August Bournonville:
”La Sylphide”
Interpreted by Nikolaj Hübbe
Royal Danish Ballet
“The Old Stage”
October 24 2020
Last night Nikolaj Hübbe presented his third interpretation of August Bournonville’ s “La Sylphide”.
The audience liked his first production and reviewers for it clear representation of our national treasure.
On the other hand, his second production, now as Artistic Director, Nikolaj Hübbe took “La Sylphide” to where it has never been. The witch Madge had now changed gender and had a relationship with James. There were hardly a tree on stage, so the Sylphs performed on a cold and bare stage. There were strong interpretations by the dancers. However, it was not “La Sylphide” as the Copenhagen audience expected.
Back to Standard – and much more
This time around, Nikolaj Hübbe is back on the inherited version and delivers “La Sylphide” at its best.
The casting of the first night was spot on with Principal dancers Ida Praetorius and Jón Axel Fransson as the Sylph and her lover James. Both delivers not only outstanding interpretations of the Bournonville style. They are also strong actors, who can take their characters where they need to be.
Surprisingly, this is one of the first major pairing of the two dancers. It is also their first shot as James and the Sylph. They passed with flying colours.
Supporting team
Nikolaj Hübbe has also delivered a fine supporting team with Stephanie Chen Gunddorph as Effy, the girl James was supposed to marry. Benjamin Buza delivers a fine performance as James’ rival Gurn, who is also in love with Effy.
The major character role as the witch Madge is given to Kizzy Matiakis and will be her final performance at RDB, as she will retire this season.
She delivers a fine performance. However, she has been giving a particular choice of costume. It look like an oversized beach dress. There is no doubt that Kizzy Matiakis has the potential to be a great Madge. However, she needs another costume.
PR wise, Nikolaj Hübbe and the press team has built the PR effort on the designs for the ballet. Nikolaj Hübbe has giver the designer team almost a free hand and they have gone Scotch all the way. The tartans functions very well and do not overshadow the dancers even in spite of very sharp colours. However, there are some very bad design choices. Unfortunately, it is the sylphs who suffers the most.
Bring in the Designers
The designers and Nikolaj Hübbe have chosen very elaborate costumes for the sylphs. It is layer on layer, many decorations and every time the sylph raises an arm, the whole costume starts moving big scale. Multiplate that with the Sylph ensemble and you get a tsunami!
Unfortunately, the focus on fabrics also governs the décor. In the wedding scene, it looks like we are in a posh hotel in the 1920es, drowned by fabrics.
The forest scenes are also covered in fabrics. As we are talking about very big scale prints, they dwarfed the dancers.
In all, Nikolaj Hübbe present a very fine production of “La Sylphide”. There will be two more casts for the leading roles. We have waited for a new “La Sylphide” for a long time. If only he would tear the Christmas wrappings.
Photos:
By Per Morten Abrahamsen,Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet
- Jon Axel Fransson & Ida Praetorius as James & La Sylphide
- Jon Axel Fransson as James
- Kizzy Matiakis, Benjamin Buza & Camilla Rueløkke Holst as Madge, Gurn & Effy
- The Sylph & ensemble
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