Ashton Mixed Bill, with Rojo and Polunin, Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, February 2013

This was Tamara Rojo’s evening, ending with a lovely bouquet of flowers for her — making up for their lack of such tributes in her last days with the Company, after accepting the artistic directorship of the ENB. In Ashton’s take on The Lady of the Camellias, she was a captivating Marguerite, glamorous and consumptive, showing fine textures of emotion. So lovely in her red dress in the second tableau, so apparently serene yet emotional in the third with Armand’s father, her broken bourrées heart wrenching in the fourth, and in the last tableau her demise left me spellbound.

Rojo and Polunin, all images ROH/ Bill Cooper

Her partner, Sergei Polunin also left the Company last season, but in a far more abrupt way, and it was good to see this extraordinarily talented dancer back again. Their pas-de-deux were flawlessly executed and full of the tension that Ashton brought to his choreography for this ballet. Polunin himself showed a deft and light touch as he entered in the first tableau. Secure in his dancing and dramatic in his portrayal he only perhaps lacked command at the odd point when he was no longer with her. But this was a beautifully sensitive performance, and Christopher Saunders gave a fine portrayal of the father.

Watson, Nuñez, Bonelli in Monotones II

It ended a thrilling evening of ballet preceded by Monotones I and II between the intervals. Superbly danced, and Marianela Nuñez, Federico Bonelli and Edward Watson formed a heavenly triple in Monotones II. Nuñez in particular brought an ethereal quality to her performance, with extraordinarily graceful arm movements as she developed them from one position to another. When geometry in motion has such quality it leaves the mere human realm, which of course is exactly what Ashton intended.

Campbell and Choe in Voices of Spring

Before the first interval was a short triple bill starting with Ravel’s eerie La Valse, which the Company danced beautifully, and ending with Johan Strauss’s enduringly happy Voices of Spring, gloriously performed by Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell. As they danced I couldn’t help but think of the dreadful stuff one sees in the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna, but there is of course no comparison. This is Ashton, and the brief middle item in the first part, his ‘Meditation’ from Thaïs, was magical, drawing a calmly riveting performance by Leanne Benjamin and Valeri Hristov. She floated in the air and his body movements exhibited huge strength and security.

Benjamin and Hristov in ‘Meditations’

Musically too this was a treat. Vasko Vassilev played a wonderful violin for the Meditation, and Robert Clark a fine piano in the Liszt. But the main plaudits must go to Emmanuel Plasson for some of the best conducting I have heard for the Royal Ballet in recent years. His French background is perfect for the Ravel, and the Satie in Monotones, and to my taste he fully brought out the tension and lyricism in the Liszt for Marguerite and Armand.

This is a sell-out, and as some seats can be bought for £6, better value cannot be had in London. Performances with various casts continue until February 23 — for details click here.

Firebird/ In the Night/ Raymonda Act III, Royal Ballet, Covent Garden, December 2012

What a terrific triple bill this is, and on the evening of 29 December it was beautifully danced.

Among cast changes in Raymonda, Zenaida Yanowsky and Ryoichi Hirano replaced Nuñez and Pennefather in the main roles, and Ricardo Cervera replaced Whitehead in the Hungarian dance. Cervera showed a fine cutting edge and dramatic sense, and his partnership with Kristin McNally worked like a charm, the two of them looking like dolls together in perfect time to the music. The dancers in the female variations, the same as before, were even better if that is possible. Hikaru Kobayashi showed beautiful control and musicality, Yuhui Choe’s arabesques en pointe with a bending of the leg were extraordinary, Itziar Mendizabal was lovely in the slow variation, and Helen Crawford’s jumps in the fourth variation were a thrill to watch.

Raymonda Act III, all images ROH/ Tristram Kenton

As a ballet Raymonda has a rather silly story, but the Act III wedding of its eponymous heroine with Jean de Brienne, recently returned from the crusades, is a feast of dancing, and Yanowsky and Hirano were outstanding in these roles. I can’t resist a quick mention of Fumi Kaneko, Emma Maguire and Yasmine Nagdhi who were brilliantly on the music in the pas-de-trois. Raymonda Act III makes a glorious finale, and as the curtain opened Barry Kay’s ravishing set once again elicited spontaneous applause.

