Birmingham Royal Ballet Swan Lake Festival Theatre Edinburgh 30th March 2023 Review
Birmingham Royal Ballet Swan Lake at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh (Thu 30 Mar to Sat 1 Apr) is a revival of their production by former Artistic Director of the Company Peter Wright and ballerina Galina Samsova’s 1981 production. This 2023 production with Carlos Acosta now director of the company not only brings this classic story to the stage with Céline Gittens in the dual role of Odette/Odile , Brandon Laurence as Prince Siegfried and Riku Ito as his faithful friend, Benno, but the production also uses many of the wonderful costumes from the original 1981 production.
Swan Lake is one of the world’s most popular classical ballets (if not the most popular) and there are many reasons for it not only surviving, but growing in popularity since it was first premiered by Bolshoi Ballet in 1877. First for me always, the timeless music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky sets this folk tale inspired story of true love found and so swiftly lost through deception and broken vows so perfectly that not only do audiences around the world still love to watch it performed over 145 years later, but so many dancers still dream of performing in it and the starring roles of Odette/Odile and the Prince as one of their career highlights.
This production, as with so many others, takes its choreography sources from Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and the 1895 production. This is what Peter Wright stayed true to and no matter how many new variants come along, this choreography with its classic swan scenes and mirrored symmetry in so many scenes is still to many people “classic Swan Lake”, and this is exactly what Birmingham Royal Ballet delivered to its audience tonight.
This choreography was of course to inspire so many choreographers in the years to come and it is clear to see where Busby Berkeley took inspiration from for his now famous choreography on his Hollywood musicals.
Birmingham Royal Ballet Swan Lake is a lavish production and these costumes (many now over 40 years old) are beautifully crafted creations in their own right that lavishly recreate in their gold, red and blacks (plus many other specific dance costumes) some idea of what an Imperial European court would have been like, and the sheer weight of many of these costumes, with some of the cloaks alone being over 30 kilos, dictate how their wearers move.
Movement is of course the key element in so much of this ballet at a purely technical level, and Swan Lake has much to task even the most accomplished of dancers and principal dancers alike. It is also a very deceptive ballet and so often the role of the Prince looks to be little more at times than to provide a counterbalance (literally) to whoever is performing the role of Odette, and although this is a crucial part of the leading male role in many classic ballets, Brandon Lawrence has so much more to do in this role apart from the obvious solos and duets. Here across four acts he has to give four very different versions of Prince Siegfried as he moves from a carefree young man enjoying the life that his position of wealth and power gives him to a man discovering true love and through his own actions swiftly losing it and having to come to terms with the consequences of his actions. Here Brandon Lawrence takes us on an, at times, very subtle journey of change in his character.
It is perhaps the first scene which not only sets our story but also relegates the Prince to so often being a rather bored participant in his own 21st birthday party that is responsible for much of this illusion, as here many of the most dynamic moments are given to his friend Benno, and Riku Itu takes all of these stage gems and dances his personality and vitality in every movement, so often stealing whole scenes in the process.
The iconic figures in Swan Lake are of course the dual roles of Odette and Odile and as well as some of the most demanding technical moves and moments in classical ballet, Céline Gittens must with nothing more than expression by body movements give us two identical looking people (well apart from the white and black costumes) who are in fact two entirely different persons. In white, we have Princess Odette who along with her friends has been transformed by the evil magician Baron Von Rothbart (Rory Mackay) into swans during the daytime, able only to revert to their human form at night. Only pure and true love of another for her will break this spell for Odette and return her to her full human form.
It is here that Céline Gittens gives everyone their classic swan, with at times movements of great but powerful subtlety, and makes her transition to changing into Odette the creation on stage of someone so different. This is Odile, the Baron’s daughter transformed by his magic to look just like Odette to fool the Prince into announcing his undying love for her and unwittingly breaking his vows and condemning his true love to eternal life as a swan in the process. This woman is not a swan, but human completely in her movements; she is also the mirror opposite of Odette, scheming, conniving, manipulative and certainly not pure of heart and Céline Gittens understands the differences between the two women and makes this clear in her performance.
There are several variants to the ending of Swan Lake and I am not going to tell you which one this production takes as that would be a large spoiler for anyone still planning to go and see this production.
