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The Dutch National Ballet dances Swan Lake - Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 1999By Marc Haegeman
The Dutch National Ballet (Het Nationale Ballet), the biggest ballet company in The Netherlands, takes great pride in the versatility of its repertoire. For all its emphasis on contemporary choreography, each year part of the season is devoted to some of the great 19th-century classics. Last October, in the splendid 'Muziektheater' in the heart of Amsterdam, the company presented a fourteen-performance run of Swan Lake in the version of former artistic director and resident choreographer Rudi van Dantzig. This production was actually the first full-length version of the ballet created in The Netherlands.
There have been less admirable approaches to Swan Lake than van Dantzig's. The Dutch choreographer claims it was primarily Tchaikovsky himself, as he is known through his music and his letters, who inspired him when he staged the ballet with fellow- choreographer Toer van Schayk for the Dutch National Ballet in 1988. Swan Lake is, for van Dantzig, essentially the story of a young man who is expected to find his bride but fails, a theme which alledgedly mirrors the composer's own life. Whether this is historically correct is a matter of debate, yet in van Dantzig's view it is prince Siegfried who is the central character in Swan Lake, which brings his version quite close to that of his friend Rudolf Nureyev. The prince is an unhappy youth, ill-at-ease in his social surroundings and unable to face the responsabilities of life, preferring the company of his friend Alexander to the prospect of marriage. The White Swan appears to him as the incarnation of his ideals of purity, sincerity and simplicity, while the Black Swan represents worldly luxury and brilliance. By eventually choosing for the latter he betrays his own ideals and seals his own fate.
Van Dantzig doesn't conceal his admiration for Tchaikovsky. Every act opens with a huge portrait of the composer and the score is treated with much obvious care. This version of Swan Lake is one of the most complete when it comes to the music. Unfortunately, Van Dantzig didn't attempt to recreate the original sequence of the ballet as composed by Tchaikovsky. With the exception of the final act where the original music is used, van Dantzig limited himself to adding extra variations and scenes to the famous Petipa/Ivanov production of 1895. With a running time of 3 hours 25 (including two intervals of twenty minutes each) this is surely one of the longest Swan Lakes around. This length is, alas, one of the most obvious weaknesses of the production. For all the drama in Tchaikovsky's music the staging is notably undramatic and with generally slow tempi the action frequently drags. Especially the ballroom act is endless with its quite useless succession of national dances (which strangely lack in national flavor) created by Toer van Schayk and the choreographically weak pas de six. Some judicious pruning wouldn't be such a bad idea.
The production is appropriately large-scaled, the company deploying its full forces and making excellent use of the vast stage of the 'Muziektheater.' The sumptiously grand and beautifully evocative sets and costumes by Toer van Schayk place the action in the 17th century, not surprisingly the Dutch Golden Age. Some of the noblemen look like they walked straight out of Rembrandt's 'Night Watch.' The classically ideal landscape with ruins in the first Act is reminiscent of the paintings by Le Lorrain, while the lakeside Acts provide all the nocturnal poetry and mystery one could wish.
Yet, all that glitters is not gold in this kingdom. The nobility merrily mingles with the lower classes, while the peasants seem to dance the polacca as well as the courtiers. No wonder the prince's tutor is so upset all the time. Etiquette at court is altogether at low ebb. Nobody seems to mind the queen-mother very much, least of all Odile, who immediately after her entrance in the 3rd Act unabashedly flings herself on the throne.
Still, the Dutch National Ballet is an attractive young company and with the dancers performing with commitment, if not always with precision, this Swan Lake had much to enjoy. Moreover, the company can boast a splendid lineup of principals (or first soloists, as the top of the troupe's hierarchy is called here.) Browsing through their biographies, one not only readily remarks the variety of nationalities (and the minority of Dutch artists), noteworthy is also the diverse and almost exclusively foreign schooling background of the first soloists. It is, after all only recently, in 1984, that a desirable close cooperation between the company and the National Ballet Academy was launched.
In the performance I attended the leads were danced by Russian Larissa Lezhnina and Hungarian Tamás Nagy. Lezhnina, now 30 and undoubtedly the little jewel of the troupe, is a former Kirov Ballet artist who joined the Dutch National as first soloist in 1994. Her partner, 24-year old Nagy, Hungarian schooled and ex-principal with the Hungarian National Ballet, recently made his debut with the company in this role.
Larissa Lezhnina's Swan is undoubtedly small-scaled and somewhat at odds with the opulence of the production. Yet, what a beautiful stylist she is. In Lezhnina's Swan there are none of the sinuous movements, disjointed limbs and exaggerated extensions that became the trademark of many interpreters of this role nowadays, but I thoroughly enjoyed her reading that breathed clarity and precision, harmony and poise, easy grace and refined beauty from start to end. The choreography is revealed with an almost old-fashioned respect and a refusal to show off. No gratuitous effects, even as Odile, where the Leningrad classicism ever remains firmly in control of the virtuosity. Splendid technician as she is, Lezhnina's dancing is never emphatic in technique. The lakeside scenes with the prince were for that attractively handled, with both dancers creating a sense of intimacy and tenderness. Tamás Nagy is definitely a promising artist, dancing with virile elegance and giving credibility to the complex character devised by van Dantzig.
In the supporting roles mention should be made of Sabine Chaland and Amy Raymond, respectively French and American second soloists, both excellent in the pas de trois. The corps of swans lacked the last ounce of polish and style to be able to compete with the greatest ensembles.
The Dutch Ballet Orchestra conducted by the Swiss chef Thierry Fischer was not in outstanding form this evening, however the presence of live music making for ballet performances is a luxury not to be despised in this part of the world.
Later this season the company will devote two programs to Stravinsky. In all there will be six ballets to music by the famous Russian composer, including three by Balanchine (Violin Concerto, Apollo, and Symphony In Three Movements.) The Dutch National Ballet is, with more than twenty of Balanchine's ballets in its repertoire, one of the main preservers of his work. Also programmed for this Stravinsky festival is Bronislava Nijinska's Les Noces, while Wayne Eagling, present artistic director of the Dutch National Ballet, will produce his own version of the Le sacre du printemps.