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Kirov - North American Tour, Autumn 2006


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art076...I didn't see your post til after the performance either. WindFlyer and I met and it would have been nice to have you there too. I will be there Friday night; let's meet: big TV screen, parking lot level, at first intermission. I'll PM you with news of what I'm wearing; you do the same. (WHAT to wear?)

Giannina

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Looking forward to attending Swan Lake performances starting on Thursday, 10/26. Will likely see all six shows ( Sunday night has been added and is also sold out ). Are any forum members plan on being in Ottawa for any of the shows? Would be interesting to exchange views and opinions. Hopefully, all the principals scheduled do phisically appear, though Zelensky seems unlikely. At least all the leading ladies made it to the stage in California, so pray Uliana and Diana will dance their scheduled ( or rescheduled performances ).

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I will be in Ottawa for the week-end but could not get a ticket for the Saturday performance :tiphat: , but got tickets for both performances on Sunday. I cannot wait to see Pavlenko's Swan Lake, I saw her in Diamonds twice in St-Petersburg in March and was completely overwhelmed by her... Does anyone know who is scheduled to performed Sunday evening? I'm guessing Somova based on the tour schedules...

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I will be in Ottawa for the week-end but could not get a ticket for the Saturday performance :) , but got tickets for both performances on Sunday. I cannot wait to see Pavlenko's Swan Lake, I saw her in Diamonds twice in St-Petersburg in March and was completely overwhelmed by her... Does anyone know who is scheduled to performed Sunday evening? I'm guessing Somova based on the tour schedules...

Here's the touring schedule for Ottawa (although things tend to change)

National Arts Centre, Southam Hall, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

SWAN LAKE

October 26 at 8:00PM

October 27 at 8:00PM

October 28 at 2:00PM

October 28 at 8:00PM

October 29 at 2:00PM

(Cast subject to change)

Odette, Queen of the Swans / Odile, Odette’s Double

Alina Somova (26)

Uliana Lopatkina (27)

Victoria Tereshkina (28-2)

Diana Vishneva (28-8)

Daria Pavlenko (29-2)

Prince Siegfried

Igor Kolb (26)

Igor Zelensky (27)

Danila Korsuntsev (28-2)

Andrian Fadeev (28-8)

Leonid Sarafanov (29-2)

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I had heard that the Ottawa performances were completely sold out very early on and I'm thrilled to hear that they've added an evening performance on Sunday so that more people can go. I love this production of Swan Lake - although it's not without its flaws it's a wonderful staging and IMO the Kirov -Mariinsky performs it like no other - it really is their birthright.

I was in Ottawa a couple of years ago for Winterfest - it's a lovely city. I hope you all have a great time and report back about all the different casts.

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For the 4 performances in Orange County, we only had two male principals: Danila Korsuntsev and Igor Kolb. Zelensky was apparently sick according to the Orange County Register, and I'm not sure what happened to Andrian Fadyeev, though he did dance Romeo the last night before they started Swan Lake.

--Andre

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:) Looking forward to Saturday evening performance in Ottawa - yes, all 6 shows sold out fairly quickly. My son's entire top 4 levels of ballet school will be bussing in for the Sunday matinee show. I've got a table booked at Le Cafe after for drinks and dessert - it's THE ballet highlight for the season. Wondering though if Fadeev with be dancing?? Hopefully will get to see Vishneva - fingers crossed for no casting changes!

Also, my son and another dancer are joining a Master Class taught by Ballet Master, Yuri Fateev, on Friday morning, it's completely booked up as well - he's really, really excited!

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Actually, for the saturday matinee, Zelensky replaced Korsuntsev! I need to get some sleep (even with the extra hour from daylight savings), but will post about the performance this week.
Another lesson on not counting on anything until the curtain rises. :) I'm really looking forward to your report, especially about Zelensky's dancing.
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The Ottawa Sun has made a major mistake. For the opening night "Swan Lake" October 26, Pavlenko's dress rehearsal photo was printed with Somova's review :pinch: . The journalist went on to say that Somova was "absolutely exquisite." (?!) :) - MO.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Theatre/Reviews/S/Swan...28/2155189.html

My deepest sympathies go out to Ms. Pavlenko.