Galeazzi and Watson as Firebird and Prince

Firebird, so often the finale itself, is the starter here, with Mara Galeazzi showing beautiful arm movements as the Firebird. Edward Watson gave a well-nuanced performance as Ivan Tsarevich, Alastair Marriott was suitably dramatic as the wicked Kostcheï, and Christina Arestis was a gorgeous princess. The story is the reverse of Swan Lake, the prince abandoning his passion for an exotic female to accept a royal and more appropriate partner, but Stravinsky’s music is, or should be, hugely dramatic, though Barry Wordsworth’s conducting with its elegantly rounded corners lacked energy and bite.

No problem on that score with the second item, In the Night, where Robert Clark gave an excellent performance of Chopin’s nocturnes to accompany some glorious choreography by Jerome Robbins.

In the Night, Campbell and Maguire

Against a starlit background, Alexander Campbell and Emma Maguire made a wonderful first couple, he so full of energy, she showing a gentle gracefulness. And in the third variation, Carlos Acosta and Roberta Marquez made a dramatic entrance on their shaft of light, moving apart and together with great passion. It was a super partnership, but in the second movement Zenaida Yanowsky and Nehemiah Kish did not manage the same success as a week ago. She seemed far less comfortable than with Hirano in Raymonda, and a couple of the lifts went slightly awry. In the Night ends with a delightful waltz, and interactions between the six dancers — it is a superb vehicle for the individual brilliance that this Company has in spades, and they should dance it more often.

In the Night, Yanowsky and Kish

Unfortunately all three later performances are sold out, but click here for details and possible returns.

Royal Ballet Triple: Firebird, In The Night, Raymonda Act III, Covent Garden, December 2012

A triple bill ending with the third act of Raymonda is a fine complement to Nutcracker for the Christmas/ New Year period.

Raymonda Act III, all images ROH/ Tristram Kenton

Raymonda has a wonderful finale with stunning costumes, and the sets drew audience applause when the curtain opened. With fifteen soloists including the principals, Zenaida Yanowsky and Nehemiah Kish on this occasion, it is jam-packed full of dancing. Among others, Hikaru Kobayashi and Yuhui Choe were excellent in their solos, Alexander Campbell was strikingly precise with his tours-en-l’air in the pas-de-quatre, and Ms Yanowsky, well partnered by Kish, showed star appeal. Glazunov’s music was well conducted by Barry Wordsworth, far better than Stravinsky’s Firebird, which opened the show.

Firebird

Firebird is always worth seeing, and the corps de ballet danced beautifully both in this and Raymonda. The Firebird herself was danced with conviction by Itziar Mendizabal, weakening as the prince holds her wings and fulfilling her promise to help him after her release. Gary Avis gave a fine portrayal of Kostcheï the deathless, whom the prince vanquishes with her help by breaking the egg that contains his heart. The prince is triumphant, but Bennet Gartside didn’t show it. He represented Fokine’s choreography with great care, but lacked stage presence, assertiveness and outward tension. This was not helped by Barry Wordsworth’s conducting, which removes the tension and rounds the corners of Stravinsky’s score, hollowing out the soul of the music.

In the Night, Bonelli and Lamb

No such problems with the delightful middle ballet In the Night by Jerome Robbins to music by Chopin, beautifully played by Robert Clark. The choreography is for three couples, starting in this performance with Sarah Lamb and Federico Bonelli floating dreamily together on stage and showing a lovely line. The purity of the music and dancing was a relief after the drama of Firebird, but drama made its way into this 1970 Robbins ballet as Yanowsky and Kish came on for the second pas-de-deux, generating tension and showing a sure-footed ability in executing the upside-down lift. Finally it was Johan Kobborg and Alina Cojocaru who sparkled in the third pas-de-deux, passionately athletic and full of energy. Wonderful fun.

The Company should do Jerome Robbins more often. While they have staged Firebird over 200 times, and the third act of Raymonda nearly 100, this was only their twentieth performance of In the Night.

Performances continue until January 11 — for details click here.

Royal Ballet Triple: Viscera/ Infra/ Fool’s Paradise, Covent Garden, November 2012

This wonderful evening of dance featured two interesting works receiving their first performances by the Royal Ballet.

