Colon Theatre Ballet (Buenos Aires) - Don Q.

[silvy]

At the request of Hockeyfan I am reviewing a perforance of Don Q by the ballet ot the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires- Argentina - November 2004). I am reviewing from memory (without the stage bill), so I cannot possibly remember the name of each soloist.

This was a full length Don Q. The version was by Zarko Prebil, and I was glad that he did not change much on the traditional Petipa-Gorsky version. The director of the ballet was the Cuban Mirta Garcia. The Colon Theatre orchestra was directed by Maestro Calleja, and it sounded wonderful.

Principal dancers were Noemi Coelho and Alejandro Parente. Her Kitry was very exact technically, and so was his Basilio. I loved the scenery and costumes except for the ones in the Dryads act, which were too “strident” for my liking (pink was too pink, and the same was true of blue). The corps the ballet was precise. The small cupids were danced by young students of the Instituto Superior de Arte (which is the ballet school affiliated to the Colon Theatre), and they looked lovely. I liked the fact that they were given very simple steps (chasses), but they looked very well reharsed, each on line with the one in front. I also liked very much the dancer who played Mercedes (I do not recall her name): though the steps in her variation were simple (no pirouettes, for instance), she did look imposing and beautiful.

Other performances were danced by Karina Olmedo and by Paloma Herrera (as a guest), but I did not see these.

To sum up, I encourage any ballet fan who comes to Buenos Aires to try to see the Colon Theatre Ballet: they do not have many performances a year in which to show their talents, but when they do dance it is a most enjoyable experience. Also the Colon is very majestic theatre. You can see it for yourself at its webpage:

http://www.teatrocolon.org.ar/

Hope the above has been useful

Silvy

[koshka]

The Colon is fantastic, and the tours are just as good. I'm not normally very patient during tours, but this was one I was eager to go through a second time. The tour covers the "public" areas as well as the workshops and classrooms.

[silvy]

Regarding the guided tour visits, I have made them twice. Last time was November 2004 and I noticed there were improvements (for instance, on visiting the Salon Dorado- "Golden Room"- there was a musician who played Vivaldi. Also there are headpieces on the hall of the theatre (I do not remember they were there before)

[Helene]

Thank you so much for the review, silvy! I love productions where students are integrated into performances and given steps that make them shine. And what a theater -- my friend, Mark, raved about it after he attended a performance of the opera a couple of years ago. A definite must see!