La Sylphide: The Australian Ballet

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Thu 07 Nov 2013 - Mon 25 Nov 2013

Yesterday I attended the matinee session of The Australian Ballet's performance of La Sylphide at Sydney Opera House. La Sylphide depicts a story of ill-fated love between a Scottish farmer and a forest sprite.



In this matinee session, Madeleine Eastoe performed the role of the Sylph and Daniel Gaudiello the role of James, the Scottish farmer. Both were outstanding, and a pleasing contrast to one-another. Madeleine has mastered portraying the playful nature and delicateness of the empyreal Sylph. Combined with Daniel's strength and handsomeness, the audience is reminded that the character's differences draw them closer and yet simultaneously, keep them apart.



Andrew Wright, who performed the role of Gurn, James' cousin, was also fantastic. Andrew's comic timing was spot on and he drew plenty of laughs from the audience with his impersonations of James' interaction with the Sylph. But the character who almost stole the show in physicality and cleverness was Madge, the evil witch, portrayed by Colin Peasley.



What sets La Sylphide apart from other classical ballets is that it is consistently engaging. The story is continually being told through the choreography. There were no long periods of unrelated dancing to stall the story progression and risk losing the audiences' attention. Another strength of La Sylphide is that the ballet is relatively short. The Australian Ballet included a performance of Paquita (1847) prior to its performance of La Syphide. For these reasons, the performance held my attention and my mind did not wander once.



For more information about performances, to book tickets and to see stunning photos of The Australian Ballet's performance of La Sylphide, see here .

#cbd
#performing_arts
#classical_music
#ballet
#city
#november
!date 07/11/2013 -- 25/11/2013
%wnsydney