http://sptimesrussia.com/index.php?acti ... y_id=19121

The St.Peterburg Times
Issue #1212(78 ), Friday, October 13, 2006

California dreaming

By Bernard Holland
the new york times

The Mariinsky Theater presents the Ring Cycle amid the malls of California.COSTA MESA, California — Russians are everywhere: stalking the upscale shops of the South Coast Plaza, gazing up at the elegantly aligned eucalyptus and palm trees as they make their way from one rehearsal to the next, wandering the numerous new hotels that rim this intersection of art and commerce, and partaking long and lustily at seemingly nonstop outdoor buffets.If the cold war is over, the sunny, breezy one is in full swing. The Mariinsky Theater, with its Kirov Opera, Orchestra and Ballet, has descended on Orange County. Musicians and singers in the hundreds are here for orchestra concerts and Wagner's "Ring" operas. As they take to the road on tour, new musicians arrive for dance performances.

For residents of St. Petersburg, a city elegant in its distinctive way, their Southern Californian listeners — tanned and groomed to a high polish — must seem a species of moon men. Whether real, a mirage or both, the aura of wealth here appears endless. Orange County has had its 3,000-seat Orange County Performing Arts Center for a decade. Within spitting distance is the new RenОe and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, congenially smaller and made seductively curvaceous by the architect Cesar Pelli.

Henry Segerstrom's family made money in real estate and has given a lot of it to this arts campus. He is also no stranger to the enormous adjacent shopping mall. Thanks to his vision, something nice to hear and something nice to wear are now separated by a short stroll: a new pantheon where Ferragamo and Cartier share retail space with Shostakovich and Wagner.

Wagner's "Siegfried" played at the bigger, older hall on Monday night, with "GЪtterdКmmerung" to close out the Mariinsky's traveling "Ring" cycle on Wednesday. The company's ad hoc style reflects its music director, Valery Gergiev, who adjusts casts from day to day, much as a baseball manager juggles starting lineups. Gergiev has been everywhere at once and presumably plans to sleep in a future life.

Given the cursory sophistication of this production, it had better sound good if it wants to survive. George Tsypin's giant statuary stands on or is draped across the stage. Hollow, with wrinkled metallic surfaces, and modular for easy disassembly, these figures are accessorized by small penguinlike shapes. (Those of a certain age will remember Al Capp's comic-strip shmoo.) Dancers lurk and do imitations of flames.

It falls to lighting to set moods and induce action. Tsypin's figures light up from inside when emotions demand. Sheets of ghastly reds and greens, like chemical spills, play over the stage. At Fafner's death, the impression is of someone playing with a wall switch. The Woodbird appears onstage wearing beads and flapping her arms. On the other hand, she (she being Anastasia Kalagina) sang beautifully. Mikhail Petrenko made Fafner's bass notes shine.

No Siegfried has looked more like Siegfried than Leonid Zakhozhayev: tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, long hair flowing. Yet Vasily Gorshkov's Mime carried the early hours of "Siegfried." His sly, dry humor dominated Act I, and he also outgunned Zakhozhayev's serviceable tenor and easily upstaged Vadim Kravets's faceless Wotan. Olga Sergeyeva threw her big, rich soprano at BrЯnnhilde with an exuberance that threatened vocal steadiness. Viktor Chernomortsev (Alberich) and Zlata Bulycheva (Erda) both sang well.

It was in the pit that the listener found "Siegfried." Given a dreadful workload, the Mariinsky players never faltered in accomplishment and devotion. Gergiev is not a conductor to loiter over Wagner, and here the music was swift and action-packed. The Orange County Performing Arts Center's gloomy demeanor and swooping balconies do not raise the spirit, and its acoustics bled dry the Mariinsky's much admired baritonal glow. The wind and horn playing, on the other hand, was resplendent.The Mariinsky's bus-and-truck "Ring of the Nibelung" goes to New York's Lincoln Center Festival next summer.

Kirov Ballet: Sticking with the classics


"SWAN LAKE": Igor Zelensky and Elena Vostrotinatif dance in the Kirov Ballet's production.
The show is on track to be a sellout at Segerstrom Hall

The Orange County Register, Sunday, October 15, 2006
By LAURA BLEIBERG

On its fifth visit to Orange County, the company's repertory was influenced by a multitude of factors.

When the artists of the Kirov Ballet take their places onstage Tuesday at Segerstrom Hall, it will mark the historic company's fifth engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

It's been a fruitful relationship for both the Kirov and Costa Mesa, which has hosted the former imperial ballet more often in the past 20 years than all but a handful of major U.S. cities. Thanks to the center's programming, which has included equal doses of traditional and modern repertory, viewers here have been witness to the company's struggles to move forward from decades of Soviet isolationism.

