Revival of " Le Lac des Cygnes "
BALLET
DESPITE the possibly superior musical claims of The Sleeping Princess and even of Casse-Noisette, The Swan Lake is, taken all round, the best of the full-length nineteenth century ballets. Its story is dramatic as neither of the two other ballets by Tchaikovsky is, and its principal part is the supreme test of the ballerina's capacities both as a classical dancer and as a mime. Then the second act, taken alone, is the finest example of the ballet blanc, and musically it is exceptionally shapely and coherent. Only in the divertissement, which occupies a large part of Act III, and leads up to the Odile-Siegfried duet, does Tchaikovsky fail to reach the standard he achieved in the later ballets.
It is remarkable that, with all the handicaps of war upon them, the Sadler's Wells Company should have been able to include this elaborate and exacting work in their repertory. It is astonishing that they should have given it a performance that surpasses all their past achievements in this kind and one that must rank as one of the most beautiful productions since the hey-day of Diaghilev. Despite his pre-occupation with odd twirls and curlicues of metallic ornamentation in his back-cloths, Mr. Leslie Hurry confirms the impression created by his decor for Hamlet that he is a theatrical designer of quite outstanding imagination with a fine sense of colour. And he has style. It is a style deriving elements from such diverse artists as • Carpaccio, Blake and the designers of Pollock's toy- theatres; but, unlike the designs of The Quest, for instance, these various elements are homogeneously combined, and the result is a spectacle of rare beauty.
Miss Fonteyn has shown before that she can give an excellent performance in the dual role of Odette and Odile. Now she dances it in a way that, were she a, foreign visitor, would be acclaimed as outstanding. Her swan-queen has a bird-like grace of movement that turns into poetry all the superb gymnastic, while in the third act a hard brilliance rakes the place of melting sweet- ness. Mr. Helpmann, too, dances with complete command of the "noble " style. His leaps are not merely athletic ; they have the airy elegance of flight. The dancing of the corps de ballet was excellent, though the popular pas de quatre in Act III was not as light and quick and well-together as it should be, and the indi- vidual dancing in the divertissement was well up to standard.
DYNELEY HUSSEY.
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