Mariinsky at BAM 2015

[Amour]

Cinderella. Nope. A big nothing of a ballet. I got it a few days ago on DVD so I was not surprised tonight but still it was a disappointment.

The sets and costumes are very minimal. They have a sort of industrial look, like Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The story is very confusing though. If I hadn't seen the Ashton and Kudelka versions I'd be totally lost. Who are the four seasons and why are they here? (There were none in previous versions, if I recall correctly) I understood that the prince runs into some prostitutes during his journey to find Cinderella but who were the guys in blue and black? Gay men? Trans? You couldn't tell from the dancing and the program notes did not enlighten us.

Now the dancing/choreography. Well there's not much in Act 1 except for the stepmother and stepsisters. I have to say I thought Kondaurova (even if she was wasted in the role) was spectacular. Her long limbs flying up to her head or her foot pounding the floor in petulance. Lots of pointe work and pirouettes. And, with a crazy orange wig, a funny yet shrew like cartoon character. I like the dancing of Zverev (the Prince) more than I did in London. It was clean (tour, pirouettes) and I like his upper body elegance.. The choreography for the Prince was nothing to write home about though. Though I didn't understand the function of the seasons, I liked their choreography and dancing. (They were:spring-Tkachenko,summer-Latypov,autumn-Ivkin winter-Solovyov) I've only seen Tkachenko as the Jester in SL before so it was nice to see him in a role a little more interesting. I also liked Latypov. Natalia has said he is a recent Vaganova graduate, so I was pleased at his strong technique (He was behind the music, though). He is also very slender and so vaguely reminded me of a young Farukh Ruzimatov. The other 2 seasons -Ivkin and Solovyov - were also very good. Unfortunately, the dancing for the corps was dull and failed to show their talents at all (the ballroom dances). What a waste.

About Diana. She is very beautiful and, as abatt says, dances with fluidity and plasticity. However, I've begun to feel that a "sameness" has crept into her ballet portrayals. A sweet, young girlish demeanor. Tonight's Cinderella was very much like her R&J. Also her Act 1 of Giselle. I also feel she doesn't really look like she fits into today's Mariinsky. I think as a result of her constant guesting, a kind of "international style" may have crept into her dancing. Or perhaps the Mariinsky style has evolved and just isn't what it was in 1996 (I think the year she graduated). In any case, while I thought many of the passages she danced (there is one nice solo) were beautiful, they looked a bit like someone not in the company was dancing them (i have even worse problems with non-Vaganova trained Mariinsky dancers like Parish, Skorik and Bondareva).

On the basis of all this, if you don't have tickets to this ballet don't try to go. You're not really missing anything. If you have them (especially more than one cast) consider selling.

[Natalia]

Cinderella. Nope. A big nothing of a ballet. I got it a few days ago on DVD so I was not surprised tonight but still it was a disappointment.

The sets and costumes are very minimal. They have a sort of industrial look, like Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The story is very confusing though. If I hadn't seen the Ashton and Kudelka versions I'd be totally lost. Who are the four seasons and why are they here? (There were none in previous versions......

Now you know why I call this the Original El Cheapo production. I first wrote "El cheapo" at an Internet cafe on Nevsky Prospekt the morning after witnessing the premiere of this ballet at the 2002 Mariinsky Festival. Now New Yorkers can "enjoy" the scaffolding.

Cinderella. Nope. A big nothing of a ballet. I got it a few days ago on DVD so I was not surprised tonight but still it was a disappointment.

The sets and costumes are very minimal. They have a sort of industrial look, like Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The story is very confusing though. If I hadn't seen the Ashton and Kudelka versions I'd be totally lost. Who are the four seasons and why are they here? (There were none in previous versions......

Now you know why I call this the Original El Cheapo Ratmansky production. I first wrote "El cheapo" at an Internet cafe on Nevsky Prospekt the morning after witnessing the premiere of this ballet at the 2002 Mariinsky Festival. Now New Yorkers can "enjoy" the scaffolding and flimsy polyester ball "gowns"!

