English National Ballet has done very well indeed in maintaining the relationship with the Royal Albert Hall, a unique venue for dance in terms of capacity and, indeed, architectural infrastructure. Derek Deane’s brilliant Swan Lake in-the-round was the spectacle that started it all; productions that followed it fared less well and failed to capture the magical atmosphere of Deane’s ingenious staging, bathed in sumptuous lighting and plenty of dry ice. Would Kenneth MacMillan’s Sleeping Beauty, pleasing enough when seen behind a proscenium arch, work as well on a thrust stage in the Hall?
The huge stage is backed by an equally huge video wall built in front of the organ and choir stalls; rectangular panels open to admit the dancers for their entrances and exits, and they also use the staircases that separate the side stalls from the (now hidden) Choir Stalls. Those panels made me long for wings of some description, even without the arch.
Charlotte MacMillan’s charming film work, depicting drawings of grand ruins overlaid with artistic effects representing the growing forest, swooping flights of birds and so on, include intermittent animated text information about the Act/Scene we are about to see, perhaps unnecessary in such a well-known story. The video wall constitutes the only scenery, so we are looking at a huge bare stage bathed in the light from the wall, a spectacle completely lacking in atmosphere. A much more elaborate lighting scheme is required to remedy this. The current scheme does nothing to enhance either the setting or the costumes, which certainly deserve better as they are Nicholas Georgiadis’ gorgeous designs.
The production is given with only one interval, achieved thanks to cuts, including the excision of most of the hunting scene. This in no way harms the progress of the story, but personally I regretted the loss of the missing parts.
Young dancers from English National Ballet School and Tring Park School have been brought in to augment the size of the cast, but it’s not enough to effect the necessary air of bustle in the court scenes and, especially, at the wedding. Overall it feels rather bare and slightly bleak; I hoped that the dancing would lift it onto the sunlit uplands.
Emma Hawes has the physical makings of a true ballerina (long, slim legs, beautiful ports de bras and elegance of head and shoulder carriage) and much of the warmth, but as Aurora she seemed to lack confidence. The balances in the Rose Adagio were of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it variety, and regular ballet-goers will know she is capable of more than that.
Her Act 1 solo wasn’t helped by some very unfortunate shenanigans in the orchestra, temporary but noticeable and I admired her fortitude in working through it. She came into her own in the Vision Scene and her solo was serene, burnishing the choreography with the lovely softness of her arms and her appealing expressiveness. In the Act 3 pas de deux she danced beautifully, judging the nuances with insight, although sometimes not immediately finding her centre in the double-work, and needing help from the exemplary Aitor Arrieta, as always the most noble of princes and a superb partner. What an asset he is to the company.
Elsewhere I found some of the casting rather odd. Rentaro Nakaaki is a fine dancer (who also has strong potential as a choreographer) but he is not the first person one would think of as the Bluebird. Katja Khaniukova as Princess Florine was not on top form and together they muffed several lifts, including the final one.
I would very much like to see Anri Sugiura as Aurora; she has a sweetness and delicacy that would be beautifully suited to the role. As the Lilac Fairy, however, the air of majesty that convinces us she can defeat Carabosse is absent. In the Prologue only one fairy shone out, the talented Ivana Bueno as the Fairy of the Enchanted Garden.
I rather liked Anna Ciriana, Carolyne Galvao and Swanice Luong in the Silver divertissement in Act 3. Rhys Antoni, always a pleasure to watch, extracted the absolute maximum from the White Cat duet. For me the performance of the night came from James Streeter as Carabosse, a nuanced, exquisitely well-judged interpretation that brought some much-needed glamour (albeit of the dark variety) that was absent from the production generally. He is a true artist.
Deane’s Swan Lake aside, Arena Ballet is perhaps not for the committed lover of pure classical ballet, but it provides an invaluable chance to top up company coffers, needed more and more desperately in these straitened times, so I say: more power to it.
