Nothing Wrong with this La Bayadère

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Royal Ballet La Bayadère Royal Opera House 3 Nov 2018 13:30

It is often said that only the Russians can do La Bayadère.  In one online forum to which I subscribe, I have read the suggestion that the Royal Ballet should not even bother to stage that ballet "because the Russians do it so much better." While it is true that only the Russians did  La Bayadère until very recently I find it a very curious argument.   Nobody says anything like that in respect of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker or any of the other 19th century Russian classics.  As it is set in Golkonda in India by a French-born choreographer to an Austrian composer's score, the ballet is not actually all that Russian.

Yesterday's matinee performance of La Bayadère by the Royal Ballet is the fourth that I have seen. The others were by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre in August 2015, the Dutch National Ballet in November 2016 and the Mariinsky last year.  Each of those productions including yesterday's had its good points.   The Royal Ballet's lay in the set and projection designs except for the appearance of a Buddha in what was supposed to be a Hindu temple.  I watched the show with one friend who is a Hindu and another who comes from Japan which is a predominately Buddhist country and I don't think either was impressed by that solecism.  Notwithstanding that niggle, it was a very slick and polished production with a well-rehearsed corps and particularly good performances by the shades (Yuhui Choe, Fumi Kaneko and Beatriz Stix-Brunell) and the bronze idol (Valentino Zuchetti).

I could not fault the lead dancers, Sarah Lamb, Ryoichi Hirano or Claire Calvert who were Nikiya, Solor and Gamzatti respectively.  At the curtain call, Lamb was presented with a very respectable bouquet from which she selected one rose for Hirano and another for the conductor, Boris Gruzin but Calvert received even bigger bouquets (presumably from a well-wisher in the audience) which is something I have never seen before in over half a century of ballet going.  The lead dancers were well supported by Yorkshireman Thomas Whitehead as the brahmin (earning an especially loud cheer at the reverence from our little section of the stalls on account of his Borealian provenance), Bennet Gartside as the rajah and Liverpudlian Kristen McNally as the aya.

Although I liked yesterday's show I preferred the Dutch National Ballet's two years ago.   I think that is because of the superb performance by Sasha Mukhamedov who will always be my Nikiya.  The Royal Ballet's production like the Dutch National Ballet's was created by Natalia Makarova. There is another version of the ballet by Stanton Welch for the Houston Ballet with designs by Peter Farmer and an arrangement of the score by John Lanchberry that I would love to see.   Birmingham Royal Ballet appealed for funding to bring it to the UK to which I actually contributed (see A Birmingham Bayadère 26 Nov 2016) but that idea was abandoned when the local authority cut its funding to the company (see How Nikiya must have felt when she saw a snake  21 Jan 2017).

Yesterday was my first opportunity to see the result of the building works that have been carried out around the Royal Opera House over the last few years. We snuck downstairs to the Linbury bar and lobby which now looks very smart and we had a cup of tea at the new cafeteria at the entrance to the lobby which also doubled as a cloakroom.   All very new and shiny but a little confusing.  One obvious inconvenience was the ladies' loo has been moved and there was inadequate signage to its new location.   Another is that there is nothing like enough space in the cafeteria. As free wifi is provided, I suspect that some of those spaces were occupied by folks with laptops with no particular interest in opera and ballet, but that may not be a bad thing.

On the whole, we three musketeers from the North had a good day in London and it was good to meet in the interval a worthy D'Artganan, namely Marion Pettet who was until recently the chair of the Chelmsford Ballet upon which Powerhouse Ballet is modelled.   Marion has given us a lot of tips and encouragement over the last few months and it was good to see her again.

The ballet will be screened to cinemas in the UK on 13 Nov 2018 and I recommend it strongly. It may not be the very best (but then there is only one Mukhamedov) but it is still a very good production.  Lots of drama, some beautiful solos, the mesmerizing descent into the kingdom of the shades, some great projection technology.   There is nothing wrong with our Bayadère and if the Russians, Dutch or Texans do better ones, never let the best be the enemy of the good.

Onegin: the most enjoyable performance that I have seen at the House since Sibley and Dowell

When I was young I practically lived at Covent Garden. I was a Young Friend which meant that I got lots of ticket vouchers. I saw all the greats - Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, Merle Park, David Wall, Lynn Seymour, Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn - and on two occasions Robert Helpmann and Fred Ashton. I loved the House with its all pervading smell of mouldering vegetation. The flunkies who presented enormous bouquets to the ballerinas. The littering of the floor with cut flowers thrown by zealous members of the audience. And above all the ballets. Particularly those that are not performed so much nowadays such as Monotones, Jazz Calendar and, above all, Enigma Variations with Sibley as the adorable Dorabella.

