A bride, her prince and his mistress…

“…exhilarating, absorbing and technically demanding and theatrically seductive.”
Sydney Morning Herald 2002

Wales Millennium Centre 13-16 July 2005
The London Coliseum 20-24 July 2005

After more than twelve years, The Australian Ballet returns to the UK in July 2005 with the international debut of Graeme Murphy’s critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning new production of Swan Lake.  For the UK tour, which is managed by Askonas Holt, the company is presenting 13 performances in Cardiff and London.

Murphy’sSwanLake was the first ballet commissioned by David McAllister after becoming The Australian Ballet’s artistic director in 2001 (following 18 years as one of its leading dancers). It was created to mark the company’s 40^th anniversary in 2002, a nostalgically apt choice as Swan Lake was the first ballet the company ever performed under the leadership of its founding director Dame Peggy van Praagh. On its debut, this powerful interpretation of the iconic ballet sensationally sold out seasons across Australia, won nine major awards in one year, and moved audiences to tears.



© Jeff Busby


Murphy insists that the credit for Swan Lake be shared with his artistic associate of many years Janet Vernon, and designer Kristian Fredrikson with whom they have collaborated for more than 25 years.  A master storyteller, Murphy’s choreography dramatically communicates the passion and emotion of betrayal and unrequited love: Odette is betrothed to Prince Siegfried, yet deeply apprehensive of his relationship with the Baroness von Rothbart.  However, it is not until after the wedding that the true nature of Siegfried and the Baroness’ relationship is revealed to Odette, causing her such distress that, by royal command, she is committed to a sanatorium.  There she finds comfort and escape amongst serene white swans in a frozen dream world.  Australian critics have picked up on more than a hint of another world famous royal menage à trois that finds several parallels in this story of adultery, personality disorders and betrayal of innocence.

The Australian Ballet will be only the second ballet company (after the Kirov) to appear at the new Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff with its six performances of SwanLake.  Theatre Programmes Director Fiona Allan comments:  “The Australian Ballet is a world class company that has been absent from the UK stage for far too long. We’re delighted to be welcoming the Company to Wales Millennium Centre during our opening year, and to be hosting the UK premiere of Graeme Murphy’s acclaimed SwanLake. I’m sure that it will mark the beginning of an exciting relationship between Australian Ballet and WMC.”

Askonas Holt is presenting the company at the London Coliseum with seven performances including two weekend matinees. Martin Campbell-White, Joint Chief Executive says: " All of us at Askonas Holt are excited to be associated with such a world-class company as The Australian Ballet. This is our first presentation in the magnificently restored London Coliseum. We hope there will be many more."    While Seán Doran, Artistic Director and Chief Executive, ENO comments:  “I am delighted to welcome The Australian Ballet back to the London Coliseum, home of English National Opera, to open the first summer dance season in our magnificently restored theatre.  Having spent five years in Australia as Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival,  it  gives me added pleasure that they will be the first international dance company to visit the London Coliseum under my artistic direction.”

David McAllister anticipates the tour with excitement and pride: “After twelve years it is wonderful to bring our company back to the stage in the UK - especially with this work, of which we are so proud.  SwanLake is a great ballet that has inspired artists since its premiere in 1877, but this new version by Graeme Murphy retells the story in a way that speaks to our generation, and has attracted a new audience to classical ballet in Australia.”

Tickets and booking information:
Wales Millennium Centre  T. 08700 402000  http://www.wmc.org.uk
London Coliseum  T. 020 7632 8300 http://www.eno.org

Original Press release date: 21 October 2004

Ends

Steven Heathcote/Madeleine Eastoe/Lynette Wills - Cardiff 13th, 15th and London 20th, 22nd
“…they {Heathcote/Wills} are two masterly artists in full flower. Their dance, a daring and sexy sort of tango, is full of adult darkness, a flirtation you know can only end by tearing somebody’s heart out…Wills’s dancing has a devastating, deep, mature sexiness”
The Sunday Age Magazine, 6.3.05

“Steven Heathcote, who created the role of Prince Siegfried in this version, reacts to the intensity of Eastoe’s portrayal with an interpretive depth that goes beyond anything he has done in two decades of dancing”
The Sydney Morning Herald 29.4.04




Madeleine Eastoe as Odette in the Sanatorium
with Heathcote as the prince and Wills as the baroness
© David Kelly



