Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Marius Pepita, Lev Ivanov and Peter Wright
Director: Carlos Acosta
Before it moved to Birmingham, the city’s Royal Ballet was the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet Company. And so it feels like a double celebration of the company’s 40th anniversary to have Peter Wright’s production of The Sleeping Beauty return to its former home.
The sumptuous ballet, Tchaikovsky’s successor to Swan Lake, is presented here in a highly traditional form, with designs and costumes that perfectly encapsulate what one considers classical ballet to be. Some of the costumes are restorations from the company’s original production, further lending an air of nostalgic celebration.
In the main, those costumes certainly look the part, although in the prologue and Act I, set in the court of King Florestan, the warm lighting turns the yellows and golds into a washed-out pistachio that does nobody any favours. But once the big bad arrives in the form of Daria Stanciulescu’s Carabosse, such concerns are easily dismissed. Carried in on a chariot-shaped sedan chair high above the rest of the company, it’s a scene-stealing entrance to which Stanciulescu continues to live up throughout her time on stage.
Yu Kurihara makes a similarly striking entrance when she finally arrives as the teenage Aurora, albeit in a very different way. Compared to the regal formality of the court until then, her Aurora is a bright, airy young thing. During the Rose Adagio – in which she has to remain en pointe as she takes the hand of each of her four possible suitors – one can detect a nervous tremble, but Kurihara styles it out beautifully. Aurora is capable of putting her game face on, she tells us, whatever feelings may lie just below the surface.
Act II introduces us to Prince Florimund (Lachlan Monaghan), who, 100 years after Aurora has pricked her finger and fallen asleep, is shown a vision of the princess by Ellis Small’s Lilac Fairy. The change of pace and scenery in this act is a welcome change, but perhaps the strongest impression is of the company’s use of consistent sign language between the characters, which further adds layers to their communications.
Monaghan and Kurihara give intimations of their chemistry during that sequence, but it is at the wedding party of Act III where we see the couple’s power at work. Reprising and adapting elements of the dances that have come before, their pas de deux completes the storytelling arc in a hugely satisfying way.
There are, of course, all the dances of the guests in Act III that fit in less well with the narrative but are at least opportunities for the whole company to shine. Enrique Bejarano Vidal delivers an impressive Bluebird with Beatrice Parma in support as his princess, while Rosanna Ely and Callum Findlay-White bring elements of comedy to their performance as Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.
All in all, The Sleeping Beauty is a celebration of classical ballet that celebrates Birmingham Royal Ballet’s heritage, just as modern works like their recent Black Sabbath demonstrate that it is not resting on its past. The arts in Birmingham may be struggling, with the city council axing its entire budget for the sector, but its ballet company will help keep the city’s spirit alive.
Continues until 27 April 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Hugely satisfying
