Raymonda
Australian Ballet
Fri 6 Oct
Festival Theatre
Season Closed


The Australian Ballet's Adelaide season of 'Raymonda' must be pronounced a qualified success. For some reason - whatever reason - this semi-legendary ballet, which has not performed in this country since Nureyev's visit in 1965, was a pleasant performance but seemed missing a vital spark.

Certainly it was not the score, the orchestra, or the conducting of the AB's Nicolette Fraillon, who lead the ASO through their paces with a deft touch, which was at fault. Most often the score seemed to work in perfect empathy with the choreography, which was also of a consistently high standard. For this, the opening night, we were treated to Lisa Bolte as Raymonda and Robert Curran as the Prince, a fine pairing. The 'Rat Pack', fronted by Damien Welch, were in fine swaggering form; as were the courtiers and assorted ensemble members. It would be churlish to pick out any deficiencies in performance since the standard was overall so high.

Nor could one fault either the settings or the costumery; both were perfectly in keeping with the poise of this performance, and the castle scenes were regally expansive, the Hollywood scenes suitably self-indulgent, in keeping with the times. Anna French's costumes and Richard Robert's set designs are two wonderful reasons to savour 'Raymonda', since they colour the story which unfolds.

'Raymonda', as a thinly veiled bent on the story of Grace Kelly and her romance with Prince Ranier of Monaco, fits well enough with the original operatic story, and the subjects seem fitting of the focus, yet there are times in this performance when the minutes really do seem to drag out. There are scenes, which, to be perfectly honest, go on far too long, and what they add to this ballet, and the reason for their inclusion, is obscure. For a good half of this opera we are plunged into Raymonda's 'dream passage' on the eve of the wedding as she goes through regret and longing, hope and despair, and anguish and delight. As she awakes on the morning of her marriage we are brought back to the reality of the opera, but it all seems too stretched out, too over-burdened with some kind of mawkish sentimentality.

In sporting circles people speak knowledgeably of the 'balance' of a team, of the right combination of offense and defense, for example. In 'Raymonda' the grandeur of the performance outweighed the simplicity of the tale, to its detriment. As a good night at the ballet, I found on too many occasions it failed to engage.

Alex Wheaton