Covent Garden regulars feel at home in "Operan", the Swedish Royal Opera House: a beautiful old building; first-time visitors looking lost, wondering which route through the maize will lead to their seats; the royal box with a worse view of the stage than what you get from the proletarian section; and unfortunately also an auditorium with almost as many bad seats as good ones. The big difference is that good seats only cost half of what they do at ROH, and, since the performances are hardly ever sold out, you can get them even on short notice.

The Swedish Royal Ballet are certainly capable of putting up a good performance of the classics, but they seem to prefer short runs of more modern works. Maximising ticket sales clearly isn't a factor when they decide their program, and I'm sure the dancers and other personnel much prefer it this way. Still, I have a feeling that some sections of the potential audience would like more opportunities to see traditional works, and then of course there are always those random visitors who have decided to come to ballet, and are then sorely disappointed and confused when there isn't even one white tutu at sight...

This was the first time I have seen Peer Gynt, so I prepared by reading Ibsen's play and listening to the "soundtrack". That turned out to be a good thing: the score isn't the familiar Edward Grieg classic, but a highly chromatic and in places almost atonal composition by Russian Alfred Schnittke. It is music made to order, and with a vast range, from popular theatre tunes to quiet minimalism. (It was around this time that Schnittke almost died of stroke.) It is beautiful music, but at least in my case it took a bit of advance listening to get into it.

Reading the play doesn't guarantee perfect understanding of everything that happens on stage. It's also necessary to know that in addition to the real Peer Gynt there are at times seven "aspects" of Peer Gynt cruising around the stage. Also, John Neumeier has changed the second act quite a bit from Ibsen's original. It is fast and entertaining, and certainly helps to keep the audience awake before the only, and very late, interval. Then the stage can be cleaned and everyone can get ready for the more contemplative third act and epilogue.

The choreography offers variety for the dancers, from traditional figures to modern. There are ballerinas en pointe, and ballerinas rolling on the floor, foaming at the mouth. Probably a good fit for the Swedes, then, reflecting the range of their repertoire. Of the dancers I was particularly impressed by Nathalie Nordquist as Solveig, although, I freely admit, partly for reasons unrelated to her dancing ability.

I'm not suggesting that people should travel to Stockholm to see this ballet (if you do, don't forget to check out the Dance Museum near the Opera house), but, should a suitable opportunity arise, it is well worth seeing, even if you happen to have a more classical taste.

Preston Palon

The house is well supplied with cloakrooms, to left and right for the Parkett and for the first circle levels at least, and many of the local patrons had checked in their snow boots too. The cloakroom charge is £1.15, but programmes cost only £2.30.

I had not prepared for Peer Gynt, and if I ever knew the story I had forgotten it. The treatment is typical of John Neumeier and reminiscent of his 'Oddyssee' with the main character a man who is on stage for some 98% of the time, even his quick changes in Act 2 are carried out on stage, but that is part of the story. Males outnumber females, and where the men in grey suits move in slow motion across the stage in Act 3, I lost count at forty, but perhaps this was an optical illusion. The story clearly provides the framework, but the treatment delves into emotional and psychological aspects presented in dance form. This is the second full length ballet with music by Schnittke I have seen in the last few months. David Nixon used music by Schnittke, Rachmaninov and Daugherty in 'Dracula' last year. There are perhaps some similarities with Stravinsky and Prokofiev in terms of music for ballet. I had a feeling that the ballet was structured rather in the form of a symphony, with a slow first movement, then a fast second movement with lots of jolly dances, then an even slower last movement. Peer was danced on Friday by principal dancer Anders Nordstrom, giving a magnificent performance. Saturday it was soloist Sebastien Michanek, who started rather quietly, but gradually got more into it and his presentation improved. This is an extremely demanding role. On both nights the audience response at the end was tremendous.

Friday's performance of 'Peer Gynt' was the first for this season, and I understand it was dedicated to the memory of Gunilla Roempke, former dancer and Artistic Director of the Royal Swedish Ballet, who died aged 65 in November. A letter from John Neumeier was read out before the performance.

The nearby Dance Museum is well worth a visit, not only for a warming cup of coffee. There is a selection of their collection of Ballet Russes costumes, various historic artifacts, pictures of Taglionni, model sets of ballets such as 'The Ice Rink' and 'The Toy Box' and much more. Three or four historic or rare films were showing on screens or TV screens, and they have a rolling programme of rare films combined with documentary films. In the shop there is a small selection of videos and DVDs, including some of the less usual, such as 'Mime Matters', 'Hobson's Choice', 'Judas Tree and Nutcracker Sweeties' and 'Ilusionen Wie Schwanensee'.

Regarding all those men in grey suits: I was sitting in the middle of the first row, and I could see that there were some very young faces there. So, the students from "Kunglika Svenska Balettskolan" were helping in crowded scenes.

One interesting detail I forgot to mention: In the second act of this choreography there is briefly ballet being performed inside a ballet, in the same sense as making a film about making a film (there are several of those). I wonder if this is the only ballet where that happens. I suppose one could argue that some of the dance numbers in some classic ballets are similar: they are dances within a dance, and some of the dancers are playing the part of an audience...

I guessed the students had augmented the grey suits.

The 2nd act went so fast I didn't notice a ballet as such, but of course there was the ballet audition, and other dancing after that. Flemming Flindt's 'The Lesson' comes to mind, but perhaps does not qualify as a ballet within a ballet as it is really a ballet about a ballet lesson with dire results. There is a scene in Matthew Bourne's 'Swan Lake' where the stage is turned into a theatre, with the Royal Family sitting in the Royal Box, and they watch a performance which, I think, is at least partly ballet.

I have just realised that Neumeier himself uses this technique in 'Illusions like 'Swan Lake''. It begins with 'Reality' where the king is declared insane and in his prison (the palace). He senses The Shadow. He then remembers the Carpenters' Celebration for the building of the castle. Back to Reality he sees a stage model of 'Swan Lake'. He then remembers a private performance of 'Swan Lake' - this is the main ballet within the ballet. The Shadow is Rothbart. Then more Reality and Remembrances including a masked ball, then finally visions of Swan Lake haunt the king.

Seems like a technique which suits Neumeier's dramatic process.

Kevin Ng did a fascinating interview with Neumeier in 2003 for ballet.co:

http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_03/jun03/interview_neumeier.htm