Damien Welch/Rachel Rawlins/Olivia Bell - Cardiff 14th(m),16th and London 21st, 23rd(M), 24th(M)
“There are some truly sublime moments, particularly in the several pas de deux and trios that feature the three principals, who dance superbly.”
The Age 19.9.02




Damien Welch and Rachel Rawlins in Swan Lake
© David Kelly

Robert Curran/Elisha Willis/Lucinda Dunn - Cardiff 14th, 16th(M) and London 21st(m), 23rd
“The opening night cast brought many to their feet, earning multiple curtain calls…This work is a jewel in the company’s repertoire, and there seems to be no shortage of dancers to fill the roles”
The Age, 7.6.04

This was originally posted up in News at:
http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/news/2842.html
updates and discussion here please.

I've seen this ballet 2 times - it is WONDERFUL, one of my favourites. And all casts should be fantastic, though it has been often said that Eastoe is the Odette that will make you cry. Rawlins is a recently promoted principle and is absolutely beautiful. I saw her dance an excerpt from La Bayadere and she was fantastic - her dancing was so fluid and graceful. I haven't had a chance to see Elisha dance before, but I have heard all the good things about her from the UK.

The new story is refreshing and breathes new life into the old ballet. My favourite scenes are the mad scene (technically difficult for the principal ballerina), and the ending scenes, especially the special last effect involving odette. The scenery, costumes and sets are first class.

A couple of images from the gallery...




Rachel Rawlins as Odette in the sanatorium where the Queen and Baroness have
had her committed, following her breakdown at the wedding party
(after finding out of her husband's affair)
© David Kelly





Act 2: Two flying swans
© David Kelly

Swan Lake story and creative team
Australian Ballet background to the company

included in the synopsis page is a link to a larger version of this wonderful picture...



Act 3 – Odette (Eastoe) and Siegfried (Heathcote) together at last
© David Kelly

Australian Ballet
Swan Lake: A right royal romp
The Australian Ballet's 'Swan Lake' imagines Charles and Diana as the doomed lovers. What a twist, says Jenny Gilbert.”
“The Two Ronnies did it, and at least 77 choreographers have done it: they've all had a crack at Swan Lake. As for audiences, it seems they can't have too much of it whatever form it takes. But next up, with 13 performances in Cardiff and London, is the production that has done for the popular status of ballet in Australia what Matthew Bourne's has done in the UK. Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake, staged to mark the 40th anniversary of Australian Ballet, has been reaping awards.”
The Independent

Australian Ballet
Two swans a summer make
AB versus the Kirov?
“On the day the Australian Ballet opens its Graeme Murphy production of Swan Lake at the Coliseum in London, the Kirov Ballet will be performing just a short stroll away at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The mighty Kirov is taking five programs to London and on July 20, wouldn't you know it, the ballet scheduled is Swan Lake. Indeed, a balletomane could choose to see the Kirov in the afternoon and the AB in the evening, the traditional version and then the modern.”
by Deborah Jones
The Australian

Australian Ballet
UK show to go on for ballet
“The Australian Ballet will leave Melbourne for Britain today after deciding not to let the overnight terrorist attack in London stop its UK tour.”
The Advertiser

Australian Ballet
Dancing and royal romancing
“The love triangle between Prince Charles and the two women in his life has inspired a new version of a ballet classic. Karen Price meets the man bringing it to Wales.”
“I never really wanted it to become the Windsor version of Swan Lake but the ballet grew out of that idea”, says artistic director, David McAllister.
ic Wales

Australian Ballet
Swan Lake wings its way to the UK, unbowed
“The Australian Ballet yesterday flew to London to continue with its long-planned tour of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake following emergency all-night discussions with its agents and venue managers. But the company says it will keep an eye on the security situation from Wales.”
by Sharon Verghis
Sydney Morning Herald

Three Swan Lakes
Clifford Bishop in the Sunday Times previews the three different Swan Lakes we in the UK will be seeing over the summer: Australian Ballet’s, The Kirov’s and Pennsylvania Ballet’s:
‘Swan Lake is the itch choreographers cannot stop scratching. Parts of Hamlet aside, it may be the most instantly recognisable piece of theatre on earth, the “favourite” ballet of those who have never seen one..’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-533-1682745,00.html

Michelle Potter, curator of dance at the National Library of Australia and dance critic of the Canberra Times, talks about a very special, and a very Australian, Swan Lake:
http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_05/jul05/mp_ab_swan_lake.htm

The Australian Ballet section of the magazine can be found at:
http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_05/jul05/#australian_ballet

It can be difficult to draw a line between seeing a wide range of productions from the cornucopia of dance available in London and becoming jaded by seeing too much. Certainly yet another Swan Lake has to work hard to appeal even if, as in this case, we haven’t seen the company for far too long and even if it is a much-heralded re-working.

