The Snow Queen

Published Friday 19 October 2007 at 12:00 by Duska Radosavljevic

Usually associated with Christmas, Hans Christian Andersen’s tale was always going to lend itself well to the glitter, dry ice and fairy lights of a sumptuous ballet. Michael Corder’s dazzling production also features half a kilometre of Swarowski edging as well as thousands of individual stones incorporated into Mark Bailey’s impressive set and costumes. However, Cordor’s main achievement here is to do with his inspired and supremely intelligent re-reading of Prokofiev’s last and least successful narrative ballet - The Stone Flower - thus conveniently resolving the problem of the surprising absence from the canon of a Snow Queen score.

Corder’s adaptation is aided by Julian Philips’ resourceful arrangement, which borrows from other work of Prokofiev’s, but is occasionally thwarted by a greater concern with aesthetic display than dramatic progression. What is in Andersen more of an enlightening story of a heroine’s quest for her estranged sweetheart, here becomes an elaborate series of studies of idyllic rural life, freedom from oppression and cold seduction versus the power of love - enacted with great poise by the leads and the talented ensemble alike.

Even if you happen to find yourself emotionally uninvolved within the show’s multiple jagged edges, you will discover rare moments of beauty and wit in it - from bleached baroque wigs to hearts on trouser legs - all of the kind which may well bring out that inner child who wants to be a ballet dancer when she or he grows up. And, in any case, if you are short of snow this Christmas - it doesn’t get much better than this.