Keep calm and carry on, I’m the Lilac Fairy ….
The Russian National Ballet have brought us a very traditional, and very pretty, version of Sleeping Beauty. Using the accepted standard Petipa choreography, it is one to keep the grandmas and Aunt Ednas happy (and little girls loved it too).
The sets are rather basic, with fake cut out statues and staircases. There is however a wonderful Versailles fountain like backdrop. I did like the oversized embroidered roses for the vision scene in Act 2, however, I am afraid the Act 3 ballroom set looks rather like a niche in an art gallery. The lighting was most dramatic and effective – Caraboose appears with striking red lighting and the vision scene is lit as if a dream from a black and white film. It uses recorded music.
There was fine ensemble work throughout, consistently well done, both courtiers and fairies. The patterns and formations – especially in the big waltzes – worked wonderfully and were performed crisply and precisely. In Act 1 the women of the corps wore bonnets with their pink and white dresses, in Act 3 beautiful delicately beaded caps. The men wore straw boaters for the Garland Waltz in Act 1 ,which gave it a summery music hall look. ​However, the elbow frills that most of the women wore (fairies and so on) distracts and cuts the line of the arms.
Our Princess Aurora was excellent, beautifully danced although I did wonder about the Barbie like extra pink sparkly tutu for Act 1. Her entrance and first solo was terrific. In Act 1 she is all young, dewy, girly and blushing, shy and nervously giggly. The Rose Adagio was handled very well, but she barely looked at the Princes and instead stared into space. In Act 3, in white and gold for the wedding, she was radiant and confident.
Looking a bit like a young Rupert Everett, our hero, Prince Desire, gave a standout performance. He had no real chance to reveal emotional depths, but oh! What splendid, superb dancing! Pure clean classical technique, incredible jumps and turns, marvelous ballon, and a great partner too. His solo in the Grand Pas De Deux in Act 3 was tremendous and he dazzled in Act 2. I would, however, have dispensed with the very distracting demi–cloak in the hunting scene in Act 2 as it ruins the line of his dancing.
The Lilac Fairy was beautifully, most impressively danced with delightful arms and an exquisite line .She was calm, cool and elegantly collected in the various crisis that developed. Her solos were enchanting. In this version she has an entourage of six lavender coloured attendant fairies.
Karabos, in dramatic black and silver, a red cloak and crazy orange wig is played as a demented Sarah Bernhardt, as Queen Elizabeth 1 or perhaps Kostechei from The Firebird. In kabuki white face striking makeup Karabose is hammed up and played like a third rate panto villain, whirling, twirling and skipping on the stage, exultant when Aurora pricks her finger on the hidden spindle and the poisonous soporific spell begins to work. Interesting to note that in this version there is no entourage of scary minions, no carriage, no bangs, fireworks or flashes when she disappears.
The four princes in Act 1 for the Rose Adagio were very good. In this version there are just three ‘fairytale’ pas de deux in Act 3 – a cute Puss in Boots and the White Cat, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf and and an exciting Bluebird pas de deux.
While very well danced this version is perhaps slightly disappointing. I will be most interested to see the Australian Ballet’s new version later this year.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Sleeping Beauty
The Russian National Ballet
The Concourse, Chatswood.
7-9 October
currently touring various venues and dates
