The Australian Ballet: Coppelia
Palais Theatre, St Kilda; 23 September
Coppelia is deeply ingrained in the Australian Ballet's DNA. Its first production for the company was presented as part of ABS's debut season in1962. Created by inaugural artistic director, Dame Peggy van Praagh, this earlier version pre-dates the one we see this season, which Dame Peggy together with set and costume designer Kristian Fredrikson and renowned director George Ogilvie created in 1979. In this production the artistic team worked closely and deliberately sought to add depth to the traditional favourite and to explore some of its underlying themes, especially the darkness beneath its light and airy facade.
The ballet carries a patina of age; the original Hoffman story harking back to 1816 with the first ballet version performed in 1870 by the Paris Opera Ballet. The version we see today has a somewhat antique feeling also and for all of its sweet lyricism and attempts at unearthing a dark heart of mechanisation, it ultimately felt lacking in dynamism.
This is ironic given that leading the cast were the superbly dynamic Chengwu Guo and Ako Kondo. Together they should have set the theatre on fire but the mildness and leisurely lyricism of Coppelia constrained even their combined explosiveness.
Coppelia moves between rural idyll - pre-industrialised village life - and the sinister interior of an eccentric toymaker's house. Dr Coppelius has made a life-like doll that sits on his balcony and has the villages intrigued. Young lovers Swanilda and Franz are fascinated by the 'girl' in different ways and separately sneak into the house. This is subject for much comic pantomime. Indeed, the fascination with mime brought to this production by George Ogilvie rather bogs the ballet down rather than enlivening it and makes the narrative sequences overdrawn.
Chengwu Guo brought sincerity and conviction to his role as Franz and displayed his usual glorious technical power and precision - within the bounds of the choreography. Ako Kondo was light and carefree as Swanilda and transmitted sweet girlishness with an edge of feistiness. The two came into their own in their solos and pas de deux where they danced beautifully together and were able to show off a little more of their range.
Corps de ballet work was tidy and crisp throughout. I particularly enjoyed the Mazurka and the Dance of the Hours. Soloists were accomplished - Robyn Hendricks's Prayer was like a whisper, showing beautiful control and almost a caressingly gentle quality.
The sense of menace that Dr Coppelia is supposed to represent misses the mark. This character is drawn from an amalgamation of real nineteenth century characters, quacks and mystics but fails to truly suggest menace. Rather, he is a bumbling fogey and not a threat. Danced by Andrew Killian, he was a young fogey at that.
Coppelius's toys are however quite creepily the stuff of nightmares; from the boneless rag doll, flailing and flopping into knots to Coppelius's mechanical accomplice. We are reminded of the historical changes in the conception of childhood.
There is certainly a place for the sweeter, more old-fashioned ballets to be retained in contemporary repertoire and we don't always have to be challenged by the new and the cutting edge. It is also the role of the national ballet company to preserve works of significance for new audiences to enjoy and young dancers to perform. As a strong counterpoint to the recently seen Nijinsky, Coppelia's placement in the season is very fitting. However this production did feel rather like a museum piece. Re-visiting the Palais Theatre as a venue for the Australian Ballet further entrenched this sense of yesteryear.
- SUSAN BENDALL
Coppelia plays in Melbourne until 1 Oct and will be presented in Sydney 2-21 December.
