BRB, 29/2/2012

'Spring Passions'

Ravel : Daphnis and Chloë
Messager (arr. Lanchberry) : The Two Pigeons

Birmingham Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Koen Kessels

This was a Frederick Ashton double-bill, Daphnis dating from 1951, Pigeons from ten years later.  On seeing the programme advertised, I had wondered why the Ravel was placed first.  In musical terms, there's no comparison; André Messager was a talented composer, particularly of song and light opera, capable of music of considerable charm, but the Ravel score for Daphnis and Chloë is one of the great masterpieces of 20th Century music.  Having just experienced both works, however, their positioning was a judicious choice, because there's little doubt that Pigeons is the better ballet.

The problem with Daphnis is, of course, the music.  It defeated Fokine, the original choreographer (whose version has pretty well  disappeared), and I think it defeated Ashton.  It's probably fair to say that Ravel didn't exactly know what he was doing, when writing a ballet score.  He simply wrote as his inspiration took him, and had little consideration (or possibly even knowledge) of what would work in practical terms, unlike, say, Tchaikovsky, who had extensive experience of the theatre, and ended up collaborating closely with his choreographer.  The result is an extraordinarily beautiful piece of music, but one which challenges the very act of putting steps to it.

Ashton's responses are uneven; as usual with his choreography, there's some very striking group dances, the patterning visually arresting, but the solo numbers are patchy.  Daphnis suffers in particular, he has very little interesting to do, though Iain Mackay made the most of it.  On the other hand, I enjoyed Dorkon's clumpy 'competition dance', Matthew Lawrence making sly parallels to a slightly inept body-builder flexing his biceps to impress the ladies, and after a cool start, Elisha Willis was a lovely Chloë, particularly in her dance in the pirates' den, with faltering steps and drooping shoulders making her plight moving.

Messager's lighter score (arranged and expanded by John Lanchberry), tuneful and pleasant, though ultimately unmemorable, simplified things for the choreographer, who produced a fresh, touching story of a young artist distracted away from his faithful girlfriend by a bold gypsy girl, only to realise finally that his heart's desire was right under his nose all along.  Ashton was rarely able to avoid touches of gimmickry (I've never seen a ballet in which he didn't resort to props somewhere along the line - though rarely as extravagantly as two live pigeons!), and there's a recurring theme of bird-like movements (chicken-wing flapping, if I'm feeling uncharitable about it) for the Young Girl that gets a little tedious, and all the girls needed to work the shoulder-shimmy a little better, but otherwise it's easy to see why Pigeons returns, generation after generation, with continued success.  The piece is diverting, well-balanced, and your attention never wanders from the action.

Elisha Willis and Matthew Lawrence were back as the Gypsy Girl and her Lover, though Lawrence was seriously upstaged by Tzu-Chao Chou as an athletic and singularly cheeky Gypsy Boy.  Willis, I thought, needed to smoulder a bit more, she wasn't quite 'bad' enough, with the result that when the gypsies tire of the Young Man's company, her taunting of him as he gets roughed up by the men doesn't quite ring true.  She did deliver an excellent pas de trois, full of sleek, sensual pleasure at having the two men vie for her attention.  Nao Sakuma contrasted well with her as the Young Girl (their 'anything you can do' face-off was very funny), a little flighty at the start, but lyrical and sweet in the final pas de deux.

Best of all, however, was Robert Parker as the Young Man.  Without being one of those very spectacular technicians, Parker has a fluidity and elegance of movement that seems as natural and unforced as breathing, and renders him very expressive.  Every emotion is clearly projected without being overdone, and made his character, who is the central protagonist of this piece, completely credible, flaws and virtues alike.  While I'm sure he'll be an asset to the Elmhurst School for Dance, it seems a pity he's retiring from performance so soon.

[Next event : 11th March]