Kirov ‘Jewels’ reviews all ‘Jewels’ reviews all Kirov reviews

This conviction was missing from Emeralds, the opening act of Jewels. Like Diamonds, Emeralds is located in a nineteenth century ‘ballet land’ of classical symmetries and relationships. Balanchine set Emeralds to snatches of several scores by Faure, and chose Violette Verdy, who trained at the Paris Opera, for the opening cast. While Janna Ayupova danced the Verdy role last night, it was the second ballerina, Veronika Part, who most nearly made the ballet come alive. Emeralds seriously undermines the case for giving Jewels as a full-length work. It is a poor first act, lacks the choreographic edge of all that is to follow and is an oddly soulless essay in classicism. I felt the cast did not believe in it and the performance, and, in particular, the pas-de-trois, lacked focus.

But then the Kirov stormed through Rubies, the second act, with a sassiness that would have not disgraced NYCB. We were back in familiar Balanchine territory with the two female leads Nioradze and Gumerova quite simply superb in the parts originally written for Patricia McBride and Patricia Neary (anyone who saw Pat Neary in action at the Linbury in April won’t have to guess at how brittle a relationship that must have been!). The score was late Stravinsky, his Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, played with verve by Ludmilla Sveshnikova and the Kirov Orchestra. The male corps, more a Broadway chorus-line, danced full out in a blood-red performance that did not hesitate to scale the excesses of an evening at Radio City Music Hall or a honky-tonk western musical. Edward Villella, who danced in the first cast, once asked Balanchine what Rubies was about. Back came the answer “about twenty minutes”. While Balanchine always insisted on an absence of story, I think the late night movies on TV may have wormed their way deep into his imagination.