The Royal Ballet’s ‘Giselle’, 10th January 2006

I’d planned to walk to the Royal Opera House, but my ankle was giving me a bit of grief so I took a bus part of the way there. I arrived with ten minutes or so to spare, which I thought was quite reasonable. My seat was in the Amphitheatre, right at the top of the building. My ticket said that it was a ‘tall and loose’ seat, which sounded interesting. After stashing my coat in the cloakroom I headed off up a flights of stairs, an escalator, through a bar, up some more stairs, along a corridor and then up another flight of stairs. I thought that I would be sitting on the roof, but there were still seats up this high. My seat looked like a bar stool, with a footrest. It was quite comfortable, as it had padding on the seat and on the back, though one of the legs was a little wonky, which proved to be a little annoying. I had been a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to see anything from up this high, but once I got settled into my seat, I found that I had a great view of the stage. The next row down from me were on chairs, not stools, so there was quite a big gap between my line of sight and the head of the person in front of me.

The lights dimmed, and the orchestra began the overture. When the lights finally came up, I was very excited. As it turns out, the overture wasn’t long, and the curtain soon rose. I didn’t have a programme so I was a little bit lost by the story line. However, plots in ballets are very often the flimsiest of things. I know people complain about musicals (my friend announced, during ‘Chicago’, that he’d never seen such tenuous excuses to have a song and dance), but ballets really do win the prize for most ludicrous plot lines. I’d read a synopsis on the Internet, and so could probably sum up the story thus:

Girl lives in village and is loved by all who see her. Girl meets dashing young man who woos her and sweeps her off her feet. They get engaged (pretty swiftly, it must be said- a little more patience and the story might have had a different ending). Girl’s mum is none to pleased and has premonitions that girl will meet sticky end and be turned into a ghost, like all girls who die before their wedding day. Girl ignores mum as that would ruin the plot, although by all accounts is a very obedient girl anyway. Girl dances around with her new beau. Girl finds out that said dashing young is actually a lying pig as he is already engaged to some rich girl. Girl dies of a broken heart (since when does this happen?? A more realistic version would be that girl dies of obesity having eating her weight in chocolates while watching girlie films in a misguided attempt to “get over him”). Girl turns into a ghost with the sole purpose of haunting her still-alive fiancé. Girl hangs around in graveyard with other ghosts and waits for her man. Man turns up and girl haunts him. Girl and other ghosts attempt to dance him to death (huh??). Girl begs Head Ghost to spare him. Head Ghost spares him and girl goes off with other ghosts to go haunt someone else. Man gets off scot-free and probably goes to shag his other fiancée, the rich chick.

What’s the moral there? If your fiancé cheats on you and you die, then it’s okay as you’re going to be a ghost forever and he’s going to be alive and kicking (and possibly shagging)? Check whether your prospective lover is single or else you’ll end up haunting graveyards for all eternity?

Anyway, the dancing was really good. Tamara Rojo was playing Giselle. She had very precise footwork, and I thought that she suited the role well. The men were excellent and very athletic. The men’s jumps in particular were brilliant. I preferred the second Act to the first. In the first, everyone was dressed as peasants and although the costumes were fabulous (I would love a skirt that swing round like that!), it all seemed a little contrived and the dancing didn’t seem that dynamic. In the second Act, all semblance of a plot had vaporised, so I was able to concentrate more on the actual dancing. My favourite dancer was Zenaida Yanowsky, who was the Head Ghost. I could hardly take my eyes off her! There were some fantastic solos.

At the end I clapped so hard my hands were hurting. The only down side to the whole thing was that it was freezing inside the auditorium. It was cold the last time I was at the theatre, so I should really have been more prepared. In the interval I’d headed outside to chain-smoke. I was a bit worried that I’d have to go all the way down to street level, as there was a no smoking policy indoors. Luckily the Royal Opera House has a large balcony section that overlooks Covent Garden Market, and so I went out there, along with all the other smokers. I didn’t have my coat on and I was incredibly cold. Still, smoking takes priority I guess…

I’m really looking forward to going to the ballet again. I’m going on the 28th February, and I’m going to see Darcey Bussell. My all time favourite dancer. What could be better??