Swan Lake remains at the heart of the classical ballet repertoire. Its choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky have ensured its place in any dance company worth its claim to pre-eminence. And the music’s 19th century blend of the classical with the romantic has ensured audiences with a love of great music if only a passing interest in dance. Nevertheless, it has to be said that the growth of contemporary choreography and the increased number of smaller dance companies have rather reduced the appetites of both dancers and audiences for this extremely demanding, long, old, and often tired ballet. I include myself among those who have felt they had seen enough Swan Lakes to happily miss the next one. It is with this in mind that I say how suddenly I have been swept off my feet and made to believe again in the evergreen nature of the work, its music, its potential for surprise. (more…)
June 16, 2018
Swan Lake: The Royal Ballet live cinema transmission 12th June 2018 – Susannah Harris-Wilson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Akane Takada, Alexander Campbell, ballet, Bennet Gartside, Francesca Hayward, JohnMacfarlane, Liam Scarlett, Marianela Nuñez, Marius Petipa, Susannah Harris-Wilson, Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky, The Royal Ballet, Vadim Muntagirov |Leave a Comment
January 27, 2014
The Royal Ballet in Giselle at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 25 January 2014 (evening) – Maggie Watson reviews
Posted by susiecrow under reviews | Tags: Bennet Gartside, Deirdre Chapman, Giselle, Hikaru Kobayashi, Maggie Watson, Royal Opera House, Sarah Lamb, Steven McRae, The Royal Ballet |Leave a Comment
In life, Sarah Lamb’s Giselle is swift and airborne with a restrained diffidence; in death, those qualities transform her into a ghostly and ethereal apparition. As a Wili, her cool manner enhances the otherworldly feel of her dancing, although in the first act last night she did not completely convince me that she was a peasant girl driven mad by the shock of betrayal and I wasn’t quite sure that she had actually killed herself, rather than dying of a broken heart. (more…)