Le Corsaire (ballet)... wow!!

Today we were off to see Le Corsaire, performed by the English National Ballet at the Coliseum (The ENO being the first company to perform the ballet in full)... a ballet I'd never seen before and one which I knew little about.  The story of the ballet (The Pirate), was based on the poem of Lord Byron and the music by Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Leo Delibes, Rocard Drigo and Prince Oldenbourg... and quite varied..

Act 1 was mostly danced by various solo artists and whilst excellent, was very similar in presentation a and style.. the music was more than acceptable but nothing startling.

However, after the first interval, Act 2 (which takes place in the pirates' cave - excellent dancing here) hotted up the pace considerably and I started to enjoy the music more.  There was a tremendous lift by the principal dancers, Fernanda Oliviera (Medora) and Zdenek Konvalina (Conrad)... very much a 'wow' moment.

The other outstanding dancer was Yonah Acosta (Ali) - his athleticism was breathtaking and sense of balance and co-ordination supreme

Following the second interval, Act 3 was moving at a pace and consisted of 5 scenes - the dancers were wonderful and there was a young cast of boys and girls during the 'dream scene'.

And here the staging came into its own.  It had been pretty amazing from the start with many visual effects.. the opening scene of the pirate ship played with the sense and the closing scene... . drew you into the scene of a sinking ship in a tumultuous and stormy sea.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production, the artists' performance, the orchestra & music.

If you get the chance to see it.... do so... In my humble and uneducated opnion.... well worth the visit :)