Singapore Ballet’s Coppelia revival impresses with strong leads

Coppelia

Singapore Ballet
Esplanade Theatre
March 26, 8pm

Coppelia marks the start of Singapore Ballet’s 2026 season and artistic director Janek Schergen’s 20th year with the company.

Last performed in 2022, this revival returns with its familiar blend of humour, charm and buoyant theatricality, led by Kwok Min Yi as Swanilda and Satoru Agetsuma as Franz.

In the ballet, Franz falls for the enigmatic Coppelia, who is revealed to be a lifelike doll made by the eccentric Dr Coppelius. Franz’s fiancee Swanilda finds out and takes matters into her own hands.

Like La Fille Mal Gardee and La Sylphide, Coppelia stands as a quintessential comedy ballet, notable for its incorporation of national and folk dances such as the czardas and mazurka. 

Kwok’s Swanilda initially appears almost too refined, her long lines and elegant carriage suggesting aristocracy more than rustic mischief.

Yet this impression quickly dissolves as she leans into the role’s comic potential. Her pantomime is lively and precise, brimming with wit. When she plants her hands on her hips and marches towards Dr Coppelius’ house, she convincingly embodies a spirited young woman determined to lead her circle.

This sense of playful authority carries into Act 2, where Kwok excels in the famous “doll” sequence. Her performance here is striking – movements snap with mechanical clarity, each gesture delivered with percussive force.

At the same time, she deftly weaves in moments of human urgency, such as darting off to rouse Franz, creating a layered and highly entertaining portrayal.

Both Kwok and Agetsuma impress with their technical strength, though at times, their polish works against the ballet’s rustic tone.

Kwok’s travelling jumps cover remarkable distance, filling the stage with vitality, while her extensions are controlled and expansive. There are moments, however, where the rapid footwork appears slightly laboured.

Agetsuma, for his part, delivers clean turns and buoyant jumps with admirable ease, though his refinement makes it difficult to fully accept him as the naive village youth Franz is meant to be.

Where the performance falters most noticeably is in the ensemble work. Aside from the Hours in Act 3 – performed with admirable precision and musical unity – the corps de ballet often appears uneven in timing and spatial alignment.

More crucially, the villagers lack a sense of lived-in familiarity. They stand and move with a restraint that feels overly formal. One longs for the casual ease, the shared glances, the unguarded physicality that might suggest a tight-knit community.

Schergen, however, is a revelation as Dr Coppelius. His portrayal avoids caricature, opting instead for a nuanced, inward quality that lends the character both pathos and unease. His gestures are measured and his loneliness palpable.

In Act 2 especially, he anchors the drama with a performance that is at once touching and faintly unsettling, offering a poignant counterpoint to the surrounding comedy.

By the final act, the ballet seems to hover between two worlds: one of precision and polish, the other of spontaneity and human warmth – an apt tension for Coppelia, with its fascination for the boundary between the mechanical and the living.

The clean lines and exacting technique at times evoke the clockwork perfection of Dr Coppelius’ dolls, while fleeting imperfections and flashes of humour reveal the dancers’ humanity beneath.

In this light, the production’s unevenness feels less like a flaw than a reminder of what makes live performance compelling. It constantly negotiates between control and release, artifice and instinct, where even the most carefully constructed illusion can suddenly, and thrillingly, come alive.

Book It/Coppelia

Where: Esplanade Theatre, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: March 28, 2 and 8pm; March 29, 2 and 7pm
Admission: From $55
Info: str.sg/yGY6