On Saturday evening we put on our finery (well as far as finery goes in provincial New Zealand) and went to the Napier Municipal Theatre to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet's production of The Sleeping Beauty. The tickets were bought last March so we managed to get just about the best seats in the house. The first time I can remember going to the ballet was in 1965 during the Commonwealth Arts Festival (to which I'd been seconded for a few months to help with all the protocol arrangements - some very good stories from that experience). I think it was Swan Lake at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. What struck me then was the noise from the shoes on the stage. Oddly now that I've seen ballet many times my mind filters out that noise. It's like recording a mealtime conversation. All the mic picks up (amateur recording of course) is the cutlery clanking on the plates. In real life we hardly hear it because our minds filter it out. It's like that with so much of life don't you think?
Anyway, back to the ballet. The RNZB is a young, fresh and exceptionally talented company of world class standard. They lack the classical finesse of the Bolshoi (hardly surprising) and the flamboyance of the 'American' style but, to my mind, strike a wonderful middle ground. They are certainly very enthusiastic and that comes over to the audience. This production of Sleeping Beauty was three years in the making and the demanding choreography, the soaring Tchaikovsky score and the truly magnificent costumes and the innovative and seamless set design left the audience spellbound.
Obviously photography is forbidden and images of the production seem few and far between but I've taken the liberty of reproducing their advert page from the brochure from which you will see that there is a Facebook page and it has some photos and YouTube references.
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So true, what you say about our minds filtering out the "everyday" noises!
ReplyDeleteRegarding ballet - I do love it, although I can't get over it how ballet sculpts a man's body into a wonderful work of art and at the same time leaves the female dancers with an emaciated body with no feminine curves left; were it not for the costumes, faces and make-up, they would not look like women at all.
I saw "Sleeping Beauty" with Richard Cragun in the Stuttgart Ballet years ago; it was so beautiful that I forgot to breathe in places!
I know! I played professionally in a pit orchestra, and it sounded like hail on a tin roof!
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Certainly, Meike, the ladies lack a certain amount of, shall we say, frontal curvature but, for me, the grace and beauty is still there in abundance.
ReplyDeleteSP. So you are another person with musical talents. I have spent my whole life loving music and dreaming of being a proficient pianist. In truth, though, I have absolutely no ability in that area so anyone who has immediately becomes imbued with magical powers in my eyes.
I don't think I ever saw a ballet 'live' but I recognise what you say about the noise from the shoes from theatrical performances where dancing or a lot of fast running around is included. I suppose especially when there is a hollow space under the stage floor that enhances the echo of such sounds... But when one goes more frequently I think one comes to include it in the whole experience somehow.
ReplyDeleteIt was my job for 30 odd years GB...never play at all now.
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