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The Company threw themselves into the performance with a gusto matched only by that of the orchestra under the baton of Pavel Klinichev, and faultless it was too. Principals Dimitri Belogolovtsev, Vladimir Neporozhny, Anna Antonicheva and Maria Allash gave renditions that were more polished than those that London saw last season, a seamless performance that glowed with integrity.

Belogolovtsev’s Spartacus lacks the emotional depth of its creator Vassiliev and the sheer power of the later Mukhemedev interpretation (who was in the house for this performance) but it has gained in maturity over the last year and shows signs of projecting a unique perspective. Antonicheva manages to make Phrygia into more than a mere romantic foil and produced a flowingly expressive technique that melded into the excellent partnering. Again Neporozhny’s Crassus has gained in force although Allash’s Aegina was rather more two dimensional, and some of the acting rushed.
 

The four principals may have led the Company but as ever, this is an ensemble piece with massive sections of demanding choreography throughout. Multiple temps de poisson, tours en l’air and turns are standard for the male corps and were executed faultlessly. At times the female corps, especially the Patrician women were reminiscent of a turn of the (20th) century spectacular ballet with ranks of identically dressed women carrying the golden palms of victory in deceptively simple but ravishingly effective steps. From the vantage point of the front stalls, it was clear that every member of the Company were giving 110% (not always the case with our own companies, alas) and the experience of hearing the score played so well was positively visceral.

At a time when the Company and its audiences are demanding a wide repertoire, it would be easy for this ballet, two years short of its fourth decade, to fade into obscurity. That it hasn’t and shows no signs of doing, is at least in due in part to the emotional commitment invested in it by a new generation of dancers who are living and dancing in a world far removed from that which spawned Grigorovich’s re-working of the piece.
 

Not much has been changed since Grigorovich himself left the Company but it has been interesting to note the gradual brightening of costumes and amusingly the change in Spartacus’ scarf from the historically (and politically?) accurate Thracian red to a sort of salmon pink. Pure speculation of course that this is indicative of the “new” Russia that is uncomfortable with the symbolic associations of the old red scarf.

However, nothing else has faded in this, one of the brightest stars in the Bolshoi firmament and its tragic story resonates again with young and old alike.