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English National BalletNovember 2001 Manchester, Opera House by Bruce Marriott |
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It was a first visit to the Manchester Opera House for me on Tuesday. It turns out to be a fine Victorian pile with a nice original interior. It looks pleasantly faded around the edges, is comfortable and I'll cheerfully return again. The place was packed to capacity too - rare for a triple bill but Manchester turned out not just to see a good company but to see a good company dance a local boy's steps. Christopher Hampson, who has been writing for us for four years now, had the premiere of his new piece "Double Concerto" and I had the pleasure of doing choreographer's Mum duties again... well and choreographers' sister as well actually. Ensconced between them I contemplated what might happen if I actually didn't like the new piece. We were in the grand circle and its a fair drop. But the evening opened with Balanchine's Apollo. I love the concentrated power in this early work (from 1928) and the focus of just having four dancers on stage. The Stravinsky score is more inviting and less brittle than many of the later pieces as well. It's a serious, monumental work and Dmitri Gruzdyev was a suitably strong Apollo. Returned from injury, Gruzdyev looked as if he had 'rested' too long and was hungry for action. For an opening night it was well rehearsed and they sailed through much of the partnering complexity. Joanna Maley has started to register and I thought she captured Terpsichore (muse of dance) and the American look well. Apollo was the turning point for Balanchine so what of the Hampson? Well I'd actually seen Double Concerto in the studio and did the programme notes so I knew I was actually onto a winner. But of course it's not until it goes on stage, with set and costume that you really see something in its full light. And it is a corker. Double Concerto lasts all of 22 minutes but feels like 17, such is the reckless and dizzy pace of it. Theres no fat on it - incredibly rare - and you do want more and longer. It starts with frantic effervescence - tutu's just erupt at high speed onto the stage. In the blur you first start to notice the costumes in opalescent white, for the leads, and black, for the corps. Modern, pert, but classical like the choreography - Garry Harris has done a grand job (incidentally he is now AD in New Zealand and we have an interview coming up). There are slower sections (well we all need a chance to breathe at times) and a pas de deux in the middle of course. Daria Klimentova and company new boy Jan-Erik Wikstrom (ex Royal Swedish Ballet) seem to have the technical stuff all sorted and complement each other well. But it's the numbers involved and the way the corps are moved and patterned that mark Double Concerto out as particularly
The audience loved it and there was prolonged and healthy applause. A proud mum beamed and a sister whooped, whistled and stomped.
The evening ended with Who Cares? - Balanchine meets Broadway - to Gershwin songs. The company must have pondered for a moment or two about putting it on given that the backcloth is a view of slightly drunken New York skyscrapers complete with fireworks going off at the end. It's a fine go-home piece but I find it a bit too long these days. No reflection on Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur who led the piece. Tom looked very laddish and cheeky, particularly for the curtain calls - not the impeccable Prince we normally see! Monica Perego also looked good - her spirit and sense of fun go well in this. And I noticed Joanna Maley again - I hope she gets some more and bigger things. Ditto Hampson. Double Concerto and Esquisses, the piece he did for ENB School this summer, show more than ever what he is capable of as he moves up another gear. So what next and big? - we'll know soon enough I'm sure.
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