|
Some brief comments as it's very late (or rather, very early)...
It was truely a gala evening, with the theatre all decked out, TV crews on hand to transmit the evening live on Danish TV and a distinguished audience. Besides the critics from around the world, we were treated to the presence of the Queen, her husband, her sister, the crown princess, crown prince and other royals.
The program is above, and the first act highlights were:
The entire (or close to it) ballet school in a brief excerpt from the Bournonville Schools. I was very impressed by the stylistic unison in this group - they were doing simple port de bras, but with the same attention to detail - not perfect, but one clear style.
Dawid Kupinski in the 'Kermesse in Bruges' pas de deux - he seemed to be tiring in the end, but was excellent nonetheless. And also, Tim Matiakis as Otto in the final tableu from "The King's Guard on Amager' - Matiakis is probably the strongest turner in the company and this was his finest performance yet. Gudrun Bojesen and Mads Blangstrup were also noteworthy in the 'Flower Festival from Genzano pas de deux'.
Act two consisted of a series of short divertissiments, a video and then Act 3 of Napoli. The highlight of the divertissments, for me, was Diani Cuni and Thomas Lund in "William Tell pas de deux".
Before Napoli, we had the pleasure of watching film clips from very early productions of Bournonville ballets, concluding with a clip of ? and Hans Beck in Napoli.
The evening ended with a spectacular 3rd act from Napoli. We began with the pas de six, and both the pas de six and Tarantella were deftly expanded to encompass almost all the soloists and principals. Mads Blangstrup and Jean Lucien Massot were the Gennaros, Gitte Lindstrom, Teresina, and just about every other soloist and principal involved. Everyone was in top form, but Thomas Lund was absolutely stunning in the 'blue scarf' solo. Dawid Kupinski did his Tarantella solo with castanets, which I don't remember seeing before.
It looked as if the entire ballet school was perched on the bridge and the stage was bursting with bodies.
After the initial bows, as we were showered in balloons & Danish flag confetti, there was a grand defile of sorts, with all the principals, soloists and character dancers parading on the stage in costumes from the Bournonville ballet. Fittingly, the final pair were Thomas Lund and Gudrun Bojeson in the costumes from La Sylphide. They are really the epitome of Bournonville dancing today, and that's what this Festival was about.
After many curtain calls, and the only standing ovation I've witnessed at the Royal Theatre, we stepped outside for a fantastic 15 minute long fireworks display over Kongens Nytorv.
Bravo to Frank Andersen and all the dancers!
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
I