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Ivan Vasiliev, who has been compared by some to Barysnikov, isn't a pure-bred classical danseur. His legs are too stocky for a start. But his technique is amazing, and he seems to be the Bolshoi's answer to the Kirov's former 'wunderkind' (and now principal dancer) Leonid Sarafanov. And his partnering is quite strong. His two one-handed lifts of Kitri in Act 1 were solid. His acting was natural, and his 'suicide' scene was simple yet effective. In the Act 3 grand pas de deux, he landed precisely on his knees after his jumps. His virtuosity was brilliant, but there were occasional rough edges which needed to be polished.

Natalia Osipova danced Kitri full-out on a phenomenally large scale with no holding back at all. Her virtuosity was prodigious. As expected, she did double and triple fouettes in the coda of the grand pas de deux in Act 3. Her high jumps were most spectacular indeed. Osipova had plenty of charm as Kitri and was quite expressive as Dulcinea. Nevertheless this performance was slightly subdued, compared to her sensational Mariinsky performance with Sarafanov in April in which she even did an encore of the fouettes.

The company's performances were bright and vivacious. The Gypsy dance was as usual splendidly danced by Yulianna Malkhasiants. Maria Allash phrased seamlessly the solo of the Queen of the Dryads. Andrei Merkuriev was quite glamorous as Espada making his Bolshoi debut in this role, but the choreography for Espada in this Bolshoi version is inferior to the choreography in the Kirov's version in which he danced before.

 

This Bolshoi production of "Don Quixote" by the former Bolshoi star and artistic director Alexei Fadeyechev is more or less fine. But dramatically it is not as logical as the Kirov's production for instance. The prologue in the beginning of this Fadeyechev production depicting the annointing of Sancho Panza as his sword-bearer by the Don reminds me of Nureyev's production for the Paris Opera Ballet, but is somewhat unnecessary.

I find it incongruous that the tavern scene with Basilio's 'suicide' takes place before the Gypsy camp scene and the Don's dream scene (instead of after those two scenes as in the Mariinsky version), though I know that this has always been the Muscovite tradition. And the Don's dream scene with Dulcinea takes place in bright daylight, which doesn't make much dramatic sense. Still it was most worthwhile seeing the two exciting young stars Osipova and Vasiliev.