What are all the men for?: Sylvia at the ROH
Sylvia
The Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House
Royal Box, general rehearsal
21 November 2017
ROH page
The first act of Sylvia functions as a hymn to Marianela Nuñez’s talents, as it did for Darcey Bussell’s and no doubt Margot Fonteyn’s, and any other dancer who unites musicality, precision and, in Nuñez’s case, phenomenal strength. It was sheer, thrilling delight to see her dance those steps to that music, raising her fist in a triumphant expression of her power and independence to which we couldn’t help but rally.
Otherwise it’s a hokey ballet. That’s too harsh, obviously: Ashton’s choreography is always nuanced and pleasing, and responds sophisticatedly to Delibes’ charming if occasionally bombastic score. In this rehearsal the corps fussed over some of the complex material but otherwise presented it with aplomb; all the soloists were impressive, particularly James Hay as the weird faun-thing in the wedding act, and I was never bored. But I was rarely more than mildly interested.
My main complaint is the story. I wish Ashton had felt freer to devote the whole ballet to that triumphalist female independence of the first act, instead of following the contours of a traditional three-act ballet. As it is, a good half of the ballet feels extraneous. For example, stay-at-home hero Aminta, god bless him, does not seem the best use of Vadim Muntagirov’s considerable talents. No matter how many showy jumps he gets in Act III, nothing can revise the memory of his single and direly dull appearance in Act II, standing mournfully in the distance. Obviously it’s cool that Sylvia don’t need no hero and can rescue herself (which Nuñez obviously would do in real life), but it’s not much good for giving the ballet continuity or sense.
So there is this indifferent attitude to the story. There are also the froufrou sets and costumes and a pervasive aura of musty silliness which I think is somehow at the work’s core, through a combination of all creative factors. This is not to deny the superb dancing throughout, from Thiago Soares’s mega-sexy glowering to the effervescent superwoman display from Nuñez. But I wouldn’t rush to see Sylvia again, thrilled delight or no.
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