A Serenade, a Voyage, and some Variations
triple bill of romantic ballets at the Royal Opera House yesterday evening,
performed by the Royal Ballet: two of them choreographed by George Balanchine. I saw Serenade (to
Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings) last May and wrote about it then; once again it was elegantly
performed. The evening finished with Balanchine's Theme and Variations,
set to Tchaikovsky's work of the same name. It's minor Tchaikovsky, and the
choreography is very much in classical style: but though it's easy and
undemanding on the eye it does place considerable technical demands on the two
lead dancers - in this case Tamara Rojo and Federico Bonelli, who handled the
difficulties with elegance and
ease.But the real highlight of the evening was the middle ballet: L'Invitation au Voyage, choreographed by Michael Corder to settings by Henri Duparc of poems by French poets including Gautier and Beaudelaire. It was first performed in 1982 and has only now been revived. The music is for orchestra and mezzo-soprano: unusually, the singer is not only onstage, but required to interact with the dancers with fairly simple but effective moves. The setting is a faintly Dali-esque gazebo with a roof of cloud-like fabric and an oval reflective floor area, lit initially in a sunset pink but changing with the mood of the five songs: the ballet represents the stages of a love life through youthful romance, eroticism, bitterness and loss. The choreography is subtle and affecting, and a remarkable achievement for a young choreographer as Corder was then. The singer was Harriet Williams, and the dancers included Emma Maguire, Sergei Polunin, Leanne Benjamin and Federico Bonelli. Four dancers from the originally published casting had had to be replaced because of injury: ballet is a risky occupation. Posted: Thu - November 6, 2008 at 10:10 AM by Roger Wilmut |
Quick Links
About Me:
Roger Wilmut XML/RSS Feed
MY PODCAST
Archives
Calendar
Blogroll
WEBRINGS
Statistics
Total entries in this category: Published On: Mar 11, 2016 05:00 PM |
||||||||||||||||||
