Adam : Giselle
Artists of the Royal New Zealand Ballet
Orchestra Wellington
Michael Lloyd (pre-recorded soundtrack)
It was clear from the outset that no boats were going to be rocked tonight in this production of Giselle, tailored to the capacity of the Royal New Zealand Ballet by former Artistic Director Ethan Stiefel and Danish dancer/choreographer (and former Royal Ballet principal) Johan Kobborg, but based on the Petipa version. Despite a framing device which meant that the action was effectively being presented as a flashback, decors and costumes were quite typical for the piece, although I had the curious impression that the dancers were a little cramped for space, particularly in Act 1, which surprised me, as the decor didn't look that cumbersome, and the Festival Theatre stage seems a fairly normal size. It's not as if there were that many dancers either; it's a small company, thirty-four dancers in its current line-up, and the production reflected that accordingly, with all the group dances in Act 1 geared for six couples, and only twelve girls in the corps for Act 2.
I found Act 2 generally more satisfactory than Act 1. That feeling that they were tight for space, and an odd sort of stop-and-start quality to the acting left me a little unhappy with proceedings at the start. Some of the traditional mime had been replaced with more modern gestures, which jarred to my eyes - better that the whole lot be simplified than this odd mixture - and the company is using a soundtrack, which I found of indifferent quality during the first act. There were a couple of elements I thought successful. I mentioned in the review of the Bolshoi Giselle that it was important that Hilarion be a more antagonistic figure. He definitely was here, and indeed was much more visible than usual, on the edges of the stage and the dancing almost throughout, his frustration and anger visibly developing as time went by, until he boiled over quite convincingly. The other interesting point was that with more men dancing during Act 1, it became clear that there's a distinct difference in the type of choreography danced by Albrecht, he has a more "noble" style from the outset, which makes Hilarion and Berthe's suspicions of him that much more credible.
Act 2 was much closer to the standard version, with a good design touch in that there were suggestions of other tombs in the clearing, reminders of where the other Wili came from. Also, there was a very nice Gothic twist at the end. The framing device shows an older version of Albrecht recalling the tragedy, and right at the end, clearly still tormented by events, he rushes back to Giselle's tomb as night falls, only to fall victim once again to the Wili, this time with no hope of salvation. If the corps was not as metrically precise as one might wish, they were nearer to it than in the more rustic dances of Act 1, and did not appear to suffer so much from a lack of space.
Mayu Tanigaito's Giselle, too, was better in the second act, more serene, where I had found her rather artificial in the first. The Mad Scene was a little disjointed - not entirely Tanigaito's fault, certainly - and only once really became convincing, in a short passage with a series of jumps that became increasingly wild and uncontrolled, until she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. That was very well done, but it came in the middle of the sequence, and what followed was not as compelling. Her spirit-Giselle, however, was more of a piece, tender and quite eloquent. Her Albrecht was a young Italian dancer, Carlo Di Lanno, an elegant figure with a good elevation and a long, clean line, while Abigail Boyle brought deft, quick footwork and a strong, cold presence to the role of Myrtha.
It would have been nice to experience this company for the first time in something perhaps more personal to them, in which they were not competing with memories of many other companies and principals in many other versions. However, this was a production that did not lack poetry, and Di Lanno in particular may be someone to watch.
[Next : 3rd November]
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