Cinderella (Kennedy Center)

[Alexandra]

News brief: According to a Kennedy Center spokesperson, Diana Vishneva is here.

I saw Natalia there -- did anyone else go? l'll say quickly that I liked it -- not perfect, certainly if you're expecting something in the line of "Sleeping Beauty" you may be disappointed. I may have been the only one there who liked it, but I did

[Natalia]

Thanks for starting this, Alexandra.

I'm already on record for -- no exaggeration -- detesting this work. See my reports from the 2002 & 2003 Mariinsky Festivals, elsewhere in this forum (the 2002 one was titled "The Milkman Danceth").

I went last night because it was part of my rather expensive subscription. I stayed through to the end out of respect for the dancers, who did their best (with Sologub and Merkuriev especially magnificent in their three adagios/pdds).

[samba38]

There's trouble when the second act costumes and the 1st act character dancers get all the applause. This was one twisted fairy tale and i'll say that it was at least coherent -- if you want to buy in to that vision.

I was rooting for the prince to pick the step-mother -- who has truly inventive choreography delivered with a punch (literally). At least I was until I saw the prince who will sweep no one off her feet. No chemistry with Cinderella. No chemistry with the audience. And hampered by idiotic costuming that had him dressed initially like a Good Humor salesman (he arrives with an inexplicable grin, too) and then dashing around with a fanny pack at his waist that pretty much wrecks his line. If you're still going, keep your eye on the fairy at the end. There's a nice little narrative treat there, before you're left to wonder why this couple that's supposed to live happily ever after looks so unhappy.

[Natalia]

...... like a Good Humor salesman (he arrives with an inexplicable grin, too) ....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yup - that's my "Milkman"! Exactly what had me in stiches at the premiere of this ballet, 3 yrs ago!

[koshka]

Re Vishneva

I went to watch the master class today (very interesting) and noted that, for what it's worth, the handwritten cast list in the lobby showed Vishneva on for tomorrow.

(Is that gossip? This was a public event and my only "in" was that I can read Russian.)

Natalia-ouch-maybe I should be looking for a worthy recipient for my 2nd ticket (have 2 subscriptions since most companies do 2 different productions)...

[Natalia]

Well, both Alexandra and Sarah Kaufman (today's Post) seem to like it...so maybe you'll enjoy two straight days of this. I've seen it thrice in the span of three years and fell like purchasing a t-shirt labeled "Ratmansky 'Cinders' Survivor"!

The dancing of Sologub and Vishneva is a balm.

Just prepare yourself for a double dose of "milk" (or Good Humor Ice Cream).

[koshka]

OK, I went to last night's performance and, overall, really enjoyed it. Some of the dancing and costuming was weird (e.g., the Seasons guys), but I loooooved the ball scene costumes (solid color, fitted dresses and black tights and pointe shoes for the ladies, something tuxedo-ish for the men).

The prince was a bit garish in bright white. The backpack at the last part is just so weird and cheesy--it's almost like they forgot a piece of the costume and had to raid the dancers' locker room. Couldn't they come up with any better way of having the prince tote the shoe around? Also, I thought the reappearance of the hairdressers at the end was really odd.

These dancers, though, are so beautiful that they look good even doing "ugly".

Vishneva was terrific in every regard.

So, on the question of my second ticket, I am somewhere between "wouldn't part with it for any amount of money" and "I'm throwing it away"--probably right about "If I hear of somebody who's dying to go and can't get/afford a ticket, I might share".

[Mike Gunther]

I saw the Sat. matinee (Golub/Merkuriev), and was disappointed. I'm not at all opposed to high-concept modernism, but this was just a theatre piece, and *so* been-there-done-that, right down to the jungle-gym scaffolding.

Ratmansky's choreography was actually boring to me: a few predictable moves, endlessly repeated. I kept wondering when they were going to stop mugging and start dancing. Glad some of you liked it, but I'd go with (e.g.) Septime Webre's version any day!

Nothing against the dancers, though. I thought Golub quite fetching, and Merkuriev would probably have been brilliant if he hadn't been made to squeeze his grands jetes in between a couple dozen corps members and two center stage pillars.

PS - Anybody else think they really should have called this version "Cinderella's Stepmother?"

[Ari]

This is a rather tardy account of last Thursday's performance.

From everything I'd read beforehand, I knew not to expect a traditional storybook Cinderella. I have nothing against a contemporary staging as long as it's good (I've always wondered why choreographers who make story ballets shy away from setting them in the present), but this one wasn't. Ratmansky showed little instinct for drama and his choreography was vulgar and simplistic. He was more interested in a streamlined narrative than in the plush arrangement of dances and dramatic scenes to engage the large company of superlative dancers and mimes that is the Kirov. When the four (male) seasons were performing their coarse unclassical routines, with those exquisite, tutu-ed corps girls behind them, I mourned the absence of choreography that would have displayed them in all their classical glory. That's what I go to the Kirov to see.

On the plus side, the dancers had an opportunity to show their passionate mime. Irma Nioradze in particular was a scream as the vulgar suburban stepmother, a type all too recognizable. I kept thinking how awkward and self-conscious American dancers would have looked in this.

Diana Vishneva has perfect Cinderella looks -- small, dark, and delicate, with a childlike face. Sad that the ballet offered her such little opportunity to shine. I'm afraid Igor Kolb will never be any kind of Prince Charming for me. The other roles were choreographed so perfunctorily that they didn't offer much scope for interpretation

One other thing -- this is the second time in a year that the Kirov has come to Washington with a ballet traditionally aimed at children but in an emphatically adult-oriented version (the other was The Nutcracker). I have no idea what the children who saw this production made of it, but it would have been only fair to them (and their parents) for the Kennedy Center to have issued some kind of warning about the adult content of the show.

[Natalia]

Ratmansky showed little instinct for drama and his choreography was vulgar and simplistic.  .....[smip].......I mourned the absence of choreography that would have displayed them in all their classical glory.  That's what I go to the Kirov to see.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

RIGHT ON, Ari!

As for your querry, "What did the children think?" I can speak for the many parents in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Washington, DC, with whom I spoke after this past Sunday's Liturgy. As can be imagined, these long-time Kirov-Mariinsky fans (about 75% of them Russian or Serb) told me, without exception, that they were immensely disappointed with the drop of quality (production -- cheap sets/costumes -- AND 'vulgar subject matter') of the Kirov, as seen in this 'Cinderella.' One family from Moscow vowed never again to 'trust' the Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet name for high-quality & family-friendly performances. "What has become of my favorite ballet company?" asked an older, Leningrad-born lady at church who happens to be an art-history professor at a local university (in other words, not exactly a typical 'Red State type' sitting on a Lazy Boy chair).

I ask the same question.

- Natalia Nabatova

[Thalictum]

At least the company danced wonderfully in Cinderella. At the galas many of the principals looked amateurish. I'm in shock that the Kirov could to this to us and to their own reputation.