It was a pure delight to attend the matinee performance, at Artscape, today, October 18, of Cape Town City Ballet’s Coppélia. The season was on October 17 and 18, 2025. CTCB was accompanied by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Brandon Phillips. Set and costumes by Peter Cazalet.
Former CTCB principal Daniel Rajna Guest was guest artist, starring as Dr. Coppelius in the three performances. Hannah Ward and Isabella Blair shared the role of the feisty Swanhilda who becomes a doll in order to woo back her fiancé, Franz (Leusson Muniz, Jordan Roelfze and Axton Green). Bethany Reynders danced as Coppélia – the doll. We saw Isabella Blair as Swanhilda and Jordan Roelfze as Franz – breathtaking dancing – and theatricality. I was charmed by the athleticism, and precision of the principals and company.
It has been a long time since Coppélia on stage. It is a hectic and creepy story – a doll acting like a human and fooling people. A man being drugged by a fanatic toy maker (Dr. Coppelius). The story screams AI, mechanical dolls and automatons but it was first staged in Paris in 1870. It seems that current trends are to re-imagine it in the current artificial landscape. CTCB has kept within the classical tradition of a romantic fable and it was as I say a delight to watch with dreamy and colourful sets and costumes. Hints of menace edge the performance, with a sense of everyone watching each other, but it is not overt. Act II which takes place in the doctor’s workshop is drenched by the saturated lighting by Faheem Bardien. He has lit the production, like a painting and in Act II, in particular, the lighting acts as a foil against the dreamy, delicate and lyrical dancers in their classical gear. The riff of Avant-garde and grit teases out nuances in the text which gives it a contemporary resonance without having to resort to dystopian aesthetics. I loved this sublime production. Bravo to CTCB artistic manager, Tracy Li and her team.
