Diaghilev died 75 years ago, and as the Royal Ballet's tribute shows we're still living off the legacy of his genius. The combined dazzle of music, design, and choreography upon which this evening draws is extraordinary. Yet Diaghilev of all people knew how much theatrical cunning it takes to sell art to the public. And on Saturday this was a quality that the first half of the Royal's tribute lacked.
It opened with Ashton's Daphnis and Chloe, a setting of the score that Ravel completed for Diaghilev in 1912. Ravel's lush, pagan sounds are eerily atmospheric but his stretched-to-vanishing-point phrasing is often like a fine mist in which the dancing loses itself. Ashton's 1951 version has its own idiosyncratic magic, but there is tendency to blandness in some of his choreography that only a superb cast can animate. Jaimie Tapper's blurring of stylistic and dramatic nuances made Chloe a sweet but dull girl, while Federico Bonelli's Daphnis was a lovely blank.
Following Daphnis with the company premiere of Fokine's Spectre de la Rose didn't help: this is another dreamy fantasy that can easily sink into mild prettiness. Casting Carlos Acosta as the Spectre ought to have guaranteed some vim, but Acosta evidently found the feminised perfume of the role inhibiting. However brazenly he jumped and turned this role seemed to constrain him like a badly fitting costume.
The second half moved into a totally different gear. The first sight of Bakst's huge dappled set for L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune is always a scalp prickling moment and Viacheslav Samodurov's Faun made that moment last the whole ballet. While he was always true to the remote austerity of Nijinsky's choreography, he brought a wild, nervous sensuality to the role that made you see afresh why it once caused outrage. Finally came Nijinska's 1923 setting of Stravinsky's Les Noces. This is a masterpiece - harrowing, beautiful, flawless. The fact that the Royal honour it so passionately is enough to make me love the company for life.
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