Song Of The Earth / La Sylphide at Milton Keynes Theatre Review

Reviewed by Gina Lilley

Milton Keynes Theatre is a modern, wide and easy auditorium to sit in. Great visuals from most seats, there are few that are actually restricted. The busy foyer and bar areas lend to the build-up of anticipation, whilst people are easily streamed into the auditorium for the performance to begin.

I haven’t seen English National Ballet for many years and so I was very excited to be seeing them again, with their great reputation and some very talented and gifted dancers. Their choreographers often are the pull for the best dancers to join them and so I was very hopeful it would be a great night. I was not disappointed.

I went to see two shows in one; Song of the Earth and La Sylphide.

Song of the Earth

This was a real spectacle with beautiful performances from their Artistic Director Tamara Rojo as the Woman and Joseph Caley as The Man. That said, Aaron Robison was equally as intriguing as the Messenger of Death.

The choreography was Kenneth MacMillan and it was simply beautiful to watch the patterns and shapes created by the cast. It was also interesting to see the men being lifted as well as the women.

Gustav Mahler provided the score for the English National Ballet Philharmonic and led by Conductor Gavin Sutherland were Tenor Simon Gfeller and Mezzo Soprano Flora McIntosh. Their singing bringing yet another dimension to this spectacle. It was a real experience for both eyes and ears.

“Inspired by Mahler’s haunting song cycle Das Lied von der Erde, MacMillan brings music, poetry and choreography together to capture the fragility of life, and its constant renewal. Three central figures portray the bittersweet reality of love, loss, and mortality: a Woman, a Man and an enigmatic Messenger”

Whilst I am not sure I would have understood all of that simply from watching, it was a fluid and an extremely pleasant way to be entertained.

La Sylphide

There is something very special about having a real orchestra as they begin to play the overture and start to bring the ballet to life, ahead of the dancers on the stage.

This ballet is everything every little girl dreams of if she wants to be a Ballet Dancer – typical from the romantic tutu to the handsome male lead. To this end, Erina Takahashi as The Sylph and Jeffrey Cirio as James were perfect. Such nimble footwork from both made them float and fly across the stage. They were totally captivating.

August Bournonville’s classic Romantic ballet is devotedly recreated by Eva Kloborg and Frank Andersen. The sets for both acts were really terrific, the dream sequence through gauze was effective in the first act and the lighting for the opening of the second act deserves mention. It was beautiful.

A true romantic ballet full of tradition in the solo’s and corps de ballet dancing with assorted divertissement. Traditional settings in a semi-circle around the soloists created human picture frames.

The story goes that on the morning of his wedding to his sweet fiancée Effy, James awakens from a dream to see a mysterious and tantalising Sylphide before him. His obsession with her sets off a fateful sequence of events where joy turns to sorrow, love to betrayal and infatuation to tragedy.

Whilst both ballets were about love there was such a stark contrast between the two and so very well chosen to create that. No matter what style of dance one prefers, the audience in Milton Keynes thoroughly embraced and enjoyed all of it and will have left, as I did, with my heart uplifted.

A strong 5 out of 5 stars.

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £13.90 to £49.40 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).

The English National Ballet’s Song Of The Earth / La Sylphide is at Milton Keynes Theatre from 17-21 October 2017, for more information or to book tickets visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes or call the box office on 0844 8717652.

Milton Keynes Theatre, 500 Marlborough Gate, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK9 3NZ