avesraggiana

I finally, finally managed to watch the entire thirty minute clip. The tone of the whole coaching session was set wirhin the first two minutes. Lopatkina has just finished the series of supported developees devant followed by a deep, falling backbend into Siegfried's arms and Makarova interrupts them and says to Lopatkina, "you're very business-like". With that withering observation, the battle of diva-wills was on. The truth is, Makarova was absolutely spot on. For all its formal beauty and avian mannerisms, Lopatkina's Odette has always struck me as a study in over-coaching and a series of carefully studied effects. Her Odette doesn't breathe. All anyone has to do is watch any video recording of Makarova's Odette/Odile to see right away that SHE lived and breathed those roles from start to finish. It's also interesting to note that Lopatkina was a protégée of Natalia Dudinskaya, a ballerina that Natalia Makarova did not hold in such high esteem, according to her autobiography. .

One Makarova touch I do miss, that I've never since another ballerina do, is Odette's very first entrance in Act II. Captured on video, the music builds, Siegfried points his crossbow upstage and aims, the audience holds its collective breath and then really, waterfowl-like, Makarova alights on the stage with a run-run-run-grand jete, landing in fourth croise, her head down in a forward bend. It's really an arresting moment and it's easy to visualize a swan breaking her descent and alighting on a lake. Nobody else seems to do this, with the Russian ballerinas favouring instead a bent-knee, stork-like walk-walk-walk, followed by a split-jete en place and then a body flop over the front leg, like Siegfried really had shot her down...it's all very anticlimactic and kind of kills it for me. Another Makarova touch that I love is when she first encounters Prince Siegfried. She throws her hands up to her face in fright, and snaps her legs closed in sous-sus, her whole body trembling literally from the tips of her stuttering pointes to the top of her tiara. The moment last milli-seconds but the meaning it conveys tells a thousand words. Years ago, I saw a video of Makarova coaching a Royal Festival Ballet ballerina preparing for Odette and in coaching the scene I just described above, I distinctly remember Makarova telling the ballerina, "show me, show me with your WHOLE body...". It was Makarova teaching what she herself practised. I'm not at all advocating that all prima ballerinas imitate Makarova but rather, suggest that they would do well to emulate her example and find their own way to communicate their story using THEIR whole body.

I clicked on the video link but it was not available. I watched a two minute clip on youtube and even that short video, I could sense Lopatkina's resistance. She would have been wiser to make use of Makarova's suggestions. I think it would have softened her interpretation of Odette considerably, making her Odette more "organic", more full-bodied.

I've never been a fan of Lopatkina's, and I've seen her live and on the 2006 DVD. I do agree wholeheartedly with you, however. For a ballerina as prodigiously talented as Lopatkina and for whom Swan Lake has become a signature role, I hope, I really, really, hope that before her career ends, she will free herself from that truly vexing and totally unnecessary Soviet-era "happy ending". I agree with your observation that Lopatkina doesn't believe in it herself and isn't very successful in hiding it. It's been over twenty years since Glasnost and the break up of the Soviet Union. You would think that the directorial powers that be at the Maryinsky and Bolshoi, would open up their thinking about the staging of Act IV, and fashion something more closely attuned to to what Tchaikovsky and his librettists intended.

I've never seen Plisetskaya's Odile, sadly for me. The best Odile I've seen from a dramatic point of view is oddly enough, Makarova, which might sound like I'm contradicting you. I saw Makarova live, in Swan Lake only once but I've watched her video performance with Anthony Dowell many, many times. And I have to tell you, I haven't seen an Odile surpassing her from the point of view of dramatic power, ever. I'm speaking now of the younger crop of ballerinas. They all have the looks, the turns, the balances, the high extensions but none I've seen seem to be able to inhabit the role completely the way Makarova did. Makarova was not a powerhouse technician by any stretch of the imagination and her turns were never a testament to unshakeable bravura. But, and I think the blocking of the action in Act Three helps with this, her entrance with Von Rothbart could stop an entire city block. One of the oddities of the Russian productions of Swan Lake I've seen is the early introduction of Von Rothbart and Odile in Act Three. The curtain rises, the march starts, the music changes, then Odile and Von Rothbart make their entrance, bow to the Queen, scarcely acknowledge Siegfried, and then run off for twenty minutes! To where? and for what? The productions of SL that I got to see Makarova perform, and captured beautifully on tape in her performance with Anthony Dowell, has the diabolical duo make an arresting uninvited entrance right in the middle of the festivities. They make their introductions to the Queen Mother, Siegfried is astounded and overjoyed that "Odette" has shown up, and with one half-turn of her body to face him and a baleful and penetrating stare, Odile lets Siegfried take her hand, and with that one gut-wrenching key change in the music, the pas de deux begins. I'll refrain from raving on and on about the pas de deux itself, other than to mention the sharpness of Odile's attack, Odile's ravishing but brittle backbends and her brazen flirtation with Siegfried. Finally, Makarova's and Von Rothbart's exit from the ballroom is every bit as gripping as their entrance. All of this is captured on film in that 1982 Royal Ballet production. I've watched other performances on tape and now, on DVD but none have risen to the same level, as far as dramatic impact is concerned, in the Ballroom Scene. I find myself going back to the Makarova-Dowell performance over and over again. The more time passes and the more performances I watch, either live or recorded, the more I realize what a singular Odette/Odile Makarova was, and how even more effective her dramatic powers were enhanced, when she was paired with Anthony Dowell.

