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This was an eagerly awaited release from VAI of Khachaturian's seldom performed ballet Gayne, originally choreographed for the Kirov in exile in Perm by Nina Anisimova in 1942, but now revived as a full length work by the former Soviet bête noire Boris Eifman.

Actually revived is the wrong expression; it's antonym would be more appropriate as Eifman has all but killed the work stone dead. He is not helped by the wooden performances of the Latvian ballet dancers Larisa Tuisova, Alexander Rumyantsev, Gennady Gorbanev and Maris Korystin, the latter more like a pantomime villain than a believable character, and truly ghastly costumes. It is odd that Eifman, known for his political works such as Red Giselle should choose to strip the work of its politics and present an anaemic love triangle with no geographical, political or temporal context.

To be sure there is a faint whiff of the orient but the gaunt frame of Tuisova poking out of a wisp of flimsy nylon becomes positively off putting when exposed in repeated close up. The bare chested men with expressionless faces convey nothing of the storyline, such as it is, and the chorus dancing is a shadow of the original. Anyone who has seen visiting Armenian companies perform the Sabre Dance (usually with real sabres, customs and import restrictions permitting) cannot help but be appalled at the spectacle of the Latvian men feebly banging tin swords on the enlarged milk bottle tops that have to make do as shields.

It was obviously filmed as a live performance and no attempt has been made to improve the presentation for the DVD. The lighting is positively foggy in places and any break in the dancing is covered with a lateral view of the darkened pit showing lit music stands and the odd, apparently disembodied, hand turning pages.
 

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The Latvian orchestra do nothing for the luscious score, which appears to have been cut to shreds. Under the baton of Alexander Viljumanis, Khachaturian's wonderful music becomes tinny and reedy.

What makes this DVD really worth having are the bonus sections. Even in black and white, the vibrancy of Anisimova's revival of 1961 at what looks like the Palace of Congresses at a gala for Aram Ilyich Khachaturian, shines through and the score, conducted by Khachaturian himself is richly resonant. It is a delight to see a very young Nina Timofeyevna as the eponymous heroine in both this section and in an earlier excerpt from 1952, there with full set and partnered by Yuri Kondratov, better known in the "West" for his Romeo.

Two excerpts from Grigorovich's Spartacus are included, most interestingly from a television production of 1971 with Maris Liepa as Crassus and Maya Plissetskaya (who created the role of Phrygia in the very first production and who is on record as having hated the Grigorovich version) as Aegina.

It is worth buying this DVD in the absence of any other full length version but Gayne has yet to be rescued by a knight in shining armour who will have sympathy with the subject and score. We live in hope.

Baiser de la Fée and Lieutenant Kijé
Moscow Classical Ballet and Bolshoi Stars
Details

Lieutenant Kijé

Vladimir Vassiliev's 1969 production of this perennial musical favourite is an absolute delight. It makes reference to the 1933 film for which Prokofiev wrote the score and, for those who can read Russian, makes clear the clerical error that mistakenly created the eponymous hero.

Actually Vassiliev's Kijé is more hapless than hero, his ghostly presence and Pierrot Lunaire-like demeanour haunting the living, colourful characters. Raissa Struchkova is the perfect Lady in Waiting (pun intended); the direct descendent of a style of dancing handed down from Lopokhova and then to Danilova, it has a panache and vivacity that has all but been sacrificed to the demands of ever higher extensions and the demon technique.

The costumes and set are gems, the colours bright with thick black outlines as of drawn by a child's crayon. The floor is a giant version of the edicts sent out by Tsar Pavel I, danced on by the embodiment of a feather quill, and watched over by ghostly ranks of chalk outline soldiers whose bayonets gain wedding or funeral embellishments as required.

The choreography is exquisitely balletic, each fiendish encháinement harnessed to service the storyline and characters.

A comic masterpiece that well deserves a live revival.
 

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Baiser de la Fée

In Baiser de la Fée, Vladimir Vassiliev shares the choreography with Natalia Kasatkina and a superb collaboration it is too. It is puzzling why this work is performed so rarely; it would for instance work as a double bill with Nutcracker, or be very happy on a similar seasonal triple bill.

Tatiana Yatsenko as the Ice Maiden who bestows the fatal kiss on Vladimir Malakov's Rudy has looks that are perhaps more suited to her later disguise as a gypsy, but she makes a chilling femme fatal nonetheless. The technique and acting ability of all three soloists is extremely solid, Malakov having the sleek lines of a true dancer noble and Ludmila Vasilieva as his sweetheart Babette having feet to die for.

The Ice Maiden's male corps are a little odd and are not helped by unflattering costumes and being asked to do too much purposeless, malevolent wafting early on. However, the portrayal of Rudy's dying mother and the motif of her protecting arms is extended beautifully throughout, particularly when Babette, under the spell of the gypsy/Ice Maiden, is left rocking on her knees with an empty embrace as Rudy is spirited away to the ice kingdom.

A treasure that also deserves a live revival.

Both bonus sections on this DVD feature Raissa Struchkova and Boris Kholklov in Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote. They are an interesting reminder of how these great classics, Russian after all, were approached as late as 1971. It is doubtful that Raissa Struchkova would make it past the first round of auditions today, solely on her rather dumpy physique and poor turnout, but boy can that girl turn. As well as giddying fouté'es, posé turns and petits tours, she has a grace that is rarely matched today. In close up, she has too much gravitas to be convincing as a sixteen year old girl but every bit of the demeanour of a high born lady. She is perhaps more suited to Kitri than Aurora where she leads the fireworks that we have come to expect from the Russians in this old warhorse of a ballet.

Boris Kholkov similarly would not be considered a first class dancer by modern standards and cannot match the physique of, for instance Malakhov, by he is a solid partner who acquits himself well in the fiendish solos.

Another DVD from VAI that is a must for the shelf.