Swish of the Curtain

A thrilling tale of injustice, kindness and love, ‘The Winter’s Tale’ is regarded as one of Shakespeare’s most poetic comedies, I was very surprised when I discovered that the Royal Opera House was turning it into a ballet. I doubted that dance could do justice to the clever words that Shakespeare injected into Perdita, Leontes and Florizel’s lips.

I was wrong.

Christopher Wheeldon’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’ amazed me. The talented dancers moved with such emotion that I could follow the story, even though I am not familiar with the play. The set for this ballet was beautiful. A majestic oak tree was shown in the background. It represented the tree of life. The cast hung lovely decorations on its regal branches. It was very clever, so long as you watched closely.

In my opinion, the best scene is in Act III in which Queen Hermione, Perdita’s mother, comes back to life after dying of grief when her husband accused her of being unfaithful. She had been staged to look like a statue and she stood so still that I believed she was made of marble. When she finally moved it was exceedingly touching and amazed the entire audience.

The dancers had obviously worked extremely hard to achieve the level of excellence that they displayed in this performance. Wow!