Thursday 6 October 2016

The Sleeping Beauty a performance by the Australian Ballet Company


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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