Actually the latter point can often be enough to dissuade one from visiting a theatre as companies struggle to pull in good houses by sticking with a familiar theme while pandering to their own boredom thresholds or desire to stand out from the crowd by sensationalism.

Swan Lake’s durability owes much to the depth of the themes that it encompasses and it’s glorious score, both of which can withstand a broad range of interpretations within the zeitgeist. It nevertheless, like many classics, suffers from the illusion that the most familiar versions are somehow “traditional” and that variations on that theme are violating the sacrosanct.

Well this production has been found guilty on many counts by several critics in spite of it’s theatrical unity and the smoothly blended transitions of a score played in an unfamiliar order. There are few choreographers who can succeed in changing Petipa/Ivanov but to succeed as well as Graeme Murphy deserves huge acclaim. He almost managed to improve on the cygnets, using fiendishly-co-ordinated ports de bras and humour. Big swans were a delight. He was not above quoting, noticeably in Odette’s first swan solo using the sissones with retiré developpé, but then expanding it to leave the impression of a swan rather than an impersonation and thus illustrating Odette’s state of mind rather than asking the audience to suspend belief.

The concept of the sanatorium is hardly a novelty in ballet; Matthew Bourne seems to be obsessed with it and of course Mats Ek has used it to great effect in his marvellous Giselle. It sits better in a post-Freudian age where the allegories of most Swan Lake productions have lost their power and was underlined here by an excellent set and lighting. The pas de deux for Siegfried and Odette were complex and subtle although Robert Curran fluffed a couple of lifts. The second pas de deux in the opening ballroom scene not only showed Odette’s wonderful costume at it’s best but told the entire story of the relationship in a beautifully dramatic set piece. Lucinda Dunn as Baroness von Rothbart was weak in places and simply lacked the presence to pull off her final solo when she attempts to reclaim Siegfried’s heart. She did the choreography no favours and one feels in more skilled hands it could be a show stopper. She has after all been cast in the role of the black swan and needed to display all of Odille’s guile, charisma and bravado.

Some critics have drawn parallels between the setting and the British royal family which may sell newspapers but seems puzzling in the light of the fact that the clear suggestion was of the Edwardian era, this royal family trapped in it’s bubble of personal intrigues and skeleton-laden cupboards with the world outside about to explode in the horrors of collapsing dynasties and world war.

How often does one sit at the edge of one’s seat wondering how the plot of Swan Lake will unfold? How often is one rewarded with a sense of freshness and deep understanding of the work? Australian Ballet should be seen far more frequently on these shores.

Charlotte Kasner

A Swan Lake that everybody gets
Australian Ballet's Swan Lake seems to touch people as few productions ever do - David McAllister and Graeme Murphy explain just what went in to it's magic.
David McAllister and Graeme Murphy interview

I think I now understand why this show does so well in Aus - it packs a hell of an emotional punch delivered clearly and graphically. The result was a standing ovation at the end.
I can see why they brought it and like the Bourne version it stands as a production in its own right rather than just rearranging the normal swan lake deck chairs.

More anon - but a production well worth catching while you can. Was anybody else there last night?

Which cast did you get? I would be interested to know whether you thought the Australian Ballet was of a good dancing standard compared to other ballet companies.

It is wonderful that Cardiff gave a standing ovation! How exciting! Have any reviews appeared since then in the media?

Sum-up:
A Swan Lake revisited as a powerful 20th century yarn of love, jealousy and betrayal with 'real' people at its core. The opening night audience understandably gave it a standing ovation. A new ballet in reality, it's good to have it alongside traditional versions.

Background:
A very differnt Swan Lake designed to hit modern audiences just as the original must have done in the 19 century. Like Matthew Bourne's very changed version in the UK, this really hit home with Australian audiences and critics alike.

