The Royal New Zealand Ballet's Giselle

Gillian Murphy (Principal Guest Artist) Photo: Ross Brown

I love ballet.  For those of you who were not following this blog at this time last year we went to see, and I blogged about, Sleeping Beauty at the Napier Municipal Theatre.  I am fortunate enough to be able to see more ballet here than I would ever be likely to see in the UK.  As soon as the annual programme is announced and the tickets are put on sale I immediately book the seats.  So the best seats in the house for next March and November are already booked and paid for.  Early bird, worm and all that.  So on Saturday the cream linen jacket came out once more.  It's one of the few occasions when, on the whole, I see people, relatively speaking, dressed up in Napier.

The ballet on Saturday night was Giselle which has had rave reviews. In my humble opinion well deserved rave reviews.  I had not seen it before although I know Adam's music for the ballet well.  The Royal New Zealand Ballet's Giselle web site is has more information.  Their 2013 programme and information is here.  

This post probably sounds like an advertisement and, in a way, it is.  I appreciate that relatively few of my readers are from New Zealand but whereever you are if you want to see artistes with this sort of athletic ability and poise then go to the ballet:

Advertising Photo for Royal New Zealand Ballet

Information: The images on this blog are from widely publicised sources.  I do not hold the copyright but am working on the basis that as they are being used to further the aims for which they have been distributed that will be acceptable.  If it's not I will happily remove them.

The Sleeping Beauty

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.  

An Evening At The Ballet

 

This evening Wendy and I and a friend went to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet at The Opera House in Hastings.  We same trio went last year to see Tutus on Tour.  This year’s presentation was a trio of performances of music by Poulenc, Philip Glass and J S Bach.  For me the Philip Glass was far and away the most satisfying with very emotional dance content which I thought fitted with the music exceptionally well.

Tutus on Tour

My Birthday pressie from Wendy and Martin was a visit to the Ballet. It was tonight at the Hawkes Bay Opera House in Hastings. Wendy drove and we met a friend there. I had not been in the building before. I can truthfully say that I have never enjoyed a ballet performance more than this one (and I've seen a few in my time). The emotions and interpretation of the music was absolutely breathtaking. I could have openly wept during the representation of Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spieiel. The fun, enthusiasm and electricity between the dancers was a joy to behold. What an absolutely fabulous present.