By the way, the notion of the Cinderella fairies representing the four seasons goes back to Zakharov's original version to the Prokofiev score, at the Bolshoi. Ashton's version came shortly thereafter, also with the season fairies. In those older versions, the fairies are women; Ratmansky's are men.

[mimsyb]

Cinderella. Nope. A big nothing of a ballet. I got it a few days ago on DVD so I was not surprised tonight but still it was a disappointment.

The sets and costumes are very minimal. They have a sort of industrial look, like Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The story is very confusing though. If I hadn't seen the Ashton and Kudelka versions I'd be totally lost. Who are the four seasons and why are they here? (There were none in previous versions......

Now you know why I call this the Original El Cheapo production. I first wrote "El cheapo" at an Internet cafe on Nevsky Prospekt the morning after witnessing the premiere of this ballet at the 2002 Mariinsky Festival. Now New Yorkers can "enjoy" the scaffolding.

Cinderella. Nope. A big nothing of a ballet. I got it a few days ago on DVD so I was not surprised tonight but still it was a disappointment.

The sets and costumes are very minimal. They have a sort of industrial look, like Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The story is very confusing though. If I hadn't seen the Ashton and Kudelka versions I'd be totally lost. Who are the four seasons and why are they here? (There were none in previous versions......

Now you know why I call this the Original El Cheapo Ratmansky production. I first wrote "El cheapo" at an Internet cafe on Nevsky Prospekt the morning after witnessing the premiere of this ballet at the 2002 Mariinsky Festival. Now New Yorkers can "enjoy" the scaffolding and flimsy polyester ball "gowns"!

By the way, the notion of the Cinderella fairies representing the four seasons goes back to Zakharov's original version to the Prokofiev score, at the Bolshoi. Ashton's version came shortly thereafter, also with the season fairies. In those older versions, the fairies are women; Ratmansky's are men.

Mathew Bourne in his version of "Sleeping Beauty" also had a few of the fairies in the Prologue danced by men. I guess ballet is an equal opportunity venture!

[canbelto]

All the versions I've seen of Cinderella have seasons variations.

[mussel]

The "scaffolding" was originally designed as NYC fire escapes for a West Side Story Suite production, when it didn't pan out, it's recycled for Cinderella.

[Drew]

The "scaffolding" was originally designed as NYC fire escapes for a West Side Story Suite production, when it didn't pan out, it's recycled for Cinderella.

I thought the spare, scaffolding designs worked for Cinderella's home--which, in this version, is supposed to be sort of West Side Story-ish--but looked thin (as Natalia said 'cheap') and absent any beautiful sense of contrast in the ballroom scene.

I also thought the choreography for the seasons included some of the more interesting in the ballet. Having them dance variations under aegis of fairy godmother is not unusual, but having them serve as tutelary spirits for the whole ballet is -- at least to my knowledge.

[Natalia]

The "scaffolding" was originally designed as NYC fire escapes for a West Side Story Suite production, when it didn't pan out, it's recycled for Cinderella.

I thought the spare, scaffolding designs worked for Cinderella's home--which, in this version, is supposed to be sort of West Side Story-ish--but looked thin (as Natalia said 'cheap') and absent any beautiful sense of contrast in the ballroom scene.

I also thought the choreography for the seasons included some of the more interesting in the ballet. Having them dance variations under aegis of fairy godmother is not unusual, but having them serve as tutelary spirits for the whole ballet is -- at least to my knowledge.

Drew, I thought about 'West Side Story' tenants at first but how many people living in tenements have dancing teachers or hair dressers making housecalls?

[Natalia]

The "scaffolding" was originally designed as NYC fire escapes for a West Side Story Suite production, when it didn't pan out, it's recycled for Cinderella.

I thought the spare, scaffolding designs worked for Cinderella's home--which, in this version, is supposed to be sort of West Side Story-ish--but looked thin (as Natalia said 'cheap') and absent any beautiful sense of contrast in the ballroom scene.

I also thought the choreography for the seasons included some of the more interesting in the ballet. Having them dance variations under aegis of fairy godmother is not unusual, but having them serve as tutelary spirits for the whole ballet is -- at least to my knowledge.

