Moscow Stanislavsky 'Swan Lake' reviews Bukharaev in reviews Chernobrovkina in reviews recent Moscow Stanislavsky reviews more Renee Renouf Hall reviews

It’s a pity, for the Vladimir Burmeister reading of the Tchaikovsky-based Swan Lake is interesting, coherent and dramatically quite exciting. With one or two exceptions, my first viewing made me almost prefer it to the versions I’ve seen in the U.S. since the mid Forties.

Sitting in the sixth row orchestra one sees detail. Striking me immediately was the finish of the port de bras, particularly from elbow to fingertips. This was apparent in Act I with its clear delineation of class structure. The Queen Mother (Olga Popova) takes honors as protocol stickler, but I could not discern her telling Siegfried (Stanislav Bukharaev) that at tomorrow’s ball he must choose a bride to insure dynastic continuity. Despite dancing with maidens who bring him baskets symbolically laden with fruit, Siegfried looked as if his mild diversion lacked noticeable droit de seigneur denouements, ubiquitous drinking cups aside. But Queen Mother might understandably expect the worst. Who knows what she endured with the King? Bukharaev’s presence reminded San Francisco Ballet goers of Roman Rykine, who also was trained in Ufa.

A brilliant Jester (Vyacheslav Buchkovsky), whose tights, one color left-another color right, displayed one of the best pair of male legs I’ve seen in classical ballet. He seems as nimble as his tongue must be in speech and his maneuvers befit the trickster role to smooth or complicate court behavior in the regal family. Multiple pirouettes, jumps and several phrases ending in splits characterized his assignments.

The curtain opens almost immediately and ‘Evil Magician Rothbart’ (Anton Domashev) on a upstage left boulder enfolds his mammoth wings around Odette (Tatiana Chernobrovkina) before a crowned swan floats from stage left to stage right. The curtain then closes for the remaining overture. The second departure is the Act I restoration of music normally used in the West for the Black Swan Pas de Deux, and the Balanchine Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux music is restored to the Act III Ballroom score. Classic ballet makers obviously cut and pasted with the best of them!

The Stanislovsky company gives us the reflection of the swans traveling in the water. In the beautifully rendered costumes, they also favor costume colors evoking the winter palette of the Russian landscape.

Hearing that sinuous music while watching a young woman wearing a pastel romantic length tutu being partnered by Siegfried requires a little visual adjustment. The spectacular developpes and renverses bear no relation to the plunges and body bends enshrined in the memory. Siegfried is given more to do, and his presence provides more time for him to build motivation for the unfolding action.

There is an elegant pas de quatre in Act I where two men sporting cross bows dance to the familiar black swan music, macho with the cross bows utilized like Black Power salutes. Their elegant partners were Natalia Somova and Kadria Amirova.

One lovely moment towards the end of Act I occurs when the entire cast observes the Swans in flight and Siegfried follows the course across the horizon. There was veracity in his focus and gesture.

Act II possesses no premature confrontation with Von Rothbart and the pas de trois (Inna Bulgakova, Inna Genkevich and Lesya Sulyma) eschews Balanchine’s series of dazzling jumps, preferring equally effective elongated lines and turns. By this time it was obvious that the production is interested in the story line refinement over energy displays which hallmark mzny American productions. As in Act I, both the feet and pointe work were consistently elegant.

What I missed in the pas de deux was a small moment midway when Odette moves under Siegfried’s arm, a signal of her growing attraction and feeling for Siegfried. In this version, Siegfried remains open to her, and this small touch never occurs; Odette does not appear to take the risk indicating yearning or need.

Act III cinched the production, if again some departures puzzled me. The candidate princesses were reduced to four giving them a greater chance to display themselves for Siegfried’s appraisal. The anomaly is that the princesses are announced by the Jester and are accompanied or supported by four more jesters, setting forth an argument for farce. When followed by Von Rothbart’s entourage, it tilts the ballroom scene further into irony. Entourage it is, for Von Rothbart ushers in the ethnic-tinged dances: Spanish; Neapolitan, Mazurka, Hungarian as part of his grand deception. It makes these dances echo the Temptation of Christ, ‘Behold, I will show you the world if you bow down and worship me,’ building up to Odile, a western intimation of Maya. What intensifies the idea even more is that the dances are all staged towards Siegfried as he sits enthroned with the Queen Mother, forget front and center delivery except at the finale.

Kadria Amirova gave us a Spanish-style dance with great swoops of a black skirt,luxurious arches of the back, port de bras like a canopy and a gaze of great menace. Men using vivid capes, liberally utilized, flashed in and out of her display and once or twice revealed Odile, grinning with tantalizing assurance. Anastasia Pershenkova with a small bevy of women provided a similar dash with the Hungarian ensemble (Ekaterina Garaeva, Lesya Sulyma, Alexei Karasev, Denis Tregub). When Sergei Orekhov and Irina Belavina finished the Mazurka, it was less entertainment than menace and challenge. A poor boy just reaching his majority is overwhelmed.

Through it all Von Rothbart occasionally dashed , moving his complicit battalion of performers like a Napoleon itching for battle. In any language, he was one very nasty man, so nasty one could gleefully hiss him as in old time melodrama.

While Chernobrokina’s fouettes were ungainly, her portrayal of Odile was the ultimate in brazen allure.

Burmeister’s version ends happily, but not without Siegfried struggling in the water, coming up for air, and with Odile restored to her virginal white draperies. They both had suffered enough and I was glad to see the cliff and those enfolding gray wings disappear. In our increasingly imperfect, violent world such an unlikely denouement is rewarding to see from Moscow.

The company was solidly applauded. Numerous standees providing their share of a highly deserved ovation.