But the company's slate this week surprised some due to its more conservative bill. Two full-length story ballets with high name recognition, "Romeo and Juliet" (Oct. 17-19) and "Swan Lake" (Oct. 20-22), are scheduled; the company performed this same "Romeo and Juliet" in Segerstrom Hall in 1992. Shorter ballets had been offered previously, but not this time.

Audiences still overwhelmingly favor traditional narrative dance, and tickets are selling briskly for both ballets. By Friday, the ballets were on track to sell out, a center spokesman said.

Thirst for the Kirov Ballet, considered the pinnacle of Russian classical dance, might seem unquenchable. But in the high-stakes world of theatrical presentation, nothing is taken for granted. At a large, multivenue performing arts institution like the center, if you make a risky programming decision in one part of your season, you better plug in a show that's considered more of a sure bet somewhere else.

That is the context for the Kirov Ballet's current visit.

LONG-TERM PLANNING

Three years ago, center officials sat down with leaders of the Mariinsky Theatre and tour producer Sergei Danilian to plan a 17-day residency featuring the opera, symphony and ballet companies of the imperial theater.

Intended to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Performing Arts Center and the opening of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and Samueli Theater, the Mariinsky Festival is the largest single gathering of its artists in the United States.

Almost 570 St. Petersburg dancers, musicians, singers and theater personnel have arrived in Costa Mesa; 32 40-foot sea containers filled with sets, props and costumes have pulled up to the theaters' loading docks.

The festival's centerpiece would be the North American premiere of the Kirov's production of Richard Wagner's epic "The Ring of the Nibelung." The opera would also present Modest Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov," while the Kirov Orchestra planned what amounts to a mini-commemoration of Dmitri Shostakovich, playing five of the composer's symphonies and one piano concerto. The festival's focus was on what each institution does best, said Judy Morr, the center's executive vice president.

"It was viewed in the overall context of the Mariinsky Theatre and the work they do. Certainly, 'The Ring' was one part of the opera programming, but the 'Boris Godunov' was the other side of it and that was the quintessential Russian opera. Why would I want to do something else?" Morr said.

"I honestly feel that the Kirov's 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Swan Lake' are the jewels in their crown. I'm totally respectful of, and love the work they're doing in taking the company beyond the classics. But that was not what this was about. It was about what the Mariinsky is, in this 17-day period."

It was clear from the get-go that the festival's huge cost (which the center has not revealed) and its riskier offerings – including "Boris Godunov," which is not a household name in Orange County – would have a significant influence on the ballet's repertory. The dancers would have to perform something considerably "safer," Morr confirmed.

"Clearly, I am aware of the risk, or the financial challenge, that the center has to present 'Boris Godunov' and the 'Ring,' " she said. "So then to balance that, it seemed sensible to bring in the ballet that I knew would be well-received by a wide audience."

The discussion focused on works that are indelibly linked to the theater and its history.

"Swan Lake" debuted at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1877, with Piotr Tchaikovsky's commissioned score and dancing by director Julius Reisinger, whose reputation was second-rate, at best; it was a flop.

A new version by Mariinsky choreographers Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa debuted at that theater in 1895 and considered a great success. Tchaikovksy's score was hailed this time (even though sections were moved around and others excised), and Ivanov's choreographic approach to it was seen as a breakthrough in ballet staging. Still, even classic Russian ballets undergo revision.

The Kirov's current production is from 1950 and credited to former director Konstantin Sergeyev, based on the Petipa-Ivanov model.

"Romeo and Juliet," based on Shakespeare's love story, had a similarly convoluted history. The Kirov commissioned a score from Sergei Prokofiev, who completed it in the mid-1930s and proposed a libretto with a happy ending. The project was abandoned there, and considered for the Bolshoi. But it was dropped there, too, and had its premiere in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1938. At that point, the Kirov directors reconsidered the ballet, and a production with choreography by Leonid Lavrovksy premiered in St. Petersburg in 1940.

Tour producer Danilian said a third ballet was also under discussion for Orange County. That was Petipa's "Raymonda," which debuted at the Mariinsky in 1898. Few companies still perform the ballet in its entirety, although American Ballet Theatre added a revised, two-act version to its repertory in 2004. "Raymonda" excerpts have been performed at the center three times.

Even as the Mariinsky Festival was being planned, Danilian was arranging a cross-country tour afterward for the ballet to Chicago, Boston and Ottawa. That, too, had an impact on programming in Costa Mesa. Some of the tour presenters balked at "Raymonda," Danilian said.

"The people was really concerned about doing 'Raymonda' and 'Swan Lake,' " said the Russian-born Danilian, who still speaks with an accent. "Because the ('Raymonda') production is really not so known in the Midwest … We decided to bring 'Romeo and Juliet,' especially with the cast so good, and Diana (Vishneva) dancing."

