The Royal Ballet’s current triple bill is a perfect antidote to the abundance of Nutcrackers always performed at this time of year. It showcases the work of three top choreographers – two home-grown, and one, an American legend.
Tuesday’s opening night began with Sir Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs, which, at over 80 years old, still has the power to charm and delight. Set on a frozen pond in a wintery landscape, the dancers, in small groups, flit across the stage, cleverly mimicking the sliding movements of skaters. Yuhui Choe and Anna Rose O’Sullivan shone as the Blue Girls, displaying breathtaking balances and turns, while Marcelino Sambe added his formidable power to considerable grace in his solo variation as the Blue Boy. It is he who ends the ballet in a series of spectacular turns as the lights dim, snowflakes fall and the curtain slowly closes.
The second ballet is Winter Dreams, Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s clever distillation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters into 55 minutes of dance. There is a lot of Russian angst here, as each of the sisters in turn reveals their innermost passions and turmoil, against a rather drab backdrop. Marianela Nunez was luminous as Masha, locked in an emotionally sterile marriage while yearning for Vershinin (played by Thiago Soares). The Russian atmosphere is captured perfectly by a combination of music by Tchaikovsky and traditional folk tunes, played on guitars, mandolins and – of course – balalaikas.
The evening ends of the lightest of notes, with a performance of Jerome Robbins’s The Concert. This has to be the funniest ballet ever created, with many laugh out loud moments as an on-stage audience at a concert live out their surreal fantasies to a selection of pieces by Chopin. A murderous husband; a milliner’s nightmare; a corps de ballet of enthusiastic dancers who just can’t get it right…and it all ends with the pianist chasing the dancers across the stage with a giant butterfly net. What’s not to like?
The triple bill of Les Patineurs/Winter Dreams/The Concert is at the Royal Opera House until 4 January.
