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Friday 9 January 2009

Taste for the unusual

Overture 2012: Power and Passion
Royal Albert Hall

Julie Gilbert/Jean-Baptiste André
The Place

Triple Bill
Royal Opera House

I have to confess that the idea of 120 children and teenagers dancing to Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony did not sound particularly appealing. I have nothing against children, but their performances bore me to death. The problem is also that when it comes to children one can never say what he/she really thinks; last time I did so, I had to hide from irate parents and relatives calling me an ogre and wanting me burnt at the stake. Still, the fact that Royston Maldoom’s Overture 2012: Power and Passion had been included in this year’s Dance Umbrella stimulated my curiosity. After all, the presentation of unusual performances has been one of the most distinctive and successful traits of the 2008 Umbrella programme. Maldoom is a true master in making masses of non-dance professionals move to ‘important’ music played by ‘important’ orchestras, as those who were lucky enough to attend his Rite of Spring with Simon Rattle and the Berliner might vividly recall. This time, too, he has scored a success, involving youngsters between six and 17 in a choreographic discovery of Shostakovich’s musical genius, perfectly highlighted by an intoxicating performance by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of François-Xavier Roth. A discovery indeed, is what Overture 2012 is for its own performers, as they engage with the biographical and artistic struggles suffered by the composer under Stalin’s regime, narrated so vividly by his own notes. As someone who manages to remain cold-heartedly unaffected by the presence of little darlings on stage, I managed to focus on the visually impressive sequence of choreographic ideas and appreciate in full how the performers responded to the music. Personally, I would have done without some of the more descriptive ideas — even though the joy expressed by the little fellow who climbs on to Stalin and realises the tyrant is dead is a liberating coup de théâtre.

More articles from: Giannandrea Poesio | this section

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