‘Coppelia’ is one of the great classic ballets alongside ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Les Sylphides’ and “Giselle’. Filled with all the ingredients great ballets share; romance, a misunderstood villain, deception and dramatic irony, giant leaps across the stage, a romantic pas de duex, giant leaps, boys in tights, and ballerinas wearing point shoes and tutus.
Choreographed Greg Horsman, with a nod to previous versions by Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa, this co-production with the Queensland Ballet has an enormous cast to bring to life the story of a girl who breaks into a house and find a mechanical doll.
In this version a helpful prologue has been added to explain the motivations of Dr Coppelius, and to give it some local flavour the action has been relocated to the South Australia town of Hahndorf.
Dr Coppelius moves from Germany to South Australia with his young daughter Coppelia, but sadly she dies during the voyage. Once in Hahndorf the grieving doctor shuts himself off from the rest of the town. In his anger over the loss his daughter he smashes her doll.
Six years later a young woman appears on the balcony of the Doctor’s house, she seems to ignore most of the people spending most of her time reading her book. When she blows a kiss to young guy about town Franz, his wanna-be girlfriend Swanhilda is not impressed.
When Doctor Coppelia drops his keys Swanhilda finds them and encourages her friends to break into the Doctor’s house to see what’s inside. At the same time Franz finds a step ladder and enters the house from the balcony where he’s seen the beautiful girl.
Once inside the burglars discover that the girl is a mechanical doll – a life size recreation of the doctor’s late daughter. When the doctor returns he captures Franz and Swanhilda disguises herself as Coppelia. Swanhilda tricks the doctor into thinking that the doll of his daughter has come back to life.
Christian Luck is wonderful as Dr Coppelius, delivering the right amount balance between villain and misunderstood grief.
Andre Santos is brilliant as Franz leaping across the stage and displaying physical feats of beauty while portraying a tender innocence. Santos drew wide acclaim for his starring role in ‘Pinocchio’ two years ago he is perfectly cast.
Sarah Hepburn is Swanhilda and she brings a great level of comic delivery to the part while also nailing all those arabesques and point work that make little girls think of music boxes.
Léo Delibes romantic score is wonderful to listen to, and the part where the intruders into the home of Dr Coppelius wind up the engine that brings all his mechanical dolls to life is the show’s highlight.
Coppelia is delivered in three acts, and the second act stands above the other two. The first act takes us quite a while to get into the story, and third act takes it time in wrapping things up – but that bit in the middle is magical.
The end result though is a gigantic romantic ballet that delivers comedy, heartbreak and a huge love story.
Coppelia is playing at His Majesty’s Theatre until September 26th.
Graeme Watson
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