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Orchestra
of the
Royal Opera House conducted by
Barry Wordsworth
Checkmate
Music
by
Arthur Bliss
Choreography
by
Ninette de
Valois
Designed
by
E. McNight
Kauffer
Black
Queen
Zenaida Yanowsky
First
Red Knight
Bennet Gartside
Second
Red Knight
Martin Harvey
Members of the
Royal Ballet
Symphonic
Variations
Music
by
Cesar Franck
Choreography
by
Frederick
Ashton
Designed
by
Sophie Fedorovitch
Roberta Marquez
Belinda Hatley
Laura Morera
Federico Bonelli
Steven McRae
Ludovic Ondiviela
Piano
soloist
Philip Gammon
Song
of the Earth
Music
by
Gustav Mahler
Choreography
by
Kenneth MacMillan
Designed
by
Nicholas
Giorgiadis
Darcey Bussell
Carlos Acosta
Gary Avis
and members of the
Royal Ballet
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Royal
Ballet
Covent
garden
Friday 8 June 2007 |
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This
was memorably the night that
Darcey Bussell danced for
the last time on the stage
of Covent Garden, in a piece
by the choreographer who had
seen her star quality when
she was a member of the Royal
Ballet School, and soon after
had plucked her from the Sadler's
Wells corps de ballet to dance
Princess Rose in his new creation
for the Royal Ballet, the
Prince of the Pagodas. That
choreographer was Kenneth
MacMillan, and Darcey Bussell
danced her last role in his
Song of the Earth, bringing
a remarkable career to a close
at its high point - for unquestionably,
in a career of genuine star
quality throughout, these
last few years have been Bussell's
best, and she leaves in the
full flower of her talent,
a fact to be mourned though
profoundly respected by her
many admirers.
Much will doubtless be written
about Bussell's qualities
as a dancer, focusing on her
use of her long limbs - in
which every step, every carriage
of an arm, conveyed an extra
elegance, an extra grace and
beauty above the expected
norm for the trained ballerina
- and her exquisite ability
to convey emotion. To say
that these qualities were
the inevitable mixture of
natural endowment and hard
work is not quite the platitude
it seems, because there lies
a story behind them. Bussell
began late at the Royal Ballet
School, and worked extremely
hard not just to catch up
but to perfect her technique;
but what resulted was not
just the product of hard work.
The work capitalised upon
an innate dancerly sense of
how to make that length of
reach and the timing of her
movement into a combination
as special and characteristic
as they became. She had only
to cross a stage to be seen
as something out of the ordinary;
she had only to raise a leg
high to display majestic control
and poise.
Darcey Bussell was beautiful
to watch, and it is sad indeed
to think we shall not see
her on stage again.
Another dancer retired on
this same night: Belinda Hatley,
who was given a warm ovation
at the end of her fine performance,
a reward for the excellent
contribution she has made
as a first soloist and as
creator of roles in ėFanfare'
and ėDances with Death'. She
was a strong presence on stage,
always assured and correct,
and her many admirers missed
her during long absences in
recent years because, variously,
of illness and pregnancy.
They will miss her even more
now.
There are consolations aplenty
for the loss of these leading
figures to the company that
dances on the Covent Garden
stage. Let the critics maintain
that the Royal Ballet is often
less than the sum of the superlative
individual qualities of most
of its members; let them complain
about its characteristic propensity
to a certain raggedness in
ensemble dancing, as if rehearsal
time to drill something approaching
Russian exactness of synchronisation
were always lacking. But the
inestimable qualities of the
Royal Ballet remain: the sweetness
of mood, the capacity for
humour, robustness, tenderness,
charm, and dramatic authenticity:
these are features of a company
with a mature and intelligent
outlook, and a confident control
of its repertoire, a feature
surely explainable on the
grounds of the master choreographers
who have made so much of that
outstanding repertoire for
it.
All these features, good and
less so, were present on the
night of Darcey Bussell's
farewell performance. In Ninette
de Valois' ė'Checkmate' (a
ballet that grows on one,
and not just because of the
absolutely wonderful design
or the very successful Bliss
music) Zenaida Yanowksy shone:
she is a wonderful dancer,
and a brilliant actress; she
can dance comedy, tragedy,
menace, seduction - anything
- as if the story were being
told in words as well as dance.
And she obviously enjoys doing
it.
In Ashton's superb ėSymphonic
Variations' Roberta Marquez
replaced the injured Alina
Cojocaru, and likewise shone:
she produced a sparkling performance,
full of clarity and crispness,
instinct with what can only
be described as energetic
delicacy. Federico Bonelli
is growing into a majestic
dancer; he is a commanding
presence on stage, and traverses
it with assurance and authority.
Aided by the departing Belinda
Hatley and the others, Marquez
and Bonelli gave a vintage
rendition of this lovely ballet.
Say that Darcey Bussell, Carlos
Acosta, Gary Avis, and indeed
all the company on stage for
ėSong of the Earth' were on
form, and conscious that this
was a special occasion, and
enough has been said about
how absorbing, moving, at
times witty, and in the end
profound this performance
was. Of course no one could
be unconscious of its poignancy
as Bussell's swansong, yet
the piece itself is so rich
in interest that few present
could have been privileging
the last-waltz factor over
the artwork that is MacMillan's
creation. Acosta as the Messenger
of Death was in power mode,
leaping so high and long that
there is something preternaturally
close to flight about it.
Even when he appeared briefly
at the end of one of a Song
to raise his warning hand
over the insufficient travails
of mortal humans, he was a
commanding figure.
It was bliss to see Acosta
and Bussell dancing together
on stage. At the end, during
the long standing ovation
for Bussell given by a sad,
affectionate, grateful audience,
and as the stage became increasingly
deeply buried under heaps
of flowers, Acosta looked
on applauding, and must have
been thinking - as one great
and memorable dancer watching
the obsequies on the career
of another great and memorable
dancer - what his own last
night will be like. May that
be a long way off. Seeing
Darcey Bussell take her final
bow makes one conscious of
how firmly one should grasp
the present and its offerings,
because the one certainty
is that they will pass, and
a little longer afterwards
even the warm ashes of the
memory of them will cool.
A. C. Grayling |
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