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Sarah Frater's rating
Step backwards for Royal Ballet
By
Sarah Frater
29 Oct 2008
Having raved about The Royal Ballet in the last couple of months, I now have to do the opposite. The company’s season opening Swan Lake was good, as were some of the follow-on Manons, but this triple bill is a disappointing combination of scrappy dancing and a riot of bronze lamé.
The scrappiness can, in part, be explained by a high number of absences. The season began with four of the leading dancers either off injured or on leave, meaning the rest have to double up, which leaves everything looking thin spread.
But this can’t explain the weak showing in Theme and Variations. Many of the corps seemed miles away. Tamara Rojo and Federico Bonelli were nice enough as the lead couple but lacked their usual aristocratic allure. Theme is an imperial ballet, with formality and deference, and swags and chandeliers, and the dancers need a sumptuosity the Royal couldn’t muster.
Serenade fared better, with its ingenious patterning and galloping flows appealingly clear in the first section. However, in the second section the usually excellent Marianela Nuñez was over-emoting and Rupert Pennefather made little impression.
But they dazzled compared with Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au voyage. Somewhere in this revival from 1982 interesting steps and ideas are lost in a distractingly cramped setting and dingly-dell decor. Grecian drapes may have worked 20-odd years ago, as might Oriental turbans, Art Nouveau flora and old-bike-style fabric helmets but they just look comical today.
What did work was Harriet Williams’s fine singing of Henri Duparc’s five orchestral songs but you’re in trouble when the best thing about a ballet is the music.
In rep until 10 November (020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk)
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Reader views (5)
I cannot comment on Sarah Frater's review, but her grammar is below par as in "everything was too thin (she means thinly) spread."
- Vivienne Thompson, folkestone g.b., 04/11/2008 15:31
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Clive Burton states:-
"It was disconcerting to have a singer mingling with the dancers and why (asked a fellow audience member) no sur titles for the French text?"
To be fair to the ROH, the French text for the songs was in the programme - with an English translation....
It would have been unfair on the dancers for the audience to have been distracted by the surtitles when the audience should have been concentrating on watching them!
Clive Burton also comments:-
"L'Invitation simply looked dated and was bereft of genuine creative inspiration - whisps of Balanchine here, elements of MacMillan there: even brief reminiscences of Nijinsky's L'Apres Midi."
Given that Michael Corder trained at the Royal Ballet School and danced with the Royal Ballet, he would inevitably have been influenced - subconsciously or otherwise - by MacMillan's choreography. Anyone who saw the Stuttgart Ballet dance Cranko's Romeo and Juliet at the Coliseum last year would have to acknowledge that the great man himself was influenced by yet another great choreographer when he choreographed Romeo and Juliet...
- David, Streatham, Streatham UK, 30/10/2008 19:11
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You do have to wonder why Ms Frater continues to put herself through going to see The Royal Ballet. She so seldom seems to genuinely enjoy anything they do. She may well 'rave' about an individual performer or two, but seldom have a I seen the 'rave' review for performances that she desribes in this article. Perhaps we just have a different view on the definition of what a 'rave review' actually is? Thank goodness on many ocassions the audience and her fellow critics do not appear to be in agreement with her or at least find a way to put their point across in a more contructive and balanced way. Of course Sarah's job is to give an opinion. However, as a reader, I would appreciate a more balanced review that gives enough information to decide if the production might be to my own taste even if it isn't to hers. Having said that I do seem to do quite well by opting for the 'if Sarah Frater hates it I'll probably have a very enjoyable evening' approach, so I should be grateful for that I guess. Ho hum.
- Tim, London, 30/10/2008 13:28
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What an extraordinary and sour review of a programme that was well conceived and for the most part very well received by the audience. Sarah Frater was I believe wrong on her comments on “Serenade”, wrong on “Theme and Variations” and way of the mark on “L’Invitation au voyage.” It is always preposterous to hear that something is old-fashioned as Sarah Frater suggests when she states, “Grecian drapes may have worked 20-odd years ago, as might Oriental turbans, Art Nouveau flora and old-bike-style fabric helmets but they just look comical today”. The appreciation of art forms and objects are judged on intrinsic value never when
created. From where I was sitting (front stalls) where you can best hear and gauge audience reaction, “L’invitation…” was more enthusiastically received than the other works. It is most definitely an “art work” beautifully modulated in its choreography which is classical in conception avoiding the excesses of the “modern”, which may belong to dance but not classical ballet. “Theme and Variations”, was led with tremendous verve and style. Rojo confidently exhibiting her ballerina status as Bonelli partnered her exhibiting his excellent technique, style and charm. The rest of the company in this work were excellent and not as Sara Frater describes them. I am all for critical sharpness in reviews but only when the opinion reflected is informed and having read ES ballet reviews since the days of Sydney Edwards I am disappointed of late.
- Leonard Newman, London, 30/10/2008 12:26
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This was indeed a somewhat patchy evening, lacking commitment from many of the dancers. Serenade seemed less dramatic than this plotless ballet can often appear and failed to draw the audience into a 'story' that Balanchine denied to his dancers but was later to admit could be discerned beneath his beautifully-crafted patterns. L'Invitation simply looked dated and was bereft of genuine creative inspiration - whisps of Balanchine here, elements of MacMillan there: even brief reminiscences of Nijinsky's L'Apres Midi. It was disconcerting to have a singer mingling with the dancers and why (asked a fellow audience member) no sur titles for the French text?
Theme and Variations was attractive enough, but exhibited little of the joie de vivre needed for an outstanding performance - and what curiously cursory arm and upper body work by Bonelli.
- Clive Burton, London, 30/10/2008 09:38
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