Royal Ballet Triple: Birthday Offering/ A Month in the Country/ Les Noces, Covent Garden, July 2012

A second view, with a different cast — see my opening night review for more details.

Deirdre Chapman in Les Noces, image ROH/ Dee Conway

As before, Tom Seligman conducted Birthday Offering with Barry Wordsworth taking the other two ballets, and things got off to a fine start as Seligman produced swelling sounds from the orchestra to Glazunov’s Concert Waltz No. 1. Later the music interleaves excerpts from Glazunov’s Seasons, and this Ashton ballet is a delightful collection of interchanging couples, variations for the ballerinas and a major pas-de-deux beautifully performed by Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares. The variations all came over well, and I particularly liked Yuhui Choe in the first one, and Hikaru Kobayashi in the elegantly slow fifth one. Last time, Sarah Lamb danced the third one but this time the sixth, showing lovely arm movements, and the very difficult seventh variation was performed by Nuñez herself. The supporting men were as before, except of course Soares as the principal this time. One odd feature of the floral bouquets at the end was that Nuñez received three or four — I lost count — whereas on opening night the Company could not produce a single bouquet for Rojo. Extraordinary.

A Month in the Country was well enough danced but not as compelling as opening night, with the cast seeming less comfortable with one another. However, Alina Cojocaru stood out as the mother, the superb lightness of her dancing giving an ethereal feel to this woman who suddenly finds yearnings for which she has hitherto found no outlet. And the pas-de-quatre, with Iohna Loots as Vera, Cojocaru as the mother, Paul Kay as Kolya, and Federico Bonelli as the tutor was performed with a lovely air of spontaneity.

Valeri Hristov as the bridegroom in Les Noces, image ROH/ Johan Persson

Although I found Month less gripping than opening night, Les Noces was just as superb as before. The strange rhythmic intensity of this ballet sweeps us into a distant world of carefully planned transformation from spinsterhood to marriage. Bronislava Nijinska’s choreography was ten years after that of Nijinsky for the Rite of Spring, but is reminiscent of it, and although the chosen maiden is now merely moving into the married state, the community ritual is everything. The music is Stravinsky, as it is for Rite, and the chosen maiden was well portrayed by Kristin McNally, with Valeri Hristov a strong presence as the bridegroom. This great ballet is a perfect reason for coming to this mixed bill, and tickets can still be had for as little as four pounds — don’t miss it.

Performances continue only until July 7 — for details click here.

Royal Ballet Triple: Birthday Offering/ A Month in the Country/ Les Noces, Covent Garden, June/July 2012

This triple bill offers an evening of glorious choreography, opening with the exuberance of Ashton’s Birthday Offering.

Rojo and Bonelli, all images ROH/ Tristram Kenton

Birthday Offering, first shown in 1956 for the 25^th anniversary of the Company (then known as the Sadler’s Wells Ballet), starts with the melodious phrases of Glazunov’s Concert Waltz No. 1, and Tom Seligman in the orchestra pit made it swell with pride and energy. The choreography is full of charm and inventiveness, and the fourteen dancers, led by Tamara Rojo and Federico Bonelli, performed it beautifully. Among the six supporting men I particularly liked Brian Maloney, who showed wonderful head and arm movements, and the seven variations for the girls were a delight, starting superbly with Yuhui Choe. Helen Crawford showed excellent technique in the very difficult variation number seven, and Tamara Rojo came last in variation six, dancing brilliantly, both alone and with Bonelli. Costumes by Andre Levasseur are stunning, and this made a perfect start to the evening, but where was the floral bouquet for Rojo? A similar thing happened to her with the recent Prince of the Pagodas — very odd.

Yanowsky and Pennefather

From the unalloyed pleasure of Birthday Offering the evening moved to the drama of A Month in the Country, created by Ashton in 1976. To music by Chopin, arranged by John Lanchbery, this one-act ballet condenses the main aspects of Turgenev’s play using choreography that fully expresses the emotions of the characters. Zenaida Yanowsky gave a superb portrayal of the mother, exhibiting her customary flirtation with Rakitin at the start, followed by her attraction for the new tutor and finally her anguish at his departure. As he flees the house she struck a lovely pose of pensive regret by the doorway before stepping very slowly into the room, bringing the ballet to its close. In the meantime her sudden loss of interest in Rakitin was perfectly expressed, and Gary Avis gave a finely drawn portrait of this family friend. Her jealousy of Vera was beautifully judged, and Emma Maguire was superb as Vera, with her own fit of jealousy stunningly expressed. As the attractive young  tutor, who brings such immense confusion to the household, Rupert Pennefather was perfect, showing in his solos just the right joy and angst on occasion, and his partnering of both the mother and Vera was beautifully done. This performance of Month was worth the whole triple bill, with Birthday Offering as one bonus, and Les Noces as another.

Les Noces with Christina Arestis (top) as the bride

Les Noces is an extraordinary work, supported not only by an orchestra, but four pianists, and four vocal soloists plus chorus. Bronislava Nijinska’s stylised choreography to music and song-text by Stravinsky shows the preparations and ritual surrounding a peasant wedding, and Natalia Goncharova’s costumes in brown and white express the unifying power and conservatism of the local culture. There are analogies with the Rite of Spring, but here the chosen one is the bride whose previous life is being converted to one of procreation and duty to her husband, according to the implacable force of tradition and the collective will of the community. The dancers brought the choreography to life with huge force, and Ryoichi Hirano made the bridegroom a tall and powerful figure, with Christina Arestis suitably pliant as the wife. This ballet, always an invigorating experience to watch, brought the evening to a perfect close.

It’s a triple bill not to be missed, and I shall report on a different cast next week. Performances continue only until July 7, so book immediately — for details click here.