Prokofiev: Cinderella ***
Dutch National Ballet, Coliseum, 8th July 2015
No fairy godmother. No clock. No pumpkin. Christopher Wheeldon can be forgiven for eschewing these traditional fairy tale elements in his version of Cinderella for a moment of sheer magic at the end of Act I. Except that Wheeldon wasn’t actually responsible for the carriage scene – a coup de théâtre designed by Basil Twist. Cinders disappears into the trunk of a tree that overlooks her mother’s graveside, emerging in a soft peach ballgown. Nature provides all the elements of the carriage to whisk her off to the ball, horses seemingly galloping towards us, the gown billowing into a cupola.
Matthew Golding (Guillaume) and Anna Tsygankova (Cinderella)
© Angela Sterling
Read the full review on Bachtrack.