Dancers must be properly credited, and for the Maryinsky's first Canadian visit in nearly 20 years, and for an opening night, there is no excuse for this photo mix-up. Also, does the author know her steps and ballet terms? She states the following:

" . . . But when it comes to male dancers, Adrei Ivanov stole most of the scenes he was in as the impish, athletic court jester, at one point tossing out a jaw-dropping number of plies."

Plies? No, not for the Jester in the Sergeyev "Swan Lake."

Furthermore, the author states that Somova is a "prima ballerina."

Somova is a officially still a coryphee - that means, a .5 inch away from

the corps de ballet. She's been "promoted" - to the public that is, for

this tour. Hopefully, the Ottawa Sun will respond to any retraction requests.

Onward to Chicago :mellow:

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Thanks, Cygnet, for your post! I read that review, too, after seeing it linked on BT4D, and noticed every one of those errors: the rehearsal photos of Pavlenko (there were more pics, showing her rehearsal pointe shoes, as well), Ivanov's "pliés", and Somova's "promotion" to "prima ballerina". Eek!

To be fair to the editors of the Ottawa Sun, the dancer in the photo was never identified as Somova. Indeed, she was not identified at all! That Somova was the O/O written about in the article was a separate deal.

I'm glad you addressed this, Cygnet. It really bothered me, too!

Here are the other pictures from the Ottawa Sun's photo gallery:

Kirov Ballet rehearsal pics

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After watching ABT in a great program at City Center last night, I made it to Chicago this afternoon.

It seems like I’ve been looking forward to Lopatkina’s Swan Lake forever. I’ve seen her in 3 other roles and loved her, but even though the reports I’ve read about her O/O have been glowing they have also been confusing to me and I’ve been having a hard time imagining what it would be like. Most everyone agrees that she’s impressive technically, that her arms are amazing and that she’s a great Odette but almost in the same breath I’ve heard her Odette described as remote, platonic, intellectual, philosophical. I didn’t get that from her at all. I do agree that dancers like Vishneva and Ananishvilli are more dramatic, but I didn’t find Lopatkina cold or remote. In fact the 2 words that come to mind are warm and beautiful. She was certainly tragic and heartbreaking but the most outstanding feature of Lopatkina’s Odette for me was how absolutely beautiful, vulnerable and expressive she was in her every movement & pose. Her Odile may have lacked subtlety, but I didn’t mind her “all guns blazing” approach and she really did wow both her prince and the audience. Her fouttees were fast, clean and musical and she slowed the last few down so she ended perfectly in time with the music, face front and in total control.

The whole company looked great. I liked Korsuntsev more than I remember liking him last time I saw him. His Siegfried isn’t too deep or melancholic but he’s not wooden either, and he’s a rock solid partner with a beautiful danseur noble line.

The pas de trois was danced beautifully. I love the Kirov’s version and Osmolkina, Golub & Korsakov were great. I kept seeing Kondaurova in small roles she wasn’t listed for (one of the 2 swans & the mazurka) but maybe they just have a lot of tall redheads these days, she couldn’t possibly have danced everything I thought I saw her in! One dancer I recognized in small roles was Yulia Bolshakova. She was one of the prince’s potential brides and also one of the first line of swans. It’s nice to see that they have her dancing corps/coryphée roles again. She’s lovely but it looked like they were pushing her too fast last year, so I’m glad to see that she’s getting a chance to regroup

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Thank you for your comments, nysusan.

...I didn’t find Lopatkina cold or remote. In fact the 2 words that come to mind are warm and beautiful. She was certainly tragic and heartbreaking but the most outstanding feature of Lopatkina’s Odette for me was how absolutely beautiful, vulnerable and expressive she was in her every movement & pose...
Glad you liked Lopatkina. Your description captures the way I felt an unforgettable evening in Petersburg.

I look forward to reading your impressions of the other dancers you may see this weekend.

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I'm back after an exhausting but rewarding day.

Ok, first of all: it was great to see a REAL Swan Lake. The Sergeyev version has the jester and no mime and the happy ending, but it certainly beats the ABT version. (By the way, the jester is less annoying live than on video.) But the real star was the Kirov corps. The 24 Swans were breathtaking. Not just when they were moving. Some of their most beautiful moments were when they were standing absolutely still, and you saw all the hands and arms -- it was JUST beautiful. And in the "colored" acts you noticed how great they were at the national dances. With their Vaganova training that includes years of "character dance" training it seems in their blood to mazurka. It really is something.

