Picture a parched landscape, a windmill, towering eucalypts and a stripy black and white clad football team dancing in a country town square. Enjoy the sight of a Kurrawong on a verandah rail that nods to the sweep and swirl of Delibes’ rich music and the secret is blown.
Choreographer Greg Horsman has whisked Coppélia away from late eighteenth-century Galicia in the Austrian Empire, the ballet’s original home, to Harndorf, South Australia, a small town settled by German Lutherans in 1838.
The translation adds favourably to this vibrant production. A series of images projected during the overture establishes the basics of the plot and eradicates the need for clunky narration that can mire more traditional productions. Dr Coppélia loses his beloved young daughter to fatal illness and finds comfort in creating a life-sized robotic replica ably portrayed by Martha Godber.
The act in Dr Coppélia’s fusty, Addams Family-style mansion is great fun as Swanhilda and her trusty peers wreak havoc in the wacky Doctor’s workshop. For here’s a man-space stashed with life-like dolls. And the set, featuring an antiquated Frankenstein electricity board that brims with switches, clamps and wires, becomes a visual surrealistic treat that rocks with disco-jiving disembodied limbs and heads.
The mechanical moves are well executed and are relished by the cast. The life-sized dolls in the macabre mansion betray the eye, as it is hard to believe they are living breathing beings.
Swanilda Hoffman is danced in style in this performance by the fresh-faced, persuasive Natasha Kusch. She is strong as the pouting girlfriend outraged at Franz, (Qi Kuan), because of his furtive admiration for a beautiful girl sitting on Dr Coppélia’s verandah.
Kusch and Kuan have a positive partnership. Kuan dances with flare, strength and athletic precision and both dancers’ pirouettes are fired with brilliance. Sets are serviceable and establish an Aussie flavor, although, according to a ten-year old in the audience, there is an overdose on pink to conjure girly beauty.
Bravo to the live musical accompaniment supplied by Camerata of St John’s and ably conducted by Andrew Morgrelia. The ensemble can be forgiven its occasional frayed wind and brass edges as it grows in volume, shrinks back, slows and accelerates responsively to heighten the drama. An entertaining and wholesome show.Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars
Coppélia
Co-produced by Queensland Ballet and West Australian Ballet
Choreography: Greg Horsman
Costume Designer: Noelene Hill
Set Designer: Hugh Coleman
Lighting Designer: Jon Buswell
With the Camerata of St. John’s
Conductor: Andrew Mogrelia
Music: Léo Delibes
Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, South Bank
www.qpac.com.au
26 April – 10 May