Drew, I thought about 'West Side Story' low-income tenants at first but how many people living in tenements have dancing teachers or hair dressers making housecalls?

[Drew]

Drew, I thought about 'West Side Story' tenants at first but how many people living in tenements have dancing teachers or hair dressers making housecalls?

I suppose you are right--it doesn't quite compute--but...well...they are social climbers. Anyway, I bought the designs for the Cinderella home; for the ballroom scene--not so much.

[Amour]

Didn't like the ballet last night but oh, it was so much worse today without Vishneva and Kondaurova (instead we had Matvienko and Petushkova). The one saving grace was Sergeyev as the Prince. He's great!

[Amour]

Just found out from Leena Hassan that Sergeyev is scheduled to dance in St. Petersburg this Friday. So I guess Sunday was his only performance on this U.S. tour. Very sad and perplexing. Why bring a dancer for just 1 performance? Anyway, I'm glad I got to see him.

[canbelto]

What was sadder was seeing the ever-radiant Yana Selina dance the third act "dancing girl" in Ratmansky's Cinders. I first saw Yana Selina maybe 10 years ago and she was so beautiful and radiant. 10 years later her smile still lights up the entire auditorium ... and she's still dancing smaller variations.

[Natalia]

Canbelto, I agree about Selina. However, a very specific reason cited by Russia-based, long-time company followers is that Selina has odd proportions, specifically, short arms and (at times in her career) hefty bust. The shortish arms is what I've heard most often.

[canbelto]

Thanks Natalia. She's still such a beautiful dancer.

I echo everyone else's thoughts about the remarkable Lopatkina SL. I also am bummed that her "older" SL is the one that got preserved on video. That's a very beautiful performance, but very careful. I like the freer, more emotional SL she danced on Friday. For instance in the video she enters with short careful steps and no grande jete. Friday night it was fast skimming bourrees and then big grande jete.

A couple of other standouts:

Ekaterina Kondaurova as Stepmother! Wow wow wow she was the only part of Ratmansky's Cinderella that worked, IMO. A Real Housewife of the Neva type. Hilarious.

Viktoria Brileva was excellent as the dancing instructor.

Yekaterina Ivannikova stood out as the superior stepsister.

[Swanilda8]

I couldn't disagree more about Ratmansky's Cinderella. This is one of my absolutely favorite ballet productions. I saw it once five years ago in St. Petersburg and loved it, and I loved it even more on Saturday night. To me, Ratmansky absolutely realizes Prokofiev's score in the most amazing and powerful manner. There's so much wickedness and darkness in the score, and Ratmansky, rather than relegating that to a corner of the ballet, allows it to expand and take up everything. It suggests that the high society that Cinderella and the Prince encounter is grotesque, and that perhaps they are too. The depiction of first love is exquisite and visceral, but not necessarily a promise of happiness ever after. It's a production that forces me to think about it for days, weeks, months afterwards.

I'm surprised by the accusation that there's no dancing as well, since it seems to me that there is practically only dancing and very little pantomime. Ratmansky reacts to the score both as a formal structure and a narrative and emotional backdrop for his story.

I also love the sets and costumes - to me the clock/chandelier effect with Prokofiev's midnight music is bone chilling. And I adore the four seasons and the Fairy godmother.

There are a few elements of the production that don't work as well - the travelling scene in the third act isn't great, although I do appreciate the attempt to move away from the exoticist depiction of India and Spain there.

Saturday night, Kondaurova was perfectly vicious as the stepmother and Vishneva exquisite as Cinderella. Gergiev's conducting was great for the music although it seemed a little frenetic in places for the choreography (the dancers dealt with it like pros, however, and there were no mistakes, just a couple of sections where I thought they looked frazzled).

I would highly recommend this production to anyone - though that just goes to show that everyone's taste is different.

[canbelto]

My least favorite thing about Ratmansky's Cinderella (and this is true of a lot of other Cinderellas) is he shows the stepsisters' "wickedness" by having them act like very bad dancers. But the perfect turnout and careful port de bras of Ekaterina Ivannikova and Margarita Frolova are well-trained Vaganova grads. It doesn't work, and it's not funny.

