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ACT I
D’Artagnan is a simple young man from the country and the son of a former Musketeer. Coming of age, he leaves home to seek his fortune in Paris. On the way he stumbles upon Milady deWinter and the Count de Rochefort who have waylaid the Duke of Buckingham's servant in order to steal his official letters. Takinf advantage of the distraction the servant escapes.
In Paris, Madame Bonancieux and her washer women are kept busy as the nobility bring in their outfits to be cleaned ahead of the forthcoming royal ball. Three King's Musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis interrupt the work with their mischeivous antics. D’Artagnan arrives, and through his impulsive nature and backward country manners unwittingly insults all three of the Musketeers so that they each challenge him to a duel on the same day.
In the royal palace, the Queen secretly entertains her lover Buckingham in her private chamber. Later, at the ball, the King presents the Queen with a magnificent diamond necklace in celebration of their wedding anniversary. After the ball Buckingham again sneaks into the Queen's chambers. After their assignation, the Queen sends her lady in waiting Marie de Hautebois to lead Buckingham to safety through the streets of Paris, unaware they are being followed. Finding his servant and learning of the loss of his official letters, Buckingham writes a note to the Queen and entrusts it to Marie. But Marie is in league with Milady and shows her the note before delivering it.
Elsewhere, the Musketeers are drinking when d'Artagnan arrives to keep his duelling appointments. The Musketeers are surprised to find they are each in line to fight the same man. Athos begins the contest and soon learns the young d'Artagnan has above average abilities. But the duelists are interrupted by the Cardinal’s guards who seek to arrest them because of a law against dueling. D’Artagnan now sides with the Musketeers to defeat the Cardinal's men after which all insults are forgotten and the Musketeers accept him as their friend.
The new friends retire to Madame Bonancieux's house where they re-enact the fight. Constance, Madame Bonancieux's daughter, arrives and thinking Athos is in trouble attacks the stranger d'Artagnan. The other Musketeers restrain her and d'Artagnan and Constance meet for the first time. Buckingham arrives to rendezvous with the Queen who gives him her new diamond necklace as a love token. The Cardinals guards arrive, sent by Milady forewarned by Buckingham's note, to capture Buckingham and disgrace the Queen. Buckingham escapes through the window and the Musketeers smuggle the Queen away in disguise whilst Constance dons the Queens cape. Realising they have been duped, the guards give chase leaving d'Artagnan and Constance alone to express their love for each other.
ACT II
In the Palace the King and Queen are preparing a new ballet watched by Cardinal Richelieu. Milady arrives and informs Richelieu that Buckingham has escaped but that he has the Queen's necklace. Seizing the moment, Richelieu announces his intention to hold a ball for the Queen to show off her new necklace. In panic, the Queen turns to Constance and gives her a letter for Buckingham requesting the return of the necklace.
Constance departs with the letter but is cornered by the Cardinals guards when three cloaked men suddenly intervene and carry her away. The three cloaked men burst into Madame Bonancieux's house and cast loose their victim who only now realises they are none other than her friends, the three Musketeers. Constance shows them the letter and they leave at once in pursuit of Buckingham. D'Artagnan and Constance share an intimate moment and she gives him the only keepsake she has, her scissors, before he rushes after his friends. Milady storms in with the Cardinal's guards. Finding Constance alone and the letter gone, she instructs the guards to take Constance prisoner and bring her along.
Along the road to Calais the Musketeers and d'Artagnan are repeatedly attacked and soon d'Artagnan is alone as one by one the Musketeers drop out to act as rearguard. Arriving in Calais d'Artagnan encounters Rochefort and defeats him in a duel but Rochefort is saved when Milady arrives with her prisoner and d'Artagnan is forced to surrender with his new love held at knifepoint. Milady takes the letter from d'Artagnan and boards ship for England where she seduces the Duke and presents the letter to reclaim the necklace.
Constance and d'Artagnan meanwhile are left tied up in a cell in Calais. They struggle to escape but then Constance remembers her gift of the scissors and retrieves them from a string around d'Artagnan's neck inside his shirt. D'Artagnan cuts Constance free but before she can free him Milady returns and Constance pretends to still be bound. Milady shows off the necklace and taunts her captives. Constance attacks her and the two fight during which Milady's sleeve is torn revealing the brand of a criminal. Milady flees. D'Artagnan frees himself just in time to fight the Cardinal's guards who rush into the cell but then the Musketeers arrive and the guards are driven off.
The friends head for Paris in pursuit of Milady and the necklace. At the palace the Queen waits in desperation for Constance to return with the necklace but time runs out and she has to depart for the ball without it, using her feather fan to hide her neck. Milady arrives at the ball and assures Richelieu she has the necklace. All seems lost, can the Musketeers even now arrive in time to save the dave and preserve the Queen's honour?
As a member of the Friends of the NBT I was lucky enough to have been invited to attend a day of rehearsals for this production and it was clear then that this had the potential to be something special. The finished product did not disappoint. The costumes were superbly made and stunning in their variety, from the simple dresses and head-scarves of the washer-women to the regal finery of the King and Queen. Cloaks and capes figure prominently, from the grand uniform tabards of the Musketeers and Cardinal's guards to the dissembling cloaks worn by various characters to conceal their identities.
What the court scenes may lack in numbers they more than make up for in magnificence of costumes and choreography. The sets are simplistic but well made and bewildering in their variety and quick changes. Simple panelled side-walls with various openings combine with a variety of backdrops from a matching panelled wall to a painted Paris street, mirror panelled Queen's bed chamber, and Calais docks complete with departing sailing ship.
The choreography is superb, particularly in the fight scenes which flow naturally and realistically. There is romance aplenty, focused both between the Queen and Buckingham and Constance and d'Artagnan, and with more than a little humour thrown in this is a production that has something for everyone.
The music by Sir Malcom Arnold was superbly chosen and perfectly fitted to the action and includes segments written thirty years earlier for a planned Musketeers ballet that was never realised. The composer died only a few hours before the opening night of this production so it is perhaps fitting that NBT artistic director has created such a powerful tribute to the glory of his music.
With three rotating casts for this production this was probably the strongest, apart from the absence of my own particular favourite NBT performer Pippa Moore. Patrick Howell gave us a simple, initially somewhat naive d'Artagnan and excelled in the fight scenes. His thrilling fight with multiple assailants when the Cardinal's guards interrupted his duel with Athos was a highlight of the production. Keiko Amemori gave us a modest yet playful Constance and performed some beautiful pas de deux with Patrick's d'Artagnan. Kenneth Tindall, who even in rehearsals had made the role his particular forte, excelled as King Louis, wearing the role in the finished production like a well fitting glove. His dance parody of the Queen in matching dress and wearing the diamond necklace he was about to present to her, was another of the evening's many highlights. Also superb, but perhaps less unexpectedly, was Desiree Samaai whose lissome figure made for a supremely regal yet seductive Queen Anne. Christopher Hinton-Lewis made a dashing Buckingham and together with Desiree gave us the best of the evenings romantic pas de deux. The three Musketeers performed by Johnathan Byrne Ollivier (Athos), Hironao Takahashi (Aramis) and David Kierce (Porthos) each attacked their roles with great relish, leaping and cavorting athletically, with David in particular excelling as a somewhat drunken Porthos. Steven Wheeler gave us a suitably sinister Rochefort whilst flame haired Victoria Sibson was another standout as a glamourous and deliciously wicked Milady de Winter.
Stupendous. NBT's best production to date bar none. A magnificent action-fest of a ballet.