I was happy to sit down in the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday evening. Last time I was there it was to see School of Rock, and it was nice to see the beauty of the auditorium without a musical stage and backdrop set up. But more selfishly, I was sitting in the front row of the stalls for an evening I was sure would be brilliant- and it truly was.

Dance

Coppélia Pas de deux

Peter Wright’s Coppélia will be performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in October, and the first dancing on the program gave us a wonderful look at what to expect, as the Grand Pas de deux from Act III was danced.

I can’t speak for the dancers, but I imagine it’s harder to get into a role when you’re dancing an extract, compared to the full piece. Luckily for us, Celine Gittens as Swanilda and Brandon Lawrence as Franz were more than capable. Coppélia is perhaps the happiest and most comedic full-length classic, and Lawrence and Gittens looked as happy to be there as I was.

Both of them were confident in their solo variations, and the partnering work showed confidence. There’s balances in the work that are similar to the Rose Adagio, and Lawrence and Gittens synced together with ease, making it all look a lot easier than it really was.

It was a good first dance piece for the evening, introducing the audience to what the Birmingham Royal Ballet has in store, and has made me more eager to see the full-length ballet later in the year.

Bluebird Pas de deux, Sleeping Beauty

My first time seeing the Birmingham Royal Ballet was in October 2021, when I saw Romeo and Juliet. At that performance Miki Mizutani was one of Juliet’s Friends, and Max Maslen was the Lead Mandolin Dancer. So I was glad to see them again.

The Bluebird pas de deux, taken from Act III of Sleeping Beauty, is, like most of the Act, made to show off the skills of dancers. At the time of Sleeping Beauty’s creation choreographer Marius Petipa had a lot of talent to show off, and show it off he did. The Bluebird Pas de deux is about lightness and jumping, utilising arm movements to portray the Bluebird and Princess Florine (who originate in a fairytale by Madame d’Aulnoy).

As Princess Florine, Mizutani was light and airy, with strong arm work and precision in her movements. In the famous Bluebird jumps, Maslen moved with ease. The pair were well-matched, and had the poised snd refined stage presence that Sleeping Beauty needs. It was a joy to see them dance.

End of Time

End of Time, set to the third movement of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, is a piece from Ben Stevenson inspired by the 1959 post-apocalyptic film On the Beach. In it, we see the relationship between the two dancers change and grow, as they realise they are the only people left on Earth. And, it was outstanding.

The male lead carries the female lead onto the stage. From that moment, we were no longer in the Royal Concert Hall. It was like we were in a post-apocalyptic world. The dancers, Brandon Lawrence and Yijing Zhang, took us on a journey, and from beginning to end, they knew their characters, and they knew how to move the audience.

Their dancing was immaculate, and did the remarkable job of making their dancing stand out more than Rachmaninoff’s music. I must admit at times I forgot there even was music; I was practically spellbound in the little world that had been created. But the soloists, António Novais, on the cello and Jeanette Wong on the piano, were beautiful, and the music and dance synced up well.

One moment I know will stick in my mind is the moment where both dancers are on the floor, and the female lead cups the male lead’s face with her hands. At that moment, it’s like all the distress melted away. It was a masterclass in dance acting by Lawrence and Zhang. And sitting front row, having that happening about 6 feet away from you, well, me and my seat neighbour were nearly in tears by the end.

A rapturous applause greeted Zhang and Lawrence upon their bows, and I realised that it wasn’t just me, they had casted that spell over the whole audience, and everyone who was in the Concert Hall was lucky to have seen it.

Majisimo

Majisimo originally comes from Jules Massenet’s opera Le Cid. At the time it was common to insert ballet divertissements into the operas, and at the Paris Opera Ballet in 1885, Rosita Mauri triumphed in the leading dancer role.

The music for the ballet suite is Spanish inspired, as the opera is set in Spain. However while listening to the music, I noticed that it was very obviously Massenet. The violin work sounded similar, and I realised it was similar to his Manon. Being Spanish-inspired, the music provides ample opportunity for the flashiness of Spanish character dancing. Choreographed by Jorge Garcia, it gives all 8 dancers a chance to shine, and shine they did.

The principal couple were Mathias Dingman and Yaoqian Shang (substituting for Momoko Hirata). Supporting them were Karla Doorbar, Yu Kurihara, Beatrice Parma, Tzu-Chao Chou, Alexander Yap and Shuailun Wu. Of these dancers, I had seen Doorbar, Chou, Yap and Wu in Romeo and Juliet (as Juliet’s Friend, Mercutio, Paris and Mandolin Dancer respectively).

Not only were the cast not scared of the flashiness that Spanish dancing brings, they also looked like they were enjoying it. Towards the end of the piece there’s an opportunity for everyone to show off, and their little solos were applauded. The audience really got into this piece, and it was a wonderful showstopper ending.

Music

The Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Murphy and led by Robert Gibbs, were instrumental (no pun intended) for the evening to be a success. I’m not as knowledgable about music as I am dance, and I was glad to be able to be introduced to some brilliant pieces. The pieces they performed (not including the dance pieces) were:

• Verdi’s Nabucco overture, which provided a nice start to the evening, easing you in with the brass before stepping things up a notch.
• The Act III Entracte from Bizet’s Carmen, a piece that I had never heard without the context of the full opera. It was nice to hear it separate, as it showed me how good the Entracte was.
• Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, from Die Walküre. My life experience with Wagner so far is one book; I was glad when I opened the programme and saw I’d finally get to hear his music live. It was a rousing end to Act I.
• Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin Waltz. What better day to play Tchaikovsky than on his birthday, and getting to hear the Bluebird Pas de Deux and Eugene Onegin showed off his skill as a composer.
• The Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila, by Saint-Saëns. I had never heard this piece before, but really really enjoyed it, particularly the quick-tempo ending. The orchestra were putting their all into it, and it paid off; I found myself listening to it the next day.

I’ve never really been to a concert per say, and it was nice as a ballet fan to be able to have a mix. What surprised me is when I went home and realised that these pieces were all a lot longer than I had thought they were, showing me that concerts are not ‘boring’ or ‘stuffy’ at all.

Alongside the orchestra and dancers were two singers from the Birmingham Conservatoire: Samantha Lewis (a mezzo-soprano), and Helsa Townsend (a soprano). They performed the Evening Prayer and Pantomime from Hansel and Gretl (Engelbert Humperdinck), and the Flower Duet from Delibes’ Lakmé. Of these two, I enjoyed the Lakmé more, but that is because it is such a beautiful piece of music, and I was glad to hear it perform live.

The evening was compèred by Dominic Heale, who provided context to the pieces, and kept the flow of the evening going. The afternoon performance was a Family Music and Dance program, and I think both were a wonderful way of introducing people to ballet and music. Quite a few people near me were locals and theatre regulars, who had little knowledge about ballet and classical music, so not only was I happy due to the show itself, I was happy to see that the evening had brought in newcomers, all of whom enjoyed themselves a lot.