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Pictures: Johan Persson Black Sabbath – The Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Birmingham Hippodrome ***** It's 55 years since the distorted, disturbing sound of Paranoid was released but then as now, it is part of Birmingham's history, part of its culture, as is of course Birmingham Royal Ballet, but the two were so far apart culturally, the distance could be measured in light years . . . until Carlos Acosta came along. The Director of BRB wanted not just traditional ballet from his company, but works to reflect the city that was his new home and what better than that most unlikely marriage between ballet and Birmingham's gift to music, heavy metal? Opposites really can attract. A welder who played guitar with missing fingertips and his three mates, all from the working class streets of Aston, would hardly have been the first choice to lead a musical revolution – but lead it they did. The Polka Tulk Blues Band became Earth and finally Black Sabbath and the genre of heavy metal was born. It was in yer face rock without the roll, aggressive, loud with volume up to 11 and beyond, distorted, rebellious and packed with power chords and bristling with attitude. Black Sabbath, with Tony Iommi the left-handed lead guitarist with DIY fingertips and his dropped down D tuning, tritones and power chords, Geezer Butler's thumping bass, Bill Ward thrashing the drums to death and Ozzy Osbourne's tortured vocals – was hardly the stuff for the refinement and delicate precision and technicality of ballet, yet it worked. The first performance of the ballet was an experience, a revolution in its own right, it was an ”I was there” moment for those in the audience, and now its return is even better, the conversations with the voices of the band and Sharon Osbourne have been refined and made clearer in the second act, the dancing is more defined and precise which all helps in a remarkable fusion of music and movement. Christopher Austin and Finnish composer Marko Nyberg have taken Black Sabbath's original songs and incorporated them into new orchestral compositions with the leather clad guitarist Marc Hayward performing brilliantly live on stage to give that heavy metal, distorted, manic edge. The result is power chords and power dance from the BRB company, interspersed with tender, quieter more reflective moments showing metal can have feelings beyond rebellion and angst.
Céline Gitttens and Haoliang Feng The first act is Heavy Metal Ballet from Cuban choreographer Raúl Reinoso, incorporating tracks such as War Pigs, Iron Man, Solitude and Paranoid, with the always excellent Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Austin. The addition of a symphony orchestra adds refinement and depth to the music, redefining it for contemporary dance without losing the driving energy with the likes of the anti-war song War Pigs ringing out with its opening lines from Ozzy Osbourne. Hayward arrives as a Pied Piper, his guitar playing attracting the dancers like a magnet while amid the distorted metal anthems there is a quieter more reflective moment with a fascinating pas de deux from Yaoqian Shang and Javier Rojas which starts with a kiss and . . . let's just say it is probably the longest stage kiss on record and you wonder if they have to be surgically separated at the end of every performance. It was remarkable how they managed to keep the kiss going through all manner of contortions and gyrations, all in balletic poses showing phenomenal dexterity and skill. Act II is the story of The Band, the clue being in the name, and Brazilian choreographer Cassi Abranches creates a dance to follow the growth of Sabbath and its strange link with Gustav Holst's The Planets, especially Mars which fascinated Butler. Javier Rojas and Yaoqian Shang . . . and that kiss Iommi took the disturbing, dark opening triad, the diabolus in musica, from the classical orchestral work, transported it to guitar and produced the all telling power chord riff - the bedrock of metal was born, the core of the band's eponymous Black Sabbath song. The piece chronicles Iommi's accident where he lost the ends of two fingers working an industrial press in a metal plate factory with the dancing reflecting the agony of being told he would never play guitar again. Determination saw him create DIY fingertips from an old leather jacket, which, along with his dropped D tuning, helped develop his unique style. There were the drugs, the wrecked hotel rooms, the sacking of Ozzy but still being friends, reunions and through it all, despite the fame and wealth, they remained a Brummie band and never forgot their roots. K.J.'s stark lighting design brings an industrial air to the production but cleverly in this section incorporated a horizontal set up of six led lines across the stage – a guitar fret in lights. The sound balance here was a vast improvement on the opening night of the premiere two tear's ago with voices clear and audible. As on the opening night BRB's multi-talented principal dancer Lachlan Monaghan stepped up as the singer – and there is another career just waiting for the likeable Australian if he ever needs it. Music from Chinese born composer Sun Keting incorporated Black Sabbath, the almost Mozart like Orchid, the eery Planet Caravan and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath into an orchestral piece with another, more conventional, lovely pas de deux, this time from Céline Gittens and Haoliang Feng. The final act, Everybody is a fan, is more a celebration created by Swedish choreographer Pontus Lidberg with a bare stage showing the vastness behind the proscenium with the lift lines and fly gallery exposed and the only scenery a life-sized winged figure on an upturned wrecked 70's car in shining silver, a metal icon signifying . . . well, whatever you wanted really. Austin has created a sort of potted Sabbath with music from Iron Man, Black Sabbath, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, War Pigs, Paranoid and, as a contrast, the tuneful and lyrical Laguna Sunrise with a surprising finale on Press night with the appearance of Tony Iommi to end the show with his genre defining riffs. Metal and ballet are not even in the same universe, but Acosta put them together and they work, after all, it is simply dance and music. Black Sabbath – The Ballet brought aficionados of both camps to the Hippodrome and from the applause and standing ovations both could have found new followers, after all, isn’t everyone a fan? The performance was opened by Carlos Acosta who dedicated it to the late Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath – The Ballet runs to 27-09-25. Roger Clarke 18-09-25 |
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