Glum
Gala
An
Evening with the Kirov - "Kirov Spectacular" #2
The Kirov Ballet, Opera and Orchestra of the Maryinsky Theater
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 19, 2005
by
George Jackson
copyright
© 2005 by George
Jackson
The same program with a few differences left the same dour impression
I had the first night. There was some alternate casting, a perceptible
polishing by one pair of dancers, and one instance of a change in the
conducting. Spectaculars, specials and gala performances ought to glitter!
Not everything in the repertory that's worthwhile can do that when extracted
from its context. Moreover the Russian touch, heartfelt yet heavy, was
apparent. Could one expect otherwise? The Kirov/Maryinsky is a very Russian
company.
Five of the program's eight items dealt with sad topics—death, deception,
rejection, separation. Two of the three that didn't were brief. Mikhail
Glinka's overture to the opera "Russlan and Ludmilla" is upbeat
and the Kirov Orchestra sounded strong and colorful. Valery Gergiev's
conducting took the score at a fast clip but also inflated it a little,
which diminishes its ballon. The other short, untragic item was the pas
de deux from "Le Corsaire" in Peter Gusev's staging based on
Marius Petipa's choreography. Two of the company's youngest featured dancers,
Alina Somova and Leonid Sarafanov, came out determined on this second
occasion to erase the mistakes they had made the night before. Their adagio
began smooth as silk. It was a joy to see two fresh, elongate bodies so
polished. Came time for the lift in which she had slipped from his support
the first night and again it was bungled. For this round Sarafanov couldn't
get Somova much off the ground at all. The pair obviously had to prove
itself in the rest of the number. He was not just impressive quantitatively
but, as in his opening passages this evening, tried to imbue each step
and transition with texture. She was much more in control of the diverse
turns she had tackled insecurely the first night. The audience gave them
a good hand. Why, one wonders, hadn't they just cut the bothersome lift?
Apparently, that's not the Kirov way of solving a problem.
George Balanchine's "Rubies" was made to sparkle and the Kirov
does give it a modicum of flash. Irina Golub and Anton Korsakov as the
lead couple seemed to be having fun and yet their dancing had greater
dignity than the more stellar but daft performances of Diana Vishneva
and Sarafanov the night before. Korsakov, not as lightweight as Sarafanov,
looked like a boxer in training, very much as the role's creator, Edward
Villella, had. Sofia Gumerova as the singles girl was more of a character
the second night than the first. I don't believe the corps de ballet has
decided how much it should just "do the steps" and how much
it should comment on them.
The other Balanchine work, "La Valse", one of the sad pieces,
can yet sweep the audience up in its pulse. Very right on both nights
was the trio of women known as "the Fates": Alexandra Iosifidi,
Elena Androsova and Yekaterina Kondaurova. The expectation of pleasure
and sense of danger they and the other dancers in vignette roles conveyed
was not overdone. That this jewel of a ballet didn't glint, that one didn't
grow dizzy, was due to Ulyana Lopatkina in the leading role. As the debutante
seduced by death, Lopatkina moved sumptuously, too much so at the start.
She entered in white but her features were sad already, and in her steps
there was a reluctance to lilt lightly and sway in 3/4 time. She was doomed
before Death (Soslan Kulaev) appeared and so we didn't protest her fate—especially
the second night when Gergiev's heavier conducting only emphasized the
dramatic excess. As "The Dying Swan" of Michel Fokine, Lopatkina
was aptly doomed from the start. She performs this solo musically, tastefully
but hasn't she danced it too often in Washington?
The Black Swan pas de deux (Konstantin Sergeyev after Petipa) as danced
by Gumerova and Igor Zelenszky was a duel. He was forcing her to be something
she wasn't and she was intent on distracting him from the truth. They
dance-acted most convincingly but did not provide technical display for
its own sake. Gumerova's supple torso flowed remarkably yet her strong
legwork didn't strike sparks. And, Zelensky's plush landings that should
have flowered into arabesques were cut off by the conductor's tempi.
The scenes from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's operas "The Czar's Bride"
and "Sadko", and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades"
had the effect of illustrations cut out of bound books. "Sadko",
the final item on the program, was so long and puzzling that the audience
fidgeted.
Volume
3, No. 4
January 24, 2005
www.danceviewtimes.com
Copyright
©2005 by George Jackson
|
|
Writers |
Mindy
Aloff
Dale Brauner
Mary Cargill
Christopher Correa
Clare Croft
Nancy Dalva
Rita Felciano
Marc Haegeman
George Jackson
Gia Kourlas
Alan M. Kriegsman
Sali Ann Kriegsman
Sandi Kurtz
Alexander Meinertz
Tehreema Mitha
Gay Morris
Ann Murphy
Paul Parish
John Percival
Tom Phillips
Susan Reiter
Jane Simpson
Alexandra Tomalonis (Editor)
Lisa Traiger
Meital Waibsnaider
Kathrine Sorley Walker
Leigh Witchel
|
|
DanceView |
The Autumn Issue
of DanceView is OUT! (Our subscription link
is working again, so it's easy to subscribe on line!)
Robert
Greskovic reviews two new DVDs of Fonteyn dancing "Sleeping
Beauty" and "Cinderella"
Mary
Cargill on last summer's Ashton Celebration
Profile
of Gililian Murphy, reviews of the ABT Spring season, springtime
in Paris, reports from London and San Francisco
DanceView
is available by subscription ONLY. Don't miss it. It's a good
read. Black and white, 48 pages, no ads. Subscribe
today!
DanceView
is published quarterly (January, April, July and October)
in Washington, D.C. Address all correspondence to:
DanceView
P.O. Box 34435
Washington, D.C. 20043
|
|
|