When all the considerations were added together, the Kirov's week in Orange County came down to two of the stalwarts of classical dance – the apex of the art form to some, mere war horses in the minds of others. As far as Danilian is concerned, these ballets provide the perfect dessert to this meaty festival.

"The last week of the festival must be more light, more well-known, more enjoyable for ballet lovers," he concluded.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/abox/article_1312124.php

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/en ... 323368.php

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Kirov Ballet: A love match

Review: Principals Diana Vishneva and Andrian Fadeev made Kirov Ballet's production of "Romeo and Juliet" one for the memory book.
By LAURA BLEIBERG
The Orange County Register


JULIET: Diana Vishneva in the first act of the Kirov Ballet's performance of 'Romeo and Juliet.'
PHOTOS: ANDY TEMPLETON, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It barely taxes the brain to list a half-dozen women who have triumphed as Juliet in one of the dozens of ballet versions of William Shakespeare's tragic play.

But how about naming a Romeo who evenly matched his Juliet? Try recalling one couple to cross an Orange County stage that, as a team, carried the ballet through all three (sometimes four) acts. Without a believably amorous pair, this most famous of Western love stories has a yawning hole at its core.

By my reckoning, you'd have to go all the way back to 1990, when American Ballet Theatre's Julio Bocca and Alessandra Ferri memorably convinced us they'd rather "die" than live without one another (at the Orange County Performing Arts Center).

After the Kirov Ballet's Tuesday opening in Segerstrom Hall, we can finally add another duo to the list: Diana Vishneva and Andrian Fadeev.

Beauty counts and these two have it, with their pliant, lithe bodies and youthful, innocent faces. Put together, they had physical conductivity. That latter quality can't be faked. A crackling stage connection is born of mutual trust, and the audience witnessed that Tuesday, from their first encounter at the Capulets' ball to their suicidal frenzy at the graveyard. Vishneva and Fadeev took choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky's melodramatic framework and made it all look improvised, to satisfying emotional effect.

They also took astonishing physical risks. In the balcony scene's climactic lift, Fadeev whoosed Vishneva upside down above his head, with her poised at the absolute tip-over point. Neither blinked. That balance bespoke their confidence in each other and themselves – and personified the audience's good fortune.

Vishneva's personal commitment came as no surprise. Each time she appears onstage it's a chance to unleash her explosive jété leaps, or crease her body in some new way, or push a characterization to new heights; in the third act, she scraped her knee and a fresh, tomato-red blood stain appeared through her pale tights. This extraordinary ballerina can project myriad shadings across her face, which read like supertitles for all those moments when Juliet just stared into the audience.

Fadeev was the winning surprise; he partnered Vishneva in the "Rubies" section of "Jewels" in 2003, but that abstract role didn't prepare this viewer for his ardent Romeo. Whether crumpled on the crypt steps or entwined with Vishneva during their wedding, Fadeev abandoned himself to the moment. When allowed to let loose, he exhibited a rare combination of gracefulness mixed with strength.

Someone has amped up the dramatic qualities of the entire production, which premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in 1940 and continues to be tweaked; both the Bolshoi and the Kirov ballets have previously performed it here, in versions considerable more staid. The Kirov's current, oversized way of playing it reminded one that Lavrovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" is Soviet-era classicism, that is, dancing that approaches the bombastic, with its broad pantomime and bench-press lifts.

For once, Sergei Prokofiev's score, commissioned by the Kirov and which alternately shrieks and soothes, was matched in danced language. If only the Kirov ballet orchestra, led by Pavel Bubelnikov, had not played so fitfully. The strings soured at higher octaves, and the brass blared and overwhelmed everyone else.

Ilya Kuznetsov portrayed Tybalt with the broadest possible strokes, threatening to cross the line into parody. His red-headed character was a sadist costumed as a clown, but with all the other characters similarly revved up, it worked. Kuznetsov is a big, muscular man in scary-looking makeup, and his fight to the death with Romeo was a thriller.

Leonide Sarafanov, with his slim build, blond hair and boyish good looks, nicely contrasted as Mercutio. He excelled with crisply executed front kicks and beats.

Most of the secondary character roles satisfied: Natalia Sveshnikova was the comforting, motherly Nurse (who needed more padding to be believably fat); Elena Bazhenova was Juliet's standoffish mother; and Vladimir Ponomarev was the boorish Capulet. The danced solo parts were more problematic. Andrei Ivanov pulled off the tricks and leaps of the Joker with competence, nothing more. Likewise, Vasily Shcherbakov was an unsure Troubadour.

