Black Sabbath – The Ballet Review 3*
Black Sabbath – The Ballet is a pulsating tribute to the Brummie creators of heavy metal, Black Sabbath
This article was first published on London Unattached
Black Sabbath – The Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s homage to the Birmingham band that gave the world heavy metal, returned to Sadler’s Wells two years after its Birmingham premiere and just a few months after the death of the band’s emblematic front man, Ozzy Osbourne.
The brainchild of BRB’s audacious director, the Cuban ballet superstar Carlos Acosta, Black Sabbath – The Ballet is a mega-project, a work in three Acts, involving three choreographers, with three composers and two orchestrators under the direction of Christopher Austin, plus an on-stage guitarist, Marc Hayward.
The resulting mash-up of heavy metal and ballet is not exactly a marriage made in heaven (or, perhaps, more to the point in this case, a marriage made in hell), but it’s mostly vibrant and entertaining enough. The band is celebrated, the dancers have fun, old Sabbath fans relive their wild youth, and enthusiastic younger audiences attest to the enduring power of Black Sabbath’s music, played live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Christopher Austin. So, maybe the fact that some of the choreography leaves a lot to be desired doesn’t matter so much?
Act I, subtitled ‘Heavy Metal Ballet’, begins with a punch. Ozzy Osbourne’s voice arises from the gloom, singing the first lines of War Pig. Sixteen dancers in plain black leotards, the women in pointe shoes, respond to the ensuing beat, bringing a funky feel to the academic language of ballet.
Choreographer Raúl Reinoso, from Acosta’s Havana-based Acosta Danza, threw all manner of classical steps at four Black Sabbath songs: Iron Man, Solitude and Paranoid, besides War Pig. Some dance sequences worked. Others looked shoehorned in. I failed to see the point of bringing on principal dancer Tzu-Chao Chou for a little solo on pointe shoes, something for which his feet haven’t been trained or developed. It did this fantastic dancer no favours.
Similarly, a long pas de deux for Solitude, where the two dancers go through all manner of configurations and contortions linked at the lips, lasts far too long and is really quite awkward at times.
Act II, choreographed by the Brazilian Cassi Abranches, is subtitled ‘The Band’ and uses extensive voice-over from band members and Osbourne’s wife, Sharon, to tell the Black Sabbath story.
We hear the band members’ reminiscences, including lead guitarist Tommy Iommi recalling the loss of the tops of two fingers in a factory accident and his eventually successful efforts to overcome the loss and continue to play the guitar; accounts of the band’s wild days – “we were like a wrecking crew in hotel rooms” – and attempts to get rid of Ozzy Osbourne, as drink got the better of him. All this is fascinating.
The problem with this Act is the lack of any connection between what we hear, which is gripping, and what appears before our eyes, which is less so. In the absence of a harmonious coordination between the two senses – hearing and seeing – I privileged hearing, the Black Sabbath story a lot more interesting to me than the visual component, for all its original effects and clever use of light (Lighting Designer K.J). That is to say, I remember what I heard, rather than what I saw.
Act III, ‘Everybody is a Fan’ aims to embody the Black Sabbath legacy. Danced on a bare stage, wings stripped, it’s choreographed by the vastly experienced Pontus Lidberg, the dancers in colourful T-shirts performing around a large effigy of a winged demon atop an overturned 1970s car (Designer Alexandre Arrechea)
It’s a boisterous finale, celebrating the meeting of heavy metal and a classical ballet company. Lidberg alternates ensemble scenes where the dancers execute impeccable classic positions, with free sequences, where the ten performers of this Act are joined by the casts of the previous two sections.
Marc Hayward returns, his playing ever more intense for Laguna Sunrise, and the musical themes of the evening gradually merge: themes from Iron Man and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath are heard, before the orchestra reprises arrangements of War Pigs and Paranoid.
Attempts to get the audience going à la rock gig in a packed stadium were only partly successful, but the house rose as one when Tommy Iommi himself walked on stage playing his unmistakable guitar. Now 77 years old, Iommi has lost none of his ability to make his music penetrate to the deepest recesses of our bodies. Again, my two senses – hearing and seeing – went to war with each other, and I have to admit I was so fixated on Iommi, I barely noticed the dancing going on behind him.
Iommi had put in a surprise appearance on the first night at Sadler’s Wells two years ago, and as I watched Act III unfold, I hoped (against hope, I thought) he would return. But he did, bringing the evening to an electrifying end.
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: Dancers of Birmingham Royal Ballet in Black Sabbath – The Ballet. Photo: Johan Persson)
Black Sabbath – The Ballet was at Sadler’s Wells 20 – 25 October as part of a UK tour
Birmingham Royal Ballet returns to London with The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall, 29-31 December