Review-Sleeping Beauty-Hong Kong Ballet
16-3-13
By: Olivia Rosenman
Settling into my seat at the Sha Tin Town Hall a few minutes before the show started, I got chatting to the two men next to me. This being my first time at a Hong Kong Ballet performance, I was surprised by the lack of an orchestra pit. I wondered if this was normal for the company, so I asked the men if they’d ever been before. I couldn’t have chanced upon two better neighbours for a first-time HK ballet experience, it turned out they were ex-dancers who had retired from the company a year ago.
My neighbours said the company often performs without a real orchestra. So, if you’re ever going tho see the HK ballet expecting the full sha-bam spectacular, check the details on the website before you cough up for premium tickets. June’s upcoming production of The Merry Widow will have live accompaniment.
The expert seat-neighbours also told me that the guest artist playing Prince Désiré, Friedemann Vogel from the Stuttgart Ballet, is quite a star. Indeed he boasts a slew of prestigious awards and has danced his way across the globe, from Milan to St Petersburg to Tokyo. He is, without a doubt, the star performer of the night.
The Sha Tin Town Hall is a cosy, family-friendly venue, decked out in a rich and luscious red décor. It’s missing a bar, so no glass of wine at interval. There’s not even a snack stand for the essential interval chocolate, nor anywhere you can get a bottle of water. This shortcoming is made more obvious and irritating due to the fact there are two intervals, which is unnecessary and inconvenient for a show in four short acts.
In case your memory of the classic fairy tale is as blurry as mine was, here it is in a nutshell. A long time ago, in a magical kingdom far far away, a princess is born. During the celebrations, an evil fairy named Carabosse gate-crashes the party and curses the princess to death on her 16th birthday. A kind-hearted purple fairy, unimaginatively named Lilac, quickly casts a spell - instead of instant death, the princess will only fall into a deep sleep. Fast forward 16 years and the curse comes true. Lilac realises that unless everyone else falls asleep too, they’ll all miss the princess as if she were dead, so casts another spell and sends the whole castle to sleep. One hundred years later, a lonely prince is frolicking in the forest and by chance, he meets Lilac. She realises that he’s the perfect match for the princess, and that his kiss might just wake her from her cursed slumber. So she takes him to her, he works his magic and they all live happily ever after.
The dancers took a while to warm up, with some very visible slip-ups in the first few sequences of the prologue. By the next act they seemed to have relaxed into the performance, dancing with more confidence and less mistakes. A couple of great solo dances were let down by dim illumination and the lack of a spotlight.
Some of the costume design was cringe-worthy. Carabosse looked like a drag queen dressed up as a spider. His evil assistants had trouble keeping their skull-like masks fixed on their heads, sometimes having to hold them steady, which obviously interfered with their dancing. Bad colour choices in the last act made the entire royal entourage blend into the set. When a duo entered for a pas de deux, their electric blue costumes looked so out of place I could not relax until they left the stage.
The group dances were beautiful and kept well in time. The leading duo really shone in the final act, making an impact with excellent execution of some very difficult moves.
This performance is not spectacular, but the atmosphere is warm and unpretentious and it is a pleasant show.
Sleeping Beauty is playing at Shatin Town Hall through March 17th. For more information, click here.
Comments
rosa saladino
a very balanced review
16 March 2013EnlattNon
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