But it mattered little. We had a Romeo and Juliet to die for.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/en ... 327509.php

Monday, October 23, 2006

Kirov Ballet: Cool perfection
Review: The Kirov Ballet's second act of 'Swan Lake' – the true test of the ballerinas – is performed flawlessly.
By LAURA BLEIBERG
The Orange County Register


"SWAN LAKE": The Kirov Ballet's Uliana Lopatkina as Odette and Danila Korsuntsev, substituting for the ailing Igor Zelensky as Prince Siegfried, performed at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on Friday.

The Kirov Ballet brought its "Swan Lake" to the Performing Arts Center for the first time this weekend, dancing it like a hallowed gift of incalculable worth.

The ballet's second act is the test for the 32 ballerinas of the corps de ballet, and they made it an ultimate achievement. With nary a finger out of place, or a pointed toe out of sequence, these white-tutu'ed ballerinas posed and gestured in perfect precision.

Principal dancer Uliana Lopatkina inhabited the enchanted spirit of the swan queen Odette with a cool authority on Friday. She has crystallized not just the role, but every muscle twitch to its essence. Her arms rippled, her head flicked oh-so-delicately and she appeared, quite simply, to flow about the stage.

Directors come and go, and ballet styles alter. The granddaddy of this "Swan Lake," by choreographers Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, debuted 111 years ago at the Mariinsky Theater. To this day, that sublimely long, curved female neck, those deliciously drooped fingers and the ultimate symmetry of the shifting lines of ladies in Acts 2 and 4 – Ivanov's signature "white" acts – still stand as a cornerstone of the Mariinsky.

Yet not all is sublime with this production of "Swan Lake." It dates from 1950, when the late Kirov director and danseur noble Konstantin Sergeyev made further revisions to the choreography and staging (he wasn't the first to do so). Sergeyev removed, as was the fashion of the time, nearly all of the ballet's pantomime sequences. Even the most broadly fashioned acting sequences have disappeared, such as Prince Siegfried's melancholy over having to pick a bride at the ball; his mother, the Queen, dropped that bombshell as six lovely maidens stood before him, waiting for his answer.

The incisions left some big holes, such as the famous scene in which Odette normally would explain to Siegfried that the evil sorcerer Rothbart has enslaved her and that Siegfried can free her with his oath of true love. We should be grateful Siegfried was still allowed to raise his arm skyward and swear an oath to Odette, although who knows how many in the audience understood what was going on.

Minor characters have disappeared, such as Siegfried's male companions, and at least one was added, the virtuoso jester; never mind that it's an incongruous addition. Soviet era choreographers were crazy for short fellows springing about in funny hats. Friday's jester, Andrei Ivanov, was quite likable, though, and he soared impressively through beats and leads and spun double-time through the trickiest pirouettes.

The result of these shake-ups, though, is that all the lovely dancing occurs in a narrative vacuum. The drama has been sucked out. If individual performances were universally outstanding, it's possible this flaw could be overlooked. Not everyone was in peak form Friday, though.

Danila Korsuntsev filled in as Siegfried, replacing the previously scheduled Igor Zelensky, who was ill. Korsuntsev maneuvered through the part as though in a dream. Tall, distinguished and with a lovely line, Korsuntsev was a gentle and dutiful partner. He was short on fire, though; of course, his part hardly allows for it anymore. Rather, when his swan queen played hard to get, he eyed the upper proscenium with a vaguely worried expression.

Lopatkina, who so identified as Odette, never fully shifted into the act three alter-ego Odile, Rothbart's evil daughter. She smiled semi-wickedly. She knocked off those 32 fouettés without straying a dime (one of the dizzying hazards of all that turning). But the brisker pace and staccato style caused her noticeable effort.

Ilya Kuznetsov, who played Tybalt with wild-eyed abandon earlier in the week in "Romeo and Juliet," was a more controlled Rothbart; unfortunately, the black costume and white makeup made him resemble the character Death in "The Green Table."

In the pas de trois, Irina Golub's displayed a luscious and musically attuned lyricism. Likewise, the first act's waltzing couple's bent and swayed in sync.

Tchaikovksy got much nicer treatment from the Kirov Orchestra than Prokofiev had earlier in the week. Conductor Pavel Bubelnikov was particularly sensitive to all the dancers' tempi needs, especially Lopatkina's. We were treated to gorgeous violin and harp solos, but the musicians were uncredited.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/new ... 31be529b2c

Ottawa Citizen
Kirov's Swan Lake truly magical

Natasha Gauthier, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, October 27, 2006



For the dancers of the Kirov ballet, Swan Lake is like their mother's milk.

They live, breathe and dream the ballet's quintessential Russian romanticism from their first dance classes. They are taught by people whose training lineage can be traced in a direct line to the artists involved in the work's 1895 St. Petersburg premiere. With such a blue-blooded pedigree, it's no wonder that the Kirov's Swan Lake seems to transcend other versions.

