A Cacaphony of Notions
"Swan Lake"
The National Ballet of Canada
Opera House, The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts
Washington, DC, USA
January 19, 2006
by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright ©2006 by Alexandra Tomalonis
Occasionally in these troubled times, friends will read the news, sigh and say, “Maybe it’s time to move to Canada.” A tempting thought. But, then, they haven’t seen the National Ballet of Canada's “Swan Lake.”
The production, by former Artistic Director James Kudelka, was the sole ballet in repertory for a week's worth of performances by NBoC last week. It was billed as a traditional version and the photographs the company provided do catch the odd minute or two when the production recalls "Swan Lake," but aside from the music, of course, the characters' names and the general scheme of the acts, the production has been rechoreographed (Kudelka even messes with the usually sacrosanct Ivanov second act) and the story is obscured by a proliferation of notions. The result is a "Swan Lake" that is sadly unmagical.
I write this with regret, as I remember the company’s performances of the classics at the Met in the late 1970s with fondness, and the last time I saw them at the Kennedy Center, the dancers made a very convincing case for “The Merry Widow,” a thin ballet if ever there was one. NBoC was never a great international company, but it was a very good state company and could rise to the occasion with the best of them. The dancers on view this week were quite appealing, and I wish I had seen them in something that showed them at their best. The company's previous "Swan Lake," by Erik Bruhn, had its whacky side too—Von Rothbart was female, and The Black Queen sat, glaring, opposite The White Queen (Siegfried's mother) all through the third act—but the ballet still gave the dancers, from corps to principals, something solid to dance. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the current production.
Where to begin? Kudelka’s “Swan Lake” seems to be set in the Middle Ages, if North America had had a Middle Ages, as if a Viking gang, down on its luck, had set up court. But, then, the first act, where Siegfried is celebrating his birthday, could also be taking place on the Manson ranch near some rundown rickety outbuildings. The party guests are all men (save for a proverbial hapless Wench) and they look and act more like bikers than knights. From the minute the curtain rises on the ballet proper (there's a Prologue in which a winged Von Rothbart menaces a toy castle, presumably Siegfried's) the men dance incessantly. They dance to procession music, they dance to mime music, they dance to waltz music, and their dancing is without variety in either vocabulary or dynamics. There is no pas de trois. Benno, The Fool and Wench dance to some of the music of the pas de trois, but to music from the suite for the Would Be Brides in Act III as well, and the disparate parts are not pulled together into a coherent whole. Siegfried (Aleksandar Antonijevic), dressed in regulation black jacket and white tights, seems out of place and watches without reaction, even as Wench throws herself on, around, under and nearly through each and every Dancing Lad until they gang rape her (tastefully, upstage right.)
Is this to show that the Prince's kingdom is dispiritingly brutal? If so, he doesn't seem to notice. Does Siegfried prefer men to women? Perhaps. Benno joins Siegfried in his now-obligatory Brooding Solo (to the same music Nureyev used, another borrowing from the Would Be Brides) and the two exchange meaningful glances, but nothing comes of it.
The lakeside scenes, decorated by what look like large bales of hay sprouting giant reeds, are also inconclusive. In the second act, there's not much left of the White Swan pas de deux, because the ballerina (Greta Hodgkinson) seems to be Odile throughout. She's Von Rothbart’s puppet, and he can't keep his hands off her. Von Rothbart, a pudgy Viking biker, is a hands-on sorcerer, butting in every few seconds for reasons unclear. (Does he want Siegfried for his own, or is he just trying to be helpful?) There was no tangible rapport between Siegfried and Odette, no sense that Odette has finally found a Prince who is willing to die for her and will release her and the other swans from their curse. (Curse? There was a curse?) The tamperings with Ivanov's choreography for the corps aren't improvements either. Kudelka keeps the basic steps but adds things: the swans have some extra little skips in their entrance, for example, each step placed squarely on the beat.
The anachronisms and lack of atmosphere are pervasive. Court etiquette is nowhere in evidence in the ballroom scene. As she did in Act I, the Queen enters, trailed by her ladies in waiting, rather than crowning the procession, and she stands up at the end of each solo danced by the auditioning brides to say thankee. These four maidens are placed on stools and have little tents for headdresses, turning the scene into a kind of Let’s Make A Deal. (“Behind door number one, the enchanting Princess from Spain!”) The solos for the Princesses are the most interesting choreography of the ballet, considered purely as steps, although the princesses look as though they are auditioning for "American Idol" rather than modestly revealing their charms to the Prince. And the ending? Back at the lake, after more entanglements with Von Rothbart, the Prince drowns as Odette watches. Neither seemed to mind much.
Hodgkinson has a lovely line and there's an intriguing hint of wildness in her; I'd like to see her in a truly traditional production. Antonijevic was a rather wooden Siegfried, and his dancing was solid, if not dazzling. As Benno, Nehemiah Kish was taller and with a more princely bearing than Antonijevic, which added to the first act's confusion. There were some strong female soloists, especially Stephanie Hutchison as Wench, but the corps was not impressive. Karen Kain, the new Artistic Director, beloved star during the company's glory days, has some work to do.
Kudelka has choreographed some fine one-act works (I've not seen his original full-length ballets, such as "The Contract," so I can't compare) and had the company brought a mixed bill, it would undoubtedly have made a better impression, but this is one ballet that is For Home Consumption Only.
Photo of National Ballet of Canada's "Swan Lake" with Greta Hodgkinson, Aleksandar Antonijevic and Artists of the Ballet by Cylla von Tiedemann.
Volume 4, No. 3
January 23, 2006 - revised January 23, 2006
copyright
©2006 Alexandra Tomalonis
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