© Bill Cooper recent Kobborg reviews La Sylphide reviews Story of La Sylphide Jane Simpson reviews

What is it that distinguishes a new production of a nineteenth-century classic from the many which precede it? It's a particularly interesting question when the ballet in question is August Bournonville's La Sylphide, which has been far more closely guarded than the Petipa ballets or Giselle: every version we see has been based on the text still danced by the Royal Danish Ballet and no producer with any respect for tradition and authenticity would even think about wholesale updates.

Johan Kobborg has been thinking about his staging of the ballet for more than two years, when the Royal Ballet's management first suggested it. (And it's interesting to learn that the idea came up before, rather than as a result of, his Out of Denmark programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.) He's danced the leading role in around seven different productions since his debut with the Danish Royal Ballet in 1994 earned him immediate promotion to Solodanser, and when he talked to me at the Royal Opera House it was clear that along the way he's formed some very definite ideas about how the ballet should look and how it should be structured. Two weeks before the first night he's obviously deep into the thousand details which will give his production its unique colouring, but we began by talking about the choreography and the overall shape of the piece.

The production

First of all, he's made some changes and some additions. "With most productions, when they say 'production by' it's just who coached it - I've seen that happen a lot, but I wouldn't call that 'my production'. I've added some things, which will be totally new or totally different. With a ballet like this, that works so well, there's a fine line between putting things in for the sake of it and putting things in because there's something I want to say. There are some points in the ballet I wanted to try to work with and make stronger, and things I'm adding in places where maybe many years ago I know there was something different. I was reading the old libretto of the ballet and I kept reading things I didn't know - and I thought I wonder if Bournonville wrote this libretto and then he went into the studio and choreographed the ballet, and the ballet ended up different, because there's a lot of scenes I'd never heard about. So I went to my music man in Denmark and I said 'Listen, there are things in here I want to put back - I need to extend the music.'""

When I asked for an example of the things he's putting in, his answer pointed up what is evidently his chief concern - the clear telling of the story. "Back when Bournonville danced James himself there was a mime scene at the beginning of Act 1 which Bournonville cut out when he stopped performing the role, so I've put some of that back in. Luckily back in 1988 they found the score for this bit, and it has Bournonville's handwriting on it, saying 'now James says...' or 'now James goes...'. It explains - or attempts to make clearer - why Gurn can see the Sylphide. My view on this ballet is that the Sylphide is inside James's head - she represents his longing for something - she's not a 'real' sylphide, a little fairy - and so it's never made any sense to me how Gurn can come in and say he's seen her. Adding this mime scene might at least give Gurn a strong hint that James is up to something. I've changed a few things in Act 1 and I added a pas de six and a little pas de deux for James and Effie."

What about the two big solos in Act 1, these days given to Gurn and James but once done by two of the 'village men' - who gets to do these? "Gurn and James, of course. I see that if James only dances in Act 2 - the first time he feels free to dance - it will have a much greater effect - yes! In Bournonville whenever people dance it's an expression of joy - you don't dance sad. You can mime sad, but you only dance when you're happy. But if you're going to go back to that, you're also going back to a time when James and the Sylphide would kiss and touch each other throughout the ballet - real pas de deux, hugging and embracing - and it wouldn't make sense to anybody; and it doesn't make sense to me not to have James and Gurn dancing those solos. I wouldn't even consider going back to that - if I went back to the original I should also have to cut away most of act 2, because that music is not by Løvenskjold, it wasn't there. It's something that was added much later and we don't even know who composed some of it."

Kobborg's first Jameses were danced in the Peter Schaufuss production, which Schaufuss staged in Denmark during his time as Artistic Director of the RDB. He added a slow, introspective solo for James and I wondered if this would feature in Kobborg's own production. "No. I'm trying only to add what works dramatically or to make some point stronger. If we don't know how James feels by the time the window scene starts then the James is very bad. No, no! However I am using some of the music for James and Effie, early on."
 

Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Act 2 of La Sylphide
© Bill Cooper

As for the physical look of the ballet, Covent Garden has acquired the sets and costumes which were first produced for the RDB's Hans Brenaa/Flemming Flindt production in 1967. (I'd guess many Danish ballet-goesrs will think we have the best of the bargain, compared with the over-bright decor of their latest version.) "The thing is because it's a ballet the Royal hasn't done before, it's hard for them to know if people are going to like it, so I guess they felt perhaps it's not the best time to make new sets. For me as well, I think those sets and costumes are the way La Sylphide should look. The sets haven't been remade - they're the same ones that were used in Copenhagen. I know our stage [in London] is bigger, but they say they can open them up. Anyway I feel in this ballet it's very important we should get the feeling in Act 1 of James being confined by these walls - he's inside a room. They'll make Act 2 more open - you know, setting his mind and spirit free. I haven't seen them on stage yet - they're not in the building yet - but I'll do all I can to make them look as good as possible."

Details, details

After the big decisions are made, it's down to the seemingly infinite number of minor questions, which leave Kobborg with no time even to start thinking about his own performances of James.

"At the moment it's hard for me to dance - I mean I'm working on The Lesson, but I walk in the door here at 9.30 in the morning and I have meetings non-stop - props, costumes, what colour socks do I want, how long is the kilt, meetings with the lighting guy, what is it going to say in the programme...every detail is mine - what picture do I want on the poster, how do the flowers fix in the girls' hair (how would I know?)... and the decisions I make, from day one, are important because if I change my mind... - like the new bits of music, ages ago I said 'this is what I want' - so I'd better make it work."

And is he enjoying it? "Absolutely loving it. I wanted to try this sort of thing while I can still dance a bit, rather than waiting till I've stopped dancing and then find out." Already he's been asked to stage more Bournonville, and also an Ashton ballet, in the USA next year - but it's too soon for him to be able to tell me what and where.

I was pleased to hear him mention James's socks as the sort of detail that eats up time - they were on my list of things I wanted to ask about. In the current RDB production, James wears very dark green socks and black shoes, and the result is that if you're sitting at stalls level it's a struggle to see his feet against the dark background. I put in a plea for a lighter colour but it sounds as if I'm going to be disappointed. "You're probably going to hate me. Actually James's socks have been one of the most discussed and thought about items: we've played around and I've tried different solutions but none of them worked. I've done a few shows with red socks and black shoes but I wouldn't do that today; and in Denmark he sometimes wears the same colour shoes and socks, but then it looks odd when the others have black shoes. If you go back, I believe he originally wore very dark socks - and when Effie changes into James's colours, hers are actually black. James's won't be black, but they'll be quite dark." [Ignore the ones in the pictures on this page, which are publicity photographs and don't show the costume he'll actually be wearing.] And if we can't see his feet, in that lovely solo he's putting so much effort into? "It's not a problem - it's not the steps that are important."

The Plot and the People

It's not the steps, it's the story. If I'd only taken away one message from our conversation, it would have been this. The lasting fascination of La Sylphide lies in the relationship between the five leading characters and there's endless scope for argument about what the Sylphide represents, how she dies, who Madge is, and above all, why James acts as he does. It's easy to make a case for James being the most complex and interesting of all ballet's nineteenth-century heroes (if you think he's a hero at all, that is), and it's these considerations that really make Kobborg's eyes light up. Madge in particular seems to intrigue him. Sorella Englund, one of the RDB's greatest interpreters of the role, is here to coach and to give a couple of performances, and I remarked that in the videos I've seen she appears more like a ruined beauty than a hideous old hag.

"I don't think there's anything of a horrible old hag about Madge - and I never refer to her as a witch. In the cast list others are described as 'James, a young farmer', 'Anna, James's mother' and so on - but the two main women are just 'Madge' and 'The Sylphide'. They should represent something different to whoever is watching. I've felt from the beginning that it was very important to me that Madge should be played by a woman (although since we started rehearsing I've added a man as well). There are two women playing with James, it's two women's fight over this young man. You can discuss for hours who Madge is: was she once a Sylphide? has she just been badly hurt by men? maybe she had something to do with James's father?"

So why is James so angry when he first sees her at the party? Have they met before?

"Well, I wouldn't use the word angry - it's my aim to make none of the James seem that angry at that point - it has to be built up. In life we meet people we don't know, but there's something about them we don't like, and she's one of those persons - he feels there's something about her but he doesn't know what. They haven't met - at least not that he knows of. Maybe she has met him. And the Sylphide and Madge are defintely connected in some way. They're never on the stage at the same time. The Sylphide disappears through the fireplace, Madge is first seen by the fireplace... the ballet is about air and fire: the Sylphide is purity and hope, Madge is the darker side."

Why does the Sylphide die? Is it the scarf?

