Ballet!

I went with my mum to see Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty at the weekend. Yes, this is the Matthew Bourne who did the all-male Swan Lake. Sidebar: actually, it's not all-male; I watched a recording of it on TV and there are plenty of women in the cast, including the main roles of the Queen and the Girlfriend. Also, the central love affair is not so much homosexual as it is bestiality; the Prince has a nervous breakdown in the middle of a park and falls in love with an actual swan (or the vision of one - it's hard to tell with the Prince what's real and what's hallucination).

ANYWAY! Back to the Sleeping Beauty - it was brilliant! ( Spoilers ahead )

And the baby - every review I saw on-line mentions it, so this doesn't count as a spoiler - the baby Aurora is the most adorkable rod puppet, which crawls around the servants' feet and sits up in her crib, shaking hands with the fairies, and tries to climb the curtains at one point :DDDD

The music was pre-recorded, which I was surprised at. At first, I thought that maybe Bourne had gone with some extended symphonic version of the score and it simply isn't possible to fit a proper symphony orchestra into most theatre orchestra pits. But apparently it was done to cut costs so they could spend on the costumes and set designs (which are deliciously lavish, btw). The recording was fine, and I've been to a ballet with recorded music before so I didn't mind. Still you kinda wonder what a live orchestra might have added. I also thought that there was more plot and action - i.e. the entertaining bits - in the first half than in the second; the latter had a few too many atmospheric dreamscapes where nothing much was happening apart from half-nude men in white leggings...

But altogether, Mum and I had a great time!

( Sidebar on the Rose Adagio )

...I think too much about these things, don't I? #^.-#