by Leigh Witchel
A new Siegfried and a new von Rothbart both made their debut in American Ballet Theatre’s “Swan Lake.” The hero, Aran Bell, is almost a stereotypical prince, enough so that he made his debut the following week as Prince Désiré in “The Sleeping Beauty,” and was promoted to soloist shortly after. The villain, Jose Sebastian, gave an added twist to an untraditional role.
At the outset, Bell was a middle-of-the-road Siegfried who looked the part. Tall, handsome and stereotypically blond, it was almost unimaginative to cast Bell. He’s a no-brainer in prince roles. But appearance is superficial and misleading, he also had the real necessity of a danseur noble, centered weight and stillness when he stands. There wasn’t yet a lot of color in his interpretation – he was green, pun intended. But if he looked callow, he also looked coached.
Act 1 is always the hardest to sell, because it’s before the prince has much to react to. In Act 2, when he met Odette, he was a fine partner, strong, tall enough to handle her height, and dutiful. His swan, Devon Teuscher, was long and angular and their nascent partnership was solid. She also looked well-coached and detailed. Her footwork was both fast and nimble in bourrées across the floor and the battement serrés at the end of the pas. None of the technical requirements of the ballet gave her any trouble.
In the coda of their pas de deux, she held both arms up in arabesque instead of the usual one, but that meant you could see her reach with her back as well as her arms. When she ran towards Marshall Whiteley as von Rothbart in his swamp creature incarnation, she was limp in desperation until WHAM – his magic trapped her and her back froze with her arms held to the sides. But in her partnership with Bell, we saw more than we felt. She did plenty of flappy-birdy arms and a lot of poses with her head thrown way back. He handled her ardently but for all that it was still cool – they didn’t make you weep.
As Odile, Teuscher didn’t seem gleeful, but more like someone imitating Odette. Rather than sensing her as a villain, she almost seemed a replica; focusing on the trickery, not her enjoyment of it. Again, she had no issues technically, doing triple turns in the variation and double fouettés in the coda. She did Russian fouettés that flicked instead of whipped and ended the duet, as all Odiles must, with a big ol’ HAHA! at her final pose.
If Bell’s Siegfried confirmed the stereotype, Sebastian’s interpretation of the purple incarnation of von Rothbart turned the character at least a quarter turn. The role’s originator, Marcelo Gomes, played the part like a Tom Jones sex bomb, seductive yet fatuous in a way that undercut the danger. Sebastian was a vibrant presence, but long, thin, and serpentine. Sharp and speedy, he was more threatening because there wasn’t any irony.
Like Teuscher, Sebastian didn’t telegraph glee in his evil; he had his eye on the kill. He stopped the queen from joining the couples’ hands in marriage with the smallest touch. When dancing, his movement was deftly linked from rivoltades to chaînés. The sharpness of Sebastian’s attack was more uncomfortable in the prologue. Bowing to Odette behind a scrim, inviting her to dance, than grabbing her and flipping her overhead moved not only into abduction, but date rape. That’s part of the problem with McKenzie’s sexy sorcerer conceit that he lifted from Matthew Bourne. The echoes of sexual violence were already there, but is that what “Swan Lake” is about, rather than good, evil and destiny?
Bell’s Siegfried was an easy target for Odile and von Rothbart: he was young and a pushover, they barely needed to try. Siegfried’s variation had loosely-controlled lines, but he got through everything including double tour to double to the knee.
In smaller roles Melanie Hamrick and Stephanie Williams were both interesting musically in the Act 1 pas de trois, hitting their echappés at the end of the phrase but not bang on the note. Dancing Benno with them, Calvin Royal III had lovely ballon in an easy manège. Royal’s legs are spidery but his jump and his gaze guided the viewer upwards.
As one of the big swans in Act 2, Katherine Williams had an easy, luscious jump, heading into the air as if in flight. In this production with two von Rothbarts, the swamp version is the unsung role, but Whiteley did it well, reading more into the landscape of the ballet than his more seductive counterpart. He used the swans’ arm movements in the final act as a symbol of his control over the flock; they weren’t just flapping, but moving as he directed.
The lakeside had a few very slow tempos conducted by Ormsby Wilkins. In Act 2, the wiping entrechats where the flock moves towards one another were done with a definitive thump.
There’s little surprising about a new partnership arriving emotionally in Act 4 where it should have been in Act 2. It takes time to build up steam and to know how to generate it earlier. Far more was happening for Bell and Teuscher in Act 4. The physical language got bigger and clearer and the two got the details from moment to moment: the need to fight von Rothbart and the need to die rather than live cursed. Bell and Teuscher can work backwards from there to ferment the earlier acts into something headier emotionally.
Both Sebastian and Bell made auspicious debuts. It will be interesting to see where the opportunity leads Sebastian. Bell’s career track has been more obviously laid out, and all the ingredients are there, they just need more baking.
copyright © 2019 by Leigh Witchel
“Swan Lake” – American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House, New York, NY
June 28, 2019
Cover: Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell in “Swan Lake.” Photo © Gene Schiavone.
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