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Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Wayne Eagling.
Cast: English National Ballet
Description: A brief season of works synonomous with Ballets Russes including performances of Scheherazade, Apollo, The Dying Swan and Le Spectre De La Rose.
Trains: Tube: Angel 
Phone: 0844412 4300
Website: www.sadlerswells.com
Swan song: Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks, who leave the ENB this month, dance Apollo
Diaghilev would have smiled. At Sadler’s Wells last night a red carpet lined the pavement and paparazzi pushed and shoved as the great and glamorous sashayed up for the celebratory mixed bill. There were drinks before and drinks after, and a hi-lo mix of toffs, totty and ballet talent.
It won’t be a patch on the parties or the publicity contrived by the man who transformed ballet 100 years ago but who cares when Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks are dancing Apollo?
The husband-and-wife team retire this month after almost 20 years with ENB. They know Apollo well and although they’ve danced it better, it’s their leave-taking, so you fuzz out the imperfections and marvel at the enduring freshness of the steps.
If Apollo was Diaghilev’s only ballet, we’d still revere him. As the Russian impresario also commissioned umpteen others and inspired his dancers to form companies of their own (and published an art magazine, and, and, and…), we gape at his legacy.
Truth is, little done in Diaghilev’s name today is on a par. Karl Lagerfeld’s costumes for Apollo is a case. Chanel’s creative director may be the couture kaiser but his beachy silhouette is hardly drapery for the Gods. The same goes for his tutu for The Dying Swan, which includes fussy ruffles — surely wrong for a swan’s long neck?
Despite this, Elena Glurdjidze danced well, as did Gina Brescianini and Daniel Gaudiello in Le Spectre de la Rose. This heavily scented waltz usually looks quaint but for once its sexual undertow rang clear — she’s a young girl and he’s a man, naked bar a few rose petals, snaking around her bedroom.
Also good in ENB’s Diaghilev homage was David Dawson’s male duet inspired by Nijinsky’s controversial Faune, although the baggy-trousered panto that is Schéhérazade should be banned.
Until 20 June with Les Sylphides and The Rite of Spring alternating with Apollo and Schéhérazade (0844 412 4300, www.sadlerswells.com).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Diaghilev might have smiled, but it would have been tinged with sadness at this ENB tribute to his genius. He would, however, have approved of the way that the event was marketed, but as for the content and execution... Glurdjidze made an unidiomatic Dying Swan, hindered by a Lagerfeld costume that distractingly obscured her neck in a halter of ruffled feathers. Spectre fared rather better with Gaudiello suitably ethereal in a role which can sometimes tread a precarious path between elegance and effeminacy: although his hands and arms were perhaps not as tendril-like as some, his youthful virility was undoubted. With several other versions of L'Apres Midi around, this one had little new to say - and why was it deemed necessary to (over-) amplify the two grand pianos accompanying the piece? The closing version of Scherezade was quite simply a travesty of a work which is absolutely sensational when given by dancers sensitive to its delicious Oriental nuances. Of course it is way OTT to today's eyes, but can still bring the house down when danced with passion and subtlety (ie by The Mariinsky). Last night's exhumation gave no inkling of its perennial appeal or the underlying erotic charge. Even the lush score felt undernourished. Sorry Sergei, but it just wasn't your night.
- Clive Burton, London, England
Diaghilev might have smiled, but it would have been tinged with sadness at last night's ENB tribute to his genius. He would, however, have approved of the way that the event was marketed. But as for the content and execution... Glurdjidze made an unidiomatic Dying Swan, hindered by a Lagerfeld costume that distractingly obscured her neck in a halter of ruffled feathers. Spectre fared rather better with Gaudiello suitably ethereal in a role which can sometimes tread a precarious path between elegance and effeminacy: although his hands and arms were perhaps not as tendril-like as some, his youthful virilitywas undoubted. With several other versions of L'Apres Midi around, this one had little new to say - and why was it deemed necessary to (over-) amplify the two grand pianos accompanying the piece? The closing version of Scherezade was quite simply a travesty of a work which can be absolutely sensational when given by dancers sensitive to its delicious Oriental nuances. Of course it is way OTT to today's eyes, but can still bring the house down when danced with passion and subtlety (ie by The Mariinsky). Last night's exhumation gave no inkling of its perennial appeal or the underlying erotic charge. Even the lush score felt undernourished. Sorry Sergei, but it just wasn't your night.
- Clive Burton, London, England
