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From 2nd until 14th July the Kirov brought 4 ballets out of their impressive repertoire to this Austrian town. So the dancers found a temporary home on the stage of the great and charming Opera house and it was obvious that they loved it. I saw all performances during the last week and must say it was like heaven

Swan Lake

Most of my flowers go to the "Swan Lake" of the closing day.

Daria Pavlenko as Odette/Odile and Igor Kolb as Siegfried offered the most emotional Swan Lake I ever saw. And when I say that the whole casting was 'spot-on', I'm afraid it will take a long time before I find a performance that can match this one.

Pavlenko's expressiveness, her use of little details : I thought it breathtaking. She masters the gift to become music, she danced rightout from her soul. With an excellent partner like Igor Kolb, they both created waves of emotions and I found myself with tears in the eyes. The prince's disappointment not to find his love among the princesses on the ball, his excitement for Odile and heartbreaking despair when discovering the betrayal, all these feelings carried by pure classical dance, I found it mesmerizing. An Odette, really close to her prince and an naughty, proud, challenging Odile with big eyes who mirrored her feelings.

I also have special mentions for Vassily Sherbakov with amazing entrechats in the pd3. Evgenia Obrastsova (little swans and Napolitan dance) and Jana Selina (little swans) already became my new favourites at the beginning of the season. I can't forget Natalia Sologub and Julia Kassenkowa (pd3 and 2swans).

And what to say about the male dancers !? With Ilya Kusnetsov as Rothbarth we saw the top of Russian, virile dancing. What a performer, you even can't believe your own eyes when seeing his impressive jettees ! But I found the top of style in Islom Baimuradov and Andrei Merkuriev during the Spanish dance, with a slight preference for Baimuradov...he knows what's épaulement .

I hope I've sketched a bit of the picture for you all and if you add the powerfull playing of the Maryinsky Orchestre under the baton of Alexander Titov, you can easily imagine that Graz's - fully packed -Operahouse was shaking. A thundereous applause was the audience's goodbye to this great company !