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Thoroughly enjoyed the performance, though it had both its strong points and flaws.

 

Production: Great lavish set and costumes, really what classical ballet should be, to dazzle with splendor and elegance. However, the floor was an abomination, both visually and because of the screeching it produced. I recall the screeching being a serious issue when this production first premiered in 2011. You'd think 5 years would have been enough for the theater's management to do something about it, like getting a non-screechy floor, but no. So they have spent a fortune on all the glitzy decorations, yet ruined everything by not picking the right floor material. Hello? Also, without the staircase, Aurora's entrance is just not the same. And the fact that Carabosse walks off the stage in a cloud of smoke, rather than disappear through the floor is downright lame.

 

Choreography: Generally a solid and respectful updating of Petipa by Grigorovich, everything in its place, except for the horribly compressed and rushed ending.

 

Main characters:

I am a great fan of Hallberg, who I thought was phenomenal in earlier recordings of this production that I saw. But I must admit, Chudin was very much his equal, perhaps even stronger technically, though maybe not as expressive artistically as Desire.

 

I am also a great fan of Olga Smirnova, and she surprised me here once again, bringing out an unexpected depth in the character of Aurora. The narrative line of an innocent, slightly mischievous, a tad shy and naive girl maturing into a young woman ready for love was delivered by her perfectly and convincingly. She really stood out with a lightness of movement, elegance, refinement and elan. She was the very embodiment of the Grand Siecle, the glorious era to which we owe the birth classical ballet, and she reflect that glory at its finest. She also added an element of drama to the performance, transforming it into more than a pretty, lighthearted, fairy-tale ballet, the scene with the spindle where Aurora goes dizzy and gets weaker and weaker before passing out into her century-long slumber is played to quite a serious tragic effect, which gave me the chills. By comparison, Zakharova in the earlier recording displayed flawless movements, beautiful lines, fantastic extensions in her jumps, but did not seem to bother playing the role of Aurora, instead leaving us to admire her for what she was: Svetlana Zakharova.

 

I have heard a lot of great things about Yulia Stepanova. Frankly speaking, I don't think picking her as Lilac Fairy for this performance was the most successful move. Being a ballerina of a larger, stronger build, she would have looked more in place next to someone like Maria Alexandrova than the fragile waif-like Smirnova. Here, Stepanova's presence is better described as towering, she was immutable like a marble rock, rather than radiant, tender and caring, like, in my opinion, Lilac should be. Stepanova seemed to focus more on displaying correct technique than living through her role. To me, Bolshoi's best Lilacs are still Maria Allash and Olga Smirnova herself in her early years. But Yulia is undoubtedly very beautiful, she reminds be a bit of Annette Bening from the Columbia Pictures logo.

 

Carabosse: somehow not evil enough. Catalabutte: funny, expressive, with excellent mime technique

 

I was a bit disappointed with the other fairies and the fairy tale characters. While generally competent, the second line of Bolshoi's soloists did not produce any breakout performances, the only one that made me pay attention was the Fairy of Kindness Candide, who then reappered as Cinderella, very lovely and touching. And the corps, while highly synchronized, could have shown more joy and vitality.

 

But overall a highly satisfying and aesthetically pleasing performance, made me happy to know that there are such beautiful things in life. Would certainly be watching it repeatedly.

Edited by Fleurdelis
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Since Svetlana Zakharova performed "The Sleeping Beauty"  the night before, I've been particularly interested in the comparison. There are two video clips of Olga Smirnova and Svetlana Zakharova (about a year earlier?) performing the same solo from this work.

 

Two details, from so many beautiful ones, really capture my attention. The placement of the head by Olga Smirnova and both their use of the hands. Olga Smirnova pays a great deal of attention to nuancing the position, placement timing and focus of her head for subtle yet outstanding effect. Her head tends to lead and highlight the rest of her motion.

