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Natasha Rogai

Giselle 
La Scala Ballet
	HK Cultural Centre Grand Theatre
	Reviewed: Feb 18, 7.30pm; Feb 22, 2.30pm
Highland Fling 
Scottish Ballet
	Sha Tin Town Hall
	Reviewed: Feb 22, 7.30pm
The two oldest and most celebrated Romantic ballets to feature in the core international repertoire are Giselle (1841) and La Sylphide (1832). This year's Hong Kong Arts Festival offered a classic take on the former from Milan's La Scala Ballet and a radically different one on the latter from Scottish Ballet in the form of Matthew Bourne's  Highland Fling.
After a disappointing previous visit to Hong Kong in 2006, this appearance showed La Scala on excellent form with many exciting young dancers under the leadership of Makhar Vaziev, who became artistic director in 2009 after 13 years at the helm of the Mariinsky Ballet.
La Scala's production of Giselle offers a sound, straightforward reading of the choreographic and dramatic text which allows the dancers to shine.
On the first night, the leading roles were taken by Svetlana Zakharova and David Hallberg, two superstars from the Bolshoi Ballet. Both were magnificent, especially in Act 2, where Zakharova's steel magnolia virtuosity came into its own and Hallberg showed off his soft, flowing movement and soaring jump. The problem is that Giselle is not about virtuosity. Zakharova failed to convince as a peasant girl who dies of a broken heart and there was too little rapport between her and Hallberg.
It was not the established stars but two spectacular young talents, Lusymay Di Stefano and Claudio Coviello, who brought the characters to profoundly moving life. Aged 22, Coviello shot up the ranks to principal last year and Di Stefano only graduated in 2012, making the maturity of their interpretations truly remarkable. Di Stefano has a rare naturalness on stage and the ability to make every step express emotion. Equally effective, Coviello's Albrecht is no hardened seducer but a young man deeply in love, torn apart by grief and guilt when Giselle dies.
Their acting was matched by their dancing: Di Stefano's assurance in this benchmark role was astonishing from such a young ballerina while Coviello's seemingly endless series of entrechats in Act 2 brought the house down.
David Garforth gave an object lesson in ballet conducting, bringing out the best in the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
And now for something completely different. Matthew Bourne is the enfant terrible of British dance, famous for his iconoclastic versions of classic ballets. The first of these, before his all-male Swan Lake  brought him international success, was Highland Fling - a re-imagining of La Sylphide that transposes the story from a romantic, Brigadoon-like rural Scotland in 1832 to the seamier side of Glasgow in the 1990s.
The result is a lively, irreverent and entertaining show that can be enjoyed with or without knowing the original ballet.
James is engaged to the nice but conventional Effie, whom their friend Gurn secretly loves. The Sylph, a supernatural woodland creature, appears to James who becomes so enamoured of her that he abandons his bride on their wedding day and runs off to the forest. To keep the Sylph with him forever, James makes the fateful decision to cut off her wings. Tragedy ensues for all concerned except Effie and Gurn, who live happily, if boringly, ever after.
Despite some repetition, the choreography shows Bourne's musicality as he responds to Herman Løvenskjold's irresistibly bouncy score.
This is the first time one of Bourne's full-length works has been performed outside his company and it is a triumph for Scottish Ballet. Christopher Harrison is excellent as the bothered and bewildered James while Sophie Martin perfectly captures the Sylph's amoral playfulness: her thistledown-light dancing was a delight.


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LIFE

Something for everyone - classical and modern versions of oldest ballets

A scene from La Scala's production of Giselle.

Lifestyle

Arts

The two oldest and most celebrated Romantic ballets to feature in the core international repertoire are Giselle (1841) and La Sylphide (1832).


Something for everyone - classical and modern versions of oldest ballets

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The two oldest and most celebrated Romantic ballets to feature in the core international repertoire are Giselle (1841) and La Sylphide (1832).

The two oldest and most celebrated Romantic ballets to feature in the core international repertoire are Giselle (1841) and La Sylphide (1832).