Breathing life into silly story
IT has been 15 years since David Bintley’s full-length ballet, Sylvia, graced the stage in Birmingham and audiences can expect a few changes since then.
First created to Delibes’ score in the 19th century, the ballet has long posed problems, not least because of its confusing story. Birmingham Royal Ballet director David tackled it in the early-1990s, making changes to straighten out its difficulties but the work was still not what he had aimed for.
Sylvia tells the tale of two couples facing relationship problems who are helped by the god of love, Eros, who takes them back in time to the classical myths to learn the lesson of love.
Confused? You could be.
“The problem is that it is a silly story,” admits David. “When I worked on the new production, I made it a bit less silly but there were still problems with the narrative. By the time we took it to the Royal Opera House, it was looking pretty good but there were problems that I still wanted to fix.”
Sylvia was put on the back burner while the company was busy with other productions. “We were doing other things,” says David. “But about four years ago I had an idea about how to improve the narrative. I probably changed about 20 per cent of it. I spent a long time working on the big pas de deux and developing the characters.”
So when the production comes to Birmingham Hippodrome next week, the story should be clearer. Says David: “It is lively and funny and many people will know the music even if they don’t realise it before they hear it. It has benefited from a bit of breathing space.”
* Ticket Info
Birmingham Royal Ballet performs Sylvia on February 25-28 followed by the Pomp and Circumstances triple bill of Serenade, Enigma Variations and Still Life at the Penguin Cafe on March 4-7. Tickets: 0844 338 5000 and www.birminghamhippodrome.com
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