Another week another ballet company at the home of ENO. This week we had Les Ballets de Monte Carlo with Lac (after Swan Lake), choreographed by Jean-Christophe Maillot. <<http://www.eno.org/whats-on/other/lac>>
I had read some reviews of this work from it's travels round the world, but not from its opening night in London. These were pretty harsh. I've now had a look at a couple from the opening at The London Coliseum and they are much kinder. Like me they think there's not much you can (or should) do to Swan Lake - it's all there anyway. Matthew Bourne, of course, is the noble exception - he got away with re-imagining Swan Lake and how! I think these days there is a tendency to look the the film Black Swan as if that can help you in some way. It can't!
Anyway, back to last night! I wasn't holding out much hope. In the end I enjoyed more than I had intended to.....I didn't have a clue what was going on, but in some ways that didn't matter. The dancers were having a ball and some of the dancing was of a very high calibre.
My highest praise of the evening goes to April Ball as Her Majesty of the Night - Rothbart fused with Cruella de Ville. She had the biggest role. She had the slinkiest moves. She had the most outrageous costumes.
The sets and lighting were very good indeed. Musically - I could have done with a real orchestra.
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