Making its first Ottawa appearance since 1989, the company danced last night before a capacity crowd that had come expecting something magical and precious. They weren't disappointed.

The ultra-traditional production is a feast for the eyes, with extravagant costumes, intricate, Faberge-egg sets and luminous painted backdrops of dark forests and Rhineland castles.

But the Kirov is about the dancing, and the dancing is superlative in every way -- from the incredible lightness of the feet to the refined head carriage to the expressive hands and eyes.

On opening night, Alina Somova danced the dual role of Odette, the white swan queen, and Odile, her black-feathered nemesis.

She's a long-limbed, pretty dancer, with legs up to her eyeballs. She has a way of stretching out each developpe and arabesque as if she had all the time in the world. If her Odette was a little aggressive -- this was a swan who would break your arm in a second -- her Odile was dazzling, electric with feminine sensuality.

Igor Kolb as Siegfried is a splendid example of the Russian danseur noble, with stately presence, ground-eating jumps and a line through the body that could have been carved by a Renaissance sculptor. But like his partner, he lacked a certain warmth and passion.

As the Jester, the elfin Andrei Ivanov stole every scene he was in. He's a compact bouncing ball of a dancer, tossing out gravity-defying jumps and dizzying pirouettes without ever losing the charming smile on his face.

Other outstanding soloists and character dancers included the impressively athletic Anton Korsakov and the pairing of Ksenia Dubrovina and Andrey Yakovlev, who performed the Hungarian dance with terrific panache, down to their jingling spurs.

The Kirov Orchestra, conducted by Pavel Bubelnikov, produced that famously lush Russian sound, although the violin solos were rather ragged.

The Kirov performs Swan Lake at the NAC until Sunday. All performances are sold out.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ery=ballet

Stalin aside, this Swan Lake soars
PAULA CITRON

The Kirov Ballet
At the National Arts Centre
In Ottawa on Thursday

Ottawa dance fans are the luckiest in the country. The National Arts Centre is currently presenting the Kirov Ballet and Orchestra (all 213 of them) in a production of Swan Lake, the only Canadian appearance of the famed company from St. Petersburg's legendary Mariinsky Theatre.

Swan Lake is perhaps the quintessential ballet in the classical repertoire. It was the first to be set to a score by a symphonic composer, and Tchaikovsky's powerful music sets the bar of greatness. Every ballerina of note must prove herself in the dual role of good Odette and evil Odile. The female corps de ballet, meanwhile, has the challenge of making all those swans perfectly symmetrical, not to mention lighter than air. The vibrant character dances of the third act, such as the Neapolitan and Mazurka, must be executed with finesse and style.

In short, it is a ballet that tests the mettle of an entire company. Marius Petipa's so-called "black acts" (one and three) are in virtuoso Russian-imperial style. In the "white acts," choreographed originally by Lev Ivanov (two and four), the dancing is lyrical and adagio.

These are the foundation stones of all versions of Swan Lake that follow the Kirov's 1895 production, which successfully obliterated the bad memories of the Bolshoi's disastrous 1877 original staging by the inept Julius Reisinger. Petipa and Ivanov saved Tchaikovsky's immortal music from oblivion.

The Kirov performs Konstantin Sergeyev's 1950 choreography (which retains much of Petipa and Ivanov). The mime sequences have practically disappeared to be replaced by a wall of dance, the secondary male character has become a jester, and the ending is a Soviet-era de rigueur happy one.

Unfortunately, this production was also created at the height of Stalinist aesthetics, when the word "taste" seems to have disappeared from the Russian vocabulary. The dreary backdrop sets by Igor Ivanov, and hideous costumes by Galina Solovieva, are risible, even embarrassing. To call them old-fashioned would be to give them a touch of class they don't deserve.

What solace one takes away from these horrendous visuals is the dance itself, and that, happily, is as advertised. Unlike its more muscular, rigorous sister house, the Bolshoi, the Kirov signature is exquisite port de bras and feather-light ballon. It is Kirov delicacy versus Bolshoi verve. Both produce dancers of awesome technical acumen, but the difference is in the delivery.

It is always interesting to whom the masters give opening night: Rather than the company's more famous principal ballerinas, the honour fell to soloist Alina Somova, who joined the Kirov only in 2003, and who has, by far, the shortest biography (just seven lines) in the program. Remember the name. She is absolutely exquisite.

Somova is a blond beauty whose gorgeous arms and legs go on forever. She can toss off the fastest 32 fouettés (those famous third-act spins) while staying close to her mark. Her Odette floats in sorrow and her Odile is a ruthless siren. Her placement is consistent, and arms, legs, head and torso are positioned exactly. Her leaps are high and strong, her footwork impeccable. The back-arched curve of her body creates the most perfect bow shape (think of a Degas sculpture).

