A night of captivating music and enchanting dancing, well worth the watch.
The red curtain rolled up at the Liverpool Empire Theatre revealing the opening scene of the ballet depicting a beautiful woman being taken by an evil sorcerer (Rothbart). The sets throughout this ballet were intricately painted but simple and clean- this worked wonderfully to point the audiences full attention to the dancers performance. Rothbart’s costume was flamboyant made of long dark green shiny leaves and as he danced, he further displayed the wide stretching wings, depicting him as the wicked sorcerer, half man, half bird who would soon condemn Princess Odette (more about his costume later). The ballet was a masterpiece, beautifully arranged by Derek Deane, the dancers were on form and the music was mesmerising. The contingent of talented ballet performers from across the globe did Swan Lake more than justice. I spent long periods of time watching the dancers feet move across the stage in a graceful flurry unable to focus on anything else. There were synchronised group dances, trio dances, duets and solos that came together to amazing effect. The spotlight beamed down from the back highlighting protagonists and important performers.
The piece was long with a run time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, which was partly the result of 2 intervals and a pause which were needed for set changes and effects. The dry ice and smoke they used within scenes was incredible as it really enhanced the magical feeling at the lakeside scenes. The play ended with all the swans laying curled up in the mist, looking to all the world like swan eggs in swan down. I think this was a beautiful touch.
Swan Lake is a classic well-loved performance and therefore it is hard to criticize it as it feels almost sacrilegious to provide criticism on a piece that is so well loved. I will however state where I found the ballet lacking. As a ballet, it doesn’t contain any lines therefore the story relies solely upon dance and body language to convey its story. Admittedly both first time watchers of Swan Lake, both me and my companion often found ourselves confused trying to link the scene to the brief overview we’d read in the programme. Many people didn’t have a booklet either so I hope they knew the story beforehand. I think there could be a more detailed overview provided to help combat this as despite being first time watchers- a consideration for companies is how to make their production cater to younger audiences and first watchers as otherwise how will Swan Lake live on through younger people. Despite this, the main scenes were apparent and well executed enough to gauge where we were roughly.
My personal favourite dance scenes came in the third act, the birthday of Prince Siegfried was elegantly organised into graceful organisations of dancers. The choreography immaculately combined ballet and reeling to produce an elegant dance that showed the joys of reeling at a party. In costumes finely decorated we could catch the glints of the gemstones from where we were sitting. The change of the set was swift and the use of simple lighting and staging was used as an advantage in this performance; anymore complexities to the lighting would have been too, much amongst everything else. Here the plot built to pressure point as the Dark Swan (Odile) the daughter of the evil Rothbart being introduced, luring Siegfried to break his vow to Odette. The Dark Swan and Siegfried’s performance of courtship here was the most mesmerising scene of the piece as the ballet dancers pulled out all the stops and the movements became more and more impressive. Dancers held their postures high and landed delicately, in time to the triumphant music playing from below. Siegfried and the Dark Swan danced separately and then together, meanwhile The Swan was waiting outside the window hoping Siegfried would spot her.
The final scene of the ballet is a dramatic crescendo at the lakeside when Prince Siegfried realises he’s been tricked and finds Odette. The scene is a mix of swans, Siegfried and Rothbart working together in beautiful harmony. We then flow into the scene between Rothbart, Seigfried and the Swan which is particularly striking as the dance really embodies the Swan trying to escape. The main downfall of this scene (and others throughout the ballet) for me was Rothbart’s costume as rather than being graceful and light like the others, the large wings created a rather clumsy effect at times and particularly during this scene. Sometimes I felt as if I was watching an exotic mating dance in a David Attenborough documentary or a bird having a temper tantrum as Rothbart kept running to the right and flapping about when he couldn’t get a hold of the swan and I was always worried one of the dancers might catch the tail end of his wing. I don’t think this was the desired effect of the costume as it undermined the villainy on Rothbart’s character when you start to find him vaguely amusing. I think a darker, smaller costume would do this character more justice although I cant deny the costume gave him stage presence.
Overall, the ballet came together well and the dancers and Derek Deane got one hell of an applause at the conclusion of the piece. I just recommend you read the story before hand and are prepared for a faintly funny villain.