As for Viktoria Tereshkina? Well ... she's young. She has gorgeous positions. Beautiful back. I ran into nyususan and we said we'd like to see her in 5 years. But I was thinking that at the ABT Julie Kent or Paloma have been dancing this for years and theyre probably not as good as Viktoria, but because Viktoria's being compared to, say, Lopatkina, Pavlenko, and Vishneva, she looks worse. Viktoria made some visible mistakes. She had trouble with Odette's turning variation. So she decided to just sort of slow down and spin and flap kind of meaninglessly to get it over with. Her Odile was doing great until the fouettes. She fell off balance early on but made a nice recovery. But still, she wasn't ever able to gain much momentum after the rocky start. Overall, she seems to have the outlines of a great Odette/Odile, but I'm sure with age and experience those outlines will be pencilled in.

Igor Kolb was great! I felt lucky to have seen him. Beautiful classical dancer. Great classical line. A real prince.

The cool thing was after the performance M. Vaziev, Viktoria and Igor all came out to do a Q&A with the audience. Vaziev is good-looking in that silver-haired way, and he was very charming. The first question came from a girl and it was a zinger: "Why'd you change the ending? The last time I watched it I cried because they both died." Vaziev said, "Wow you're a real ballet fan" and then went into the history of how the ending has been changed a million times since 1895 and Sergeyev made the ending happy in the 1950's. Vaziev said, "In our version, they don't die, I'm sorry if you were looking for death." Got a laugh from the audience. I got a question in: are they doing a reconstruction a la SB and Bayadere? He said they planned to before the MT got shut down for a year, but now it's not being shut down, and they have vague plans. When he heard my question he drew a breath, like, wow, ballet nerd over there :) Then Viktoria and Igor came out. Some guy asked Igor why men wear tights, and Igor said it started with Nijinsky. Viktoria looked really tired but was very beautiful. She said she started as a gymnast when she was four, but got switched to ballet. Igor said he started dancing when he was 13. Late starter.

Anyway, last time i saw the Kirov in Sleeping Beauty it was a mess. The the corps fell on their butt several times, the jewel fairies in the last act were completely unsynchronized, the performance was just disappointing in every way. Yesterday I felt like all was right and I was seeing the real Kirov at their best, even if it wasn't Lopatkina or Pavlenko.

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I’m finally getting a chance to post some thoughts from the last 3 performances of the Kirov in Swan Lake that I saw in Chicago. Sorry for the long post, but there are just so many details I want to share!

Although I know I’m echoing the thoughts of many others who’ve already posted here, let me say that having been privileged to see 4 performances in a row last weekend I came away again overcome by the beauty of this production and the magnificence of both their corps and the dancers who fill all those small solo & demi roles. I can’t identify most of them but they were all breathtaking, down to the last czardas dancer, the last princess and the last aristocrat way in the back of the stage practically hidden from view during all the action in the first act. Of the soloists I did recognize I believe that Kondurova really was everywhere, and the scale of her dancing drew my eye to her often. Another dancer who seemed to be everywhere is Svetlana Ivanova. This is the first time I really noticed her and she stood out for her bright personality and crisp clean dancing.

The female pairs for the first act pas de trois (the Prince’s friends) were supposed to be Osmolkina/ Golub and Gonchar/ Tkachenko. Tkachenko was also listed as one of the 4 lead swans at all the performances in Chicago but if she was there I didn’t recognize her. I think Daria Sukhorukova may have taken her place (pretty brunette with small, sweet face?). I’m not familiar with her but she was listed for only 1 performance in the pdt on 11/2 so I’d bet she filled in for Tkachenko at the Saturday & Sunday matinees. At any rate – all 4 of the women I saw were wonderful. They all danced with speed, technique, ballon, wonderful phrasing & musicality. The men were both good but I preferred Korsakov to Scherbakov – he had beautiful elevation and élan. Gonchar and Golub also alternated as one of the 2 featured swans and they were both lovely and lyrical.

Andrei Ivanov took the role of the jester at all the performances I saw except the Saturday matinee when we got to see Grigory Popov. He took a slightly more low key approach and had a bit more elevation than Ivanov, but the amazing thing about Ivanov was his speed in the many series of turns, and the details and command of his character.

