The Royal Ballet & Opera, London
December 21, 2024
For an alternative to the endless Nutcrackers that assail us at this time of year, it’s hard to beat Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, especially in its magnificent new 2023 designs. As it keeps things at fairy-tale level, it’s a ballet that oozes goodness and hope.
Its heroine is downtrodden to the extent that she’s expected to do all the housework, but there’s no mining the emotional or psychological depths as some modern productions do. Far from being in some well of despair, she is optimistic, positive. You suspect she would find goodness in anyone and everyone.
in the title role
in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella
Photo Andrej Uspenski
In set designer Tom Pye’s giant kitchen with its large hearth, arched ceiling and massive ironwork, mullioned windows, Anna Rose O’Sullivan projected a gentle, modest, sweet Cinderella, put upon by her stepsisters, but equally happy to see them happy. Left to herself, her dance with the broom was wonderfully wistful and full of longing as she dreamed of what might be.
O’Sullivan really came into her own at the Act II ball, however. To say she was radiant does not seem enough. Regal and beautiful, her dancing perfectly precise, she positively sparkled. That her equally elegant Prince, the dashing Marcelino Sambé, succumbed to her own brand of fairy dust was not surprising. So would anyone. Their pas de deux was divine.
It’s been a long time since I enjoyed the stepsisters so much. A vision in pink and purple, Bennet Gartside and James Hay were an absolute joy, their comic timing perfect, their faces and mannerisms speaking comic volumes.
A huge part of that enjoyment is down to how this production somewhat rethinks the roles, successfully managing to balance preserving Ashton’s choreographic gems while removing the characters’ problematic elements. The result is something that retains the great British pantomime tradition, but also makes them more believable. They are not so over the top that they are grotesque or ridiculous. In keeping with the ballet’s positivity, while life for them is all about them, they are not villains. They do not have any of the nastiness that has crept into some portrayals. Indeed, Cinderella is seen to play with them at one point, all three smiling.
Indeed, in some ways, Cinderella’s father’s attitude towards her, treating her as if she almost didn’t exist, is more disturbing.
Photo Andrej Uspenski
The four fairies each showed the essence of their season delightfully. I was especially taken by Sae Maeda’s bright and fluttering Fairy Spring. Mica Bradbury was languid as Summer, while Isabella Gasparini was breezy and spiky as The Fairy Autumn, turning as if tossed by the wind; and Chisato Katsura was coolly icy as The Fairy Winter.
I usually find ballet’s jesters rather tiresome figures who add little. Ashton’s doesn’t contribute much narratively either, but when you have someone like the livewire Daichi Ikarashi in the role, it’s impossible not to smile and enjoy. He leapt so effortlessly, so clearly and with such height, you wondered if he had springs in his shoes.
Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé
in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella
Photo Andrej Uspenski
Tom Pye’s set designs, Finn Ross’ video projections and Chris Fisher’s illusions combine to make the ballet a visual spectacle too. The way Cinderella’s house breaks apart towards the end of Act One, and the transformation of the pumpkin into the mice-pulled coach is stage magic. The Act II ball then takes place not in some grand ballroom but outdoors on a balmy evening, the scene backed by a typically, not quite architecturally symmetric, stately pile, the clock at the centre of its façade inching ever closer towards the fateful midnight hour.
and Marcelino Sambé as The Prince
in Cinderella
Photo Andrej Uspenski
Top marks for Academy Award-winning designer Alexandra Byrne’s costumes too. The vibrant colour of the Fairies and the stylish dress of those at the ball contrast fabulously with the dowdy Cinderella who opens the ballet.
The final moments, Cinderella and Prince with their backs to the audience in front of a never-ending white staircase that reaches heavenward, were filled with great delicacy. Golden glitter falls as they live happily ever after.
It all makes for a wonderful two-and-a-half hours. The Royal Ballet’s Cinderella certainly comes with a fair dusting of sugar, but lots of magic too. It warmed the heart on a chilly winter’s day. A perfect Christmas treat.
The Royal Ballet dance Cinderella at The Royal Ballet & Opera, London to January 16, 2025.