My first encounter with Ballet came via Powell and Pressburger's extraordinary film, The Red Shoes. Many years later, following a couple of ballet screenings on BBC4, I decided to attend a screening of Swan Lake by the Royal Ballet at my favourite cinema. This particular performance took place at the Royal Opera House 24th April 2024.
Directed by Kevin O'Hare, Swan Lake is a truly timeless 4 act ballet that tells the heartbreaking story of a beautiful princess named Odette who is cursed by the scorcerer Von Rothbart. During daylight hours, Odette and her companions become swans, only regaining their human form at night. Prince Seigfried falls deeply in love with Odette, who explains to him the only way to break the spell.
Betrayal, deception and the power of love are just a few of the themes in this ballet which was conceived 1875-76. Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky wrote the music for Swan Lake and some early reviews condemned it as being too symphonic and not well suited for ballet. While I'm not yet at a level required to offer informed comment on either classical music or ballet, this beautiful score worked for me. Moving from joyous to sombre and introspective, with some truly glorious melodies, my overriding impression is the music has a sense of great recurring sadness.
On a technical level, the entire production excels: choreography by Marius Petipic and Lev Ivanov is constantly breathtaking; the costumes are exquisite and the orchestra - conducted by Martin Georgiev - exemplary. The superb cast really shine here: Yasmine Naghdi verges on the supernatural in the roles of Odette/Odile, so alive to every nuance the performances demand, while Matthew Ball (Prince Seigfreid) and Thomas Whitehead (Von Rothbart) are especially fine. One of many details I noticed, watching this on a cinema screen, is that every single member of the cast remained completely in the moment, including those sitting on the sidelines when not involved with ballet steps. As far as the broadcast was concerned, much praise for Petroc Trelawny and the lovely Darcey Bussell who played host to several very informative interval features.
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