Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
Nov. 17th, 2013 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseI actually saw this last Tuesday. I enjoyed it very much.
It wasn't exactly modern dance, but it also wasn't ballet. He used the Tchaikovsky score and based a few parts on the Petipa choreography, but Bourne's telling was more straightforward in many ways. Rather than have the last act be specialty dances by other fairy tale characters, it resolved the central story going right back to the original story -- with a little Disney thrown in.
The Choreographer's notes in the Playbill point out that if Aurora's asleep for 100 years, then she can't really be in love with the Prince as she's never met him. The Disney film compacts the story and has Aurora meet her prince before her sleep and the prince rescues her relatively quickly.
Bourne split the difference. He sets the first act, Aurora's christening, in 1890. There's some wonderful puppetry to show the infant Aurora is a bit of a hellion (she climbs the curtains while the servants are looking for her), and the fairies don't come to a christening, they sneak into her nursery at night. Carabosse, the bad fairy (aka Maleficent in the Disney film), is played by a man who then plays her son in later acts. The usual fairies (there are six in this production) are a mix of men and women, with the chief fairy being called Count Lilac.
The second act is set in 1911, and the choreography of some of the partner dances pays tribute to the Maxixe and the Castle Walk, two popular dances of the day (again, from the program notes). The thing is Aurora has already met her "prince" -- he's the young gamekeeper on the family estates. I loved that touch as both Lady Chatterly's Lover and Maurice have gamekeepers as the working class love interests. He sneaks into Aurora's room and manages to dance with her discreetly at the garden party held on her birthday.
Now, frankly, the sets are minimal, as they are for most ballets/dance performances. The last thing dancers need is to worry about where to put their feet. But one of the framing devices for the garden party was a giant weeping angel over on one side of the stage. There were a few moments when I found it difficult to watch the dancers because I wasn't going to take my eyes off that *(&^%$ weeping angel. I've been watching Doctor Who since 1967, for heaven's sake.
The second act ends with Count Lilac proving to be a vampire and drinking the gamekeeper's blood so that he can live for another 100 years.
Acts three and four are set in 2011. I found act four a little hard to follow with the big change to the story, although I was happy when Aurora got together with her "prince" and the infant puppet joined them to show the "happily ever after." Act three had some sumptuous dancing in a very well delineated spooky, overgrown garden. There were spirits trying to prevent the prince from getting to Aurora, and, in many ways, it was the most satisfying act for me. The dancing was purer -- very little mime -- and, if necessary, it could stand on its own as divertissement.
I'm so glad I saw it.
It wasn't exactly modern dance, but it also wasn't ballet. He used the Tchaikovsky score and based a few parts on the Petipa choreography, but Bourne's telling was more straightforward in many ways. Rather than have the last act be specialty dances by other fairy tale characters, it resolved the central story going right back to the original story -- with a little Disney thrown in.
The Choreographer's notes in the Playbill point out that if Aurora's asleep for 100 years, then she can't really be in love with the Prince as she's never met him. The Disney film compacts the story and has Aurora meet her prince before her sleep and the prince rescues her relatively quickly.
Bourne split the difference. He sets the first act, Aurora's christening, in 1890. There's some wonderful puppetry to show the infant Aurora is a bit of a hellion (she climbs the curtains while the servants are looking for her), and the fairies don't come to a christening, they sneak into her nursery at night. Carabosse, the bad fairy (aka Maleficent in the Disney film), is played by a man who then plays her son in later acts. The usual fairies (there are six in this production) are a mix of men and women, with the chief fairy being called Count Lilac.
The second act is set in 1911, and the choreography of some of the partner dances pays tribute to the Maxixe and the Castle Walk, two popular dances of the day (again, from the program notes). The thing is Aurora has already met her "prince" -- he's the young gamekeeper on the family estates. I loved that touch as both Lady Chatterly's Lover and Maurice have gamekeepers as the working class love interests. He sneaks into Aurora's room and manages to dance with her discreetly at the garden party held on her birthday.
Now, frankly, the sets are minimal, as they are for most ballets/dance performances. The last thing dancers need is to worry about where to put their feet. But one of the framing devices for the garden party was a giant weeping angel over on one side of the stage. There were a few moments when I found it difficult to watch the dancers because I wasn't going to take my eyes off that *(&^%$ weeping angel. I've been watching Doctor Who since 1967, for heaven's sake.
The second act ends with Count Lilac proving to be a vampire and drinking the gamekeeper's blood so that he can live for another 100 years.
Acts three and four are set in 2011. I found act four a little hard to follow with the big change to the story, although I was happy when Aurora got together with her "prince" and the infant puppet joined them to show the "happily ever after." Act three had some sumptuous dancing in a very well delineated spooky, overgrown garden. There were spirits trying to prevent the prince from getting to Aurora, and, in many ways, it was the most satisfying act for me. The dancing was purer -- very little mime -- and, if necessary, it could stand on its own as divertissement.
I'm so glad I saw it.
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Date: 2013-11-23 06:35 am (UTC)Love the gothic romance & Merchant Ivory inspirations!
"Matthew Bourne was standing in the bedroom of Tchaikovsky's home outside Moscow two years ago when he decided it was finally time to tackle 'Sleeping Beauty.'
'It had a single bed and a very ordinary wooden table, looking out the window at birch trees. There was something so simple about it, and yet this is where all this wonderful music came from.'"
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Date: 2013-11-23 07:29 pm (UTC)