Kenneth MacMillan is probably best-known for his full-length ballets; Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Mayerling are staples in ballet repertoires around the world, but his catalogue includes a long list of one-act ballets that are fascinating in their variety and in their exploration of the human condition even in its most unsavoury forms. The Royal Ballet’s MacMillan Celebrated triple bill, cleverly curated to show the development of his wide-ranging skills and ideas over a period of three decades, also reveals his choreographic influences during the early years.
Danses concertantes, from 1955, was MacMillan’s first professional commission from what was then Sadler’s Wells Ballet. It was also his first collaboration with Nicholas Georgiadis, whose designs here must have caused some widening of eyes in the premiere audience; the almost Bakstian richness of colour highlighted with black accents is stunning. The opening tableau immediately put me in mind of the Ballets Russes.
Throughout the piece, there are clear references to choreographic work MacMillan admired; Ashton is there, especially Scènes de Ballet, Balanchine is there in the fiendishly complex ingenuity of the step-sequences and fast changes of direction, but there are glimpses of MacMillan’s unique future development in the lifts and pas de deux construction. Danses is a veritable explosion of ideas. All this visual splendour coalesces with Stravinsky’s lush score to create a sensory feast. For the dancers there are significant challenges; there was the odd ragged moment (musicality is the key in work like this) but overall they rose to the occasion, especially Vadim Muntagirov, Sae Maeda and Joseph Sissens. Isabella Gasparini, replacing Anna-Rose O’Sullivan, brought charm to a role created on Maryon Lane, a ballerina whose high-instepped shoes are never easy to fill.
Next we move to the 1980s for Different Drummer, MacMillan’s take on George Buchner’s play, Woyzeck, and Alban Berg’s opera, Wozzeck. MacMillan’s bravery in never shrinking from depiction of human horror immerses us here in the descent into madness of a soldier, a man with a common law wife and an illegitimate child, driven by poverty to act as a guinea-pig in medical experiments that dehumanise and degrade him. He is also in thrall to the whims of his inhumane Captain, who humiliates him. The central characters, Woyzeck and Marie, originally danced by Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling, today seem hand-tailored for Marcelino Sambé and Francesca Hayward, her glowing beauty and expressive movement explaining in themselves the jealous rage engendered in Woyzeck by her apparent seduction by the Drum Major. Sambé himself is the very incarnation of artistry. He immerses himself in the character he is portraying, making himself vulnerable in the manner of the true artist, so that our hearts almost break alongside his. In the face of such intensity, the tragic ending becomes inevitable.
Back to the 1970s for Requiem, which is nothing less than a masterpiece. It is hard to believe now that The Royal Ballet initially rejected it (the Fauré Requiem thought too sacred to dance to) so it was made in Stuttgart, where it was seen as a beautiful tribute to MacMillan’s friend John Cranko, the Stuttgart ballet’s much-loved artistic director who had recently died. The stunning sculptural images MacMillan draws from the dancers’ bodies, dressed in shining white unitards with light swirls of colour, are set against monumental transparent pillars filled with light (designs are by Yolanda Sonnabend); these elements reflect Faure’s music perfectly and the whole is an exposition of grief ameliorated by hope. Lauren Cuthbertson as the Madonna-like figure is the serene lynchpin; Melissa Hamilton, Matthew Ball and Joseph Sissens shine as the leaders of the Agnus Dei, the Introït and the Libera Me respectively.
Kevin O’Hare grasped the opportunities offered by these three ballets to give roles to some of the talented dancers in the company’s ranks below that of Principal. In Different Drummer, Teo Dubreuil as the Christ-like soldier created an enchanting spiritual presence, and danced and partnered extremely well in Requiem. The challenges of Danses concertantes held no fear for Marco Masciari, a dancer of purity and versatility (trained at the excellent Académie de danse Princesse Grace in Monaco). He will certainly go far in The Royal Ballet’s repertoire. Lukas B. Brændsrød, Valentino Zucchetti, David Donnelly and Mariko Sasaki also impressed in Requiem. Luca Acri has developed dramatically recently and he showed himself very capable in Danses concertantes. It was good to see the talented Francisco Serrano as the Drum Major in Different Drummer.
As always, Koen Kessels’s expertise in the pit underpinned the glory of an emotional evening.
