A beloved classic’s energetic awakening
The Sleeping Beauty
(out of 4) National Ballet of Canada. Produced, staged and with additional choreography by Rudolf Nureyev, after Marius Petipa. Until June 20 at the Four Season Centre, 145 Queen St. W.; national.ballet.ca or 416-345-9595 Adversity often brings out the best in people and so it was on Wednesday night when the National Ballet of Canada revived its iconic production of the greatest of the 19th-century Russian classics, The Sleeping Beauty, opulently staged for the company by Rudolf Nureyev in 1972.
Visually, thanks to the brocaded and ermined splendour of Nicholas Georgiadis’s original designs, it looks as opulent as ever. Those familiar with the choreography, however, may have noted that several of the big ensemble numbers looked underpopulated and they would have been right.
The National Ballet, at the end of a long and arduous season, is blighted with injuries. A reported 18 dancers are sidelined, more than a quarter of the company. Artistic director Karen Kain, entrusted by the guardians of Nureyev’s artistic legacy with staging the production, has thus had to do some judicious nipping and tucking.
Never mind. What those ensembles lacked in scale they made up for in energy and, with a committed cast of featured dancers determined to make it all come alive, opening night earned a well-deserved ovation from a very well-populated audience.
The Sleeping Beauty fairy tale is deeply embedded in the collective psyche of Western culture, but what French-born choreographer Marius Petipa and Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky achieved in Saint Petersburg 125 years ago was much more than a danced retelling of the superficial narrative. In an extraordinary marriage of dance imagery and musical expression, they made The Sleeping Beauty a magnificent allegory about the triumph of goodness and light over evil and darkness. Never mind that it was made for and reflected the absolutist tyranny of Tsarist Russia. The moral core remains intact.
It gets off to a wonderful start as a sorority of fairies arrives to bestow, through movement metaphor, all the virtues the infant Princess Aurora will need in life. It’s Petipa at his best and the National Ballet’s dancers articulated the choreographer’s demands with grace and precision. Alexandra MacDonald and Emma Hawes in their expressive serenity were notable standouts.
Then the story gets rolling as, after the passage of 16 years, the court celebrates the now-marriageable Aurora’s birthday. Perhaps measuring the marathon ahead of her, Greta Hodgkinson paced her Act I variations with less sprightliness than one might expect in a teenage character, but that all changed in Act II after the arrival of the prince who will awaken her from the curse of a 100-year sleep, imposed by the slighted evil fairy Carabosse (a deliciously malevolent Rebekah Rimsay). From this point on, Hodgkinson seemed freshly energized by the romantic ardour of the evening’s Prince Florimund, danced by Harrison James with an assurance and authority that totally belied the fact this was his role debut. From the moment he stepped into the hunting scene, James commanded the stage with a natural aristocracy of demeanour and exciting yet consistently tasteful and elegant dancing. His execution of the long solo Nureyev gives the prince in “The Vision Scene” was exemplary; altogether a memorable debut and clearly one much appreciated by the audience.
As for the orchestra, we’ve been spoiled enough already to expect nothing less than an exhilarating rendering of a beloved score.