Kirov ‘Chopiniana’ reviews Kirov ‘Scheherazade’ reviews Kirov ‘Firebird’ reviews Zhelonkina in reviews Ruzimatov in reviews all Kirov reviews

On the following night, Irina Zhelonkina was splendid as the Mazurka ballerina with her beauty in adagio. Daria Pavlenko, a fine classical dancer who has delighted us this season as the Lilac Fairy and Princess Florine as well as the "Diamonds" ballerina, danced expressively in the Prelude. The ending when she was on pointe with her upper back facing us was most memorable.

In "Scheherazade" Diana Vishneva was ravishinly beautiful as Zobeide. The exotic Farouk Ruzimatov still made a powerful impact as the Golden Slave. This magnetic partnership more than made up for the longueurs in this Fokine ballet which was reconstructed by Andris Liepa and Isabelle Fokine. Leon Bakst's original sets and costumes were reproduced.

The Kirov's production of "The Firebird" was also reconstructed by Liepa and Isabelle Fokine. I however preferred Natalia Gontcharova's sumptuous sets for the Royal Ballet's production to Alexander Golovin's for this Kirov production, especially the large onion domes in the final tableau of the Royal Ballet's production. Nevertheless the Kirov character dancers did the mime more vividly and conveyed more the Russian flavour of this ballet.

Irma Nioradze's Firebird was quite a complex interpretation which clearly contrasted her vulnerable side with her fiery temperment. Ilya Kuznetsov, the most hard working dancer who seemed to be on nearly every night this season, played Ivan Tsarevich with a romantic ardour.