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Compare and contrast

Giannandrea Poesio

Wednesday, 21st May 2008

Royal Ballet: Double Bill
Royal Opera House

Jerome Robbins insisted that there were no hidden narratives in this series of pure dance numbers and that there was no character definition either — he went so far as to state all that in capital letters in a note sent to the editor of Ballet Review and, appropriately, it is reproduced in Zoë Anderson’s scholarly programme note for the Royal Ballet. Still, Robbins’s choreography is never fully abstract. The various combinations devised for the various sections create, more or less intentionally, a distinctive psychological make-up for the various roles — even though it is then up to their interpreters to develop their own responses to those subtly embedded directions.

Personally, I found the female contingent more theatrically effective than the male one, even though I enjoyed the humorous skirmishes between Kobborg and Harvey, Bonelli’s dashingly carefree attitude and Polunin’s intense lyricism. Cojocaru sent me to heaven with her breathlessly sustained legatos, while Rojo captured my attention with her commanding elegance. Morera and Lamb were also brilliant, but I think that Cuthbertson is the one who deserves a special mention for her sparkling humorous performance.

I have written many times about The Dream so I will not reiterate how much I love this work, a true masterwork of narrative dance-making. The performance I saw on Saturday was fizzy, as the ballet ought to be, and elicited laughter where it should. I regret to report that Ludovic Ondiviela, a splendidly androgynous Puck, sustained a rather horrid-looking injury towards the end, seconds before that technically demanding section set to Mendelssohn’s scherzo. The curtain went down, but then Monica Mason, the artistic director of the Royal Ballet, announced that ‘another Puck’ had been found in the house. To make a début in those circumstances and at that particular point in the ballet is no easy task, but first artist James Wilkie caused a sensation as a truly daredevil goblin. As Oberon, Ivan Putrov confirmed his place once more as an ideal successor to Anthony Dowell, who created the role, moving fluidly from demanding passages to dreamy lyrical long-held poses. Roberta Marquez, as Titania, has the perfect physique du rôle, and the technical abilities. But she ought to remember that this is not a soubrette role and thus should tone down the flashy coquettishness she indulged in. Among the others, Rupert Pennefather, Johannes Stepanek, Cindy Jourdain and Laura McCulloch were flawless as the lovers and Bennet Gartside was ideal as Bottom. If it is an evening of good dance you are after, do not miss it.