© John Ross 'La Valse' reviews 'Prodigal Son' reviews 'Ballet Imperial' reviews Lopatkina in reviews Vishneva in reviews recent Kirov reviews more Jane Simpson reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

The company's way with these ballets, though, is not always cause for so much delight. This season's novelty, La Valse, came over much more blandly than I'd expected from reading about it: the 'dramatic overtones and rich atmospheric effects', let alone the sense of 'dancing on the edge of a volcano', which Nancy Reynolds talks about in 'Repertory in Review', were hardly detectable until the Death figure actually appears near the end. Some of the blame for this must lie with Ulyana Lopatkina, in the role created by Tanaquil LeClerc - beautiful dancing, but no sense of premonition or impending doom. Ravel's music (not particularly well played on this occasion) can't do all the work, and though I liked some of the dancing from the other solo women, the case for the ballet wasn't made.
 

Prodigal Son is very well known here these days, and the Kirov dancers have to compete with recent memories of some fine Royal Ballet casts. Andrei Merkuriev made a reasonable shot at the title role: he does it as a charming, ordinary boy who gets caught up in a situation he can't handle; perhaps, though, he's a bit too ordinary - there's nothing in the way he plays the first scene to make us really understand why he has to leave home, NOW, whatever it may cost him. He got some of the pathos of his final crawl home, though I find the ending so false these days that I can hardly bear to watch. As his nemesis, the Siren, Daria Pavlenko was disappointingly low key: I wouldn't ask her to go over the top, but without some sort of boldness, something to make the boy realise he's out of his depth, the scene looks like a mechanical working out of a hackneyed plot. On the other hand the quality of Vladimir Ponomarev, as the Father, shines out even through the beard and the makeup and the long robe - a real artist.

Fortunately the last piece on the programme, Ballet Imperial, was also the most successful. Getting the main problem out of the way first, my own view is that the ballet loses badly by being done in its 'Piano Concerto no. 2' guise - I don't have any great liking for tutus-and-tiaras as such, but this piece comes over so much more strongly in its original version, with the formal manners and mime giving it an individuality which is lost here. In particular the leading woman's costume is horrid - huge tiara, jewelled bodice, and then a skimpy, limp chiffon skirt cut at exactly the most unflattering length, just above the knee: she looks top heavy and as if she's come out in her petticoat.
 

It's a lovely ballet, though, with some gorgeous sequences for the corps de ballet and a brilliant, though technically terrifying, role for the ballerina. Diana Vishneva looked happier when she was well through her difficult first entrance, but I found I was admiring what she was doing whilst being left cold by her personality. Almost the opposite with her partner, Igor Zelensky - he has the experience and the presence to hold the stage without apparent effort, an object lesson for all the young men rising through the companay's ranks, but his technique is no longer what it was. Much the greatest pleasure came from the second ballerina, Ekaterina Osmolkina - the first time this season I've felt the authentic Kirov thrill. Her dancing is clear, open, big, confident - perfect for the role, and leaving me longing to see her in something else, soon.