"No - it's James's touch, his kiss. The magic in the scarf is to make it irresistible to her, so that James can capture her - but it's his touch that destroys her. He kisses her, she thinks it's the most wonderful thing that's ever happened, but at the same time she's dying. I'm doing it a bit differently, but it's very slight, you won't notice unless you know the ballet very well."

What about the ending: will Gurn and Effie be happy?

"No. La Sylphide is a tragedy, nobody ends up happy. You might at first think Madge would be happy - but the joy you get from revenge lasts two minutes, and then... and her whole life has been about getting her revenge, and now she's got nothing: she's not happy. Effie will never be happy, and Gurn may think he's going to be, but it's not good living with someone who doesn't love you - he won't be."

The Royal Ballet

I've often wondered why the Royal Ballet didn't acquire La Sylphide years, decades, ago - it would seem a very good fit in the repertory and anyone who's watched the company over the years probably has quite a long list of potentially wonderful Sylphides, Jameses and Madges whom we'll now never see. Kobborg sees so many people in the present company deserving the chance to try these great roles that he has five casts for most of them. "It's been very important for me to find different people to do these roles - for instance all of the Sylphides have such different personalities. The Sylphide can be sweet and innocent, she can be more knowing, she can be not that innocent at all..."

I knew that Tamara Rojo had danced the Sylphide before, with Scottish Ballet, but I wasn't sure about the others. "Alina and Tamara have done it before; Sarah Lamb hasn't, Roberta Marquez has done Act 2. Putrov, Samodourov and Bonelli have all done James before - the only new James is Rupert Pennefather." And when he's working with them, especially with the Jameses, how much of the motivation does he tell them and how much does he leave them to work it out for themselves?

"I know when it's myself who's dancing, no-one's going to tell me how I should feel. But I'm more than willing to help - this is a new ballet that maybe they don't know, and I've done this so much - in fact I'm giving away all my tricks: by the time I finally get on stage the audience will have seen it all! But that's my job, to make them look as good as possible. Certain things have to be like this because I'm doing this with the story, and it has to make sense to me, when I sit and watch. I mean I know the story, and if I look at something and I don't understand, something's wrong."

The company only began to learn the ballet when they came back from their summer break on August 25th - that gave Kobborg five weeks to teach all of the corps de ballet work as well as his five sets of soloists.

"I've put Sorella in charge of coaching the Madges, and she's also helping out with some of the other principals. Luckily we have Jonny Eliasen [formerly with the RDB, where he also danced James] too, who's here teaching company class and is also helping. But I thought it was very important that I didn't bring somebody in to teach the corps de ballet. I've been in productions before where a choreologist has come in and whoever was staging the ballet has given them two videos - one from Vienna, say, and a version from Sweden - and told them to choose from those. It's not satisfactory for any dancer. I've taught everything, everything except Madge, everything else - though I might now have help because I can't be in every studio at once. They're not doing Bournonville in class, I'm teaching them the style and the choreography at the same time. Of course it would be easier if they were used to Bournonville, but the challenge with Bournonville isn't really the choreography, it's the mime - that's the difficult part."

I was a bit surprised to hear him say that, as I'd have thought mime was one of the Royal Ballet's recognised strengths, but he was adamant that Bournonville's mime is a distinct and special skill, and one which is hard for people coming new to it. What about the company's recently polished Ashton skills then - we see a lot of Bournonville in Ashton, so maybe that would help?

"To me it's very different. The Ashton legwork has speed, yes, but the upper body in Ashton is doing a lot of movement for the sake of it, whilst in Bournonville your upper body doesn't move unless there's a specific reason, because of what your legs are doing. And if you have to jump high, for instance, it's way easier to use your arms. If you have to prepare and take off without using your arms, it's all from the centre - your stomach has to be so strong. But I have found that the dancers have no problems, though of course you have to remember that the Sylphide is not about where her arms are, so this ballet is not as stylistic as others."

Finally I asked how he would respond to the almost inevitable criticisms that the Royal Ballet's Bournonville won't look authentic. His answer was along the lines of 'Says who?': he believes he can produce something as, and possibly more, true to the original than what is currently been shown in Denmark. And as he says, "At least this production will have more of the original music". He certainly has a passionate faith in the ballet and in its ability to involve and move a contemporary audience. If he's communicated that to his dancers, we could be in for a real treat.