When one sees this Kirov production, and its mirroring of the original, it is with the stunning realization of just how little solo dancing goes to Prince Siegfried. (The 1895 danseur noble was Pavel Gerdt, who was 51, which might explain things.) More modern productions have beefed up the role, but Sergeyev has left the prince as a porter and bearer with a couple of third-act variations.

Principal dancer Igor Kolb did what he could with the role. He is a very, very good partner, and gave Somova the lifts and hand holds she needed to look good. He also demonstrated virtuoso, if not exciting, technique in his leaps and jumps. Where he is most impressive, however, is in his control. Every muscle obeys his command, and his turns, in particular, are marvellously executed. He can pull out of them at will and land on a dime. Kolb also broods well, and his restless melancholy was palpable.

Soloist Andrei Ivanov, as the Jester, represents the short, compact men born to play these small, bravura second bananas. Soloist Ilya Kuznetsov has the requisite dash and vigour that make his evil sorcerer Rothbart charismatic (despite the idiotic face makeup). Conductor Pavel Bubelnikov and the orchestra sounded just right.

Soloists Irina Golub, Ekaterina Osmolkina and Anton Korsakov pulled off the gruelling first act pas de trois with dazzlingly clean technique, and the rest of the large cast did just fine. There is so much depth in the Kirov ranks that there were virtually no repeats in any of the solo roles.

My advice to the Kirov is trash the production. And keep the dancing.

The Kirov Ballet continues at Ottawa's National Arts Centre through tomorrow.

http://teatr.newizv.ru/lenta/?IDLentaNews=985

Театральные новые известия
13:01 30.10.06

Мариинский театр завершил гастроли в Канаде "Лебединым озером"

Мариинский театр завершил гастроли в Канаде показом на сцене в Оттаве одного из лучших спектаклей классического наследия - "Лебединое озеро". Последние гастроли труппы в Канаде проходили 17 лет назад. В рамках гастролей театр дал 6 спектаклей и в понедельник завершает тур.

Как отметил в интервью ИТАР-ТАСС заведующий балетной труппой Мариинского театра Махар Вазиев, в столицу Канады "театр привез лучшие силы": на сцену "Саутэм-Холл" Национального центра искусств выходили Ульяна Лопаткина, Диана Вишнева, Алина Сомова и Виктория Терешкина. Мариинский театр "переживает период ренессанса", отметила в свою очередь продюсер танцевальных программ Национального центра искусств Кэти Леви. Этот балетный коллектив, по ее словам, "известен во всем мире отточенным мастерством исполнителей".

На исключительно высокий артистический уровень как солистов, так и кордебалета обратила внимание и одна из солисток Национального балета Канады Грета Ходжкинсон.

"Канадская театральная общественность очень долго ждала новой встречи с этими замечательными артистами, - отметил посол РФ в Канаде Георгий Мамедов. - И тем более мы им должны быть благодарны, что они такой подарок преподнесли в год председательства России в "восьмерке". Мариинский театр привез сюда "Лебединое озеро" - именно тот балет, который просила канадская публика".

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/revi ... itics_heds

Chicago Tribune
November 2, 2006

When Kirov's 'Swan Lake' takes flight, it could fly forever
By Sid Smith

The notion of "big" is built into the name of the Bolshoi Ballet, but when it comes to grand and glorious, the Kirov Ballet may well rank atop the world.

Absent from Chicago for 16 years, this magnificent company is back at the Auditorium Theatre with its immensely satisfying "Swan Lake," a ballet it virtually owns, despite many pretenders. It is a production large without being bloated, showy without being gimmicky, daredevil without sacrificing an iota of good taste. Fraught Wednesday with a blitz of acrobatic fireworks, the performances were simultaneously as subtle as the burnished autumn hues that color the costumes of its inviting opening act.

It also allowed us to see the extraordinary Diana Vishneva, a ballerina acclaimed around the globe, and now we know why. Her heartbreaking Odette manages striking form, birdlike delicacy and rapturous tragedy. She literally seems to be dancing for her life, falling into the arms of the prince as if she were dying.

As the black swan, Odette's evil twin, Vishneva proves a marvel of a technician, delivering all manner of extras, including breathtaking double fouettes in the role's showiest stretch. But most good black swans are great technicians. Vishneva cannily retains some of Odette's fluttering arms and supple wrists, some of her porcelain feminity. Sultry and wicked, she is something else rare in the role: stunningly beautiful in every expression, movement and limb.

Andrian Fadeev, though almost too lightweight to be the prince, nevertheless turns out to be a forceful, clean dancer, a little loud in his landings, but graced with more than his share of strength and command. But the real male star Wednesday was Andrei Ivanov as the Jester, a prominent role in the Kirov's version and a chance to see a true phenomen. His tours en l'air, those showy male turns of the leg, are the speediest and most ferocious I've ever seen.

