I went to the Kirov's Bayadere Monday night. I was expecting a night to remember. Well, it was .... I thought it would never end. I have flown a thousand miles 4 times in the past two months to see the ABT Gala, the Bolshoi in Washington, Jaffe's retirement performance, the final night of ABT and opening night of the Kirov; so, obviously I'm a ballet fan. If I couldn't wait for it to end, you can imagine how all the attendees felt who had been dragged there by a fan. It was interminable. We stayed till the bitter end (11:45).
By the THIRD intermission, at least one quarter of the people on the Grand Tier had bolted. There is too much pantomime and too little dancing in the 1st two acts. Gamzatti didn't strap on her point shoes till Act 4. Remove the point shoes from the ballerinas and you've lost me. No one can possibly sustain interest with that many intermissions - two is pushing it, three is ridiculous.
I bought the tickets a few months ago and hoped to see Vishneva in the flesh, but no such luck due to casting changes. Svetlana Zhakarova (sp??), despite her distractingly high extensions, was a lovely Nikiya. The legendary corps was less than I expected - have seen better corps work from the Bolshoi and Paris Opera Ballet.
There were many Russians in the audience (and none of them left during intermission). Perhaps we Americans do only have the attention span of a gnat. As my husband muttered during the third intermission -what this thing needs now is a car chase and some gunfire. I hated to admit I was as sick of it as he.