Seeing ‘Swan Lake’ with a live 32-piece orchestra is a sensory trip like no other

You’d think that because ballet is a popular summer activity among young Filipinas — thanks to their mothers, who most probably did the summer thing themselves, thanks to their mothers — watching a ballet performance is a piece of cake.

But the truth is, it is not. If it’s not your daughter on stage, a ballet performance can often feel like two days-long. Because we are used to loud, over-the-top performances and all the get-get-aws of Philippine pop culture, the finesse of ballet — indeed, its beauty— can get lost on most of us.

Courtesy of New Frontier Theater

The Swan Lake show, running until this weekend could feel just tedious, even with incredibly talented, unbelievably powerful Russian ballerinas taking their rightful places on the historic stage of Cubao’s New Frontier Theater.  Their talent and the dance’s beauty is so nuanced that just blinking an eye and a regular audience member could miss it.

So thank God this particular run has the majestic 32-piece Russian  Symphony Orchestra accompanying the dance. The live music certainly provides an unusual type of power — a kind of electricity that flows through the compact theater, infecting not just the dancers but also the audiences.

The music, in fact, feels like a kind of guidance for the audience, a kind of a prompt telling them to watch for the smallest of movements and giving the grandest of moments another, bigger atmosphere.

Courtesy of New Frontier Theater

But we’re getting ahead of the story. Swan Lake is composed by the Russian musical genius Tchaikovsky in 1876. It depicts the story of Odette, a princess who was turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. She goes looking for true love to turn back the curse and defeat evil.

For those familiar with the film, it’s the same dance in contention on the Natalie Portman-headlined movie Black Swan. Now that we’re thinking about it, being familiar with the movie will help in the seemingly foreign concept of the show.

But it isn’t really foreign, because the quest for true love is something we all know and love, even audiences who are used to the get-get-aws of Philippine pop culture.

But allow us to argue: For this run, understanding the narrative of Swan Lake is almost unnecessary. Because the orchestra, under the baton of conductor Yaroslav Tkalenko, will take you on quite a sound trip and accompanied by the incredible performances of the ballerinas led by no less than Bolshoi ballet stars Anastasia Goryacheva and Alexander Volchkov, the entire show will heighten your senses and take you to another, ehem higher and classier, place, even for just three hours.

It’s still not an easy watch, but allow Swan Lake to take you on that trip. You’d be happy you did. — LA, GMA News 

Until June 22. New Frontier Theater. Ticketnet. Tickets start at P3,000