Frederick Ashton sidesteps this problem by making the stepsisters wonderful dancers. In travesti, and in the British music hall tradition, but they are great dancers and the audience laughs along with them.

[Amour]

What was sadder was seeing the ever-radiant Yana Selina dance the third act "dancing girl" in Ratmansky's Cinders. I first saw Yana Selina maybe 10 years ago and she was so beautiful and radiant. 10 years later her smile still lights up the entire auditorium ... and she's still dancing smaller variations.

Speaking of smiles, what about Oxana Marchuk. She is noticeable to me because of her smile whenever she's on stage. Sunday she was one of the spring fairy's sidekicks. Too bad she's still in the corps:(

[Waelsung]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/arts/mariinsky-ballet-in-cinderella-under-alexei-ratmansky.html?ref=arts&_r=0

According to the NYTimes main dancing connoiseur, an ardent hater of classical ballet and an even more ardent Ratmansky's champion, Daria Pavlenko danced the Stepmother on Sunday. Does he even attend the events he writes about?

OTOH, I did draw some satisfaction from the fact that even he could not unabashedly defend this hideous production and had to inject his usual Ratmansky's exaltation with at least some criticism. Coming from him, it speaks volumes.

[Cygnet]

" . . . Does he even attend the events he writes about?

))))!

[Amour]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/arts/mariinsky-ballet-in-cinderella-under-alexei-ratmansky.html?ref=arts&_r=0

According to the NYTimes main dancing connoiseur, an ardent hater of classical ballet and an even more ardent Ratmansky's champion, Daria Pavlenko danced the Stepmother on Sunday. Does he even attend the events he writes about?

OTOH, I did draw some satisfaction from the fact that even he could not unabashedly defend this hideous production and had to inject his usual Ratmansky's exaltation with at least some criticism. Coming from him, it speaks volumes.

I tweeted the NYT arts section that he didn't even know the right casting.

The good news is maybe now that NYCB is in season (he was at opening night, as were Lopatkina, her coach and Andrei Yermakov) he won't go back to BAM again.

BTW, a little off topic but Yermakov is really tall. I would say about 6'4". And very narrow and slender. It's not so evident on stage but in real life you can pick him out of a crowd because he's a head taller.

Now, did anyone see Batoeva and Shklyarov in Cinderella? Please post.

[YID]

Amour, (most likely thanks to your tweet), they published a correction under the article.

I hope i will post more soon, but just a couple of point about Friday's Swan Lake - Ulyana Lopatkina was beyond magical. Such a swan-queen, the best (imho). I expected her to be great, but even i was swept away by her artistry (grounded in solid technique) and absolute musicality and attention to details. BRAVO. Ivanchenko was better than I expected. His line is great, and he acted more human and passionate than what i remember of him before. But again, the night belonged to Lopatkina. Long artistic life and health to her and other members of Mariinsky.

[MadameP]

Amour, (most likely thanks to your tweet), they published a correction under the article.

I hope i will post more soon, but just a couple of point about Friday's Swan Lake - Ulyana Lopatkina was beyond magical. Such a swan-queen, the best (imho). I expected her to be great, but even i was swept away by her artistry (grounded in solid technique) and absolute musicality and attention to details. BRAVO. Ivanchenko was better than I expected. His line is great, and he acted more human and passionate than what i remember of him before. But again, the night belonged to Lopatkina. Long artistic life and health to her and other members of Mariinsky.

Long artistic life and health indeed to Lopatkina! I love that sentiment! I feel honoured every time I see a performance by this great ballerina, at the peak of her artistic and interpretative powers. I look forward to reading your review.

[YID]

You know what - i have just reread PoisonIvy blog about the Friday Swan Lake with Ulyana Lopatkina, and I would ECHO everything what she wrote. http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2015/01/swan-heaven-mariinsky-arrives-in-bam.html The only tiny difference is that I EXPECTED Ulyana to be great (having seen her Swan lake in Saint Petersburg recently, and having seen her in classical ballets (in her home theater) over last several years). Looks like she's only performing better. Though the word perform kinda doesn't suit her, she LIVES ON STAGE in her roles. But also, despite my "expecting" her to be great, she overwhelmed me (and all my friends and collegues).

