Two debuts, two promotions and Cranko’s fine Swan Lake with Stuttgart Ballet

Opera House, Stuttgart
July 19, 2024

The cover of the Stuttgart Ballet programme for John Cranko’s Swan Lake notes that the ballet is “freely adapted from traditional versions.” It’s a great description. The production has everything you expect but is equally very individual.

It appeals greatly, not least in the way Cranko puts greater focus on Siegfried, presenting him as a very real, very flawed human being; a romantic but tragic hero. Choreographically, much of the familiar Ivanov is still there in the two big pas de deux, but the rest is Cranko’s own. Act One in particular is remarkably fresh and light.

Jürgen Rose’s designs are fabulous. Act One takes place not in or around the palace, but in a brightly lit clearing on the lakeside. Act Two finds us still next to the lake, but now amid ruins that just yell hidden secrets. It’s a depiction of Romanticism at its very best and quite compelling. But even that is outdone by the palace ballroom of Act Three. It’s balconies and multiple vistas are quite superb.

In Act One, Siegfried has escaped to the lakeside with some friends to get away from his mother and her plans for his choosing a bride. It’s a sunny scene, the women in straw hats, the men in traditional Tyrolean-styled affairs; and an excuse for a lot of dancing and generally having a good time, Siegfried included.

This was an evening when all eyes were on Gabriel Figueredo, making not only his debut as the prince, but his first appearance in the lead role in any full-length ballet. A graduate of the John Cranko School only in 2019, he has long been marked out as a future star, however. Even while still a student, he amazed as Tadzio in Demis Volpi’s 2017 opera-ballet Death in Venice, although his most memorable performance to date was probably as Lensky in Onegin.

Figueredo gave us a Siegfried whose easy-going youthfulness gave way to introspection and melancholy after his mother paid an unexpected visit to the opening act lakeside goings-on, to someone seriously in love. He’s an exceptional dancer with very clean lines and arabesques to die for. His leaps seem ludicrously light and easy with his split leaps especially notable.

The dancing elsewhere in Act One was special too. Cranko’s choreography flows neatly within the story and situation. Among many great moments was a pas de cinq for five men, loaded with tours en l’air. Among the women of the corps, Abigal Wilson-Heisel stood out in a beautifully fluent short solo.

There’s time for humour too. When his Siegfried’s mother shows up, there’s an amusing moment when he hides his drinking by passing his goblet to his tutor, Emanuele Babici, who did a brilliantly funny impression of her after she left.

Act Two brought another debut in a principal role. Mizuki Amemiya, in her first season as a demi-soloist (Stuttgart Ballet has just four levels: corps, demi-soloist, soloist and first soloist), proved a fine and delicate Odette.

Amemiya was nit only technically assured, she was so expressive from the moment she first appeared. There was a powerful sense of her knowing what she wants, what she feels, but also what she ultimately can’t have. It’s something to do with the way she looked at him, the way she nestled her back into his chest. There was an undeniable look and feel of longing, of yearning. She has a gorgeous plaint back and fabulous arms but her whole body spoke.

Most dancers gravitate naturally towards Odette or Odile, it just comes with their personality. With Amemiya, it definitely seems to be the former. Her Odile was danced with great confidence and was as technically terrific as earlier. Everything was sharp. Her fouettés was astoundingly fast. Much of the time, it felt a little too reserved, however. She didn’t produce quite the requisite, or at least expected, sexual allure or pull. I didn’t find her particularly calculating enough, although there was a lovely moment just after the fouettés when she appeared to say ‘got you!’

But there is much more to like in Act Three too. At the very beginning, there’s a solid reminder of what happened earlier when Siegfried looks longingly out of a palace window towards the lake. Then, sat next to his mother, staring into space, Figueredo did a great job of showing us someone not so much bored to death, but whose mind was elsewhere.

When the four princesses arrive, Cranko emphasises their individuality and character before they’ve even danced a step. I loved the flighty Neapolitan, Elisa Ghisalberti. Her vibrant dance with consort, Ciro Ernesto Mansilla, was also the best of the four. And there’s a great piece of stage magic as Rothbart makes Odile appear mysteriously as if out of thin air.

So back to the lakeside and its ruins, and the almost elegiac final act, where Cranko turned away from the familiar and used comparatively little known Tchaikovsky music. How to end Swan Lake has always been a little problematic. After a last reunion, one last dance, Cranko opts to have Siegfried drown as the lake bursts its banks while Odette remains in Rothbart’s power as a swan. He dies, she lives. How Romantic can you get?

It’s the one place the staging does not do its job well, however. The ruins part-collapsing in the storm, done by having bits of fabric fall to the ground, looks weak. I can’t help thinking that, these days, there must be a better alternative. The same goes for the use of strips of fabric as water engulfing the stage too.

Away from the leads, Clemens Fröhlich was excellent and dominating Rothbart, swirling his full-length, flowing black cloak to great effect. The rest of Rose’s costume is excellent too, especially the headpiece, reminiscent of a medieval armoured helmet but with a beak, topped with plumage resembling two black swan wings. In the Black Swan pas de deux, it was notable how he literally conducts the action at times.

Edoardo Sartori was a fine Benno, and the corps of swan were cohesive and perfectly patterned.

The end of the evening brought surprise joy and celebration as Stuttgart Ballet artistic director Tamas Detrich came on stage to announce that both leads were being promoted, Figueredo to first soloist (principal) and Amemiya to soloist. Both well deserved.