The National Ballet of Canada/Swan Lake, choreographed by Karen Kain, Christopher Stowell, and Robert Binet, after Erik Brun, Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, music by P.I. Tchaikovsky, conducted by David Briskin, Four Seasons Centre, closes Mar. 22. Sold out, with standing room tickets available at 11 a.m. on each day of performance; info here.
Imagine this…
The audience is attending a performance of the National Ballet’s Swan Lake. Conductor David Briskin enters, bows to the audience, and turns to face his orchestra. We sit there waiting for Tchaikovsky’s famous plaintive Swan Lake theme that begins the ballet.
Instead, we hear those tell-tale notes that herald O Canada.
That’s right. The National Ballet Orchestra under Maestro Briskin played our national anthem and took the audience completely by surprise.
At first there were cheers and clapping, but when that died down, you could hear the fervent singing coming from every corner of the house. When O Canada was over, again there was wild cheering and applause. It was a genuinely patriotic moment and certainly an emotional one.
Kudos to whoever at the National came up with playing the anthem because it was an inspired idea.
The Nature of this Review
First, I want to say that the company has never looked better from the corps de ballet to the principals. In fact, in terms of just the dance, it was near perfection including the evening’s Odette/Odile (the exquisite Genevieve Penn Nabity) tossing off her 32 fouettés in Act lll.
In this review, however, I want to talk about the production which I didn’t get a chance to do in 2022 when the ballet debuted. At that time, I wrote a lengthy preview, and I felt I couldn’t give an objective viewpoint in a review since the creators and their creation filled my mind.
Three years later, I can look at the ballet with a fair-minded approach.
Set Design
This Swan Lake came about because departing artistic director Karen Kain felt that there should be a traditional version of the ballet in the National’s repertoire rather than the radical James Kudelka treatment. In particular, she wanted to evoke the aesthetic of the National’s late, great artistic director, Erik Bruhn, and his revered Swan Lake which had graced the company’s repertoire for many years.
Swan Lake is the landmark production of every classical ballet company. It is the sine qua non of ballets, so why go to Australian designer Gabriela Tylesova for the sets and costumes? Surely it behooved the National Ballet of Canada to have a Canadian design team for this new Swan Lake.
What is even more galling is that Tylesova’s concept is a disaster.
The baffling front curtain looks cheap and amateurish and depicts nothing, but more execrable is the Act 1 castle setting. Tylesova’s vision is a junkyard wooden enclosure — a veritable shack in shambles. What is on the stage is not a crumbling castle but a wooden monstrosity. (Why should the castle be crumbling anyway?) The ugly shanty-like construction is absolutely jarring in relation to the court scene below.
The designer does better with the Act lll ballroom scene with its imposing chandelier, glittery walls, a not terribly imposing stairway with the queen’s throne tucked inconsequentially at the side. The space seems crunched together, but the set does what it’s supposed to do.
Acts ll and lll are suitably moody thanks to Bonnie Beecher’s lighting. The lakeside is surrounded by leaves that look like either giant ferns or out of place palms. In fact, several times in the ballet, two giant leaves fall down to enclose the stage for no reason that I can see.
The storm scene uses the tried-and-true large piece of material that’s waved in the air, although Nabity and Rothbart (a scary Peng-Fei Jiang) looked silly having to duck under it as they hurried from the stage.
The Costumes
The costumes are as advertised. They also cross periods with the queen (a regal Stephanie Hutchison) and her entourage dressed several centuries back while the young women of the court are in knee-length oddly embroidered tulle dresses (i.e.weird placement of strips of colour). The men are in standard jerkins and tights.
The swans are of course in white tutus, although they seem to have a feather effect which is quite attractive. Rothbart’s gothic costume is dominated by huge black wings and a grotesque white face which certainly speaks to his evil.
In other words, the costumes are acceptable.
If I ever win the lottery, I’ll give money to the National to redo the sets (definitely) and the costumes (maybe) with a Canadian designer, of which we have many talented ones in the country.
The Dance
Which brings us to the choreography.
The prelude, sometimes just an orchestral number, begins with three girls jumping every which way behind a dark curtain, one of them being Odile, and we see her captured by Rothbart. I could do without aimless jumping, but putting in this scene is an excellent idea. We just need more anguished choreography.
Kain and company have created two winsome sisters for Prince Siegfried (an impressive Ben Rudisin) cunningly called Celia (Miyoko Koyasu) and Elizabeth (Brenna Flaherty) to honour the founders of the National Ballet — Celia Franca and Betty Oliphant. In terms of dance, the sisters seem to go hither and thither, but are pretty to watch although they seem to have no relationship with their mother and little with their brother.
The sisters and friends perform the court dances, but as attractive as they are, they do tend to look alarmingly similar after time. And, did we really need a gay couple at court? On the other hand, the role of Siegfried’s friend Benno (high-flying Donald Thom) has been enlarged giving the dancer lots of showy tricks and thus transforming Benno into a plum role.
The famous pas de trois is performed by Benno and the sisters, which is a clever idea and gives them all a purpose.
There is not enough of a brooding prince in Act l, and the confrontation with his mother falls flat. It doesn’t look like a confrontation at all. As well, they are surrounded by people, while they should have been given space. There is also a lot of standing around by a bunch of people behind the throne which needs form and structure.
I have serious problems with Act lll.
First of all, why make it a masked ball? The masks just get in the way.
It is not really clear that the national or character dances as they’re called are meant to present prospective wives. The queen has to introduce them in some way. Otherwise, she is just sitting meaninglessly through the act.
As for the national dances themselves, the order is all wrong. We have just had more court dances, so we need a serious change up. Instead of the slow Russian dance (coy Calley Skalnik) going first, it should be the Neapolitan (lively Emerson Dayton), then the slow Russian, and finally the Spanish (sexy Selene Guerrero-Trujillo).
My biggest complaint is the entrance of Rothbart and Odile.
It is a non-starter instead of being electric. Odile disappears behind the stairs, while Rothbart is left standing downstage in the corner like some unimportant shlub. We have to see more of his dark interchanges with Odile and his menacing presence should be pervasive. And as for Odile, coming out from behind the stairs is rather a limp entrance.
I however shower praise on the corps de ballet who were unbelievably together. The choreography seems to be circular, but it works. Usually, the swans are in seated or semi-seated clusters during the Odette/Siefried pas de deux, but in this case, they are standing which makes them more menacing. They are a phalanx of swan warriors when they come after the prince.
In short, the choreography in Acts ll and lV reads very well.
The Music
The music felt unusually slow. As well, it seemed to take forever for the soloists to take their positions for their variations thus keeping the orchestra waiting. On the other hand, when Maestro Briskin cranked up the speed for the fast choreographed passages, it was exciting, even thrilling, especially when the extra loud brass section kicked in.
Conclusion
Mercifully, there is a lot of attractive dancing with no surprises in this production, so Kain gets her traditional Swan Lake.
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