Background
A new old production - a revival of the 1900 production (the last one overseen by the ballet's creator Petipa), unveiled only last year in St Petersburg and making its UK debut. They believed in total theatrical immersion back then - it's nearly 4 hours long.
Plot
Set in India. A rich young nobleman (Solor) is in love with a temple dancer or Bayadere (Nikiya) but promised to the Raja's daughter (Gamzatti). Gamzatti wants her man and kills Nikiya (with a snake and basket of flowers!) leaving the way clear for the marriage to go ahead but an act of God, in the form of an earthquake, kills everybody mid-service. Don't mess with temple dancers is the motto. Note that there is no Bronze Idol in this version (a shame).
Set and Costumes
Sumptuous period design and a feast for the eyes. Richly detailed and made the more magnificent by the numbers involved. Complete with large elephant, tiger and parrots that looked more convincing than in many productions. Goodness - they even perched vertically when stationary, rather then at the disturbing angles one often sees.
Choreography and Drama
A pageant and spectacular above all else - the grand celebration in Act 2 is particularly impressive with wave after wave of dancers coming in. There is less dancing than normal, and some of it is moved around, but that's authenticity for you. Amidst all this the story is there but I didn't feel so connected with the characters as I normally would, though this is perhaps down to the dancers.
Dancers
The undoubted triumph of the night were the corps girls in the Kingdom of the Shades. There were 32 (normally 24) and they were what you hope of the Kirov - perfection. It was worth the 4 hours just for them.
The Kingdom of the Shades scene from La Bayadere
© John Ross
The lead roles impressed me less. They were all strong on technique but the girls particularly (Daria Pavlenko as Nikiya and Elvira Tarasova as Gamzatti) didn't fully convince me dramatically and have some way to go before they are promoted to Principal. Andrian Fadeyev (Solor) has prodigious and smooth talent - so light of foot - and enthralled for that.
Vladimir Ponomarev as the High Brahmin was a sad disappointment and his mime/acting at the end of Act 1, when he swears vengeance on Nikiya for rejecting his advances came over with all the menace of Inspector Clouseau in a Pink Panther film. And sad to say the young UK dancers, from many different schools, looked very underreheased in their party pieces. However four soloists in the last act pleased me very much and made it really sparkle. Yana Serebryakova, Yana Selina, Daria Sukhorukova and Tatiana Tkachenko were incredibly well rehearsed, well matched and so did everything as one. We just don't see this perfection normally. Oh to couple RB dramatic nous to Kirov technique.
Sum-up
A different take on a ripping yarn, it was the corps and soloist girls that carried the opening night and made the 4 hours zip by. However newer Bayadere productions will not be worried by this reconstruction.
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