Two famous ballets form a study in contrasts

Think of ballet and women, particularly prima ballerinas, tend to come to mind. On the other hand, female founders and heads of ballet companies are a rarer breed altogether. Thus The Royal Ballet, which comes to town to perform the three-act ballets Sylvia and Manon over the course of four days this July, is notable for not only having been founded (in 1931) by a woman, Dame Ninette de Valois, but also currently having females as artistic director, in Dame Monica Mason, and assistant director, in Jeanetta Laurence.

Additionally, as may be gathered from their titles, Britain’s national ballet company’s choice of productions for Hong Kong have female protagonists. In the case of Sylvia, to be performed on July 17 and 18, the ballet’s main character is a nymph captured by a huntsman before being restored by Eros, the Greek god of love, to her shepherd lover. Manon’s eponymous character, in contrast, is a much more down-to-earth young femme who harbours feelings for a seminary student but finds herself unable to resist the temptations of wealth and luxury.
In talking to bc about the Royal Ballet and their productions, Jeanetta Laurence emphasizes the diversity of the company’s repertoire, which includes abstract and new works by contemporary choreographers along with the more conventional big story ballets. Yet, she says, “From the beginning, the Royal Ballet has a strong history of performing three-act narrative ballets,” effectively noting that such high-profile, big-budget productions remain the company’s forte.

So when it planned the tour to Hong Kong, the company didn’t worry about whether a ballet with a story based on Greek myth and a tale of tragic love set in early 18th century France might be too culturally foreign for Hong Kong audiences. As Laurence explains, “We chose to present Sylvia and Manon on this tour because they are great works by the Royal Ballet’s two principal choreographic architects, [Sir] Frederick Ashton and [Sir] Kenneth MacMillan.” Indeed, she says the ballets are both particularly brilliant examples of the genius of those two great neoclassical choreographers – and taken together, they represent an intriguing study in stylistic contrast.

Sylvia (originally Sylvia ou La Nymphe de Diane) was first performed in France back in 1876. But the ballet originally choreographed by Frenchman Louis Mérante was never as much appreciated as that of Sir Frederick Ashton, whose version had little to do with Mérante’s original apart from Leo Delibes’ music. Indeed, says Laurence, Ashton (who she affectionately refers to as “Sir Fred” the further along we went in the interview) was attracted by the score as well as wanted to create a prime role for the legendary Dame Margot Fonteyn, the dancer considered by many to be the greatest English ballerina of her time.

Revived by Christopher Newton in 2005 as part of a season dedicated to the Royal Ballet’s founder choreographer (and consequently restored to the company’s repertoire after an absence of nearly 40 years), this latest production of Sylvia continues to very much bear Ashton’s imprint, which Laurence says is marked by fast footwork and upper body movement, especially in the pas de deux for Sylvia and her shepherd love, Aminta, in Act 3. She also suggests that Hong Kong audiences will be particularly attracted by the designs of Robin and Christopher Ironside and “the wonderful Delibes score”.

Ashton’s version of Sylvia had its world premiere in 1952, but it bears all the marks of a 19th-century classic ballet – even though, because the score was so ahead of its time, some commentators describe it in modern terms. As Laurence emphasizes, “Sir Fred constructed
Sylvia as a pastiche of a 19th-century classical ballet, so it definitely has a period feel to it.”

In contrast, Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon (aka L'histoire de Manon) may be based on 18th-century Abbé Prévost’s L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, yet it is very recognizably a 20th-century work. The ballet is scored on the music of Jules Massenet, who also composed a five-act opera based on Prévost’s story. However, Laurence points out, so distinct is the British ballet company’s production that, although they share the same storyline, the ballet uses none of the music from the opera.

Created in 1974 by the then director of The Royal Ballet, Manon is considered a classic of its time. Asked to directly compare and contrast it with Sylvia, Lawrence says this modern masterpiece about a femme fatale who is unusually money minded for a ballet’s main character is far more physically and emotionally explicit. While both ballets create a very strong impact with audiences, it’s Manon, she states, with its emotionally charged love story and graphic depiction of ecstasy and despair, that undoubtedly has the greater psychological and plot complexity.

Action-packed, it is a ballet whose choreography was nevertheless designed to visually reveal the complicated emotions of its people. So while The Royal Ballet’s production boasts lavish sets, lyrical music and glamorous costumes, its assistant director says look out especially for the great pas de deux MacMillan created for the lovers Manon and Des Grieux. There is much to look forward to, then, at the Hong Kong debut of a ballet famous for its choreography and danced by the company that premiered it.

The Royal Ballet will perform Sylvia on July 17 and 18, and Manon on July 19 and 20, at the HK Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre. Showtime is at 7:30pm on all four evenings and 2:30pm for the Sunday, July 20, matinee. Tickets for all performances are $880 to $180 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.