For devoted Kirov watchers here’s a report on the company’s recent visit to Japan...

When: 18 Nov-10 Dec
Where: They visited 8 cities in mainland Japan and gave 19 performances (among them 10 were in Tokyo)
What was shown: Bayadere; Nutcracker; Swan Lake; Sleeping Beauty (the revival version by S. Vikharev); All Star Gala; Balanchine Gala.
Ticket price: For Tokyo performances it ranged between approx. £30 to £120(!)

(Here follows my quick impressions; please note I only saw three perfomances in the 1st/2nd week of the tour - Swan Lake, All Star Gala and Balanchine Gala.)

HIGHS

Uliana Lopatkina made a successful debut in the country in the full lengths ballet roles, dancing SL, Bayaderka and 2nd movement in Symphony in C. Before the tour began she had been heavily publicised as the one to watch and drew most of attentions. The expectations were not betrayed, it seemed; from what I read in Japanese ballet fan sites on the net (there are quite a few!), she left the strongest impressions on many connoisseur balletgoers.

Kirov’s Balanchine. By far the best performance of the three I saw, and it justly received lavish reviews. ‘Symphony in C’ showed Kirov at it’s best I thought; a rare combination of technical strength and aesthetic gifts were shared with dancers at all levels. Together they became an invincible force and never failed to impress - simply amazing. As in the case elsewhere Kirov didn’t do Balanchine pieces in Japan as frequently as fans wished them to. Let’s hope the Trust would loose the grip a bit so Kirov could bring ‘Jewels’ to the country in the foreseeable future...

For the first time Japanese ballet fans had chances to see three of Kirov’s current front women - Lopatkina, Vishneva & Zakharova - in the same run. Many seemed to get tremendous pleasure out of watching them and appreciate that they are all unique in their own right but do have something in common - exceptional talent and brightest future!

LOWS

All Star Gala. Dissappointingly it turned rather a low-key event. As the evening proceeded that old feeling I had got while viewing their R&J this summer came back; that even the mighty Kirov could go wrong (and this bad!). If you’d look out for the details then you could get a few positives; but the entire picture lacked both excitement and sophistication. A few exceptions aside quality of the performance shown simply didn’t match the ridiculous ticket prices… Lack of presence by senior principals turned very, very costly (Asylmuratova, Ayupova and possibly Makhalina all pulled off from the entire run at the last minute).

Poor Attendance. Those of you who still have a vivid memory on the hysteria over securing a place for Kirov’s summer season at ROH may not believe this, but it appeared in this Japan tour they never performed before a capacity crowd…(I’m talking about Tokyo performances only). For instance, of the three performances I went, average attendance rate was somewhere between 75-85% (FYI the capacity for Orchard Hall, their Tokyo venue, is 2,150). My guess for reasons behind this were: The country’s economic state - they still to overcome the prolonged recession. For the past few years public sentiment for spending, in general, has been on the lower side in decades; Competition - two major home companies run their shows at the same period in Tokyo area. In addition to the home grown talents the one had C. Acosta and A. Antonicheva (of Bolshoi) as guests; the other supreme V. Malakhov. Also one keen Kirov-watcher pointed out that Japanese balletgoers might tend to take their visit for granted; in the recent years the company regularly visited Japan though the repertoire they brought were not as versatile as this tour.

Apparently the biggest obstacle of all, however, was sky-high ticket prices. (Note that Kirov is not an exception; if my memory serves me right ticket prices for RB and POB were even slightly higher!) It’s really a shame as I know it would have been a sellout at more affordable prices. Balletgoers do moan over the situation, but it appears people in the industry as well as authorities are rarely criticised for being elitist in Japan (at least for that very reason)!

PERFORMANCES I SAW...

21 Nov "Swan Lake"
Odette/Odile: Uliana Lopatkina
Prince Siegfried: Igor Zelensky
Pas de Trois: Elvira Tarassova; Irina Zhelonkina; Anton Korsakov
Rothbard: Ilya Kuznetsov

What a difference a ballerina can make - it was hard to believe that this was the same production of SL by the same company who had dissappointed quite a few of London audience this summer. Lopatkina proved that this most enduring ballet of all time in essence requires nothing but one element: dominating and pulling power of a prima ballerina. This ballet has to be a one-woman-show from the beginning to the end, how a ballerina transfixes us is all that matters. Without doubt Lopatkina succeeded in that aspect. Despite burdened with a few negative factors - thunderous clatter corps’ pointe shoes caused in the white scene; uninspiring job by the orchestra - she took a total command and managed to create illusions quintessence to this ballet.

Personally I found her more convincing and irresistible as Odile this evening. So strong were her stage presence and charisma; in fact once she entered the stage you could barely take eyes off her thus ended up forgetting all the other things displayed on stage. So long were her limbs; they were there to serve as effective tools making dynamic yet elegant movements possible; the finest moment came when she brought out sensuality, a kind true to the ravishing music, with this gift. Throughout the pdd she maintained a graceful style, which somehow made me believe, belonged to the world diminished a century or so ago. (Curiously even the fouette was done in the grand manner; she turned remarkably slow for today’s standard. I’m not too sure if she did it deliberately, or it was her norm.)

Her Odette was not as convincing as Odile - indeed to the eyes of an ‘obssessed’ fan this could not be counted as one of her best. (Be alarmed - I tend to expect too much from her in White Ballets...) With the absolute swan-like physique and exquisite line, creating illusions of the trapped swan princess should never be a hard task for her. In fact she was an outstanding swan whatever measure you take - it gave me a sheer joy to see serenity and lyricism she brought to the ballet. Still it felt something was missing, and I thought it was spirituality, that rare quality which makes her so special among other great dancers. She is an artist who, when captured by inspiration, can transform herself into an almost supernatural being and create illusions which clearly belong to somewhere out-of-this world. That was the illusions I earnestly wanted to see. (I must feel ashamed of being this greedy fan...! FYI the audience looked totally enchanted and excited at the arrival of a new star...)

On other dancers: It was a pleasant surprise to see Zelensky could offer more than just secure dancing. Indeed this evening he acted very well; the expressions on his face -melancholy; admiration; fear; sorrow - was something I had never seen before! The trio who had delighted us London audience this summer in Act I pdt brightened up the stage yet again. Irina Zhelonkina was my particular favourite; a dancer of pure classical style with very delicate and feather-like movement. I wondered why she had not been given bigger roles...

The Queen’s presence should be taken seriously in SL I think. With the lack of father-figure the relationship between Siegfried and his mother can add a flavour of psychological drama. In this respect Alexandra Gronskaya (a tall, dark, beautiful dancer) didn’t impress much; she was there, looked totally irrelevant to what was happening around her, no drama came through from her miming. I couldn’t help but reminisce another Queen I had seen a week before with RB - how good she was. Elisabeth McGorian, who gave the role a life with compassionate interpretations and aristocratic beauty, was simply magnificent.

That’s it for now... I may post Part 2 of the report later...