Casanova Leaves Leeds Hot Under The Collar!

It is rare that stockings, suspenders and the questionable duplicity of 18th century Venice replace the impeccable grooming and well-rehearsed clean lines of Northern Ballet’s talented company.

But when Joseph Taylor is let loose as Giacomo Casanova to spread his seed with the abandon of an itinerant son, temperatures rise, clothing falls to the floor and convents are rapidly advised to lock their doors!This was a wonderfully steamy production that will leave you hot under the collar for it is one of those rare occasions when you can sit in the dark of a theatre, indulge your wildest fantasies and then advise your neighbour that is time for an interval drink without fear of judgement or being cancelled!The domineering, colonnade set, typical of so many Venetian churches, was exquisite and the costumes sublime: rich throughout with powdered wigs, painted lips, a set with more gold leaf than St Catherine’s Palace and a prolonged sexual ambiguity that stalked the production from start to finish.

Casanova was a real person even if he has become an adjective with the passing of time but, clearly, he was a man of infinite talent, destined to be remembered for his female conquests, but, in many ways, almost forgotten for all his other achievements: a writer, a lover, mathematician and a pioneer of the Enlightenment.

Joseph Taylor, in the leading role, was brilliant and the physical demands of completing such a performance are mind numbing, but he never faltered.

Almost like a Shakespearean play, there are women dressed as men and confusion abounds as male characters eye male characters, men look at women and then cast an eye at their own sex. It was a period in history when there was confusion, exploration and discovery at both a human level and among those nations which vied for lands, and all that that somehow comes across in this magnificent ballet.

Composer Kerry Muzzey said she wanted her score to sound like a movie and, consulting my notes later, I had written one word: Hollywood. She achieved her aim. The music was lyrical and drew you in with all theabundance of John Barry’s Out of Africa: expansive and atmospheric as though it were speaking for history.

There were too many wonderful performances to mention them all save to say, that I was a Casanova virgin until last night. Now I am deflowered and in love with yet another magnificent offering from Northern Ballet and its company of talented dancers.

Casanova
Leeds Grand
Until Saturday March 19th
Sheffield Lyceum theatre March 22-26