Viktoria Tereshkina. Click for more photos.
The Mariinsky Ballet opened its BAM run Thursday, performing Swan Lake on the 120th anniversary of the St. Petersburg premier of the Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa work. The current is the 1950 Konstantin Sergeyev Soviet-era version, noted for a happy ending.
Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov were the leads. I was greatly impressed by their work as ABT guest artists in La Bayadère last May, a Balletfocus highlight of 2014. Viktoria’s balances were beyond belief. In the first act in sous-sus position, she raised her leg to passé and, while still on pointe, extended to arabesque and held it momentarily. Not once but twice. Vladimir had a commanding stage presence with ample charisma as he portrayed Solar. His solos were powerful and technically clean.
Expecting a repeat spectacular performance, I was a bit disappointed as they were merely…very good. Viktoria has a perfect body for the role with long limbs and neck but she was a bit subdued as Odette. The steps were there, but something was missing in her solo, which ended with tepid applause. She perked up as the animated, coquettish Odile, seducing the Prince and tricking him into falling in love, breaking his vow to Odette. Vladimir gave a nice introspective Act I solo with slow controlled turns and nice extensions as he contemplated his future bride.
The Act II pas de deux was generally good but had a few rough edges. The two struggled in one supported turn section and in the solos, both had a bit of a stumble out of pirouettes. Otherwise, Viktoria was solid on her fouette turns (a mix of single and double turns) and did a nice quadruple pirouette with arms overhead (fifth position) in another part.
Vladimir is a great leaper, with high jetes, particularly in attitude. His second solo had nice consecutive double tours. In the final solo, he avoided the traditional turns in second, opting for a coupe grande jete ménage (split jumps in a circle) with double sauté de basques. I think he is a better jumper than a turner, which explains the non-traditional innovation.
Andrei Yermakov as the nasty Rothbart. Click for more photos.
The production features a Joker that darts in and out of the action. Vladislav Shumakov was great in this role with high leaps (generally stylized sauté de basques) and nice turns. I enjoyed Andrei Yermakov as Rothbart; in the lake scenes, he is a black-winged creature while in the ballroom scene, he is a helmeted long-haired human. He displayed a number of dramatic high bird-like leaps in critical segments of the action. After the Prince ripped off one of his wings in the final lakeside scene, he writhed on the ground like a fish out of water, ending his spell over Odette, bringing her back to life. His costumes and makeup were very creative. The Prince’s friends (Yana Selina, Nadezhda Batoeva, Filipp Stepin) were graceful, dancing in unison in the pas de trois. Russian ballet features great corps work, which was on display Thursday, although I couldn’t fully enjoy as I was sitting near the front and couldn’t view the patterns.
Like other Russian ballet companies, the Mariinsky loves curtain calls. The dancers take curtain calls after every act including after Scene I leading into the lake scene. Not my favorite feature. In the final bows, the audience gave the company a rousing ovation with Viktoria, Vladimir, and Artistic and General Director Valery Gergiev taking three curtain calls (see my post below for photo).
The ABT version is similar to the Mariinsky’s up to the final lakeside scene. Exceptions are the altar ego green lizard/purple Rothbart in ABT (played by two dancers) versus the bird creature/long-haired man played by one dancer for the Mariinsky. The ABT version features Benno as the Prince Siegfried’s friend while Mariinsky employs the Jester. The major difference is the treatment of the last lakeside scene. ABT has it at the end of the second act after the ballroom in abbreviated form. Mariinsky uses the expanded version, lasting approximately 40 minutes after the second intermission. The ABT version runs 2 hours 23 minutes while the Mariinsky Swan Lake runs 3 hours 10 minutes.
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New York Times dance critic Alistair Macaulay doesn’t like the Mariinsky version: “How can a production as visually beautiful and stylish as the Mariinsky Ballet’s Swan Lake be so unmoving?”
Is there a Swan Lake version that he does like? He hates the ABT and Bolshoi versions, and he dislikes the NYCB version only slightly less. It would be interesting to know what he considers as a good Swan Lake version.
“The ABT version is similar to the Mariinsky’s up to the final lakeside scene”
ABT has the stupid bird puppet scene at the beginning. The Kirov version, which I saw the same night as you, goes on and on and on and on and on.
McCauley ? He loved the RDB at Joyce which nearly put me to sleep it was so dull. I can’t go by that guy and don’t care what he likes.