BRB, 26/02/2014

Britten : The Prince of the Pagodas

Artists of Birmingham Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Koen Kessels

Reading the programme notes for tonight's performance of The Prince of the Pagodas, I discovered that there had been far more attempts to stage this problematic piece than the three I knew of (including this one).  None of the older versions seems to have 'stuck' particularly, and I have doubts that David Bintley's will either.

In the original 1957 version, the choreographer John Cranko devised the scenario which, to summarise extremely briefly, is sort of King Lear meets Beauty and the Beast.  Then he apparently more or less left Britten to it, to write the music.  Britten, instead of demanding that Cranko clarify or edit certain aspects of his less than water-tight story, did without much more input from the choreographer, and crafted a superb, lush score (well rendered tonight by Kessels and the Sinfonia) in which the homages to Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky are very clear, and which adhered astonishingly - and prohibitively - close to Cranko's scenario.  Britten knew what he was writing; what he couldn't, perhaps, know was that neither Cranko, nor anybody else since would actually be able to make something truly viable of it.

In re-creating The Prince of the Pagodas (for the National Ballet of Japan, originally), David Bintley has re-cast the story into a Six Swans-type tale.  The Emperor's son has apparently died.  The Emperor loses interest in life, neglecting his daughter, while his second wife schemes to usurp power completely.  Just as the stepmother plans to dispose of the princess by marrying her off to a foreign power (in exchange for a suitably rich inducement) a mysterious Salamander appears at court, and the princess turns to it for aid.  The Salamander turns out to be the long-lost son under an enchantment, and brother and sister return to the court together to confront the wicked stepmother and restore their father to his senses and his throne.

All well and good, but frankly Bintley has left as many plot holes in this version as he claims he was trying to plug.  Worse, he has omitted some of the major "signposts" of a very specific fairy-tale type, which can only leave one feeling unfulfilled.  So while much of his choreography fits the music reasonably well, the rationale behind it is no clearer than it ever was.  The first act is dull, the third, after a strong start, seems to run out of steam, and a pas de deux for brother and sister just doesn't have the same impact as one depicting a romantic relationship.  Only the second act, strange though it is, offers any real substance, and some genuinely worthwhile material for the dancers.

The production, designed by Rae (War Horse) Smith, is generally pretty spectacular (if a little dimly lit at times), broadly inspired by Japanese woodblock art.  Mount Fuji sits sketched on the backdrop for the outer acts, while Princess Sakura's voyage to the Salamander's land passes through tunnels of sea-foam and fire, imaginatively evoked.  On the other hand, the 'kimonos' for the court in the last act are too flimsy and floppy, and conceal the lines of the dancers' bodies, making the small corps de ballet's movements look rather less precise than they probably are.

Tonight's cast was particularly young - both Sakura and the Salamander were making first appearances, and none of the company Principals were dancing - so it was quite interesting to see the up-and-comers of the company.  However, the material was a little thin, much of the time.  In the first act, only Brandon Lawrence's King of the South made any impact, and neither Yaoquian Shang's Sakura, nor Delia Mathews's Empress Epine (the wicked stepmother) seemed to have much to say for themselves in terms of characterisation.

Matters improved considerably in the second act, especially for Mathews, who appeared as a recurring nightmare figure in Sakura's voyages, and made an especially striking appearance in a rather remarkable, and very entertaining number for octopus and two sea urchins.  No, that's not a joke, you have to see it; it was really rather good.  She also opened the proceedings in Act 3 (as the Empress once again) in a splendid tango, danced with the four foreign Kings.  Yasuo Atsuji was the Salamander/Prince, generally good, particularly in the "memory" sequence in Act 2, in which Sakura discovers her brother's fate.  He also has quite a nice jeté, which we could have done to see some more of.

Nothing Bintley does is ever completely pointless; there were moments of genuine inspiration here. On the whole, however, I'm afraid it's a case of 'another one bites the dust'.  Britten's score has yet to find its choreographic match.

[Next : 1st March, if all goes well!]