Derek Deane’s 1997 Swan Lake in-the-round has returned to the Royal Albert Hall for a highly anticipated run of performances that will see a number of significant debuts and guest appearances. A fully immersive experience, it transports its audience to the lakeside like no other production. No wonder English National Ballet perform to packed houses. As Deane is quick to point out, ENB is the only company that delivers Swan Lake in this way, a unique take on a ballet that was first performed in Moscow in 1877.
The first thing to note is that while the Hall houses a vast stage, the proximity of the audience to the dancers is strangely intimate. As they enter and exit by running down the aisles, one feels freakishly as if we are all part of the action. What viewers need to know is that while all productions of Swan Lake are extremely taxing, this one requires exceptional stamina to cover the space, and the dancers know that they are under scrutiny from every angle. There’s no hiding and no cheating.
What is most pleasing about Deane’s Swan Lake is his adherence to geometrical patterns which turn the white acts into awe-inspiring spectacles. Combine this with supreme musicality, allowing Tchaikovsky to tell the story and you have a winning formula. Deane has always been a stickler for detail, not just choreographically, but dramatically and this makes the experience feel authentic.
All the divertissements throughout the ballet give opportunities to multiple casts: the Act 1 Pas de Trois becomes a Pas de Douze; there are eight cygnets in Act 2 instead of four and so on. In spite of an overall high standard, it does lead to occasional unevenness. Alongside this, is the inevitable bias to watch the dancers directly in your line of vision which means some of them don’t get much of a look in. On this occasion, the men made more impact than the women in the Pas de Douze: Edvinas Jakonis, Daniel McCormick, Ken Saruhashi and Erik Woolhouse.
Gareth Haw as Prince Siegfried, making his debut in this production, made a sweeping entrance, swallowing up the stage with dashing authority. His height and perfect proportions made the cavernous space seem unusually manageable. Beautiful, elegant lines and a generous plié served him well in his solo at the end of the act. More important was the transformation from carefree, sociable youth to withdrawn and anxious young man when his mother, The Queen (a welcome return to the role from Jane Haworth), insists he marries.
With his spirits lifted at the prospect of hunting swans, Act 2 opened with a theatrical coup as James Streeter’s thrashing Rothbart emerged from an enormous cloud of thick, dry ice. The corps de ballet which, in this version, has 60 swans instead of the usual 24, fairly takes one’s breath away. Well drilled with immaculate lines (at least from where I was sitting), not all of them are full-time members of ENB. Given that they come in for this production only, the overall impression was one of symmetry and precision. There are always going to be some discrepancies when you are close enough to see the beads of sweat, the sideways glances to check the lines and the slight wince after a tiny slip. The flock did sporadically feel more like a stampede in the rush to get on and off stage but the corps de ballet were (and always are) a major highlight of the performance.
Haw’s Odette/Odile was Sangeun Lee, also a debut in this production. She is a ballerina with all the requisite qualities to make the audience feel they were watching someone with superhuman gifts. Her fragility was mesmerising. Her balances were glorious and her ‘through the foot’ work was superlative. And yet, the real magic was in the partnership. At this showing, the electric current that sparked frequently between them, whether in the tenderness of the Act 2 pas de deux or the fireworks of Act 3, just took everything to another level.
The dynamics in the third act were thrilling. The pair were like racehorses, with Haw flying through the air as if suddenly liberated from constraints and Lee revelling in her deception, executing a solid 32 fouettés while rotating to please the entire auditorium.
It is Deane’s Act 4 that has the wow factor though, sending the audience home thinking they’ve experienced something transcendental. The music in this act, never fails to move me. With the English National Ballet Philharmonic, empathically conducted by Gavin Sutherland, poised above the stage – it was pure heaven.
This was the start of the Swan Lake journey and there is still room for improvement, but last night was a triumph.
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