August Bournonville/Nikolaj Hübbe:
"A Folk's Tale"
Royal Danish Ballet
December 6 2014
August Bournonville/Lloyd Riggins:
"Napoli"
Hamburg Ballett
December 7 2014
Saturday in Copenhagen and Sunday in Hamburg shows two Danish/International icons take on the Bournonville heritage. It is not a first for either Nikolaj Hübbe or Lloyd Riggins. They have both done Bournonville productions before. And they stood for several seasons as the two major male dancers in the Royal Danish Ballet. Today they are respectively heading a large international company (RDB) or the prince in waiting at another (Hamburg Ballett). The difference is that where Nikolaj Hübbe is expected to stage Bournonville, it is choice for Lloyd Riggins.
Following his controversial “la Sylphide” Nikolaj Hübbe restaged his slightly less controversial “A Folk’s Tale” as the family Christmas production. Moving the production from the larger Opera Stage to the more human scaled Old Stage did the production a lot of good. It no longer looked like a film shot in normal format showed on a wide screen. The audience could pick up the details and the nuances of the acting. But the move alone could not totally wipe out the rather problematic interpretation, Hübbe has burdened Bournonville with.
If we look at Hübbe’s productions of Bournonville’s three masterpieces, we can conclude that he took something from “Napoli”, added something to “A Folk’s Tale” and changed vital parts of “La Sylphide”.
His take on “A Folk’s Tale” was to put a layer from a political crisis, little known today and taken place after Bournonville death and turn the fairy tale trolls and characters into a regular Monsters Ball.
Neither trick does add anything substantial to the ballet. It creates confusion and actually destroys Bournonville own controversial moment where the farm worker’s take a stand against the nobility. Here Hübbe‘s put in a non-functioning showcase for the Pas de Sept dancers.
The Perfect Couple and the Ursurper
Hilary Guswiler and Gregory Dean are as strong and lovely couple as you could wish for as Hilda and Junker Ove. He does not really need the Sturm und Drang Nureyev style choreography; Hübbe has created to make Junker Ove a dancing presence. It is Dean’s acting that keeps Ove top of mind for the audience. As Hilda, Guswiler has more natural focus, but use it well not only to be a perfect Hilda but also to infuse her dances with elegance and plenty of bounce.
But still the performance award must go to Sebastian Kloborg for reinventing the villainous troll brother Diderik. Probably in the whole performance history Diderik has been second to his kind brother Viderik, who also gets more stage time. But not this time around. Tall, lanky and handsome, Sebastian Kloborg changes from tall to small, from handsome to ugly and creates a tyrant who totally overestimates his sexual pulling power. It is a hilarious performance that sets new standards for the famed Danish character tradition.
Last time around Kloborg was cast as Junker Ove, but did not made it to the stage, due to severe back injury. When he finally returned to active duty, the technical level of the company had risen to new heights, led by Alban Lendorf, and where Kloborg pre-injury was cast as a danseur noble in roles like Albrecht and Oberon/Theseus, he now found himself cast in character parts like the teacher in “The Lesson”. He then choose to spend two years in Gautier Dance in Stuttgart. Returned to the company this season he really goes all in and shows his talent for character building and gross entertainment.
A Girls Thing
For the softer brother Viderik, Hübbe and Englund has cast girls in the two first casts. Sorella Englund herself was the first female Viderik and later Lis Jeppesen took over the part. This time Jeppesen is joined by Elisabeth Damm, who has shown good mimic skills earlier.
Last time covering the huge opera stage was hard work for Lis Jeppesen. For a female mime to get the gravity of a troll is not easy, but by moving the production to the more humanly size old stage it evens the odds and Jeppesen who will celebrate her 40years Jubilee on December 14, appears juvenated on the smaller stage. Elisabeth Damm is placing her Viderik close to Jeppesen’s, but might find a more personal interpretation with time.
Since the 1977 production of “A Folk’s Tale” the role of the changeling troll Birthe has added more vulgarity within each of the four productions. She cannot possible get more shrill. When Hübbe’s version premiered he gave the role to two character dancers, which added depth and personality but was challenged by the added dancing requirements. This time Kizzy Matiakis shares the roles with ballerina Amy Watson (not seen on stage yet this time) and corps dancer Alba Nadal, who also both have done the role before. Neither is bad, but it does feel like an opportunity missed by not taking a chance for example on the strong dramatic young dancer Astrid Elbo, who have shown format and humor as well a great skills as a dramatic diva.
