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Ashton: The Dream / Symphonic Variations / Marguerite and Armand DVD showcases a trio of Frederick Ashton's finest ballets danced by The Royal Ballet.
The Dream is an enchanting adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream that features the enticing pairing of Akane Takada and Steven McRae as Titania and Oberon. Symphonic Variations is an early Ashton masterpiece, a breathtaking, abstract work on the beauty of pure movement that includes Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov amongst its superb cast. Finally, the tragic love story Marguerite and Armand is danced here by former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky in her farewell appearance on the Covent Garden main stage, alongside the world-renowned Roberto Bolle.
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The Dream
Titania: Akane Takada
Oberon: Steven McRae
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Designer: David Walker
Lighting: John B. Read
Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Arrangement: John Lanchbery
Symphonic Variations
Marianela Nuñez, Vadim Muntagirov, Yasmine Naghdi, James Hay, Yuhui Choe, Tristan Dyer
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Designer: Sophie Fedorovitch
Lighting: John B. Read
Music: César Franck
Solo piano: Paul Stobart
Marguerite and Armand
Marguerite: Zenaida Yanowsky
Armand: Roberto Bolle
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Designer: Cecil Beaton
Lighting: John B. Read
Music: Franz Liszt
Orchestration: Dudley Simpson
Solo piano: Robert Clark
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Emmanuel Plasson
Extra Features: Introduction to The Dream; Bottom on pointe; Introduction to Symphonic Variations; Interview with Zenaida Yanowsky
Sound: LPCM 2.0, DTS Digital Surround
Format: NTSC
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Duration: 138 mins
Year: 2017
The Dream
"Akada sparkles with Ashtonian sexiness, all orgasmic flutters and quivers. McRae is splendidly fey as Oberon, and has all the sprezzatura that taller dancers struggle to find in the part's show-off turning variations." The Arts Desk
Symphonic Variations
"Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov led an assured revival of Symphonic Variations, floating through the spacious, intricate steps." The Independent
Marguerite and Armand
"Zenaida Yanowsky gives a tremendously intense and intelligent performance as the tragic courtesan." The Stage
I really liked the three ballets. In The dream, I admired the meticulous work on pointe done by Bennet Gartdside, who in a Beatrix Potter tale plays a pretty pig, this time, again on pointe, he plays the donkey Bottom. I love this dancer. His characters are well-defined and he remains a complete and perfect classical dancer.
As for the work at the center of the program "Symphonic Variations", this ballet for three couples of dancers was a pleasure for the ear as much as for the eyes of the public after the horrors of the Second World War in London particularly and coincided with the move of the Royal Ballet on its grand new stage in Covent Garden.
However, I must confess that my favorite ballet of the three is Marguerite and Armand. I am romantic and as the novel “La dame aux camelias” once made me cry, I shed a few more tears in front of this death of the beautiful Marguerite, of whom I knew that the interpreter Zenaîda Yanowsky was making her "chant du cygne" there. to the troupe of the Royal Ballet of London. The curtain call also made me cry. Three magnificent Ballets by the great Frederick Ashton.
