Scottish Ballet Swan Lake Festival Theatre Edinburgh 2nd May 2024 Review
Scottish Ballet Swan Lake at the Festival Theatre tonight was, as you would expect for one of the world’s most popular ballets, a very busy event. Swan Lake always has so many things in its favour, Tchaikovsky’s now immortal musical score and that enduring folk lore magic of special places and a swan queen. Part of this magic for me was also the return tonight of Sophie Martin as guest principal in the dual roles of the white and black swans Odette/Odile, reprising her roles that I first saw her dance in the original Scottish Ballet performance of this work in 2016.
A few notes need to be made, I think, about Swan Lake the ballet before I get into this review. Surprisingly the initial 1877 performance of this work with its almost magical Tchaikovsky score was not a success and alterations to it have been made ever since. Swan Lake is a work that over its history has drawn its inspiration from various old folklores and the ballet itself has had to date many different versions performed with more than a few alternative endings. Out of all of these works, the 1895 revival with choreography by Marius Ivanovich Petipa has become the most famous of all and perhaps the one most widely performed over the years.
This Swan Lake by Scottish Ballet is not that much loved 1895 version, so my advice to anyone thinking of going to see this work is to check out their website and discover a completely different take on this story and this ballet with new choreography by David Dawson. Here, in this work some bold moves have been taken as the story itself fuses elements of the more traditional story with a romantic Germanic folklore story of Swan Queens and those special moments in time when they interact with humanity.
Be prepared here for Scottish Ballet’s Swan Lake and some radical changes to the traditional story lines. These changes have been made to strip away much of the often superfluous baggage that some traditional classical ballets can have today as they were simply written for a very different time and a very different audience. By dispensing with even ballet tutus, David Dawson, Yumiko Takeshima (costume design) and John Otto (set design) have created together a very different minimalist aesthetic and performance space that brings this story back to the key elements that really matter – Tchaikovsky’s music, the lines and movement of the dancers and the fact that this is a true love story of finding that one special person and then losing them again forever. Eternal happiness and eternal regrets are what really give this story its enduring power.
On stage tonight, Sophie Martin (Odette/Odile) and Bruno Micchiardi (Siegfried) make a veery good team together on-stage and despite the fact that David Dawson has created an extremely technically challenging work here that also requires enormous physical strength and endurance from its dancers, everything just looks so effortless. This was also a very emotional performance from Sophie and Bruno that made it possible for us in the audience to enter their mystical world. Whether individually, or dancing duets, both delighted their audience tonight and along the way received much deserved applause.
A special mention too need to go to Thomas Edwards as Benno with a technically very demanding role well balanced by some at times very subtle on stage moments with Siegried (Bruno Micchiardi)
This is sadly only a guest role for Sophie Martin at some performances. This work was scheduled to be performed in 2020 but like so many other things had to be cancelled due to covid restrictions, so Sophie Martin never got the opportunity to revisit this role until now, but it was worth the wait as her understanding of the often very subtle differences between Odette and Odile, coupled with David Dawson’s equally intuitive choreography was something very special this evening.
This might be the last opportunity that many of us get to see Sophie Martin perform on an Edinburgh stage (or even a Scottish one) and we have been left tonight with memories of an artist at the very top of their performance abilities.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
A few notes need to be made, I think, about Swan Lake the ballet before I get into this review. Surprisingly the initial 1877 performance of this work with its almost magical Tchaikovsky score was not a success and alterations to it have been made ever since. Swan Lake is a work that over its history has drawn its inspiration from various old folklores and the ballet itself has had to date many different versions performed with more than a few alternative endings. Out of all of these works, the 1895 revival with choreography by Marius Ivanovich Petipa has become the most famous of all and perhaps the one most widely performed over the years.
This Swan Lake by Scottish Ballet is not that much loved 1895 version, so my advice to anyone thinking of going to see this work is to check out their website and discover a completely different take on this story and this ballet with new choreography by David Dawson. Here, in this work some bold moves have been taken as the story itself fuses elements of the more traditional story with a romantic Germanic folklore story of Swan Queens and those special moments in time when they interact with humanity.
Be prepared here for Scottish Ballet’s Swan Lake and some radical changes to the traditional story lines. These changes have been made to strip away much of the often superfluous baggage that some traditional classical ballets can have today as they were simply written for a very different time and a very different audience. By dispensing with even ballet tutus, David Dawson, Yumiko Takeshima (costume design) and John Otto (set design) have created together a very different minimalist aesthetic and performance space that brings this story back to the key elements that really matter – Tchaikovsky’s music, the lines and movement of the dancers and the fact that this is a true love story of finding that one special person and then losing them again forever. Eternal happiness and eternal regrets are what really give this story its enduring power.
On stage tonight, Sophie Martin (Odette/Odile) and Bruno Micchiardi (Siegfried) make a veery good team together on-stage and despite the fact that David Dawson has created an extremely technically challenging work here that also requires enormous physical strength and endurance from its dancers, everything just looks so effortless. This was also a very emotional performance from Sophie and Bruno that made it possible for us in the audience to enter their mystical world. Whether individually, or dancing duets, both delighted their audience tonight and along the way received much deserved applause.
A special mention too need to go to Thomas Edwards as Benno with a technically very demanding role well balanced by some at times very subtle on stage moments with Siegried (Bruno Micchiardi)
This is sadly only a guest role for Sophie Martin at some performances. This work was scheduled to be performed in 2020 but like so many other things had to be cancelled due to covid restrictions, so Sophie Martin never got the opportunity to revisit this role until now, but it was worth the wait as her understanding of the often very subtle differences between Odette and Odile, coupled with David Dawson’s equally intuitive choreography was something very special this evening.
This might be the last opportunity that many of us get to see Sophie Martin perform on an Edinburgh stage (or even a Scottish one) and we have been left tonight with memories of an artist at the very top of their performance abilities.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com