Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House

Kevin Ng April 22, 2025 10:15

Founded in 1962, The Australian Ballet is a major international ballet company and has 79 dancers in total. It has toured China eight times already, the last tour was in 2015, but it still has not toured Hong Kong yet. Based in Melbourne, The Australian Ballet is the resident ballet company of the Arts Centre Melbourne as well as the Sydney Opera House.

Opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1973, the Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece of 20th century architecture. Overlooking the beautiful Sydney Harbour, it is landmark of the city and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On a trip to Sydney last week, I caught a performance of the Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House. Its programme this April is a two-act ballet “Nijinsky” created in 2000 by the prolific choreographer John Neumeier, the former artistic director of the Hamburg Ballet, for his company. First staged by The Australian Ballet in 2016, it is revived this season. Neumeier and the Hamburg Ballet are however no strangers to Hong Kong, having performed in the Hong Kong Arts Festival four times already. “Nijinsky” was performed here in 2003.

Vaslav Nijinsky was the greatest male ballet dancer of the first half of the 20th century, before the emergence of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the second half of the century. He was the most famous male star of the Ballets Russes, as well as the lover of the company’s founder, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. He also became a notable choreographer later. However, he stopped performing at the young age of 29 due to schizophrenia. And he spent the rest of his life in and out of institutions.

“Nijinsky” is not an easy ballet to follow. It is a complex work of dance drama, and requires some knowledge of dance history, and especially the life and work of this great ballet dancer. Act 1 opens in 1919 in a hotel in St. Moritz in Switzerland, where Nijinsky gives his last public performance in front of privileged society guests. His demented solo stuns the guests and shows signs of his psychosis.

When he starts to perform, the past and the present somehow seem to merge in his mind. He imagines Diaghilev being in the audience and rushes to embrace him. It quickly becomes a flashback to Nijinsky’s life in the past as a star dancer. He relives his most famous roles, including the Harlequin, the Faun, the poet in “Les Sylphides”, the Spirit of the Rose, the tragic clown Petrushka, and the tennis player in “Jeux”.

After this phantasmagoria, Act 1 culminates in his abrupt marriage to Romola. The emotional core in this act is the duets showing his relationship with Diaghilev and with Romola as well as the trios. A trio for Nijinsky, Romola, and the Faun seems to question whether she is in love with Nijinsky the star or Nijinsky the man.

Act 2, set to Shostakovich’s 11th symphony, is relentlessly dark and gloomy. It depicts Nijinsky’s worsening schizophrenia. It also introduces a new character, Stanislav, who is Nijinsky’s mentally ill brother. Romola’s infidelity is seen in a brief duet. Then it shows Nijinsky choreographing the ballet “The Rite of Spring” which presages the First World War in the following year. The war is depicted by a violent ensemble dance for male dancers dressed in khaki jackets representing soldiers on the battle field. There is also some violence in a duet for Nijinsky and Romola.

Towards the end there is a moving scene in which a frail Nijinsky is dragged on a sledge through a wintry landscape by a caring Romola who protects him during the War. The ending returns to Nijinsky’s solo in the Swiss hotel in the beginning. This act is too long however, as Neumeier tries to cram in too much of the story.

The Australian Ballet is a marvellous company full of good dancers. Callum Linnane was magnificent as Nijinsky, with a blazing charisma. All his steps were imbued with deep feeling and expressiveness. As his wife Romola, Grace Carroll danced superbly, and captured Romola’s complicated character.

Maxim Zenin looked too young as the impresario Diaghilev, but he danced with authority. Elijah Trevitt was intense as Stanislav, while Jake Mangakahia was sensual as the Faun. Jill Ogai shone as Nijinsky’s sister. The company, led by the present artistic director David Hallberg, is certainly flourishing.

The music (with excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” as well as Chopin in Act 1 and Shostakovich’s 11th symphony in Act 2) was beautifully performed by the Opera Australia Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Lo, the music director of The Australian Ballet.

I was impressed by The Australian Ballet two years ago when it danced Balanchine’s pure dance masterpiece “Jewels” at the Royal Opera House in London. “Nijinsky” is a powerful work that shows the company’s strength in dance drama. Hopefully the company will tour Hong Kong before too long.

Photo by Daniel Boud

Dancers – Callum Linnane & Grace Carroll

Kevin Ng

veteran dance critic