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| The Royal Ballet: Ashton mixed bill review – a five-star masterclass | The Royal Ballet: Ashton mixed bill review – a five-star masterclass |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Frederick Ashton regularly used to watch the Royal Ballet’s rehearsals of Sleeping Beauty, taking what he called “private lessons” from its choreographer Marius Petipa, whom he regarded as the touchstone for his own style. Now Ashton himself is revered as a master – a touchstone for the English classical tradition. And in this all-Ashton programme we’re treated to a masterclass in the qualities of his singular genius. | Frederick Ashton regularly used to watch the Royal Ballet’s rehearsals of Sleeping Beauty, taking what he called “private lessons” from its choreographer Marius Petipa, whom he regarded as the touchstone for his own style. Now Ashton himself is revered as a master – a touchstone for the English classical tradition. And in this all-Ashton programme we’re treated to a masterclass in the qualities of his singular genius. |
| Scènes de Ballet (1948) is based on the template of Petipa’s Rose Adagio, but its cool, taut structure comes shadowed with romantic grandeur and edged with a very period New Look chic. The effect is as elegant as it is mysterious, and Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb, leading a thoroughbred cast, rise to its poetry and brilliance – McRae’s beaten jumps filleting the rhythms of Stravinsky’s score with rare aplomb. | Scènes de Ballet (1948) is based on the template of Petipa’s Rose Adagio, but its cool, taut structure comes shadowed with romantic grandeur and edged with a very period New Look chic. The effect is as elegant as it is mysterious, and Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb, leading a thoroughbred cast, rise to its poetry and brilliance – McRae’s beaten jumps filleting the rhythms of Stravinsky’s score with rare aplomb. |
| One year earlier, Ashton made Symphonic Variations, a setting of Franck’s score that reaches the sublime in its spooling lines of dance and in the space and stillnesses between. The opening cast are possibly the best I’ve seen: Marianela Núñez deploying all her technical power to transmute physical steps into music and air, beautifully partnered by Vadim Muntagirov. | |
| Ashton’s mission to make ecstasy visible was inspired by the early American dance radical Isadora Duncan. Helen Crawford dancing Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (1976) looks nothing like the woman herself, but captures her spirit, her style and, above all, the era in which she performed with a fine intelligence. | Ashton’s mission to make ecstasy visible was inspired by the early American dance radical Isadora Duncan. Helen Crawford dancing Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan (1976) looks nothing like the woman herself, but captures her spirit, her style and, above all, the era in which she performed with a fine intelligence. |
| The evening closes with Month in the Country, Ashton’s 1976 distillation of Turgenev. Zenaida Yanowsky is a complex, volatile Natalia Petrovna and Rupert Pennefather’s Beliaev movingly reveals the lost boy beneath the handsome flirt. Yet the entire cast combine in a stunning ensemble performance: vivid in small, domestic detail while penetrating to the loneliness beneath each character’s skin. | The evening closes with Month in the Country, Ashton’s 1976 distillation of Turgenev. Zenaida Yanowsky is a complex, volatile Natalia Petrovna and Rupert Pennefather’s Beliaev movingly reveals the lost boy beneath the handsome flirt. Yet the entire cast combine in a stunning ensemble performance: vivid in small, domestic detail while penetrating to the loneliness beneath each character’s skin. |
| • Until 12 November. Box office: 020-7304 4000. Venue: Royal Opera House, London. | • Until 12 November. Box office: 020-7304 4000. Venue: Royal Opera House, London. |