Performance reviewed: 6 August
This Bolshoi season in London marks the 50th Anniversary of their first tour to be presented by Victor Hochhauser: not, it must be said, the company’s first auspicious visit to the UK, which happened seven years’ earlier, in 1956. By coincidence, this season also represents the 50th Anniversary of the first production of The Sleeping Beauty made for the Bolshoi by Yuri Grigorovich, which was to be the first of his five choreographic interpretations of this classic ballet.
His latest version, premiered in November 2011, is much reduced, shrink-wrapping the action into two acts by truncating anything that is not part of what Grigorovich describes as “an anthology of classical dance” to the barest minimum. This, of course, means decimating the mime, which is so beloved by balletomanes here in the UK and forms such a core element in the interpretations danced by The Royal Ballet (a legacy of the original dance notations smuggled out of Russia at the time of the Revolution). One consequence is that at least 15 minutes is cut out of the Prologue representing Princess Aurora’s christening and we are left to imagine – amongst other things – that The Lilac Fairy steps in to commute the wicked Carabosse’s prophecy of Aurora’s death-by-spindle-prick to a hundred years of sleep. I guess that Grigorovich has just assumed that Russians know all this stuff!
Now aged 86, Grigorovich seems to have tapped into the demands of the social media age. His latest Beauty is capsuled into neat bite-sized chunks of dance – his “anthology” – which appear perfect for minds attuned to receiving information in 140 characters or less. He has created The Sleeping Beauty for the Twitter age. And, although I might bemoan the loss of tradition as in the authenticity of our British legacy, I confess that his production works at every level, speeding through wave after wave of beautiful classical dance with little in-between. One essential ingredient is the sumptuous set design by Ezio Frigerio, with an imposing row of twisted-rope style turquoise and gilt columns dominating an impressive palatial setting overlooking the sea, although when the stage was full of dancers it seemed occasionally that there was insufficient space for them to move freely. Frigerio’s ornate set was suitably enhanced by Franca Squarciapino’s costumes designed to represent the two eras of the narrative, before and after Aurora’s century of slumber.
The cast for this second performance was also of extraordinary quality. Svetlana Zakharova was bred for the role of Aurora, her superb control of balance with exquisite line, especially in arabesque, and the delicate radiance of her port de bras are ideally suited to the extreme test posed by the Rose Adage, which she accomplished with confident, elegant authority. Zakharova convinced us to believe in a young princess half her age (she is 34) but enjoying all the attendant maturity and skill of Russia’s prima ballerina. The smoothness of her performance was facilitated in part by the attentive partnering of David Hallberg, that unique (and previously unimaginable) example of an American principal at the Bolshoi. Hallberg is the princeliest of dancers, oozing nobility in the consistency of his bearing, the elegance of his line and a confident – even, haughty – countenance. He jumps high, but with dignified control, and stretches long limbs into full extensions that unerringly find the perfect line. He is a great dancer but his extra strength lies in presenting his partner in the best of all possible lights.
The emerging wunderkind of the Bolshoi is Olga Smirnova, just 21 and already shaking up the established hierarchy. One would usually assume that the role of the Lilac Fairy might be taken by a mature dancer, since this fairy has been around as long as the evil Carabosse, but Smirnova pulls in the opposite age-belief direction to her rival, Zakharova, and we might assume that she has been dancing the Lilac Fairy forever, such is her command and projection. She will, no doubt, be an Aurora before long (as well as a principal dancer) and another Aurora-in-waiting has to be Anastasia Stashkevich who has impressed me throughout this season to date in a variety of soloist roles. Here she gave a splendid, flowing account of Princess Florine in the Bluebird pas de deux (accompanied by a bouncing Artem Ovcharenko). Igor Tsvirko played Carabosse with grotesque, macabrely comic exaggeration (just as it should be) although I felt that the evil fairy’s retinue was rather uninspiring and “her” chariot was apparently a child’s go-kart! Despite the excellent set, some of the props were surprisingly ordinary: it was especially disappointing to see the golden thrones, apparently dining chairs from an episode of The Only Way is Essex, clumsily carted on and off by a couple of footmen! These little details matter.
I enjoyed the five fairy solos, especially the Breadcrumb solo of Generosity by Daria Bochkova (the corps de ballet dancer who temporarily stepped in for the injured Maria Alexandrova at the La Bayadère opening) and Svetlana Pavlova’s Twittering Canary solo of Playfulness. Later, in the finale and changed into Little Red Riding Hood, Pavlova thoughtfully prevented a possible accident by sweeping up a fallen hat from the front of the stage. In a tour peppered with some unfortunate mishaps, the prospect of Zakharova slipping on a hat would have been the final straw.
Once again, however, I can’t understand why the pointe shoes of the lead dancers are noiseless but those of the supporting soloists seem to squeak as if frightened mice are being pursued by the White Cat (a suitably charming cameo by Victoria Litvinova). Is it the roisin they are using? It really is a very disconcerting sound but regretfully it did little to impact on my enjoyment of Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score because I don’t recall hearing a duller interpretation (which is odd given how much I have loved the music of the earlier works in this season).
One wonders how sensible it is for understanding the diversity and range of the Bolshoi repertoire to have the first three offerings of this tour as the latest choreographic productions from the mind of the same octogenarian former-director. It seems to be a decision lacking in creative adventure? But I have to say that both Grigorovich’s new attempts to reimagine The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadère are modernisations that retain all the respect for the traditions of these great ballets yet repackage them in a winning format more suitable for the modern age.
The Bolshoi Ballet are at the Royal Opera House until 17 August – return tickets only
www.roh.org.uk
Graham Watts writes for londondance.com, Dance Tabs, Dancing Times and other magazines and websites in Europe, Japan and the USA. He is Chairman of the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle in the UK.
Photos: John Ross