I got to see 3 different von Rothbarts – Maxim Chashchegorov, Alexander Klimov and Ilya Kuznetsov. All were good, but Kuznetsov was outstanding. The others should take a hint from Kuznetsov and wear dark gloves under their “wings’ – at least for the last scene. It’s tough enough to buy the ripping the wing off deal but it’s even worse when you see a bare hand flapping around.

Despite his eventual triumph, Siegfried really is a thankless role in this production. Of the dancers I saw Korsuntsev and Kolb were probably the best partners. Zelensky seemed a little underpowered but still, what a joy to watch. Despite his boyish looks Sarafanov may have been the most convincing dramatically – he was very much engaged with his partner from the minute he set eyes on his Odette. His jumps were light and high, his line elegant & stretched (as usual) and I’m happy to report that his partnering seems to have improved. I wouldn’t swear that he and Pavlenko didn’t simplify a lift or 2 but I saw no mishaps, and she looked relaxed and happy to be dancing with him. I think my favorite Siegfried was Igor Kolb, who danced with Tereshkina at the Saturday matinee. This was a little surprising since I didn’t like him as Albrecht in Giselle recently, but this time out I noticed how beautiful his line is, what a wonderful, high arabesque he has and how elegant his dancing is in general. He really was a textbook example of the classic danseur noble, and his characterization was very engaging.

As for the O/Os – for me, there is no question but that Lopatkina and Pavlenko are in a class by themselves. The surprise for me was that I liked Tereshkina less than I thought I would, and liked Somova more than I would have guessed -though still not much!

With her soulful face and beautiful epaulment I thought that Tereshkina would be an Odette to remember. In a few years perhaps, but this time out I found her boring. Although her line was beautiful Canbelto said she thought she was having some problems integrating her arm and leg movements and I think she’s right. Anyway, I found both her phrasing and her characterization bland. Her white acts were fine, but very generic. I expected fireworks from her Odile, and she was more interesting here but she had some problems with the fouettees and was noticeably off the music by the time she was halfway through them. Somova was the opposite. I thought I would be ok with a flashy, heel to head Odile but expected to hate her Odette – I just pictured those screechingly high extensions in the 2nd & 4th acts like fingernails on a blackboard. While I wouldn’t call her Odette refined, I really didn’t find her extensions to be much more extreme that Lopatkina’s or Tereshkina’s, and at times she was very beautiful. The problem for me in the white acts was that there was no flow to her dancing. She hit some exquisite poses but the sum effect was very choppy. My biggest problem with Somova was with her 3rd act. It was like she decided to portray Odile as an acrobat and thus showed us some of the UGLIEST images I’ve ever seen at the ballet. In addition to the horrible line of her sky high extensions, her legs seem to be hyperextended. What I mean by this is that when her leg is extended at a 90 degree angle (or thereabout) her toe looked several inches higher than her knee. Not very pretty! I saw scary looking supported jete splits and a hideous 180 degree side developee that she held for 5-6 seconds (to thunderous applause) but her fouettees were the absolute worst. They were fast, but she traveled horizontally and they were so ugly! They looked like Rockette fouettes (no offense to the Rockettes). She kept kicking her working leg out to the side and it would hit the spot and then she’d whip around, bouncing up and down like she was on a pogo stick. The scariest part was that the crowd loved her. Ugh.

In the final Chicago performance Pavlenko provided the perfect antidote to Somova. It didn’t quite reach the same level of emotional power as the last time I saw her in DC with Zelensky, but I think a performance that sublime is extremely rare. This time she was merely extraordinary. Her dancing is lyrical and fluid, her expressive back, torso, neck, head and arms creating a soft, beautiful legato flow that spoke of her longing and despair and complemented her beautiful arabesques and attitudes. Along with the pathos and poignancy of her Odette her humanity always came through. There is something very genuine about her so that even when her dancing is soft and ethereal you still feel such a direct connection to her and to what she is feeling onstage. She and Lopatkina both have very pliant backs & arms, and a similar way of moving so although I could describe them with many of the same words – soft, flowing, warm- their personalities and bodies produce completely different, almost opposite effects. Lopatkina, through all her beauty & sadness is every inch the Queen, while Pavlenko sometimes looked so achingly sad that you just wanted to reach out and comfort her. It was a wonderful performance, the end of a great run in Chicago.

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