First came Viscera by Liam Scarlett, commissioned by the Miami City Ballet and premiered in their home-town during January 2012. With costumes by Scarlett himself, beautifully pure lighting by John Hall, and music for piano and orchestra in three movements by American composer Lowell Liebermann, this was riveting.

Nuñez and Hirano in Viscera, all images ROH/ Andrej Uspenski

Music in the first movement was fast. A flurry of turns and lifts, swiftly accomplished by the sixteen dancers led by Laura Morera moving and interchanging with one another, produced a visceral impact. Then suddenly as the lighting turned from red to turquoise the tempo changed to a mood of great tranquillity, and the piano, ably played by Robert Clark, started the second movement with the orchestra directed by Barry Wordsworth joining in later. This section was a pas-de-deux, beautifully performed by Ryoichi Hirano and Marianela Nuñez as they cut interesting poses expressing a great spiritual attraction between them. As she leaves, he walks off, and the final section starts. Slower than the first, but as the lighting changed to pink, so the music changed to a bolder form. The choreography of arm movements was intriguing, and the colours changed again: a moment of turquoise changed to red, and firm chords from the orchestra led to a final denouement. It was all superbly danced, and this 20 minute ballet formed a terrific start to an evening that ended with Fool’s Paradise by Christopher Wheeldon.

Watson and Hamilton in Fool’s Paradise

This 30 minute ballet was first performed in 2007 by Wheeldon’s own company, to music by Joby Talbot, who later delivered the score for Wheeldon’s full-length ballet on Alice in Wonderland. Lovely flesh coloured costumes with subtle highlights by fashion designer Narcisco Rodriguez were complemented by distant lighting from high above by Penny Jacobus, with fluttering white leaves descending to the stage. It all starts with two men and a girl standing at stage rear. As she moves to join them in a pas-de-trois the action warms up, and couples come into play, moving and disappearing. Beautiful partnering here by Federico Bonelli with Sarah Lamb, Edward Watson with Melissa Hamilton, and Steven McRae with Yuhui Choe in the sensual choreography underpinned by Talbot’s mellifluous music, which at times sounded like early Schoenberg. After complex variations among nine dancers, they come together at the end to form an extraordinary tableau of bodies, arms and legs.

Fool’s Paradise final tableau

The second item of the triple, Wayne McGregor’s Infra with its interesting music by Max Richter, was surrounded by two half hour intervals, making a good dinner interlude for those who are already familiar with it. But this triple bill, superbly danced and with two works new to the Company, is worth every penny of the tickets at bargain basement prices. Terrific value and very well worth seeing.

Performances continue only until November 14 — for details click here.

Royal Ballet Triple: Limen, Marguerite and Armand, Requiem, Covent Garden, October 2011

Having seen Limen two years ago, my main memory was of blue number lights at the rear of the stage in a confusing on-again-off-again pattern, along with dancers barely visible in a half-light, but that is only in the second part. The first half is better, and I like Kaija Saariaho’s music, I love the use of bright colours in Lucy Carter’s lighting, and I rather like the video projections of liquid crystal numbers floating in a blue background at the start. Wayne McGregor’s choreography was brilliantly executed by Steven McRae and a first rate cast, but the last part in half light is dull, overshadowed by the bright blue lights at the rear, and I was glad of the interval before the main two items of the evening.

Rojo and Polunin, photo Tristram Kenton

Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand is a beautiful ballet based on Alexandre Dumas’s La Dame aux Camélias, with designs by Cecil Beaton. He wrote it for Fonteyn, partnered by Nureyev, who was almost twenty years her junior, and it was performed here by Tamara Rojo with the 21-year old Sergei Polunin. Her dancing, reminiscent of Fonteyn herself, showed huge emotional commitment, and her pain is palpable as he throws her aside in anger. Hers is a characterisation of the role it will be hard to beat. Polunin’s stage presence and physicality were wonderful, and the rest of the cast gave fine support, with Gary Avis as a most engaging Duke, like a lightly bearded version of Bruce Forsythe, and Christopher Saunders as a very solid father. When Ashton originally wanted to create this piece the right music evaded him until he heard Liszt’s piano sonata in B minor on the radio in 1962, and the ballet followed the next year to an orchestrated version of the sonata. In this performance Barry Wordsworth conducted the orchestra, but with Robert Clarke sounding overly sententious on the piano the music failed to match the heights of emotion reached by the dancers.

