Aerys Merrill and Julie Nunès in Casanova
(Picture: Riku Ito)A big life merits a big ballet, and this applies doubly for Casanova. Created in 2017 by former Northern Ballet dancer Kenneth Tindall (also the Leeds-based company’s resident choreographer) and spread across two acts, this is a stylish and sumptuous dive into some of the amorous exploits and political intrigues attached to the 18th century Italian whose name will forever be associated with hedonistic sexuality and predation.
Working from an original scenario devised by himself and Ian Kelly, author of an acclaimed 2008 biography of Casanova, Tindall is keen to show us a man who was more than one of history’s great libertines. Casanova’s memoirs, stretching to a dozen volumes, sealed his reputation as a lothario. But he was also a would-be cleric, philosopher, musician, gambler and adventurer who spent much of his relatively long life (he died age 73) on the move.
Underpinned by themes of morality, knowledge and sex – not, as Kelly and Tindall demonstrate, the best of bedfellows – the ballet looks gorgeous. Christopher Oram, designer of the Broadway and West End hit Frozen, lends it a stately sensuality. Three huge, multi-pillared and movable plinths that dominate the first act are replaced in the second by a trio of paneled mirrors. The costumes are a period-sexy, conceal-reveal parade of capes and cassocks, vivid red or sleek gold frock coats and sometimes skirt-free panniers. Credit, too, to Richard Mawbey’s wigs and makeup as well as the radiant atmosphere that Northern’s resident lighting designer Alastair West provides.
Such classy surface pleasures held my attention, free from worry about keeping fastidious track of the inevitably roving narrative with its array of patrons, lovers, priests and inquisitors. You might not always be entirely clear about who’s who, but you will very likely be engaged throughout. It helps that Tindall’s staging is so fluid and his choreography both theatrically savvy and kinetically adept. This was his first full-length ballet and, as such, is exceptionally accomplished. Tindall can fashion neatly detailed ensemble movement; a brief but louche display by half a dozen courtesans on chairs wouldn’t be out of place in a production of Cabaret. His duets, meanwhile, put me in mind of the complex physical pyrotechnics of Kenneth MacMillan. Tindall is also a dab hand with furniture. Casanova’s tabletop encounter with a naughty nun towards the end of Act One is a zinger.
American film, television and modern classical composer Kerry Muzzey’s score was another commendable first crack at ballet. Played live by the Northern Ballet Sinfonia under Daniel Parkinson’s baton, the propulsive blend of cinema-style orchestration and quasi-baroque rhythms are a fine fit. In dance terms the entire company was absolutely on form on opening night, although top honours rightly belonged to the long, strong and sinuously athletic Joseph Taylor in the title role.
