RB 'Bayadere' reviews Acosta in reviews Rojo in reviews Nunez in reviews recent RB reviews more Graham Watts reviews

Now just 30 years of age, Acosta is at the height of his ability. His two key solos as Solor, the warrior prince, were performed with perfect technique and formidable power. The height and distance of his tours en l'air and sissonnes were quite stunning and both solos were met with a Royal Opera House roar of deservedly unusual strength.

Acosta is, however, much more than a great virtuoso dancer. He has also developed great sensitivity as a partner and he has a wonderful mimetic quality, which greatly enhances the narrative, and this skill was well in evidence in the early scenes. His overall performance was quite breathtaking.

Following the reconstructed full-length Petipa version, which the Kirov brought to Covent Garden just ten weeks ago, this Makarova version, which first introduced a full La Bayadere to a western audience in 1980, was like pulling on a comfortable sweater.

Whilst the new/old version introduced so much more narrative in the early scenes (and gave us the memorable scene of Nikiya playing the veena at the window), the Makarova version is much more palatable. I certainly didn't miss the procession which introduces the betrothal festivities or its "dead" parrots and paper-mache elephant!

As Nikiya, the bayadere, or temple dancer, of the title, Tamara Rojo gave a delightful first night performance. Although the lack of opening-night applause for her first moments on stage seemed to indicate that the audience was more interested in her leading man, since Acosta's first appearance was greeted with generous applause. Actually, Rojo's first moments were truly lovely: the lifting of her veil and the beautiful, slightly insecure turned-out steps to centre stage. It sent a shiver down my spine!

Rojo is a very good Nikiya but I can't help feeling that something was still not quite fully developed in her portrayal. Whilst she dances beautifully as the temple dancer in the third scene, which ultimately leads to her death, the interaction between her and Marianella Nunez (as Gamzatti, the Rajah's daughter) in the second scene, which is so important to the narrative doesn't quite work as it should. Part of the problem is that Nunez is, as yet, unable to show us the scheming spoilt-bitch characteristic of Gamzatti (so well demonstrated by the Kirov's Elvira Tarasova). She seems to be far too sweet a girl to connive at poisoning her rival - much more Lilac Fairy than Carabosse!

In the same vein, my only criticism of Carlos Acosta is that he always maintains the dignity of being a noble warrior despite the obvious ignoble vacillation between his true love and his ambition for the Rajah's daughter. This is essentially a weak man but Acosta clearly finds it hard to do spineless!

Nunez also danced beautifully. It was just a shame that the raucous audience in the Amphitheatre chose to yell at full force long before the end of many difficult sequences, to the effect that the noise seemed to unnerve her towards the end of her third act fouettes.

I didn't feel that Alastair Marriott was convincingly menacing as the evil High Brahmin and his character's thinly disguised lust for Nikiya was not that obvious. On the other hand, the impeccable narrative skills of Genesia Rosato as Aya - Gamzatti's servant - were very evident, even from the back of the Amphitheatre.

In a sense, I have left the best until last because I really felt that the 24 members of the corps gave a fantastic performance in the Kingdom of the Shades. There had been some minor uncertainties in the earlier Act, but in this most crucial of scenes, they were quite magnificent in their collective discipline. The height of the extended legs in the arabesques was uniform throughout the shades and the spacing between dancers was as close to perfection as one could reasonably wish.

It was one of the best Shades' scenes I have seen and the often-maligned Royal Ballet corps deserved to have had an ovation of their own at the end of Act II in the Russian tradition.

Mara Galeazzi, Deidrie Chapman and Jaimie Tapper were equally magnificent as the three solo Shades and it was good to see such strength in the opening night cast.

It was also good to welcome back the Bronze Idol, which was not in the new/old version since it had not been introduced to the soviet version until the 1940s. Yohei Sasaki gave a virtuoso performance, which in itself was excellent, but he was seriously drained at the end and I imagine that Bronze idols are not usually prone to such obvious heavy breathing, the effect of which was exacerbated by Saskei's skin-tight costume. Also, it was a shame that everyone in the Amphitheatre could easily see his exit down a trapdoor, which was insufficiently concealed by Alastair Marriott's Brahmin!

These performances of La Bayadere are dedicated in honour of the late Jack Lanchbery, who was effectively the composer for Makarova's staging given the extent of the re-arrangement of Minkus' score. The orchestra, conducted by Valery Ovsyanikov, did great justice to this dedication.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the lighting arrangements and operation, the worst aspect of which was an inability to keep the spots focussed on the dancers. Frequently the spotlights seemed to be trying desparately to guess where the dancers were going to be, careering around the stage trying to catch up with them! This could have been due to some electronic malfunction, rather than human error, but I do hope that it is sorted out for future performances because the effect was quite intrusive on the enjoyment of an otherwise excellent evening.

After the mixed reception for her new Sleeping Beauty earlier this year, it was good to see Natalia Makarova present in the audience to witness the glowing reaction for this excellent first-night performance of her masterpiece.