This "Swan Lake" boasts the balletic equivalent of Hollywood's cast of thousands, deep in talent as well as plentiful in number. (More than 100 dancers make up the 203-member traveling troupe, which includes the terrific 66-piece orchestra.) Minor diversions in other productions (the Act One trio, the Neopolitan dance at the ball) are dynamite here, while the corps swans are satiny perfection.

"Swan Lake" plays through Sunday at the Auditorium, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.; 312-902-1500.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/w ... 03.article

Chicago Sun-Times
November 3, 2006
BY HEDY WEISS Dance Critic

Kirov enchants with artistry of 'Swan Lake'

Keep your eye on the corps. That is the key to the greatness of the fabled Kirov Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia. As anyone at Wednesday's opening night performance of "Swan Lake" at the Auditorium Theatre can attest, the gorgeous geometry of this work's superbly synchronized female dancers easily commands your gaze.

With every flap and flutter of a feathery arm, every sudden twist of a long neck, every perfectly angled leg extension, every exquisitely curved back, there is the sense of a great spectral force at work. And in the subtly panicked and protective gathering of the large flock of swans who populate this ballet, there is a true sense of painful captivity.

The dancers, so pristine in their movements and so meticulous in their majestic formations, are acutely aware of each other at every moment. In turn, the audience becomes equally attuned to the enchantment and mystery they conjure as they circle the stage. Listen to the excited patter of their pointe shoes accenting Tchaikovsky's gilded score (played with great clarity, delicacy and surprising freshness by the vast Kirov Orchestra, conducted by Pavel Bubelnikov). Hear the airy pouf of their costumes as they dart into rapid motion. Wonder at their utter stillness as they fill the stage with potential energy.

In most ballet companies, the corps is a supporting actor. With the Kirov -- where dancers are selected in childhood for their ideal proportions, and where their training creates a further uniformity of physique and style -- the corps is the troupe's very essence. And this "Swan Lake" showcases it to glorious effect.

Devised in the 19th century and revised in 1950, the Kirov "Swan Lake" is grand in every way, and gorgeous to look at. Igor Ivanov's sets shift between a beautifully painted autumnal scene and (for the black swan scene) a grandly architectural court interior. Galina Solovieva's diaphanous costumes move in a way that suggests the Kirov seamstresses possess magic tricks.
Best of all, from the moment the curtain rises, there is dancing; most of the mime that slows down such story ballets and can seem so antiquated has been removed. Instead, the court jester (danced with brilliance and great wit by Andrei Ivanov, a small, heavily muscled dancer with gyroscopic turns, fabulous jumps and a special gift for connecting with the audience) leads the way. His black-and-white costume is instantly emblematic of the duality at the center of the story -- the tale of Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with a tormented woman trapped in the body of a white swan, and who is then seduced by her evil double, Odile, the black swan.

Various casts will dance the principal roles through Sunday, but on Wednesday, the chosen pair was the sleek, dark-eyed, raven-haired Diana Vishneva and the slender, almost delicate Andrian Fadeev, notable for his shock of blond hair.

A dancer of restraint, with superb balance and a beautifully arched upper body, Vishneva was a restrained, emotionally trapped Odette, but she came to flashy life as Odile, with thrilling split lifts and fleet footwork. Fadeev has a lovely line and is an elegant partner, though he seemed exhausted in the final moments and botched a lift. But there was no particular chemistry visible between these two dancers.

The choreography for Rothbart (danced by Ilya Kuznetsov) is less than inspired, although this evil sorcerer's taunting lifts of the trapped Odette were quite effective.

Irina Golub, Ekaterina Osmolkina and Anton Korsakov were the outstanding trio of "the Prince's friends" in the first act. The famous synchronized pas de quatre for four swans was danced perfectly if a bit joylessly. Polina Rassadina was a standout as a sinewy Spanish dancer, and the other "national" dances -- Neapolitan and Hungarian, plus a mazurka -- were danced with style and spice. Landings were invariably solid; placement was ideal. If you wish to glide with the swans -- whether for the first time or the 50th -- the Kirov is the flock of choice.

One last note: The Kirov's visit (its first here in 16 years) has arrived on the heels of the Joffrey Ballet's "Cinderella" and New York City Ballet's first visit in more than 25 years. In addition, Russia's Eifman Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey all are set for engagements in the coming months. So far, audiences have been huge. Could the City of Big Shoulders be turning into Ballet Central?

hweiss@suntimes.com

http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid27196.aspx

The Phoenix
11/10/2006 12:17:22 PM

Water music

The Kirov’s Swan Lake
By: JEFFREY GANTZ


EYE OF THE STORM: Uliana Lopatkina as Odette.