 

Both ballerinas use their hands beautifully. Svetlana Zakharova's seem to extend out more giving them a very clean, refined appearance. Olga Smirnova's fingers don't reach out as much and this is one instance where watching a live performance and a video can make a great deal of difference. In this case the video lacks three dimensions and the beautiful detail of Olga Smirnova's finger placement can be less noticeable because the fingers are not as extended. They also have a lovely wavelike quality. 

 

I'm sure that if I continue to watch these two clips (which I won't post because they aren't official) I'll see much more comparable beauty. 

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I attended the Sleeping Beauty Live in HD and was surprised at the seemingly poor quality of the transmission, which was dark and didn't seem any where near HD clarity. I'm curious to know whether others felt the same way and whether the poor quality was typical of other Bolshoi broadcasts. Interestingly, the Youtube posting of the performance, while it was up, was very much HD and far superior to what I saw in the the NJ theater. 

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3 hours ago, Just an Observer said:

I attended the Sleeping Beauty Live in HD and was surprised at the seemingly poor quality of the transmission, which was dark and didn't seem any where near HD clarity. I'm curious to know whether others felt the same way and whether the poor quality was typical of other Bolshoi broadcasts. Interestingly, the Youtube posting of the performance, while it was up, was very much HD and far superior to what I saw in the the NJ theater. 

 

Definitely--I felt this way about at least one other Bolshoi broadcast as well. The color was dark and dull -- and I see much better and brighter quality on youtube all the time (including seemingly "unofficial" video). Very disappointing--especially since otherwise I really look forward to these broadcasts. I prefer it to NO broadcasts, but wish the distributor or the Bolshoi would look into it...

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Took a friend to see the Bolshoi reprise of Sean Lake with Zakharova / Rodkin.  Not sure what I can that is new, I agree with other posters that the music chops are awful, the joker isn't very funny, the sets/ costumes are very mid-century Soviet, and the company is wonderful.  I do like the evil genius.  

 

But this is my final Yuri ballet staging. I am not a fan, though much of the cinema audience clapped and spoke Russian at intermissions.  Still love the host, Ekaterina Novikova.  

Edited by Jayne
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Sunday, I also went to see the Bolshoi reprise of Swan Lake with Zakharova / Rodkin.  Ekaterina Novikova was the warm and lovely hostess translating comments in three languages.

I loved the huge production with lots and lots of pretty swans, various excellent court dancers and soloists, also loved the large sets.  

 

I thought Zakharova's White Swan solo was incredible with such strong, extreme and beautiful lines.  Her refined technique and queenly, but sad, quality was breathtakingly.  Her adagio with Rodkin was a bit too cold for me.   
 

The way the Bolshoi used the Evil Genius I thought was perfect.  Not too menacing but still a strong, very much a dancer presence. The costume was not distracting as with other productions I've seen. 

This was the first time I was fortunate to see Rodkin perform on a big screen.  He is tall, long limbed, very handsome with a sweet, youthful face.  His jumps were gorgeous and huge.  Where Zakharova was often too cold, almost self absorbed, as the Swan Queen, Rodkin radiated such happiness and love to be with her.  His grande jetes in Black Swan covered the stage so easily it seemed the huge stage was too small.  Rodkin's turns were clean but not as wild and numerous as with other Russian and European stars I've seen lately.   Didn't bother me as Rodkin was a generous, passionate partner to Zakharova and a fine actor throughout. 

 

While the quality of the filming could have been better, I left the movie theater happy to have seen this ballet with these wonderful dancers.

 

Edited by sz
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I'm pretty excited for the upcoming Bolshoi broadcast of a "modern" mixed bill, especially when it went from a program I totally would not want to see (Hans Van Manen’s Frank Bridge’s Variations, Sol León and Paul Lightfoot’s Short Time Together and Alexei Ratmansky’s Russian Seasons) to a program I would (also Russian Seasons but now Etudes and The Cage). A real stroke of luck!

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