ROHM dazzles with Astana Opera’s 'Coppélia'

The grand doors of the Royal Opera House Muscat opened at the weekend for a magnificent production of Delibes’ ballet, 'Coppélia'. ‘Astana Opera’ Ballet Company and Orchestra Kazakhstan performed their 2019 production of French choreographer Roland Petit's 1970 re-imagining of this Ballet Comique — and highly amusing it was too!
It featured a 64-strong orchestra in the pit, 30 Corps de Ballet, three lead characters and started bang on time, with no latecomers admitted.

The young accomplished Ruslan Baimurzin conducted Léo Delibes’ lush, romantic 1870 score, so full of famous and memorable tunes. The Overture opened with a nostalgic pre-recorded barrel organ playing one of Delibes’ iconic waltzes.
The white half-curtain withdrew to reveal an imposing, stark grey facade — a barracks — in a 19th century French town square. Two loafing cleaners introduced Franz, performed by Principal Dancer since 2011, Baktiyar Adhamzhan.

Franz is a flirt who cheats on his girlfriend Swanilda and has a crush on a mysterious woman (Coppélia), who sits motionless on her balcony dressed in a sparkly black dress, hiding behind her fan. A magical moment occurred as dancers appeared in the lighted windows of the austere stone building: six women in traditional white tutus and men in pale pink and grey costumes, looking for the entire world like the French Gendarmerie!
Enter Dr Coppelius, an elegant and sophisticated inventor-cum-magician. He loves Swanilda obsessively and created a life-size doll that looks exactly like her. Principal Dancer, Rustem Seitbekov, dandy and youthful in a brown dress-coat, played this complicated role hilariously with comic gesture as caricature.

Soloist, Shugyla Adepkhan, brilliantly performed the mischievous, jealous Swanilda. Especially lovely was her, 'Ballade de l’épi' with solo violinist, Kalamkas Jumabayeva.
In a classic white tutu, she danced a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of a not-strictly-classical waltz. It required precise technique with off-balances, coquettish shoulder shimming and wiggling hips.
Adepkhan made every step and movement look so easy while adding subtle slapstick and seductiveness to her role. Below, the Astana musicians performed their role beautifully, swelling into impressive tutti sections at times.
Despite some challenging horn writing, their execution of Delibes’ gorgeous chromatic harmony was astounding.

Above on her balcony the figure of Coppélia was illuminated with ironic flashing lights, highlighting Franz’ infatuation with the puppet and making Swanilda feel jilted and jealous.
A mimic sequence led to the entrance of the ‘Corps de Ballet’ women in 19th century dresses with white faces. Their toy-ish partners parodied their movements in a blue-grey wash of colour in a perfectly synchronised, rousing Mazurka, enhanced by strong and powerful brass and percussion.
Swanilda and Franz have their first ‘Pas de deux’, a comical conversation; she wiggling ‘twist’ hips in a 1960s parody, he still transfixed by Coppélia on her neon pedestal. Her six girlfriends imitate her moves, shaking their hips and shoulders with enough allure to make Roland Petit proud, while the men provided comedic backup. Adhamzhan showed his agility in his response by launching into stunning air-spins, impressive leaps and clean landings.

Twelve soldiers dance a slow Czardas pastiche, the women join them — with Franz at the centre — spinning and performing breath-taking pirouettes until the company exit with exaggerated gesture.
Act 2 began with another well-known waltz-overture as a golden half-curtain opened to the brown interior of Coppelius’ house. Swanilda appears with her six friends. They play and dance like dolls, with wooden, stylised movements in, “Jeux avec les automates”. A curtain reveals an illuminated, animated cupboard full of mechanical doll parts (original set designer, Ezio Frigerio).

Coppelius dances with his beloved doll in pure bliss as if she were real. The dance moves are hilarious, verging on the burlesque and the final spin brought rapturous applause for Seitbekov. The Act ends on a poignant note: to prove her deception, Swanilda brings out the naked rag-doll before escaping with Franz. Coppelius is devastated as he realises he has been tricked.
Act 3 opened with a reprise of the pre-recorded barrel organ circus waltz as they prepare for the Wedding-Finale. The Corps de Ballet performed humorous moves in sheer buffoonery, imitating the style of the Music Hall, the Can-Can of the Moulin Rouge and Cossack-style Mazurka.

Central to this preamble was a tour de force from Adhamzhan. He stunned the audience with his gymnastic prowess in gravity-defying leaps, heel-clicks in mid-air, double air spins and lengthy pirouettes. In the final ‘Grand Pas de Deux’, his virtuoso technique was unquestioned, tossing Swanilda into the air twice, spinning her sideways and catching her with ease. Adepkhan’s wedding solo was dazzling with perfection, performing lengthy pirouettes to the utter amazement and awe of the audience.

There is a bitter-sweet ending to the ballet, contrasting the gaiety of the music and wedding confetti for the happy young couple with Coppelius’ heart-breaking grief, left alone on the empty stage with his beloved Coppélia broken into pieces. There were many curtain calls at the end, everyone loved this Ballet Comique in two short parts, yelping and cheering with calls of “bravo” and shouts of approval. Ballet is a medium, which transcends language and generations. Let us hope the Astana company return before too long.

Georgina Benison
Photo credit: Khalid Al Busaidi