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Season of trysts and fruitfulness, Hamburg Ballet Festival, Staatsoper, Hamburg

John Percival
Tuesday 09 July 2002 00:00 BST
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Relationships: that's what John Neumeier's ballets are about – even those that don't have a plot. This must be what enables him to be so prolific without repeating himself. Within 24 months he has premiered three original full-evening creations for his Hamburg Ballet, plus a comprehensive new interpretation of Giselle, and two one-act works besides, one of them for the Maryinsky Ballet. On quantity alone that would be impressive, but the quality, too, is top level. No dull, acted story-telling, no irrelevant divertissements, but the theatre of movement in classic ballet.

I reported from last year's Hamburg Ballet Festival on his tumultuously overwhelming Nijinsky, an evocation of the man and his background. The Seagull, which opened this year's festival, could hardly be more different; well, it is just as intense, but far quieter in tone and plotting. The inspiration of course comes from Chekhov's play, but presenting the situation as ballet brings major changes. The most obvious is that the two actress characters become dancers, and the two writers are now ballet-masters. Arkadina lost something in the change. Beautiful as her dreamy evocation of a former role is (and beautifully done by Anna Polikarpova), her later Pavlova parody comes off less well, and we lose the intriguing ambiguity in the play that arises from only being told about her acting, so that we are never sure how good she really is.

Nina, on the other hand, gains enormously. Her solo as the seagull, all lyric loveliness, easily outshines the silly "futuristic" speech that Kostya's play inflicts on her, and her later dance of sad uncertainty brings a wonderful understanding of her character. Heather Jurgensen rises to the subtlety of this part with absolute conviction.

As already remarked, it is the relationships that hold the ballet together. Sorin becomes a rather different chap, younger and odder, but the affection of his nephew and others is still touching. Masha's decision to marry the devoted schoolmaster Medvedenko forms a highlight, and the attitude of Trigorin (the resourceful Otto Bubenicek) to his two admirers is admirably balanced.

Neumeier, as often, is his own designer, but has wisely taken a little help from Chekhov's painter friend Levitan for the lakeside, and Russian designers of the Twenties for Kostya's futurism, not to mention hints of cubist angularity. Neumeier makes interesting use also of little origami seagulls at intervals all through the work as a poetic symbol of Nina in her absence.

Shostakovich provides most of the music. There are arguments against putting together sections of symphonies, a concerto and an operetta in this way, especially when you add snatches of Tchaikovsky and Scriabin, and a strong percussion sequence by Evelyn Glennie. To some extent this arrangement was an expedient when Neumeier's original choice of music proved unsuited, but with excellent playing by the Hamburg Philharmonic under Markus Lehtinen it works, matching the rhythmic and emotional needs of the varied episodes.

In his Giselle staging, Neumeier sticks to the standard score by Adam (plus Burgmüller's original peasant pas de deux), and largely to the traditional choreography, but with a new reading of the dramatic context. I am not sure that his prologue was really necessary, showing Giselle already dead so that Act 1 becomes a flashback, but other amendments make sense: the Prince's daughter Bathilde is so young that Albrecht's defection from her to chase after Giselle is more understandable. Yannis Kokkos as designer reinforces the new look: costumes combine period and modern elements; settings like a child's drawings, Act 1 colourful, Act 2 black and white. Fine, and so well danced, but this doesn't quite carry the conviction of Neumeier's Illusions – like Swan Lake, the best of all modern reinterpretations of Tchaikovsky's ballet.

The variety of the repertoire helps maintain the exceptional dancing standards of the Hamburg company. I found special pleasure this year in catching up at last with Neumeier's the Saga of King Arthur, created in 1982. It wasn't a success then: too long, too diffuse. But by cutting, eliminating, revising, he has achieved a swift-moving, taut treatment that tells more of the essential legend in two hours than David Bintley's Birmingham Arthur managed in two nights.

Inevitably, the peripheral characters are briskly handled, but the essentials are strongly presented: Lloyd Riggins a heroic, broodingly tragic Arthur, Guinevere another richly varied role for Heather Jurgensen, Carsten Jung's Lancelot du Lac torn between love for both of them and fierce self-mortification at his betrayal of their friendship. We get the quest for the Grail and a complex portrait of Mordred from the immensely gifted young Alexandre Riabko.

But again, as with The Seagull, the relationships take precedence over the individual characterisations. This is brought home by a prologue in which Merlin, arising from the lake and introducing the great sword Excalibur, recalls the genealogy of Arthur's world, which is also depicted on a front curtain before the ballet and between acts.

The Hamburg Ballet is not a one-man show; guest choreographers and visiting companies vary its programmes. But in 29 years as director Neumeier has built it into one of Europe's leading companies. It deserves to be as well known in Britain as it is everywhere else.

The next Hamburg Ballet season runs at the Staatsoper 22 September to 6 July 2003, with the annual festival starting 22 June (0049 40 21 11 880). The company also tours Athens, Baden-Baden, Paris, Asia, Vienna and St Petersburg

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