© Patrick Baldwin ENB 'Snow Queen' reviews 'Snow Queen' reviews Klimentova in reviews Glurdjidze in reviews recent ENB reviews more Carmela reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

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One thing which makes this ballet difficult is the very complicated plot - and like MacMillan's "Mayerling" I really think that just a little bit of classical mime would help to make some points of the story so much clearer. It's very hard to tell such a detailed story without mime. One of the reasons why I like La Bayadere very much is that, although the storyline is basically quite ridiculous, it is made possible to follow with the mime. In The Snow Queen, it's difficult to tell that Kay has had his heart pierced with two bits of a mirror unless you read the program! Also, I'm sorry to say that I did find the choreography a bit bland. There are some very nice moments - the gypsies dance in Act III, the Snow Queen's solo in Act II, the swooping lift of the Snow Queen supported by the wolves over Kay. However, a lot of the choreography is too repetitive and the use of the corps is not always imaginative. It's pretty to look at, but not much more in my opinion.

Still, the standard of the dancing is amazingly high in this production. The corps de ballet were very well synchronized and spaced; and Daria Klimentova was stunning as the Snow Queen. Her autocratic, cold air and wonderfully authoritative ports des bras make her great in this role and her technical command was impressive. The only thing which let her down was some not fully controlled Italian fouettes and incomplete triple pirouettes in her solo, other than that she was pretty much perfect and her jete is wonderfully high and has a beautiful "hanging in the air", without being too "powered" looking.

I thought the other best performance of the evening came from Elena Glurdjidze, who was technically great and very expressive as the gypsy girl. I was disappointed not to see Fernanda Oliveira as Gerda, as she is one dancer I have heard a lot about but never seen (on the stage - I have seen her walking on Floral Street lots of times after RB performances!). Hopefully she will recover from her injury soon. Her replacement, Crystal Costa, was very sweet and technically correct, but did not communicate much in the way of Gerda's character. This was the same with Yat-Sen Chang as Kay - although maybe he was going for the innocent approach as Kay is supposed to be a "young boy"; but I would have liked a bit more emotional depth in the role.

So, this production is very well performed and nice to look at but I wouldn't say it is a "great ballet". It's enjoyable and some of the props and costumes are very striking; and some really great bits of choreography are in there. But altogether, I think some more differentation in the choreography, especially for Gerda and the corps de ballet would be welcome; and also it might be more effective with more depth to Chang and Costa's performances as Kay and Gerda.