Kirov 'Swan Lake' reviews 'Swan Lake' reviews Sologub in reviews Kolb in reviews recent Kirov reviews more Sim reviews

I haven't organized my thoughts into any kind of cohesive order, so I'll just type them as they come out!

I will start with Act 1, which I found a bit cold. It was saved by two dancers: Irina Golub in the pdt, and Ivanov as the jester. He has great presence on stage for a little fellow, a cheeky face and character and my goodness....what spins! 0-60 in two seconds! I've never seen anything like it, and he got the biggest roar of the evening. He also did some amazing jumps, at one point seeming to hang in the air, a la Nijinsky. The pdt was disappointing, largely because Vassily Scherbakov didn't seem up to much. Not much elevation to his jumps, and no real connection with his two ballerinas...of whom Irina Golub stands out a mile...she is a lovely dancer with beautiful long limbs and a graceful, fluid style. I wish I could see more of her.

Enter Siegfried, Igor Kolb. As far as I'm concerned, he could have exited immediately, for all he added to the evening. I am not denigrating his technical ability; Siegfried is not the best role for a danseur to demonstrate that. Because of that, however, there needs to be something more in order for the role to be believable, and here there was nothing. His facial expression remained the same throughout the whole four acts, so whether it was the initial sighting of Odette (you'd think that at least some surprise might register if you're about to shoot a swan for your dinner and it turns into a lovely girl!), his love for her, his broodiness and total disinterest when asked to choose a bride, his devastation at his betrayal of Odette or his triumph when he kills Von Rothbart....at all these moments of the ballet his face was exactly the same: mouth hanging open with a slightly bemused expression, almost as if he wasn't sure what he was doing there. I found myself thinking back to the early 80s when I used to see Dowell and Wall in the role, and how much more they brought to it than just presenting the ballerina and doing the pdd from Act 3. I was also comparing it to to Kobborg's performance a few months ago...and there is no comparison. Whatever tragic role he plays, be it Des Grieux, Siegfried, Albrecht or Romeo, I always feel at the end of his performances like a knife has been put through my heart and twisted round, which is what tragedy should do. When this ability to convey the human soul is lacking in these roles, as it was last night, you realize how important such ability is to enhance the performance and make you feel something. I found myself not caring whether Siegfried lived or died, because he didn't seem to either. I reserve judgement on his dancing because this was the only time I've seen him dance so don't want to judge just from this. His jumps were good, but there's not much more I can say. It is a shame that this production doesn't give Siegfried the solo at the end of Act 1 when he is left alone onstage to brood about his life...that is always a good opportunity for the dancer to put something across!

This was all counter-balanced by Natasha Sologub. What a revelation as Odette/ Odile. From the moment she made her entrance she embodied the role of the doomed swan. She has beautiful limbs and feet, and I'm sure those extensions could be seen from the roof! Her initial fear of Siegfried, all wild-eyed and shaking, her relaxing into love with him, her dismay at her betrayal, all came across through her dancing and her face. She has a beautiful upper body with a lovely arching back, rendering her bird- like and graceful. Her transformation to Odile was total...she was sexy, teasing and technically brilliant...her fouettees executed with assurance and aplomb...with some doubles and triples thrown in for good measure. My daughter said she felt like Odile was smiling at the audience and drawing us in as if we were all helping her with her tricking of Siegfried and I felt the same.

Just a few other thoughts and comments: the two ballerinas in the Spanish dance (Rakhmanova and Tsyplakova) were amazing...someone else mentioned their backbends...they seemed to have rubber spines! They bent so far backwards that their heads almost touched the floor.

I'm not sure about stopping the music when Odile has finished her fouettees. I know it's so the ballerina can receive her well-deserved applause, but it does stop the momentum in its tracks...we don't have Siegfried coming onstage to take over the turns from her, so he has different choreography which I didn't find as exciting as in versions where the dancing flows from one into the other.

A word about the corps....wonderful. As always, the Kirov's corps is one of the stars of Swan Lake, and are worth the ticket price alone. They move as one and mirror the action taking place between the main characters. I liked the way at the curtain call that Sologub and Kolb stood to the side so that the corps could come forward a few times and take their applause.

I loved the lighting throughout...it enhanced the dramatic moments very effectively.

I was very impressed with Ivan Popov as Von Rothbart...he was frightening and a wonderful dancer...long, lean legs with lovely jumps and tours. I'd love to see more of him too.

And finally....I agree with Bluebird's earlier posting about the happy ending: I can't stand it! I am not a warped person who wants everyone to die at the end, but this ballet was not written in this way. From the very first time we see Odette, both the music and the choreography spell impending doom, the tragedy being that the betrayal is unintentional, and that the only way the lovers can be together is to sacrifice themselves to break the spell, thus enabling them to be together for eternity in a better place. The fact that it all ends happily just makes the preceding two acts nonsensical. I know this was a Soviet-imposed happy ending, but surely now the original ending could be reinstated without repurcussion?

I am sorry for my disjointed thoughts, but I have just woken up and wanted to get them down while they were still in my head. I am a bit jumbled up because when I got home we watched my new Led Zeppelin dvd, so from the sublime to the sublime...but at opposite ends of the spectrum!