The first week of October is
proving exceptional in terms of the diversity of cultural experience with this
evening a visit to the Sunderland Empire for the musical Sunny Afternoon. On
Saturday evening there is nearly a five-hour performance with intervals of Tristan
and Isolde relayed from the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. Yesterday I saw
a film likely to feature in the awards season because of its contemporary
subject content although set at the time of the Civil War in North America, the
Free State of Jones, while on Monday I enjoyed the diversity implications of
Mrs Pergrines Home for Peculiar Children. On television the experience range
has been from Savile and National Treasure, the powerfully insightful Simon
Reeve in Ireland to the concluding episodes in the important Drama Series Our
Girl and DCI Banks, to the seriously and witty Cold Feet, the disappointing
lack an edge as yet Westworld with to come to tonight the second episode of The
Fall, a new Beck on Saturday together with a speed viewing of the X Factor live
and a Strictly Come Dancing. The less said about the Ryder Cup the better and
the announcement that Durham Cricket Club has been fined points banned from
holding Test matches and demoted to the second division of the championship as
the price of a bail out loan merits a separate writing.
And it is with the dance and
the ballet and relayed film of a live performance of the Sleeping Beauty that I
commence my first response. Of all cultural experiences the ‘traditional’
ballet has influenced and affected me least with film embedded from childhood
followed by television, since it’s a black and while set home made by a first
cousin in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I cannot remember now
when I was first taken to live theatre which included Opera performances by the
Doyle Carte Opera Company or where they took place, and it was only after
leaving school at 16 years that I commenced to visiting the local repertory
theatre in Croydon on a regular basis and then shows in London and after that
around the UK. As a school child an
uncle took me to a music hall in Croydon, I have a vague memory of a pantomime
at Christmas and a seaside show or two on holiday. In my first year of work in
central London I purchase a half season Promenade for the concerts and went
every night standing mainly in front of the tired stalls and sometimes in the Gods
and this was the same year that a friend at work took me for my first pints
before weekend nights at Cy Laurie, Humphs and the Ken Collyer traditional jazz
clubs in and close to Soho.
When I say classical dance I
mean music and technically structured dance using the Fairy story as the basis
with the three most commonly performed works Swan Lake, the Nutcracker and Swan
Lake. In 1956 I purchased a long play record with suits of music from Swan Lake
and the Sleeping Beauty performed by the Rome Opera Orchestra conducted by
Walter Goehr. I also have a version of Swan Lake on another LP played by the
Odessa Philharmonic and for me it is the music of Tchaikovsky which captured my
interest than attempting to learn the art of the classical dance and whereas the second of week of reporting this
year I went on October 4th to
a filmed live performance of the Sleeping Beauty in a new production by the
Australian Ballet company and where the Bolden
Cineworld did not provide the usual programme of synopsis, cast and interval
arrangements.
The reason for this is that at
the start of the prologue and each of the subsequent three Acts there was a
brief multilingual story synopsis with that in English at the top. The cast and
other information was flashed by at the end making it impossible to read
anything let alone find out something about the couple who I assumed where
guest principal dancers from another company who performed at the ball to mark
the marriage of the Sleeping Beauty and her prince. Through Wikipedia I
obtained information of interest about the Australian Ballet which has its
roots in a company founded in 1940 and the company only became national in 1962
but is said to have gained a worldwide standing and reputation.
I must declare a lack of
knowledge about judging the technical measured and controlled movements of feet,
legs and arms involved but the skill displayed was impressive although it had
little emotional impact.
The production is both lavish
and at times stunning and as the Ballet Producer revealed in a filmed interview
the outfits alone cost two million Australian dollars, and where in height, depth
and width, the work was performed on the biggest stage I have witnessed other
than a performance of the Opera Aida at Earls Court and more on that another
day. David McAllister’s (born 1963 the year I commenced to train as a qualified
child care officer) production revealed that dancing is something he wanted to
do as a child. His interest was reinforced after being taken to see Nureyev and
Fontaine, he became a graduate of the company in 1983, a senior artist in 1986
and principal artist in 1989, a position held until 2001 with before that
impressing the Russians leading to appearing with the Bolshoi, the Kirov and
Georgian state companies. The present work is his creation in every sense
including the provision of some of the choreography.
Having long since overcome my
negative reaction to thirty to forty year old opera singers attempting to act
as 15 year olds I thought Lana Jones in her early thirties carried off the role of a sixteen year old
princess well and the sharp features of her face echoed those of Fontaine
whereas the bulk of the trunk her Prince Charming was distracting although I liked
what he had to say about his function in
support of the ballerina and that for
any couple of principal dancers there has to be a genuine emotional connection and intensity which in the close
up was evident to see. I thought the performance
of the wicked Fairy, Caraboose, was totally convincing performed by Lynette
Wills and was the only other dancer mentioned in the online cast list together
with the good Lilac Fairy of Amber Scott The 65-member Orchestra Victoria sounded
good with its woman conductor Nicolette Fraillon whose conducting mannerism
merit attention as she urges the musicians to close follow her bidding.
The story of the opera is simple
with the King and Queen holding an event to mark the Christening of their
daughter and the Master of Ceremonies failing to invite the wicked Fairy
Caraboose who makes a curse that although the Princess will grow up beautiful
and a lovely person, the child will prick her finger on a spindle at 16 and
die. The good fairy intervenes but this
only to commute the sentence to 100 years of sleep to be woken by the kiss of a
Prince. In the first Act that follows the parents and courtiers show amazing
negligence in allowing the wicked fairy to carry out the curse and the Princess
is allowed to sleep peacefully in an impressive and attractive locked capsule
with a large key.
In Act Two the Prince is out hunting
when the good fairy arrives and provides him with a vision of the Princess and
how she can be restored to life. As he makes his way the evil fairy does her
best to stop him, fails and the Princess comes back to life. The final Act
centres on the Marriage of the future Queen and consort and the celebrations
that follow with I presume the symbolic ghost in human form of her parents in attendance
and in the final scene the miscellany of characters coming together in a scene which
appears to be set in the Court of the Louis XIV
There was a fair audience
smaller than for Opera and plays and included a mother with two daughters both
of primary school age whose excitement was evident to the rest of us and I speculated
if the cycle of being inspired and devoting a life to the pursuit of excellence
in a highly demanding physical activity was about to be followed. The cost was
a modest additional £5.40 to the monthly subscription of £17.40, making a total
expenditure of £22.80 for the month so far.
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