Swan Lake was not an easy production for Tchaikovsky as it required more than a few changes to scenes, choreography and music in its early years, but what came out of all of these changes was an almost perfect fusion of music, story and dance, and this production by Birmingham Royal Ballet brings all of this to life on stage once more.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Swan Lake is one of the world’s most popular classical ballets (if not the most popular) and there are many reasons for it not only surviving, but growing in popularity since it was first premiered by Bolshoi Ballet in 1877. First for me always, the timeless music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky sets this folk tale inspired story of true love found and so swiftly lost through deception and broken vows so perfectly that not only do audiences around the world still love to watch it performed over 145 years later, but so many dancers still dream of performing in it and the starring roles of Odette/Odile and the Prince as one of their career highlights.
This production, as with so many others, takes its choreography sources from Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and the 1895 production. This is what Peter Wright stayed true to and no matter how many new variants come along, this choreography with its classic swan scenes and mirrored symmetry in so many scenes is still to many people “classic Swan Lake”, and this is exactly what Birmingham Royal Ballet delivered to its audience tonight.
This choreography was of course to inspire so many choreographers in the years to come and it is clear to see where Busby Berkeley took inspiration from for his now famous choreography on his Hollywood musicals.
Birmingham Royal Ballet Swan Lake is a lavish production and these costumes (many now over 40 years old) are beautifully crafted creations in their own right that lavishly recreate in their gold, red and blacks (plus many other specific dance costumes) some idea of what an Imperial European court would have been like, and the sheer weight of many of these costumes, with some of the cloaks alone being over 30 kilos, dictate how their wearers move.
Movement is of course the key element in so much of this ballet at a purely technical level, and Swan Lake has much to task even the most accomplished of dancers and principal dancers alike. It is also a very deceptive ballet and so often the role of the Prince looks to be little more at times than to provide a counterbalance (literally) to whoever is performing the role of Odette, and although this is a crucial part of the leading male role in many classic ballets, Brandon Lawrence has so much more to do in this role apart from the obvious solos and duets. Here across four acts he has to give four very different versions of Prince Siegfried as he moves from a carefree young man enjoying the life that his position of wealth and power gives him to a man discovering true love and through his own actions swiftly losing it and having to come to terms with the consequences of his actions. Here Brandon Lawrence takes us on an, at times, very subtle journey of change in his character.
It is perhaps the first scene which not only sets our story but also relegates the Prince to so often being a rather bored participant in his own 21st birthday party that is responsible for much of this illusion, as here many of the most dynamic moments are given to his friend Benno, and Riku Itu takes all of these stage gems and dances his personality and vitality in every movement, so often stealing whole scenes in the process.
The iconic figures in Swan Lake are of course the dual roles of Odette and Odile and as well as some of the most demanding technical moves and moments in classical ballet, Céline Gittens must with nothing more than expression by body movements give us two identical looking people (well apart from the white and black costumes) who are in fact two entirely different persons. In white, we have Princess Odette who along with her friends has been transformed by the evil magician Baron Von Rothbart (Rory Mackay) into swans during the daytime, able only to revert to their human form at night. Only pure and true love of another for her will break this spell for Odette and return her to her full human form.
It is here that Céline Gittens gives everyone their classic swan, with at times movements of great but powerful subtlety, and makes her transition to changing into Odette the creation on stage of someone so different. This is Odile, the Baron’s daughter transformed by his magic to look just like Odette to fool the Prince into announcing his undying love for her and unwittingly breaking his vows and condemning his true love to eternal life as a swan in the process. This woman is not a swan, but human completely in her movements; she is also the mirror opposite of Odette, scheming, conniving, manipulative and certainly not pure of heart and Céline Gittens understands the differences between the two women and makes this clear in her performance.
There are several variants to the ending of Swan Lake and I am not going to tell you which one this production takes as that would be a large spoiler for anyone still planning to go and see this production.
Swan Lake was not an easy production for Tchaikovsky as it required more than a few changes to scenes, choreography and music in its early years, but what came out of all of these changes was an almost perfect fusion of music, story and dance, and this production by Birmingham Royal Ballet brings all of this to life on stage once more.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com