'La Sylphide' reviews Gracheva in reviews Filin in reviews recent Bolshoi reviews more Paul Arrowsmith reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

As posted on our Postings pages...

My only experience of La Sylphide was the the TV broadcast of the Schaufuss production for LFB many years ago - and that still holds a place in the memory - and had more magic and atmosphere than the Bolshoi version. There was some good magic here - the way the sylph disappeared up the chimney particularly - but the lighting in act two was harsh.

But the Bolshoi certainly showed great Bournonville style - crisp footwork, bouncing leaps, wonderfully sinewy upper body work. There's a small corps in act one - and looked like close cousins to the villagers in Ashton's Fille. Very charming.

Act two had a bigger corps - 24 sylphs I think - poses very redolent of Fokine and Les Sylphides. Don't know the choreography well enough to judge whether Vinogradov had applied hindsight and welded some Fokine onto Bournonville - but it felt like it.

Nadezhda Gracheva was the sylph - and was the one performance I didn't like. I couldn't place why - until the curtain calls and some Trockadero-lite behaviour put it into context. She danced very well in the jumps, some fizzing turns and leaps (but was less steady in the balances). Overall though her manner was arch - with a spangly look at me costume and hair ornaments. But the way she managed her death and shed her wings was genuinely moving.

The bigger ovation (amongst one of those rhythmic slow hand clap curtain calls that developed a life of its own) was for the James of Sergey Filin. He was excellent - clean acting, impressive turns and jumps - great energy and a joy to watch.

Hurn is a thankless part but Alexander Petukhov was energetic. As two boys Andrey Yevdokimov and Denis Medvedev were very tidy, crisp jumpers and turners (despite some very short kilts and unflattering bonnets)- as were the four leading sylphs - Olga Stebletsova, Anna Balukova, Victoria Osipova, Anna Rebetskaya - great pinging precision to there jumps.

Not fond of the Madge (Yulina Malkhasyants) - not frightening enough - and couldn't decide whether she was playing it straight or sending the character up. Her scene with the cauldrom with her helpers was one those scenes that ballet can manage without.

I'd forgotten how impressive the auditorium is - with the hammer and sickle still in the proscenium curtain. A rather cool audience of ordinary Muscovites and tourists - but the a claque for Filin certainly woke the audience up.

A well chosen exhibition of photos of Balanchine works in the upstairs lobby. Programmes 10 roubles for a Russian, 150 if your foreign - my Russian accent didn't pass muster!

So not an overwhelming evening (and the interval was longer than act one) - but good to see something I'd never caught before live. Undecided whether this is a ballet that really still has a place in the repertory - but if the Royal Ballet were to adopt it, it would be a great discipline for them.