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Bolshoi Ballet "Swan Lake" in L.A., June 7 - 10, 2012


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Many thanks, Cygnet!

The O/O-Siegfried pairs are:

  • 7 June: Anna Nikulina/Semen Chuden
  • 8 June: Ekaterina Krysanova/Ruslan Skvortsov
  • 9 June matinee: Anna Nikulina/Artem Ovcharenko
  • 9 June evening: Ekaterina Krysanova/Ruslan Skvortsov
  • 10 June: Anna Nikulina/Semen Chuden

There's an off chance I might be able to get to this. Should I am for a specific cast?

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Ah thanks for posting! flowers.gif

Disappointing they are only fielding two casts (though my wallet is be grateful). Hopefully the Mariinsky doesn't take this cue when they bring SL down here a few months after. Where is Alexandrova or Zakharova? Or Obratzova?!

I really enjoy both Nikulina and Krysanova though, so I am pleased I get to at least see them! It's interesting they are opening the run with a soloist rather than the principal.

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YID, the DC tour casts (Coppelia) just posted on the KennCen website:

PRINCIPAL CASTING (subject to change)

Tue., May 29 & Fri., Jun. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Sun., Jun. 3 at 1:30 p.m.

Swanilda: Nina Kaptsova

Franz: Artem Ovcharenko

Dr. Coppelius: Alexey Loparevich

Czardas: Kristina Karaseva, Vitaly Biktimirov (5/29, 6/3), Pavel Dmitrichencko (6/1), Anna Antropova

Wed., May 30 & Sat., Jun. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Swanilda: Maria Aleksandrova

Franz: Ruslan Skvortov

Dr. Coppelius: Alexey Loparevich

Czardas: Kristina Karaseva, Pavel Dmitrichenko, Anna Antropova

Thu., May 31 at 7:30 p.m. and Sat., Jun. 2 at 1:30 p.m.

Swanilda: Anastasia Stashkevich

Franz: Vyacheslav Lopatin

Dr. Coppelius: Alexey Loparevich

Czardas: Kristina Karaseva, Vitaly Biktimirov, Anna Antropova

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p.s. Are they going to Toronto? [ Answering my own Q - YES, the tour starts in Toronto with Swan Lake.] I know that they'll be in Ottawa with Don Q the week before the Kennedy Center Coppelias. No casting for the Canada Swan Lakes and DQs yet. This tour's casts are being announced in reverse order, it seems.

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I was certainly planning on going, but when I finally went to buy tickets last week the run was entirely sold out (called this morning to confirm and see if anything was returned). I kept waiting to see how the casts held to get them, and well...lost out. I'm a little shocked as ballet never sells out in LA/OC and I usually am a last minute ticket buyer to no detriment to availability of seating or performance. I'm guessing it's the Black Swan effect, and I will plan much better for when the Mariinsky shows up with their SL in the fall if this is how it's going to be!! wallbash.gif

Hopefully this means the Bolshoi get a repeat invite asap from the Music Center and for a longer run than 4 days.

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The Bolshoi opened tonight to a sold out Dorothy Chandler Pavillion for the first time since 2000. Yuri Grigorovich’s version has been nipped and tucked, edited and tweaked several times since it’s 1969 premiere. The last time I saw this version, it was in the old historical theatre, and at that time the standard Soviet happy ending was required. What has happened with his most recent edit (circa 2001), is that he’s done away with the happy ending, love does not triumph at the end, the heroine is an abstraction who is, (in theory), almost inconsequential, and the hero is left to agonize over what might have been. Grigorovich doesn’t even let Siegfried die from the psychological stress as he does in Nureyev's version. Siegfried is left alone by the lake, where his dream becomes an eternal nightmare because the end, well, is ... open ended. Also, the musical edit that replaces the composer’s original denouement, takes us back to the penultimate section of the overture and the impending doom of the final notes of scene 2. Now that I’ve revealed the spoiler and worked backwards from the finale - to the dancing.

I am pleased to report that the Bolshoi is in fantastic shape and they all danced beautifully tonight! I found myself watching the corps de ballet in Acts 1 and 2, with a smile on my face: The swans (24 of them), were faultless as were the medieval courtiers. When Grigorovich made his Petipa redactions, he liked to cram everything into two acts with one intermission, along with major cuts in the scores. He’s also done this with his version of “Romeo & Juliet.” Tonight some of these were jarring, there were more musical edits dating after 2001 to these ears, but this did not detract from the glorious harmony and heroic style that the company is famous for. The company danced their “Swan Lake” and they served it up like a grand banquet, regaling the audience with the true Bolshoi spirit and style. The Bolshoi dancers "super-sized" the audience, and the stage simply was not large enough to contain all of the technique that poured forth from the newest member of the corps to the principals.