[Waelsung]

A couple of brief words on the Jan. 21 performance.

Askerov was somewhat better than in the cinemacast, but almost dropped Kondaurova at the beginning of Act III. At the thought of what would transpire I gasped, but, thanks Terpsichore, the disaster was averted, although some E.K.'s steps became tentative as if she was testing whether or not she'd been injured. She regained her confidence later on.

Yermakov was a fantastic Rothbart, so overpowering and menacing, gave me chills.

Kondaurova did the dualism and drama of the O/O like probably nobody else today. She was truly the Fire and Ice, and the kiss she gave Siegfried at the end of Act II felt like a kiss of death, even from where I was sitting.

The first renverse of Act III was absolutely gut-wrenching, turned everything inside out. Fouettes took EK all over the stage (not her strongest suit and never has been), but Odille was evil incarnate regardless.

No Gergiev meant much more predictable tempi and no injuries - pas-de-trois was performed in its entirety as a result.

Overall, a very passionate, dramatic rendition that had nothing in commmon with what I saw last Friday. Totally different story.

[Amour]

A few brief thoughts because it's late.

Tonight's SL was a bit of a mixed bag. This is the first time I have seen Kondaurova dance SL live. She is a beautiful, long limbed, versatile dancer who looks great in contemporary work (like Forsythe's In The Middle Somewhat Elevated) as well as classical work. The last time I saw her SL was almost 2 years ago in a 3D cinema relay filmed by Hollywood director James Cameron. I'm sure that was slated to be a DVD but unfortunately Kondaurova came off pointe during the battu, finger turn sequence. Well, that was the end of that.

Tonight, Kondaurova was an exquisite Odette. She has a long neck, very arched spine and those famous Russian high attitude derrière ( which she can sustain in long balances). Her footwork in the fast passe/relève sequence was excellent. She didn't do very many battus (during the above mentioned sequence) but I didn't care. And I think her artistry since that filmed SL has greatly improved. She seemed very soulful and sorrowful. Not as good as the great Lopatkina, but I thought much better than opening night's Tereshkina.

Unfortunately, things came a bit undone during the Black Swan act. In her entrance with Askerov (tonight's Siegfried), Kondaurova lost her balance in the second supported pirouette from a la seconde. Someone who was watching through binoculars said she was pitched a bit forward during the pirouette, then Askerov yanked her back. The result was she fell off pointe, folded over (which is how the sequence begins) and nearly tumbled to the floor. Although unhurt, Kondaurova seemed to lose her confidence at that point. Her Odile did not glitter and was not seductive. Her fouettes travelled a lot, downstage and to the side. To my eye, it looked like the mistake was a result of Askerov's partnering but it's hard to tell. Anyway, other than the national dances, that act did not go especially well.

Kondaurova did recover for the final act as Odette, however. She was just as heartbroken and sorrowful as in the first lakeside scene. There is a lot less dancing for her in this act so any lingering confidence issues were unseen (by me, at least).

As for Askerov, I am not a fan. He might be a better technician (although he's not that great; certainly no Shklyarov) than Ivanchenko but I don't think he's a better partner. His acting is bland and I just don't find him interesting to watch. I'm sad that Kondaurova is seemingly stuck with him as her partner (he's not even a principal). Certainly they don't seem to have great chemistry. And I keep wondering if these blunders were really his fault.

Finally, we again had the great PDT with Batoeva (who will also be subbing for the injured Nikitina in the second cast), Stepin and Selina. Yermakov was a great Rothbart with his high, powerful jumps and menacing demeanor. And we again saw the virtuosic, comical Vladislav Shumakov as the Jester. And last but certainly not least, the magnificent Mariinsky corps. And as Waelsung noted, Gergiev did not conduct, (Gavriel Heine did) which meant a lot more predictable tempos.