Review: LAC (after Swan Lake), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo

After a week with no chance to go to the theatre, it was great to catch two terrific performances yesterday, the first being the matinee of LAC. This updating of Swan Lake featured “Her Majesty of the Night” rather than Rothbart as the evil manipulator but was otherwise much the same story. It was a shame that it was performed to pre-recorded music, the quality of which was not as high as I would have liked, but everything else was marvelous, especially the terrific costumes by Philippe Guillotel. It was very much an ensemble production of a uniformly high standard so it is unfair to single out a specific performance, but the choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot was energetic, flamboyant and passionate with a great touch of humour, often at the expense of Petipa’s original. It is a shame it was only half full for the matinee but you’d never have guessed it from the volume of the well deserved applause at the end. I do hope this vibrant, original company makes visiting London a regular event.

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