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Kevin says he liked Viktoria Tereshkina's dancing in Diamond much more than Somova's, but I enjoyed Alina's more. Viktoria's dancing was more fluid and dignified, but I don't I think she was in her best form in Diamond, and the role seemed not to be very well suited for her style. But Viktoria was just brilliant last night when she danced Medora.She acted very good too. I guess she must like the role very much.

NBC (the National Ballet of China) also has Le Corsaire in its repertoire (the first production was staged by Pitr Gusev in 1959 !) but I do think Kirov's Le Corsaire was much more enjoyable. It's really a joy to watch. Ilya Kuzunestov, Lionid Sarafanov as well as Anton Korsakov all danced in confident way last night (Although Sarafanov did not show his technique as much as he did in Ali's variation in the dress rehearsal). Islom Baimuradov sparked in his solo.

The audience seemed to be very much pleased with the show, in spite of the fact that the dancers must be very tired after a matinee performance on the same day. Since Irma Nioradze, who had been supposed to dance Medora, did not come to Beijing (Irina Golub danced her role in Rubies on Jan. 4), Ekaterina Konraurova danced Medora in the dress rehearsal (the day before yesterday) and the matinee performance yesterday. We watched the rehearsal but missed the matinee performance.

The music too was excellently played by the NBC orchestra together with some key-players from the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Boris Gruzin (I think it was him. He was much better than the younger conductor who conducted Swan Lake).As I remember we saw this maestro conducting the Queen of Spade when the Mariinski Opera toured China a few years ago (Maestro Gergiev flied to Japan after the Opening performance to conduct Rotterdam Philharmonic and came back to Beijing a couple days later and conducted Aida in concert form. What a flying guy).
 

BTW, I liked Irina Golub's dancing in Rubies, but could not enjoy Kirov's Rubies in general (last time in 2002 we had Andrian Fadeyev as the PDD boy though). We have been told by Nilas Martins from NYCB that Rubies was a much more complicated piece than a Broadway piece. One of my friends used to dance this pdd when she served for the National Ballet of Canada. Once she posted a msg on the Chineses ballet board as the following:

When I danced Rubies the Pas de deux girl, I was fortunate enough to have Suzanne Farrell as my coach. I will never forget the things she told me before my debut, which she said, 1) don't emphasize on the sexiness of the dance, let your body feel the music that each pose you have is a conversation with your partner 2) think of a sophisticated lady in the 30's, and 3) be laid back, imagining yourself sitting in a bar, having a cigar in your mouth. In order to do the role better, I had done the research for part 3, and... Furthermore, just like you had mentioned that the music by Stravinsky is Jazzy, and so do the movements, which has a flirtation-ness (is that a word?) and sassiness to it. It's definitely one of the most fun pieces to dance.

I am sorry to say that I could not find most of the points in their dance (I think Irina was quite sassy and a bit flirtatious. That's why I enjoyed her dancing more. If only she coulk dance this piece with Manuel Legris. He had all of these points).

The above is only my personal impression/opinion .

PS:
I went to the theater to have a look at Kolegova's dancing as Gulnara last night (Jan. 6, the last day of the Kirov tour). I liked her Gulnara more than Osmolkina's. But I think the performance itself was not as exciting as the first night in general. Somova did some nice grand fouettes in her variation, and she looked lovely in the garden scene. But I think Viktoria's interpretation was more convincing, both in acting and dancing.
 

Lobukhin danced quite well as Conrad, but his acting was not as dramatic as Kuznetsov was.

Some of the dancers seemed not to be very concentrated. Even the corps de ballet's dancing was not perfect in the third act(It is called the GARDEN DANCE in China).There were some disharmonized steps among the girls, and between Novikova and Osmolkina (who danced the variations in the third act)when Irina Golub was not on the stage (Finally I could recognize who was who. I have very bad ability to recognize faces).

But some of my friends seemed to like this show very much.

Anyway the dancers must be very tired now. It's Russian Christmas Eve. I would like to wish them Merry Xmas and hope Mr. Vaziev will bring Igor Kolb to us the next time.