Due to the ever increasing number of companies who decide, for whatever reason, to not offer punters with programmes or cast lists, with some opting for the more "green" QR code option, that I made and publicised a decision way back in June that come the start of September, if I went to a show and there was no programme or cast list, and not even a QR code available, I would not write a review. This evening was the first night of this season's reviewing when I have come upon this situation. No programmes, no list of cast and creatives, and no QR code! And as such, myself and a couple of hundred others were left wondering the answers to questions such as: Who are Crown Ballet? Where do they come from? Who are the dancers and where do they come from? What are their credits and where did they train? Who was the director? Who was the choreographer and where is his / her resume? And perhaps even more fundamental questions such as, What is the storyline? Which characters are which? What is the setting and where? etc etc... If this was your first experience of ballet or even this particular ballet, you would be quite lost!
The company chose to use a pre-recorded orchestral score for this production, but sadly the sound quality of the playback was extremely poor and did not do Tchaikovsky or his music any justice.
This was a very traditional representation of the ballet; with characterisations and costumes in keeping with making this production not considerably different from any other, and hereby hangs my problem with the classical ballet form. There is no room for much artistic interpretation and so every ballet just becomes a carbon copy of each other. This is no more true than in Swan Lake where certain "set pieces" are churned out ad nauseam; such as 'Dance Of The Little Swans', 'Czardas', 'The Dying Swan'. That is not to say these were not performed well this evening, as they were. The dancing standard in general was good and precise. The cast did seem rather young though, and I wondered if these dancers were either still in training or that this was their first production since graduating. The 'Joker' and 'The Swan Princess' were, for me at least. the most interesting and eye-catching on stage. Ballet is all about grace and line, poise and attitude, and these two shone above the rest in these regards.
A quite enjoyable evening revisiting the world's most performed classical ballet.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 17.9.25
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