Story:
A man (Prince Siefried) torn between two women, the one he marries (Odette) is beautiful, young and fragile and the one he loves (Baroness von Rothbart) who is knowing, artful and determined to get him. She wins by getting the heartbroken and distraught Odette committed to a sanatorium (echoes of the mad scene from Giselle). There, Odette dreams of the Swans outside and being truly united with Siegfried (Act II in a normal Swan Lake). Odette eventually recovers and the Prince truly falls in love with her, but the Baroness and court life mean Odette will never have peace and despite his love she drowns herself in the lake. The Prince never ever loves again.

A prince, two women, one fragile and married to him and the other he really loves have led to this ballet being called the House of Windsor version. I don't think there is any mileage in this comparison especially given the ending of the ballet - rather it's a tragic love story.

Music:
Graeme Murphy (the choreographer) believes Tchaikovsky's music as originally conceived is the score to use. That means it's different from most of the Swan Lakes we hear performed for dance, since the score was rearranged early on to give what we now think of as the tradiotional version. So we get Black Swan and the Hungarian dance in Act 1 rather than Act 3 and some pieces normally dropped suddenly appear. It's quite refreshing and breaks up the normal rhythm of Swan Lake if you've seen a few. The Birmingham Royal Ballet orchestra played well under the baton of Australian Nicolette Fraillon.

Sets and Design:
The sets and costumes are sparse yet opulent, white much of the time but dense black in Act 3 - for which they got applause when the curtain went up. They are the work of Kristian Fredrikson, the foremost of the Australian designers. Notably he had the good sense to use a stunning MC Escher, rippled pond, image as a backloth in the dreamy sanatorium/lake scenes and which plays with the mind. The designs are set in Edwardian times though I'm not sure that has particular significance.

Choreography:
Ballet trained Graeme Murphy may have been, but he's a contemporary choreographer with his own company these last 29 years and this was never going to be a 'ballet' ballet work. Along with the musical changes the movement that strays onto the floor and breaks 19th Century rules jolts us into noticing more than if this were 'another' Swan Lake. The choreography is inventive, particularly for the corps girls with syncopated lines of contrasting arms and legs at odd angles and an affectionate take on the four cygnets.

The production however concentrates on the central three characters and communicating their emotions and interactions in heartbreaking detail. It is all made dramatically explicit and I suspect much of the ballet's popularity is down to people understanding and appreciating the power of emotions so clearly made physical. It's at its best in duets and 3 handers where Murphy winds dancers gloobily and humanly around one another. There are some very long solos - for Prince and Baroness particularly - and they seemed too long for what they had to say. And you can't have it all - all this spelling out of the drama is at the expense of some of the lyricism in more traditional versions. However this really needs to be seen as a ballet in its own right rather than constantly compared to the original. It used some of the same ingredients but it's a different product really.

Dancers:
It's Madeleine Eastoe's night as Odette. She is small but a naturally expressive communicator who could move an eye a millimetre and we'd notice and know exactly what was meant. She reminded me of a young Viviana Durante. Lynette Wills is Baroness von Rothbart, whom you can see as a scheming cow or just a woman doing all she can to secure her man - a bold and secure performance. Steven Heathcote danced the Prince and is a secure and trustworthy partner - important given there are some tricky catches at times. He played the prince like a rather inhibited and bemused accountant who eventually 'gets it', though about half a century after everybody else. They work well together as a team and the audience were duly impressed. I was surprised at curtain call that they all looked fresh and happy as Larry - not because they didn't deserve to - but that they had the energy to. I actually think they have more to give and that's scary given what they achieved. The other thing to note is that Eastoe, 8 years in the company, is not yet a Principal and based on this performance that seems implausible.

The company overall looked comfortable, communciative and zesty. Like the Royal, and many British companies, the corps isn't always lined up as you'd hope but they act their socks off in a ballet that needs that commitement.

Does it Work?
Yes - 4 out of 5 stars. I love clear dramatic work and it's a compellingly realistic dance-piece in that respect. If you prize steps and pointe work more then your mileage may be different - but go and be jolted by the 'different' score and a company rarely seen in the UK firing on all cylinders in a work that Australian audiences have taken to their collective heart.

The sets in this Swan Lake are stunning, especially the lake itself. This item represents 50% of the title and yet in most productions hardly sees the light of day. Here it plays a central role in the action. The costumes are exactly right too; I love the wedding dress, which is much, much more than just a dress. You see this on the front of the flyer.

The closing night audience gave this truly wonderful production a standing ovation and I am pretty confident in saying that each and every member of the audience would quite happily have sat through it all again. If I can possibly see it again I would most definitely do so.

Heaps of stars out of five!