Northern Ballet's Casanova at Sheffield's Lyceum Theatre is 'a thing of power and beauty' - review

Through a combination of powerful set design (Christopher Oram) and imaginative lighting (Alastair West) the audience were introduced to an extravagant 18th Century Venice, complete with towering, golden pillars and gently spreading incense.

A threatening stillness settled in the cathedral style space as a procession of clergy and supplicants moved with a precise, slow and controlled calm, before dancers of the Inquisition added their angular and energetic motifs to deepen a sense of potential danger.

It is against this backdrop of order, suspicion and control that we are introduced to Giacoma Casanova, a trainee priest who seems too free-spirited to conform to a career in the church.

When two of his pupils seduce him, his time in holy orders is finished but his sensual awakening has begun.

The Casanova of myth is a man of sexual appetite and passion and Joseph Taylor’s performance doesn’t disappoint as he blends strength and intensity in his story-telling, as he is seduced and seduces in turn.

His partners for the pas de deux match Taylor in energy, grace and character and help to redefine Casanova’s relationships beyond the physical, revealing his desire to be understood at a deeper level and to offer tenderness and protection to those he loved.

Casanova is also revealed to be a man of other, forgotten talents: a musician, a writer and keen to be recognised for more than his sexual exploits.

An inspired blend of set, lighting and costume design created a sumptuous backdrop against which this talented cast of dancers could tell Casanova’s story.

But for me, what held everything in place and allowed every other creative to shine was the unseen but flawless Northern Ballet Sinfonia, whose music built and softened, soared and teased, to weave everything together into a thing of power and beauty.

Casanova is running until Saturday, March 27.