A newly designed production celebrates the 75th anniversary of Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, sprinkling some fairy dust on what was Britain’s first three-act ballet. It’s a combination of 19th-century classicism with Ashton’s delightfully playful, tricksy footwork, and the broad comedy of the pantomime dame in the shape of the ugly sisters. Whether that mix is entirely successful remains moot, along with whether the story has enough emotional heft to sustain three acts, although this one warms up and gets better as it goes along.
On opening night, Marianela Nuñez plays Cinders, a girl given to beatific smiles even when engaged in servitude, so good-hearted and pure is she. When she arrives at the ball, she is immediately a ballerina – she makes an amazing entrance, slow descent on pointe down the steps, time suspended. There is not a huge sense of character until the end, in her shy delight at realising her life is about to change.
Cinderella’s step-sisters (Gary Avis and Luca Acri) are more childish than cruel, with an exhausting amount of faffing and facial expressions in the first act, but Avis especially shows great comic timing in the second. There’s so much clever choreography here, like the way the prince (Vadim Muntagirov) always seems to be chasing Cinderella, she circling him in chaine turns, or the distinct variations for the fairies of the seasons, even if tonight Summer is not quite languid enough.
Tom Pye’s designs make good use of projection, with flowers blooming across the ceiling. Costumes by Alexandra Byrne include a stunning chartreuse suit for the dancing master, and there’s great work in the hair department, the men bequiffed, the women with wigs that look like giant bows made out of their own hair.
The orchestra sounds strong, the score full of sweet tension and stirring undercurrents in a way that the ballet itself isn’t really. But where the ballet’s magic does come alive is in the perfection of Nuñez and Muntagirov’s pas de deux, their regal ease, the incredible lightness of Nuñez’s feet – you could believe she was under a spell. The dancing is transporting, this ballet embodying the fairytale escapism we all sometimes need, telling us everything will turn out fine in the end.
At the Royal Opera House, London, until 3 May
