youth, Bintely explains how Scrooge developed as he did.  Something that I never fully appreciated from the original text.  Bimntley weaves in interesting new characters like three Jack Tars who are introduced by Tiny Tim's "I Saw Three Ships,"   Bintley's divertissements are often the strongest features of his ballets and they certainly distinguished this ballet.

In the film, Paul Murphy of Birmingham Royal Ballet conducted the Finnish National Opera Orchestra but I think Aku Sorensen directed them most other nights,  Scrooge was danced by Johan Pakkanen, Young Scrooge by Martin Nudo, Belle by Abigail Sheppard, Bob Cratchit by Frans Valkama and Tiny Tim by Janne Kouhia. I surmise that he is a student at the National Opera and Ballet School.  He discharged a very demanding role for a young artist with flair.  It included singing the first lines of a traditional English carol and calling for a blessing in a foreign language,  No doubt that is why he warned one of the loudest cheers at the curtain call. 

I strongly recommend this recording to my readers and I hope that the powers that be will bring this interesting company to London one of these days. There are some great photos and videos on the National Ballet's website including a short talk by Bintley.  Bintley comes from the next village but one from mine in the Holme Valley and I have twice had the pleasure of meeting him at the London Ballet Circle.  I was a frequent visitor to the Hippodrome when he was the Birmingham Royal Ballet's Director, and I am probably one of his biggest fans.

Birmingham Royal Ballet's Don Quixote at the Lowry

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Birmingham Royal Ballet Don Quixote The Lowry 4 March 2022 19:30

I have seen a lot of shows in Greater Manchester in my time from pantomimes to grand opera. I cannot recall one with greater flair than last night's Don Quixote at the Lowry. Never have I been part of a more appreciative audience.  Standing ovations are rare in this country, particularly outside London. Yesterday, a large part of the audience (including yours truly) rose to our feet at the end of the show.

I have followed the Birmingham Royal Ballet for many years.  Indeed long before it moved to Birmingham. Never have I seen it dance as well as it did last night.  Yesterday was the first time that I had seen the company since Carlos Acosta became its director.  He seems to have galvanized it.

When I saw the Royal Ballet's Don Quixote at Covent Garden I wrote:

"Seldom have I enjoyed a performance at the Royal Opera House more than last Saturday's matinee of Don Quixote" (see Campbell and Magri in Royal Ballet's Don Quixote 2 April 2019).

I think I enjoyed last night's show even more.

For those who do not know the ballet, there is a brief synopsis in Wikipedia. The work is known for its spectacular jumps and fouettés requiring considerable virtuosity not only of those who dance Basilio and Kitri but also Espada, the matador, Mercedes, the street dancer, the Queen of the Dryads and the gipsy and fandango dancers. There are also great character roles for Sancho Panza, Gamache and, of course, Don Quixote himself.

I had been looking forward to seeing Lachlan Monaghan as Don Basilio as advertised on the company's website.   He had been my guest at The Stage Door. As I said in my interview, I admire his choreography and photography as well as his dancing.  Yesterday he was cast as Espada which he danced with panache.  Basilio was danced by Mathias Dingman another of my favourite artists.  He impressed us with his virtuosity and amused us with his touches of humour.  Miki Mizutani was a perfect Kitri. Coquettish when interacting with Gamache and her father.  Spectacular in her solos and pas de deux.  I was impressed by Eilis Small as Mercedes and Lucy Waine as Queen of the Dryads.  It is always a delight to see Tzu-Chao Chou who danced Amour.  Casting Laura Day as Don Quixote's hapless squire was inspirational. I have never seen or even imagined the role being performed by a woman. She carried it off brilliantly. I must also commend Rory Mackay for his performance of Gamache and Jonathan Payn for the title role.   Everyone in the cast delighted and impressed us and I congratulate them all.

One of the strengths of yesterday's performance was the designs and special effects.  I was particularly impressed with the sails of the windmills which morphed into limbs and claws before our eyes. I am not sure whether credit for that scene belongs to Tim Hatley who designed the sets and costumes or Nina Dunn the video designer.  It was spectacular.

The Symphonia conducted by Peter Murphy excelled themselves as much as the dancers.  Before the performance, they played the Ukrainian national anthem.  There has always been a large Ukrainian community in the North as is evidenced by the many Ukrainian clubs and churches to be seen.  Playing that anthem was an apposite reminder of those links.

The first two performances of this short season had to be cancelled because of injuries and illness.  There will be more performances at the Lowry this afternoon and evening.  The tour continues to Sunderland, Plymouth and at Sadler's Wells. If you can reach any of those theatres you should see this show.