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DVD ReviewBolshoi Ballet ‘Anyuta’ Featuring Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vassiliev Video Artists International, 2007 4:3 format, 67 minutes Reviewed by Charlotte Kasner |
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During his brief reign as artistic director following the almost thirty year tenure of Yuri Grigorovich, Vladimir Vassiliev was able to extend his choreographic repertoire to create a few ballets of which Anyuta is a gem. One of the greatest dancers in living memory, Vassiliev's extraordinary ability lay, not only in his superb physique and flawless technique, but in his power as a great dancer/actor. Too often these days, the title of ballerina is bestowed on any principal who can wrap their right leg round their left ear regardless of all the other qualities that true greatness demands. Both Vassiliev and his wife and partner Ekaterina Maximova possess real and lasting star quality in spades that goes well beyond the mastery of technique. Anyuta, created in 1982, gives both a chance to shine in subtle roles in this Chekov tale of a poor woman corrupted by materialism. Vassiliev invests massive energy into his dramatic role as the drunken, slighted and forgotten father, although it is a struggle to accept him as being old enough to be a father to his wife! His sadly dignified, grizzled demeanour loses none of its charisma even when playing the foolish drunk and the pathos wrung out of his leafing through a photograph album in an attempt to recapture a happier past is agonising. The knowledge that he is the author of his own downfall by effectively brokering his daughter to a local official shines through his countenance as he tries to drown his sorrows in vodka.
Maximova's eponymous anti-heroine enables her to travel from winsome innocent to hardened woman of the world, too late to effect real remorse over the abandonment of her poor family for lovers, a fancy house and fine clothes. She is the flip side of the Merry Widow, unable to enjoy her possessions, whether they be people that she has acquired, or status symbols as her happiness lay in those left behind. The natural joy that bursts through in the brief episode where she dances with her little brothers in the house that has become her gilded cage is glorious.
 © Video Artists International
For once the hype on the sleeve is no exaggeration, as Valery Gavrilin's score is indeed brilliant. There are echoes of Prokofiev, Shchedrin and Shostakovich, but that is not to say that it is in the least derivative. Like the best of dramatic scores, it underlines the action rather than intrudes and the orchestration is just right for the scale of the work.
Too often, dancers have to portray broad stereotypes, be they swans, princes or abstracs bodies demonstrating pure movement for its own sake. Anyuta is a jewel of a ballet, embodying Russian heritage whilst being a truly modern classical ballet. Vassiliev has created a mini masterpiece that deserves the opportunity of a wider audience that this DVD affords it.
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