Hugely enjoyable hokum
Ballet
Le Corsaire
ENB, Coliseum
Last week, in front of a buzzing Coliseum crowd that included past Royal Ballet grandees Wayne Sleep and Irek Mukhamedov, as well as Hispanic heart-throb Antonio Banderas, English National Ballet returned in high style to their 2013 production of Le Corsaire.
Inspired by Byron’s 1814 poem, this romantic romp is one of those 19thcentury ballets that shouldn’t really work for modern, oh-so-sceptical British audiences. The plot – all winsome slave girls, hunky pirates and drug-induced fantasies – is the sort of hokum that only Russian companies can traditionally carry off without blushing. And the score is a hotchpotch of hack-work from just about every ballet composer you’ve ever heard of, except for the good ones.
That ENB nevertheless spin it into a hugely enjoyable evening’s entertainment is thanks, in part, to Anna-Marie Holmes’s staging, which strives to be as faithful as possible to Marius Petipa’s definitive 1899 choreography; and also to Bob Ringwood’s designs, which have exactly the right playfully exotic flourish. True, the Arabian-style tent in Act Two was listing oddly to the left, and it squeaked like an alarmed hamster whenever anyone sat in it, but these glitches will be easily fixed.
Yet again with the current ENB, however, it is the dancing that makes the evening genuinely special – which is not to say that everything is perfect. Making his debut as the piratical hero Conrad, new principal guest artist Osiel Gouneo appeared slightly overwhelmed by the occasion. He’s a likeable and virile performer with a solid technique, but there was something over-caffeinated about his performance. In marked contrast to Banderas’s compatriot Tamara Rojo (as Conrad’s beloved Medora), who always seems to have all the time in the world, he appeared to be in a constant hurry, and there was some very awkward partnering in the second act. He will, one imagines, improve as the run progresses.
While on the subject of Rojo, exactly how ENB’s artistic director and lead principal finds the time to maintain her own performance standards is a mystery. True, her jump remains a somehow charming weakness, but the sheer flair and femininity with which the 41-year-old here deploys her otherwise flawless technique are as irresistible as ever.
She is scintillating in Act Two’s famous showpiece, as is Cesar Corrales as Conrad’s slave Ali – his lithe, airscything power and vision-blurring turns are splendid. While both Yonah Acosta and Laurretta Summerscales are “merely” good (he as Conrad’s fellow buccaneer Birbanto, she as slave girl Gulnare), Brooklyn Mack is ideally rumbustious as slave-trader Lankedem, delivering in the process a masterclass in high jumping and graceful landing. Crystal Costa makes a delectable villager, while veteran mischief-maker Michael Coleman injects a perfectly judged dash of Benny Hill into his Pasha.
A lovely trio of odalisques (Ksenia Ovsyanick’s lightness and belowthe-knee dexterity making her the first among equals), sterling work from the corps, and full-blooded playing from the ENB Philharmonic complete a show that feels very much like a one-stop antidote to the midJanuary blues. Whether or not ballet is traditionally your thing, you’ll leave with a smile on your face.