Nutckracker in spring

[Inga]

On April 9 I saw Nutckracker with Anastasia Goriacheva and Dmitry Gudanov in the Bolshoi’s filial building.

The Filial of the Bolshoi Theatre, so-called New Stage, was opened last autumn. The two buildings stand near each other and have underground communication. Filial stage is smaller than that of the main building so they usually perform there “small” ballets – Giselle, La Fille mal gardee and Nutckacker.

When the Filial was opened it was general disappointment: the acoustics was so awful that people in the orchestra badly hear the singing in operas, but on ballet performances people in the tier hear very well not only bumping when a dancer landed after his jump but also squeak of point shoes when a ballerina moved on her pointes. Stage floor was called very slippery. The auditorium have many places, even expensive ones, from where you see almost nothing or must sit in very uncomfortable position with your nose on dusty border. It seems that in the orchestra the view is good but on the tier you have decent view only from central seats and NOT on the first row. The Bolshoi management is trying to improve something and have some results but to make the auditorium comfortable they should destroy the house and build it anew with more professional architect. The building is decorated very lovely but it cannot help.

It’s unusual to see Nutckracker performed in spring but I liked it anyway. Goriacheva danced Masha with commitment and her personage was beautiful – lovely, tender, modest girl. She is very charming dancer with stage presence and the only drawback I saw was that she was almost the same in the beginning of the ballet and in the end, without developing her character.

Dmitry Gudanov as the leading male was not at his best, he was just a nice boy doing ballet pas but not the Prince at all. His technique was not always secure, and wandering fouette without turnout on the working leg was rather deplorable. Gudanov is very gifted by nature, he always have some charm, but he is uneven dancer.

The rest of the company was good. I like Xenia Pchelkina as the Nutckracker Doll, Yulia Chicheva and Morihiro Ivata as the Chinesse Dolls, Anastasia Yatsenko (Spanish Doll), Gennady Yanin (Russian Doll).