Swan Lake takes flight in Brisbane

Swan Lake
Queensland Ballet
Lyric Theatre
Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Queensland Ballet’s Swan Lake is quite reminiscent of the 2013 Royal New Zealand Ballet's production which was natural enough as Queensland Ballet had hired the elaborate sets and the costumes of the New Zealand show designed many years ago by Kristian Fredrikson.

There were another couple of New Zealand connections as well. Nigel Gaynor, the conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, was previously music director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. And then there was Lucy Green, for many years a principal dancer with the New Zealand Ballet. In this production, she danced the role of one of The Cygnets but on other nights was in the lead role of Odette/ Odile.

However on two nights, including this reviewer's night, the Bolshoi Ballet's principal ballerina, Evgenia Obraztsova, danced the role of Odette/Odile, providing a sensational, finely judged approach to the two roles.

As Odette, the white swan, she appeared to have total empathy with the music, allowing her arms, legs and torso to display a fluidity and grace that captured the idea of the swan she is supposed to be. The elegance and simplicity of her dancing created an ethereal and graceful character. By contrast, Odile, her black swan counterpart was more of the temptress and, in the big lifts and sharper movements, there was an expression of sensuality and ecstasy.

In both roles, though it was her technical wizardry which was apparent, the audience responded to her sets of pirouettes, her beautifully extended body when she went on pointe and the featherlike delicacy of her footwork with extensive applause.

 Cuban dancer Victor Estevez created a marvellously drawn Prince Siegfried. In the first act he was clearly more in love with his crossbow and hunting than the proffered potential brides and in the court scenes where he reflected on the demands of court and the need to be deferential to his mother, his demeanour was that of a man without direction and his dancing expressed his fateful future. However, his dancing became electrified when he encountered Odette, with athletic leaps and elaborate movements expressing passion and joy.

Shane Wuerthner’s von Rothbart was a brilliant villain, both as the huge bat-like creature which abducts young women as well as at the ball as the father of Odile where he acted as a grand puppet master, manipulating and cajoling his daughter.

An additional scene was created during the overture in which we see Odette who is out collecting flowers assaulted by the evil sorcerer von Rothbart and turned into a swan. It helped provide a story line to the work showing von Rothbart was turning all the attractive girls into swans so his daughter would be the one left for the prince to marry.

In their stunning, elaborate formation, the swans were like a natural phenomenon, their legs and arms gently moving like unfolding petals. There was also a mesmerising mathematical precision to their dance as they traced out geometric patterns.

All the various princesses who danced for Siegfried in act 3 performed with style and panache as they sought to tempt the young prince.

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra under Nigel Gaynor provided a superb soundscape for the dancers as well as a magnificent rendering of Tchaikovsky’s music.

The Queensland Ballett will also present La Fille mal gardée from August 4-19, Peter Pan from October 25-November 4 and The Nutcracker from December 8-16.