I'm still partial to any production with the tragic ending, which I believe, is what the music calls for. The least problematic Act IV double-suicide I've seen is captured in the Makarova-Dowell Royal Ballet Swan Lake video from 1982. They both just run in a diagonal and exit upstage with one final grand jete. Very simple, no possibility of getting tripped up while climbing steps to the top of a rocky cliff and then jumping off. This is how many tragic-ending Swan Lakes manage the double suicide and I don't think it works very well. First, it stops the momentum of the action, and it looks a little hokey. I saw Cynthia Gregory and Martine Van Hamel throw themselves off a cliff, and in a later Royal Ballet production, Darcey Bussell and Viviana Durante. None of the four ballerinas, as great as their dramatic powers were, could quite pull it off. Hands down, the most beautiful corps de ballet dancing in Act IV is the Maryinsky/Kirov. Those women really breathe as one; how on Earth do they develop those uniformly beautiful Russian backs? This corps de ballet, especially in Swan Lake, has that quality, much to be envied and admired by other companies - presence. This corps de ballet has presence, that "It" factor that makes you unable to take your eyes off them. I believe, every time I've witnessed a live performance of the Kirov/Maryinsky Swan Lake, the audience bursts into spontaneous applause when the curtain rises on Act IV. With their beautifully placed backs, shoulders, arms, heads and hands, the corps earns applause just by posing there. It's really a magical moment, as if time itself has stopped. Now if they could only get rid of that detestable jester, and the rip-the-wing-off-silly-Happy Ending...

Simon, Thanks for your reply, all your points are very well taken. I’ve decided that trying to explain the difference in what I see in that video clip, to people who do not know the difference, and who don’t care, is trying to convert them and I’m simply not about to expend any energy doing that. It’s probably why I’ve not responded to that question. I don’t think I could articulate my thoughts in such a way that would not seem confrontational, intellectually arrogant or snobby. Until I do, I’ll stay out of the fray. Arnel

Thanks, Diane. I was coming around to the same conclusion as yourself. Ballet is more about the emphasis, than the technique. If the point of the performance is to tell a story or evoke a mood or emotion, and the body is being used to convey it in the most beautiful and expressive way possible, then it’s ballet. If the point of the performance is astound us with physical daring and hold us breathless with acrobatic stunts as you put it, then it’s not. Of course the elements of suspense and thrill are present in both, and this is where it gets tricky. How many of us have held our breath, white knuckling it in our seats, wondering if the evening’s Aurora will make it through all four attitude balances? or been left bug eyed and slack-jawed when Odile/Kitri/Gamzattii/etc caps off a string of double and triple fouettes with a sextuple fouette ending in sous-sus?! However when the bravura performance becomes more about, “Look Ma, No Hands!” instead of “I’m trying to physically express something in the most beautiful way possible”, then it becomes circus acrobatics, or gymnastics. How many gymnasts have we seen break form on the balance beam and still earn near perfect 10s, or ignore pages and pages of music before barreling through her final tumbling pass? Okay, I’ve ranted enough. Thanks for your input, Diane. A.N.

I'm looking forward to it, too. Suzanne Farrell's company must be bigger than I had originally imagined. Diamonds is a big-cast ballet. Not to take anything away from Ms. Farrell, who I know originated the ballerina role, the most impressive performances of "Jewels" that I've witnessed in the last five years have been by the Kirov/Maryinsky and the Paris Opera Ballet. The least impressive and most sloppy and disappointing, by the New York City Ballet. Wendy Whelan fought mightily to save the ballerina role and mostly succeeded. Her overweight and out of condition partner, Nilas Martins, was an added embarrassment to the whole evening. The corps de ballet? Typical NYCB messy, careless and seemingly not that interested in doing a good job. A real pity.

I've come in for quite a beating from the other posters on this video clip. The video shows a truly impressive acrobatic, circus, contortionist performance, set to Act Four music from Swan Lake. It's astounding, actually, what these acrobats can do, particularly the lead female, performing in a white unitard and pointe shoes, and turning and balancing on her partner's head! The point I made and for which I've been getting criticism is that, for all its impressiveness, this was still not ballet. I was accused of being elitist, snobby, and arrogant for determining what was art and what was not, and what was ballet and what was not. Finally, someone directly challenged me and asked me to "define" ballet, and to explain why this particular circus performance, as mightily impressive as it was, did not qualify. I have yet to reply to this challenge. Does anyone have any ideas on how to answer the question, "define ballet"? All I can say is that I know it, when I see it. If you take the trouble to view this video clip, just search for it the way I've typed it in the Topic Description, you might come to the same or different conclusion. Inspite of the misshapen tutus worn by the "corps de ballet", inspite of the use of ballet technique and pointe shoes, the whole performance was STILL not ballet to me. Can anyone tell me why, or why not? Thanks.

Did Yulia Makhalina retire in the end, or is she left just to languish too?