Kirov 'Bayadere' reviews Gumerova in reviews Kolb in reviews recent Kirov reviews more Trog reviews

One again the Kirov's sets and costumes are wonderful. The set for act 2 is especially good, looking 3D when it is 2D. This is achieved by building the set in four distinct layers. The costumes in act 2 are wonderful too.

In the first act, I especially liked the extremely awful grey wigs and beards on the natives. These looked very cartoon like; if you are familiar with the Hammer Film Creatures The World Forgot you will know exactly what I mean. The chaps work quite hard here, dancing around and over the sacred flame. Also Miss Gumerova very quickly revealed her poise and elegance. She is very good at the "come-hither" look. Maghedaveya (Igor Petrov) gets to show off his not inconsiderable muscles, which I know some of the ladies in the audience quite liked! He does very much look the part.

Sadly the first two scenes lacked something. I can't say exactly what, since there is nothing wrong at all with the dancers technique and, as previously stated, the sets are glorious. It could just be the choreography or perhaps the score. La Bayadére is not my favourite ballet; I don't think it really gets going until act 2. The libretto in scene 2 can be a little hard to follow, unless you have boned up on it first.

In act 2, the very realistic looking elephant rated a round of applause. I was very taken with the rather silly stuffed tiger. It looked a bit like Tony, who appears on my breakie cereal. There is a dazzling array of colours and costumes in this act. The very classical tutus look a little out of place perhaps. The corps work very, very hard in in this act.

There was plenty of pizzazz in the Golden Idol's (Andrey Ivanov) solo. His makeup looked as though it was causing him a little grief on his one knee landings; I guess it is both very slippery and very hot. The fast and furious Indian dance was truly dazzling. The chaps gave a very good showing, with plenty of power in the leaps. The leading trio of Galina Rachmanova, Islom Baimuradov and Vassily Serbakov, were also excellent, with plenty of smiles.

Solar (Igor Kolb) and Gamazatti's (Viktoria Tereshkina) pdd is pretty amazing. During the supported pirouettes, he kept turning her, while the orchestra waited in silence for their final "parp". Both dancers are wonderful; Mr Kolb has leaps to die for and Miss Tereshkina is very radiant. I could have watched them perform all day, without being bored. The audience were clearly very happy to see them both; there were several cheers when they both initially appeared.

Nikia's solo was very well performed too. Miss Gumerova has a lovely arabesque line. The rubber snake did it's deed a little too quickly; if you blinked you missed it.

To quote the lady who was sitting next to me, act 2 "was spot on".

Act 3 opens with a nice giggle. The snake charmer as a joke shop style rubber snake, "charmed" out of it's basket by a simple string on his pipe. The shades were, of course, absolutely immaculate. The vision still works extremely well. Of course, act 3 is really act 2, scene 2. This production is already 3 hours long, and I suppose if act 3 (the wedding of Solor and Gamazatti and the destruction of the temple) were to be included, it would last for 4 hours. I, for one, would be delighted to see this full version.

The Kirov presented their usual excellent afternoon's entertainment, and I feel privileged to have seen them at work.