Leanne Benjamin in Requiem, photo Johan Persson

Finally in Requiem, to Fauré’s music, the emotion of the dancers is more restrained but very much the essence of the piece. Kenneth MacMillan created this ballet as a tribute to another wonderful British choreographer, John Cranko of the Stuttgart Ballet. The board of governors of the Royal Opera House originally turned down the idea of creating a ballet to Fauré’s sacred music, but MacMillan turned to the Stuttgart Ballet itself, which performed it as a memorial to the loss of their inspiring leader. The dancers exhibit collective grief, and the evening cast was wonderful together, with Carlos Acosta exhibiting enormous physical presence, and Leanne Benjamin riding high above the company as they carried her. These are dancers whose very presence is a tribute to dance, and the performance of the Sanctus by Leanne Benjamin and Rupert Pennefather was beautiful. The company danced with utter conviction, and perfect placing, and the pas-de-trois with Pennefather, Acosta and Benjamin at the end was superbly done.

Carlos Acosta in Requiem, photo Johan Persson

Requiem is really something to behold, and this triple bill is an opportunity to see highly emotional work of Ashton and MacMillan in the same programme. Don’t miss it. There are four more performances until October 20 — for details click here.

Royal Ballet Triple: Electric Counterpoint, Asphodel Meadows, Carmen, Covent Garden, May 2010

Pennefather and Nuñez in Scarlett's fine new ballet Asphodel Meadows, photo by Johan Persson

Asphodel Meadows is a very interesting new ballet by Liam Scarlett, to Poulenc’s Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra. There were fourteen dancers plus three principal couples, one for each movement of the concerto. The first was beautifully danced by Marianela Nuñez and Rupert Pennefather with lovely elegant movements, the second more spicily by Tamara Rojo and Bennet Gartside, and the third fluidly and fast by Laura Morera and Ricardo Cervera. Costumes were leotards for the boys and simple skirts and tops for the girls, bluish/beige for the fourteen dancers, with dark brown, charcoal, and crimson, in that order, for the principals in the three movements. I thought the designs by John Macfarlane were excellent, as was the lighting by Jennifer Tipton. It all lasted a little under 25 minutes and was a delight to watch. The title is interesting. Asphodel is a type of lily, and the name is from ancient Greek. Meadows of asphodel appear in Homer’s Odyssey (Book XI, line 539), where Odysseus travels to Hades and encounters the shades of dead heroes.

Sarah Lamb and Edward Watson in Electric Counterpoint, photo by Dee Conway

This new ballet was sandwiched between works that were performed within the last two years. The programme started with Christopher Wheeldon’s Electric Counterpoint, to music by Bach and Steve Reich, played by Robert Clark on the piano and James Woodrow on the solo guitar. It appealed to me much more than when I saw it in early 2008, though the cast was almost identical, with Edward Watson, Sarah Lamb, Leanne Benjamin and Eric Underwood — last time, Benjamin’s role was performed by Zenaida Yanowsky. In the first part each dancer appears alone, starting with Sarah Lamb. There is a wall facing the audience on which is projected another version of Sarah Lamb, dancing as if she were a mirror image. Gradually, however, the dancer and her image go disconcertingly out of phase with one another, but later there is little connection between dancer and image. During this first section, along with the piano music by Bach, there is a recorded voice-over by the dancer who is performing, giving personal details of their life and motivation. In the second part the wall facing the audience vanishes and there is another wall at an oblique angle, with four doors through which the dancers appear. The electronic music is accompanied by guitar, and there is pas-de-deux work as well as solo dancing. It lasts thirty minutes, which I found well spent, and I liked the designs by Jean-Marc Puissant and the lighting by Natasha Chivers.

After seeing this, followed by Asphodel Meadows, the evening didn’t need spoiling with Mat Eks’ dreadful Carmen, and I’m delighted they put it as the third item on the bill, so I could happily leave.