I went to see this at Southampton Mayflower Theatre last Saturday. It was exactly what I hoped for, anticipated and expected.
Over the years I've seen ballet productions by Matthew Bourne, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Opéra de Paris in Beijing.
It was a better seat ticket than usual and the proximity exposed me to mistakes. Did I see those mistakes before? No. Was it still one of the best ballet productions I ever seen? Absolutely.
The opening scenery was sophisticated as I've come to expect yet subsequent scenes were absolutely minimal and cosmic themed at the end. The music for Cinderella is Prokofiev, it's the best score I've yet listened to. The dance ensembles were dazzling as were those very costumes. The lead female (Cinderella), Miki Mizutani is the essence of the role, in such a manner that I marvel how a Japanese girl can live on the other side of the world and play a very European part with such perfection - for me at least.
Special shout out to the pantomime ballet of the wicked stepsisters played by Eilis Small and Reina Fuchigami. Ms Small was very attractive from the get go despite playing a difficult lanky role of clumsy yet complimentary to the overall ensemble. I felt a connection with her that lasted longer than usual. Ms Reina Fuchigami played the plump sister and was in the top three dancers in the production. Again, clumsy but poetic is a difficult act to pull off yet both sisters do exactly that.
What have I missed. Serendipity. The seat to my left was occupied by the best conversationalist I've encountered in years. She was about 70 to 80ish and I would have spent the next 24 hours with her if not longer.