I went to graduate school in America and while I was away the fruit and veg market moved to Nine Elms. When I came back the smell of vegetables that had lingered for a while began to disperse.  Fewer and fewer people threw flowers onto the stage. Then at the end of the 1990s the House closed for renovation. When it re-opened everything had changed. Though I admired Bull, Bussell and Guillem I never took to them in the way I did to Sibley, Seymour and Fonteyn. Though the Royal Ballet's performances were as polished as ever they somehow lacked charm. I fell out of love with the Royal Ballet and Covent Garden and transferred my affection to other companies like Northern Ballet, Scottish Ballet, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and most recently the Dutch National Ballet.

Until last Monday night. That night I saw something wonderful. Cranko's Onegin danced by Matthew Golding in the title role, Natalia Osipova as Tatiana, Matthew Ball as Lensky and Bennet Gartside as Prince Gremin. It was quite simply the most enjoyable performance by the Royal Ballet that I had seen since the days of  Sibley and Dowell. It was like meeting an old friend after an absence of years. I also found for the first time something to like in the renovated House. I discovered the terrace next to the amphitheatre bar where I sipped my coffee while reflecting on what I had witnessed in the first act. That terrace did not exist before the renovation. Even though it was wet and chilly last Monday night it was great to step out above the street lamps and pedestrians.

But the main reason I enjoyed the evening so much was that the choreography was by Cranko - my favourite choreographer of all time. Much more than Macmillan.  Even more than van Manen and Ashton. Cranko understood and interpreted music in a way that produces a fluency that is instantly recognizable but hard to describe. I see similar fluency in the work of two young choreographers of the present, Ernst Meisner in the Netherlands and our own Christopher Marney. He was also a great story teller with a sense of humour. All of those qualities are visible in my favourite Cranko work, The Taming of the Shrew. There will be more Cranko next month when the Chelmsford Ballet dance Pineapple Poll (see Chelmsford Ballet Company's Cast 31 Jan 2015).

Another reason why I enjoyed the evening was Osipova. I had admired her virtuosity when I saw her in Giselle last year and she displayed it again on Monday night, But she also showed her dramatic power. The ripping of Onegin's letter was thrilling. How the theatre erupted as the curtain fell around her as she stood proud in the centre of the stage at the end of the last act. Though this is the first season that Osipova has danced in Cranko's ballet she understood her character well. As she explains in the video above she had read Pushkin many times and learned a little more about the characters each time she read the story. Also, as a Russian, Pushkin is special to her.

Osipova was matched by Golding. Steely, amoral and ultimately foolish but somehow sexy - a bit like Austen's Darcy but without his good points. He breaks a young girl's heart on the day she should be happy. Then he shoots the inoffensive Lensky in a duel somehow getting away scot free.  Simply to be sent on his way by a married woman in the last act for such a first class blighter seems like getting off lightly to me.

For those who do not know the ballet there is a short synopsis on the Royal Opera House's website. Go to the Wikipedia entry on the book and the Ballet Bag's feature for more.  There are important roles for Onegin's friend Lensky and her eventual husband, Gremin. There is also some exciting dancing for the corps - particularly for the women who exited the garden in the first act with exuberant jetés on the arms of their partners. There is so much to absorb in this ballet - Rose's rich designs, Stolze's setting of Tchaikovsky's music - it is a work of which one can never tire.  Although pricey the programme with its notes on the choreography, music, Onegin's character and Cranko is invaluable in helping me absorb, digest and comprehend this multi-layered ballet.

The ballet is nearing the end of its run but there are still two more shows on the 27 Feb 2015 for which tickets are still available. If you can get to one of those performances then go

Other Reviews

Zoe Anderson Onegin, Royal Opera House, review: Vadim Muntagirov lifts this revival of John Cranko’s overwrought ballet 26 Jan 2015 The Independent
Debra Craine  Onegin at the Royal Opera House, London WC2 27 Jan 2015 The Times
Judith Mackrell Onegin review – riveting Osipova takes Royal Ballet to the brink of ragged hysteria 2 Feb 2015 The Guardian
Laura Thompson Onegin, Royal Ballet, review: 'an assured crowd-pleaser' 25 Jan 2015 The Telegraph