The Cast: The Princess Mother, Ekaterina Barykina strode with her ladies in stately, majestic unison. The Evil Genius, Pavel Dmitrichenko mirrored the line, intensity and virtuosity of Semyon Chudin’s Prince. The Fool, Vyacheslav Lopatin was technically marvelous and funny - which is not always the case with Russian jesters. He received both gasps at his feats and laughs at his antics. The pas de trois was danced by Chudin, a very promising novice named Anzhelina Vorontsova and Anna Tikhomirova. Of the two ladies, it was Vorontsova that shown. She is very light, aerial, graceful and utterly charming and secure. Tikhomirova was more fleet, but without the characterization that Vorontstova brought to the piece. Vorontsova also excelled as the Russian Bride in the ballroom scene. The Hungarian Bride, Yulia Grebenshchikova; Spanish Bride, Anastasia Meskova; the Neaopolitan Bride, Daria Khoklova; and the Polish Bride, Yanina Parienko, each devoured the space and the stage with their fiendishly difficult variations. The Act 1 waltz (which was liberally cut in strategic spots), was led by Anna Okuneva, Yanina Parienko, Anastasia Meskova, Anna Rebetskaya, Karim Abdullin, Denis Rodkin, Artemiy Belyakov and Mikhail Kryuchkov. The Master of Ceremonies was played by Alexander Fadeechev.

Grigorovich’s 2001 production focuses completely on Siegfried. If any of you ever have the chance to experience Semyon Chudin live in anything, do not hesitate to see him! This Siegfried took over this ballet from start to finish. Chudin hi-jacked this performance. He danced this role like a man possessed, and that is what is really needed in this version. Kudos to Sergei Filin for bringing him along when he left the Artistic Directorship of the Stanislavsky to assume the post at the Bolshoi. Where to begin? Chudin’s leaps were effortless; his landings clean, soft, feline and silent; his line and technique, all the details and semantics - exemplary; his commitment to Grigorovich’s conception of the role, total.

Grigorovich has succeeded in reducing Odette/Odile to an abstraction, or at best, Siegfried’s ideal obsession which haunts him and is forever out of his reach. When you have a ballerina who disagrees with that concept and actually believes in the original plot, and dances like she believes in the original plot, and ‘marries’ this traditional interpretation with a premier danseur like Chudin, you have a ballerina who is making a powerful statement. Tonight, Leading Soloist Anna Nikulina served notice that she is here and she is a force to be reckoned with. Her Odette was very feminine, traditional and a frightened and at times agitated in her opening monologue with Siegfried, but, how can I say this? She was beautifully agitated. It was unbelievable how she achieved that effect, but she did. The white pas de deux and her variation were beautifully executed, and she has lovely arms and hands. Throughout the evening Nikulina was totally in control. In Scene 2 Chudin partnered her with care and lifted her like a soufflé. The cygnets, Svetlana Pavlova, Yulia Lunkina, Maria Prorvich and Daria Khokhlova were perfectly matched in height, temperament and technique. The three swans, Yulia Grebenshchikova, Olga Marchenkova and Ana Turazashvili, weren’t matched as well as the cygnets, but they maintained the high level of artistry. The 24 swans had unanimity of impulse.

In the ballroom scene Nikulina’s Odile was a technical marvel. She's obviously more at home as the evil twin; she is a natural Odile. Chudin was totally focused on her, and danced for her. The pas de deux was very physical and full of virtuosity. In Odile’s variation, Nikulina’s piourettes were fast as lightening – very secure, she didn’t falter. The fouttees were a demonically fast series of one, then the triple – this combo no less than five times, before settling in to conclude with doubles and triples and finishing en pointe in fifth. Needless to say, that tore the roof off the house. After this we immediately return to the lake of Siegfried’s imagination. I’ve already described the finale.

The Music Corner: The local orchestra, christened in the program in all caps as“ THE ORCHESTRA OF THE BOLSHOI BALLET” acquitted themselves well. During the ballroom scene the brass section played a few notes that the composer didn’t write, but they followed conductor Pavel Klinichev’s baton ably 99.999% of the time.

Opening Night Performance Trivia: During the coda, Tikhomirova was conspicuously absent after her variation i.e. disappeared. The pas de trois became a pas de deux and ended as such. During intermission when I told my seat mate that something must have happened but they completed the Act and Alexei Loparevich’s Tutor and Vorontsova and Chudin covered this incident extremely well, he said, “ . . . I'm very much into opera, but I'm really enjoying myself tonight. I didn’t know anything happened. Wouldn’t that be like a diva leaving the stage in the middle of a love duet? You couldn't help but notice that.” No kidding huh.png.

Nikulina alternates Odette/Odile with Ekaterina Krysanova, and Chudin alternates Siegfried with Artem Ovcharenko through Sunday’s closing matinee June 10. There was an 8 minute (approx.) standing ovation – Brava Bolshoiclapping.gifflowers.gif !

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Thanks so much for this detailed report, Cygnet! WOW at the Pas de Trois coda incident that became a pdd for Vorontsova and Chudin! Vorontsova and Tikhomirova were both outstanding in their solos in the DC Coppelias.

It's great to read that beautiful Nikulina was totally 'on' as Odette/Odile. She saved the best for the last stop of the tour!

Edited - note about Krysanova performance...still hoping for a report from someone else lucky enough to have nabbed tix to alterante cast.

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