Queensland Ballet: Coppelia -
Optus Playhouse, 19 April -
It is seventeen years since the Queensland Ballet (QB) mounted a production of Coppelia; that was Harold Collins’s ‘1950s Australia’ interpretation of the 19th century classic. More than enough time has elapsed, then, for the company to take another look at this charming, comic ballet.
Choreographer (and also QB Ballet Master) Greg Horsman has set out to instil more rationale into what is an otherwise rather thin, far-fetched plot, and on the whole he has succeeded, also locating the ballet in Australia, but in the 1880s’ German settlement of Hahndorf, South Australia.
Horsman quite cleverly invents the premature death of Dr Coppelius’s young daughter on their migration from Germany to Hahndorf as the reason for his subsequently making a life-like doll. It is in her image, and Coppelius, here a real doctor, not a magician, has been consumed with grief. This preamble is effectively conveyed during the overture by a screen-projected representation using both historical and drawn images evoking the 19th century.
The next short scene explores Coppelius’ arrival in Hahndorf and his epiphanic decision to ‘recreate’ his dead daughter, before the original Act I Delibes score begins. This makes the first act quite long, but also rather short on dancing as Horsman fleshes out the original characters and many more of his devising, in order to set up the drama.
Characters like the McTaggarts, Pastor Kluge and his wife, Mr and Mrs Angus and son Henry, together with Swanilda and her parents (the Hoffmans) and Franz’s parents the Smits, and his three brothers all add dramatic colour, but also a modicum of confusion, there is such a lot going on.
The work settles nicely in Acts II and III however, with the second act particularly effective, keeping to the original story line and with very clever comedic interplay between the three protagonists, Swanilda, Franz and Coppelius.
Horsman has kept much of the traditional Petipa choreography; however, in Act I he uses the Mazurka for some adept ball throwing manoeuvres as a team of footballers arrives in the village, while paradoxically a Schuhplattler or German knee-slapping dance is performed to the slow movement of the (usually Hungarian) Czardas.
Clare Morehen gave a deftly drawn characterisation of the vivacious, strong-willed Swanilda. Her solo as the doll Coppelia in Act II was a triumph of impeccable technique and style.
Morehen was well matched by Huang Junshuang, who showed an easy boyish charm in his interpretation of the flirtatious Franz. That, and his effortless ballon and fluid lines made their partnership most engaging.
In a cameo role, Eleanor Freeman was vivacious as the Scottish Mary McTaggart, although her wig, a mop of red curls, was almost caricatural; there was so much of it. Lina Kim also impressed as the bespectacled and rather nerdy Liesl Kluge, while Meng Ningning as her mother, Mrs Kluge, in another reworking of the drama, performed the ‘Prayer’ solo in Act III with beautiful phrasing and control.
While Horsman’s revisioning of Dr Coppelius has created a more credible character, guest artist Paul Boyd ran with it and made it his own. In a multi-dimensional interpretation, Boyd’s Coppelius was irascible but quixotic, heart-broken but tender hearted; refreshingly, his was not the hapless, pitiful fool of the traditional story.
This is a beautiful looking Coppelia; Hugh Coleman’s sparse set design is awash with the browns, creams and greys of the Australian outback, framing a wide-open Australian sky of a cyclorama evocatively lit by Jon Buswell. The colourful costumes by Noelene Hill are thrown into sharp relief by this muted palette.
Icing the cake, the Camerata of St John’s conducted by Music Director Andrew Mogrelia, brought the melodic score to life – it is such a treat not to have recorded music.
- DENISE RICHARDSON
Coppelia runs until 10 May