BALLET IN OPERA
mythical and legendary characters these purely animal figures, Mr. Tippett surely meant to press home that lesson'—among many others —that the lovers have to learn; the lesson be- ing that we have to recognise the inescapable dichotomy which keeps in balance all hetero- sexual relationships (I cannot speak of the other kind). Love pulls against hate, trust against suspicion, tenderness against violence; we are all ever ready to destroy the thing we love. The dances are made up of 'pretty' ball- etic movements (whose function .in Ballet 's simply to show off the body beautiful, not to create drama), and shapeless acrobatics de- rived, probably unconsciously, from various modes of Modern Dance; these two kinds don't fuse into the brutally obvious statement that the plot demands must be made. In sum, they were too markedly balletic and insuffi- ciently operatic-balletic; because 'Dancing in operas is justified only if . . . etc., etc. (see opening paragraph).
They order these things better in Yugo- slavia, apparently: the National Opera and Ballet from Zagreb, at the Stoll Theatre, knows its limitations and works within them. This modest venture belongs in a small town in a country inevitably far removed culturally from the smartness and sophistication of .the western world. The staple material is folklore which forms the basis of most of their operas and ballets; the stories are earthy with over- tones of magic and peasant prowess. The gen- eral standard of staging, costuming and light- ing is very good and where the operas properly require a dance scene it is created and danced in a perfectly suitable idiom; the dances are as inevitable as the magical episodes, the partings of lovers, the strokes of fortune that bring content and love to hero and heroine.
The choreography of the full-length Romeo and Juliet was over-simple and used too much 'literal' mime; that of the dances in Prince Igor too zealously aped the dynamist% of Fokine's original, but these works were danced, as the opera-ballets were, too, in a restrained, calm and wholly fit style—a style based firmly on the complex folk dancing which is a part of the daily life of Yugoslavia.
A. V. COTON
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