Review | Stunning Swan Lake lead dancers can’t hide flaws of new Hong Kong Ballet production
- Ye Feifei is sublime as Odette/Odile and Matthew Ball everything you want as her opposite, Prince Siegfried. Many of the supporting dancers excelled too
- Choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s changes to the story rob it of logic, there are too few dancers for a ballet of this scale and costumes are almost uniformly dire
Hong Kong Ballet’s new Swan Lake was lifted on the first night by a magnificent performance from Ye Feifei as Odette/Odile, partnered superbly by guest artist Matthew Ball of The Royal Ballet.
With their classical dancing and fine acting, the pair showed why Swan Lake has stood the test of time. Whether the ballet’s enduring appeal was brought out by the rest of the production is another question.
With accompaniment by the Hong Kong Philharmonic and two guest Prince Siegfrieds (Ball and Constantine Allen from Dutch National Ballet) no expense has been spared.
Sadly, the best intentions do not always achieve the desired results.
A production as ambitious as this calls for a bigger company – Hong Kong Ballet’s 48 dancers are not enough, especially given the alarmingly high rate of injuries (apparently some 25 per cent of the dancers were out of action).
