Last Monday, March 22nd I attended the Royal Ballet's production of Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House...for £6. There are a number of discounted seats with non-discounted views if you book well-ahead online, and they ROH also regularly sells student tickets for £10 in standing-only sections of the Upper Stalls. I was fortunate enough to have a front row seat! Swan Lake has sold-out this very quickly this year, in the wake of the film Black Swan. I have not seen the film but I think it's great people are taking an interest in the arts, especially in this age of austerity when the New York City Ballet is laying off dancers and I'm sure smaller companies are faring even worse.
Alas...the show did NOT disappoint! The ROH is a beautiful building and Royal Ballet probably the best in the world at the moment. Casting for the evening featured American Sarah Lamb as Odette/Odile and Italian Federico Bonelli as Prince Siegfried. They were spot on all night minus one incident at the beginning of Act II, where Odile makes her first appearance...there is some lovely choreography that involves the two sort of "fluttering" around each other with Siegfried more or less chasing Odette, and Federico who is a powerful but less-than-graceful dancer KNOCKED Sarah down! They recovered quickly, however, and the rest of the production was abosolutely perfect. The set was amazing, by far the best I have ever seen. Swan Lake always makes me think of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, and their set and costumes really made you feel like you were watching the whole show play out in a Bavarian Forest. Any other ballet I see from now on is destined to be a disappointment after this!
If you're not an avid ballet-watcher, I highly recommend Swan Lake as your first! It's a classic. I chose to attend on this particular evening because although I haven't been to as many ballets as I'd like, I got very wrapped up in reading about Sarah Lamb's 2009 injury shortly after I moved to the UK. She suffered a broken foot just before the start of the season, career-ending for a ballerina, and returned to her native Boston for a year to work with Nancy Kerrigan's physio-therapist. In autumn 2010 she was healed and back dancing full-time! Incredible.
Above: Lamb and Bonelli as Odette and Prince Seigfried.
Below: Artsists of the Royal Ballet as Swans and students of the Royal Ballet School as Cygnets.
Photos courtesy of ballet.co.uk
Me, freezing outside the ticket holders entrance just before the show!
Bronze ballerina in the courtyard outside.
As I said, the ROH is an incredible historic building, and they do give tours of the facilities including backstage, many of which are free! You do typically need to book, however. More information on tours can be found here. I highly recommend taking a tour, especially if you're going to see a show! When you get inside you'll want to know ALL about the building. The day I went there were FREE tours during the afternoon, but I did not know about it, how cool would it have been to learn all about the building before attending a show?! I'll definitely look into a tour before my next ballet.
Above and below: Interior of the Royal Opera House.
No comments:
Post a Comment