Second cast of Hilda and Ove are in the safe hands of Susanne Grinder and Marcin Kupinski, but they create less of a presence and not as strong and engaging couple as Guswiler and Dean.
See Neapel und Sterben
Lloyd Riggins has chosen “Napoli” as his first own production at Hamburg Ballett. Compared to Hübbe’s Bournonville productions it become immediately clear that the Hamburg ensemble do not have the rich resources of the RDB in form of people, more people, production skills and extras.
Hamburg Ballet cannot muster six gondoliers and six fishermen and there are few extras on stage to create the hustle and bustle of Bournonville’s “Napoli”, but somehow they managed to make the lack of people into an advantage. For one thing it makes each easier for the two mini-villains of the story line, shopkeepers Peppo and Ciacomo, played with gusto by Carsten Jung and Konstantin Tselikov to establish their characters.
Silvia Azzoni and Alexandre Riabko present a lovely couple as much put upon lovers Teresina and Gennaro and handle the challenges well.
Simple Choices
Lloyd Riggins has resigned Rikke Juellund, who also did the designs for his 2005 production of “Kermesse in Brüges in Copenhagen, and she applies the same simplistic strategy for this production. The décor for acts one and three consists of big simplified figures representing Vesuv, harbor houses and various big symbols. In this setting Vesuv placed in the city of Napoli and the audience cannot tell that the scene is the harbor and may be somewhat surprised when characters jumps of the quay to save Gennaro from drowning. Her design for Act. 3 looks more like Stonehenge than a rural Italian landscape. Her design for second act however is a stunning and effective solution for the deep sea. The costumes for the Najades are pleasing light blue tunics with a Fortuny feels. But the costume for Otto Bubenicek as Golfo is annoyingly more Rastafari than sea god.
In Third act Lloyds Riggins has changed some of the standard mime section and he keeps his character dancers busy. I can see some inspiration from Hübbe’s Fellini inspired production, not only in the preference for Bermuda shorts, but also by involving the character dancers in the tarantella.It works on the human scale but it kills the crescendo.
Riggins and Juellund have chosen a more folklore look for the act three dancers than the classical Danish Pas de Six balletic costumes. Doing the act in knickers rather than tricots may cover up a few shortcomings in the style. Christopher Evans was the stand out in the notorious difficult first solo.
It all it is a well thought production, and especially Riggins choreography for the second act showed that the act is salvable.
Is there room for Bournonville?
The Hamburg audience seemed pleased but only time can tell whether Bournonville will have a place in the Hamburg repertoire. In Copenhagen Bournonville is a must, but as the last thirty years have shown, Bournonville is not putting bums in seats. It should not be a problem for a state run company, but at present the RDB is measured mainly on box office appeal. That is a tall order for Bournonville and maybe one the reasons why Nikolaj Hübbe is trying so hard to get more drama and big production tricks into Bournonville.
If you look behind the key qualities of the RDB, dramatics skills, the ability to cover the whole scale from humor to tragedy, the ability to dance a numbers of styles. It is all based on the Bournonville heritage. When they shine as they do in “Lady of the Camellias” it is Bournonville and the skillset horned since his time that creates the result. In order to keep that unique advantage Bournonville must remain a central part of company repertoire. But maybe management should learn to accept that the value of the Bournonville heritage should not be measured in box office performance, but in the artistic results reached by keeping the tradition alive.
When companies like Hamburg stage Bournonville, it is because Lloyd Riggins and John Neumeier understand what RDB has achieved through the heritage. This is the long term gain. And that is where Bournonville should be measured.
Photos:
1. Hilary Guswiler & Gregory Dean as Hilda and Junker Ove in "A Folk's Tale" by Per Morten Abrahamsen Copyright (c) Royal Danish Ballet
2. Sebastian Kloborg & Hilary Guswiler as Diderik & Hilda in "A Folk's Tale by Per Morten Abrahamsen
Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet
3. Carsten Jung as Peppo in "Napoli" by Holger Badekow Copyright(c) Hamburg Ballett
4. Otto Bubenicek as Golfo in "Napoli" by Holger Badekow Copyright (c) Hamburg Ballett
5. Monsters from "A Folk Tale" in a promo at the Metro Photo by Christian Als Copyright (c) Royal Danish Ballet
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