Swan Lake is ballet’s ultimate act of yearning. For just an instant, that opening F-sharp from the oboe hovers, between B major and B minor, flock and flight, castle and forest, sex and love, black and white. It’s a ballet for women who aren’t quite women and for men who kill the thing they love. Like Béla Bartók’s opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, which the BSO performed last night at Symphony Hall, it has a lake of tears, and like Bluebeard it’s music in a maze, with a protagonist poised between world and dream. Bartók maintains the mystery, and the agony, to the very end (the last word in the opera is “darkness”), Judith stranded between dream and nightmare. Tchaikovsky tries for glory, turning minor into major as Siegfried overcomes Rothbart, but it’s a mirage, like the end of his Fifth Symphony a decade later. The challenge for the dancers is to keep the tears flowing, to keep the lake from freezing over and a wedding party from processing over it.
The Swan Lake that the Kirov Ballet and Orchestra have brought to the Wang Theatre this weekend is in essence the one they presented at Lincoln Center in July of 2002. It’s shaped, like the Boston Ballet edition of the 1990s, by former Kirov artistic director Konstantin Sergeyev, but where Boston’s Swan Lake was fairy-tale kaleidoscopic and comforting, the Kirov’s is muted, autumnal, the huge orange-leaved birches of the first act love going up in flames. The park in front of his mother’s castle, where Siegfried is celebrating his birthday, is the point of his initial breakout; acts two and four offer the forest as crypt, the freedom of Juliet’s tomb. Siegfried has his Jester (dropped from the 2004 Boston production), the Falstaff to his Prince Hal, a stay against nubile princesses but not against swans; when he runs off into the forest at the end of act one and act three, the Jester can’t follow. Still, they’re birds of a feather, Siegfried in his black doublet and white tights, the Jester halved in black and white. For the last two acts, Siegfried is all-white against Odile’s world black and Odette’s dream white; Odile might as well be Antonina Milyukova, the woman with whom Tchaikovsky entered into what he imagined would be a “white marriage” in 1877, just months after Swan Lake’s premiere.

The opening-night Odette/Odile and Siegfried (they’ll dance again on Sunday) were Uliana Lopatkina, last seen here in 2003 with the Kirov as a firebird of a Sheherazade, and Igor Zelensky, who at age 19 guested as Siegfried opposite Carla Stallings in the 1992 Boston Ballet Swan Lake. He remains a recessive, almost monastic, prince, more Hamlet than Hal, blond verging on bland. At the park he’s a fish out of water, his eyes barely kindling when he sees the crossbow his mother is giving him; he knows it’s the key to his destiny, he just doesn’t know how. Only when he arrives at Swan Lake does he realize that crossbows can’t unlock croisés, and from that point on he and Lopatkina move as in a dream, filling out conductor Mikhail Sinkevich’s adagissimo tempo as if it were a pillow they were stuffing with down. But he’s too white for Lopatkina’s Odile; that and his very modest variation (notable only for the kinetic kick of his forward leg in his manège) knock the stuffing out of the third act, and his containment continues to test her in the fourth.

Lopatkina, who emerged as a Kirov star in 1995, is an eye-of-the-storm Odette, all calm convent center, her connection with Siegfried beyond love or passion, a communion of souls that she signals with rapt arms, a back attitude that she must have started practicing in the womb, and a catlike self-possession; she saves her agitation for Rothbart, and even then she’s serene in Siegfried’s spell. Her Odile is simply Odette with sex, Eve with the apple, but Zelensky doesn’t bite, and since unlike many Odiles Lopatkina doesn’t play to the audience, she has no audience. Her fouettés suffer, lagging; her final diagonal run toward Siegfried goes nowhere. The act-ending hysteria is all in the orchestra; there’s nothing happening on stage.

When I saw Andrey Ivanov’s Jester in New York, I noted only his inhumanly fast tours à la seconde; he seemed to have no wit and only modest jumps. Here he’s Siegfried’s frat-boy alter ego, with a healthy interest in both books and girls: the fool as prince, and why not? The tours remain inhuman, the jumps modest. Rothbart, like the Jester, is designed not to obtrude on the principals and the corps; Ilya Kuznetsov has almost nothing to do, but he’d look better doing it in basic black (Siegfried’s id?) than in his bizarre owl outfit. Irina Golub, Ekaterina Osmolkina, and Anton Korsakov were the leggy trio who made up the first-act pas de trois last night, Golub putting exclamation points all over her pointe work. The female corps are darting salmon and blushing roses in the first act, milkweed soft and swift in the pas emboîté and arabesque sautés of their swan entrance in the second, a template for Boston Ballet beyond even what the Royal presented here in its 2001 Swan Lake.