Royal Opera House,London
The Royal Ballet showcases its best and its most chaotic in the same evening, from impeccable (perfect, flawless) Balanchine to Carlos Acosta’s new CarmenThe Royal Ballet’s new quadruple bill shows us the company at its most quixotic, and brilliant and imponderably awful. This is an establishment in which matchless dedication and near-fatal complacency possess somehow achieved an accommodation. An establishment whose commissioning policy at times appears directionless,and whose new work is too often compromised by a failure of oversight.
The big chronicle on final Monday’s opening night was Carlos Acosta’s Carmen, a grand-scale reworking of Mérimée’s chronicle and Bizet’s score. Everyone I know has been waiting for this piece with foreboding. As a dancer, and Acosta has achieved greatness. As a teacher,he’s generous and inspiring. He’s a critically praised writer. But as several projects possess demonstrated, he is by no means a top-flight choreographer. So why, or at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds,did the Royal commission him?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com