Tours of the St. Petersburg Ballet Theater began on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi

Andrian Fadeev, the ex-premier of the Mariinsky Theatre, a brilliant dancer, and now a successful leader, has managed to do the impossible in almost 10 years that he has been at the helm of the company. The troupe, which was considered almost an outsider, is now unrecognizable.

The tour featured both classics and the legacy of the founder of the theater, Leonid Yakobson, one of the most outstanding choreographers of the 20th century. Three performances of the classical repertoire shown on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi (Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and Swan Lake) presented the company as a highly professional modern ballet company, one of the best in the Russian ballet space: well-trained corps de ballet, well-trained corps de ballet, excellent trained dancers, excellent soloists, each of which is an individuality.

The Sleeping Beauty, which opened the tour, was staged by Jean-Guillaume Bar, French etiquette of the Paris Opera. This is a real French ballet based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault. In addition to the choreography by Marius Petipa, there is a lot of choreography by the Bar himself, in which one can feel the French accent and a look back at the version of the performance going on at the Paris Opera, edited by Rudolf Nureyev. It was under this head of the ballet troupe that the Bar began to dance. Nureyev’s style shaped him as a choreographer. And, apparently, paying tribute to the teacher, the choreographer conceived his own version of The Sleeping Beauty, which begins with an unusual prologue. It shows the prehistory of the fairy tale, clearly created under the influence of the film “Maleficent” with Angelina Jolie in the role of an evil sorceress: once upon a time, the young king Florestan quarreled with the attractive and sexy fairy Carabosse, took possession of her lands by force and drove her away.

Olga Shaishmelashvili, the creator of the scenography and costumes, attributes the action of the tale to the baroque and rococo era, and not to Henry III, as usual. But even after 100 years, when the princess wakes up, fashion, according to the artist, does not really change. It seems that the princess was in a dream from the strength of 20-30 years. Such circumstances did not in the least embarrass one of the most experienced ballerinas of the troupe, Alla Bocharova, who perfectly performed the role of Princess Aurora. She did not fail to take advantage of the production’s French accent, playing her part with true French charm. The young dancer of the troupe, Kirill Vychuzhanin (Prince Desire), is a match for her, the owner of a high jump and good partner qualities.

The beginning of Don Quixote also differs from the options that we are used to seeing. This ballet was created especially for the Jacobson Theater by the former premier of the Royal Ballet of London, Johan Kobborg, and is undoubtedly one of the most successful versions of this classical ballet. Kobborg himself once brilliantly danced the part of Basil. He is a representative of two other ballet schools: Danish and English. And he brought a lot of humor and logic to his performance.

In the prologue, the creator of the immortal novel, Miguel de Cervantes, appears surrounded by creditors. Difficult life circumstances force the writer to part with most of his property. Observing the behavior of the servants and the townspeople present in his office, packing part of his library in a chest, he takes up the composition of a new work.

And then the classic Don Quixote unfolds in front of the audience, most of the scenes and choreography of which are borrowed from the classical performance of Petipa-Gorsky. However, much of Kobborg’s version is rethought. The choreographer generally makes his production closer to Cervantes’ novel.

The tradition of the ballet Don Quixote is conventionally traced back to a production created at the Royal Academy in Paris in 1743. The performance was called “The Wedding of Gamache” (the productions of Hilferding and Noverre had the same name in the 18th century). So the unlucky groom Gamache and his wedding should have been given an important place in the ballet, shown in the same way as this failed wedding is shown in the 19th, 20th and 21st chapters of the second part of Cervantes’ novel, which served as the source of the ballet. Meanwhile, in almost all editions since the time of Petipa, the matter never reaches Gamache’s wedding. Kobborg puts this episode for the first time in its place, showing in the third act the marriage ceremony that had begun. It is at this moment that Basil unexpectedly bursts into the scene and plays out an imaginary suicide, which Kobborg logically transfers from the tavern in Act I to Act III, in the episode of Gamache’s already begun wedding.

The image of the traditionally silly rich nobleman (in the performance Tasman Davids perfectly dances him) in Kobborg is revealed in a new way and excellently danced. Gamache funny appears at the very beginning of the ballet, accompanied by bullfighters. It is not known for what services he generously pays them with weighty money purses and clearly does not really want to get acquainted with the alleged relative, the father of the bride Lorenzo, and with Kitri herself too.

The parts of Gamache and another significant character in the production of Sancho Panza (comically portrayed by Leonid Khrapunsky) in Kobborg’s version are danced significantly expanded. And in the finale of the ballet, these two characters amusingly dance “Jiga” to the music of the Soviet composer Solovyov-Sedoy, transferred by Kobborg to the production from the version of the Bolshoi Theater, where the dance “Jiga” has existed since pre-war times in the choreography of Rostislav Zakharov.

The conflict between the local townspeople and the bullfighters, which is also in Petipa’s ballet, is also transferred in Kobborg’s version, but now the fight takes place not in the town square, but in a tavern, and it is excellently choreographically staged.

Don Quixote himself (Lorenzo Lodi) is shown in a non-trivial way. He appears in the Barcelona square on a funny wooden horse on wheels, invented by production designer Jérôme Kaplan. The work of the artist is worthy of special compliments: original, stylish and unusual in this ballet, both the design and costumes. Luxurious packs are of particular admiration.

With regard to the dance parts of the main characters (Kitri, Basil, Espada or Mercedes), Kobborg has everything as in the classical version of Gorsky, which is now running at the Mariinsky Theater. Elena Chernova dances Kitri with charm, feminine and technical. The young Vyacheslav Spilchesky, who just two years ago graduated from the Perm school, is also excellent. He has a high jump and a great spin. His Basil is cheerful, sexy and desperate. Kobborg’s image of Espada is also filled with sensuality and ardor. This hero is fascinated not only by Mercedes, he recklessly flirts with the townspeople, with Kitri and is excellently performed in different compositions by such different dancers as the handsome Denis Klimuk and Stepan Demin, plastic, interestingly revealing this hero.

The tour of the St. Petersburg troupe in Moscow ended with the ballet Swan Lake, which is performed here in the classical choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, in the version by Konstantin Sergeyev, performed at the Kirov Theater back in Soviet times.

The ballet troupe of the theater is so self-sufficient and strong that it does not attract guest stars for its performances. The Yakobson Theater is capable of presenting on tour several practically equivalent compositions at once. Odette-Odile by Svetlana Svinko and Alla Bocharova differ in form and emotional content. The magnificent Svetlana Svinko conquers both in dance and in acting with her well-thought-out role, beautiful swan-like wings, a first-class fouette, which the ballerina twists according to all the rules, almost without leaving one point. Alla Bocharova’s dance is also impressive with its inspiration, but the presentation of the image of the ballerina is completely different. The main thing for her is form and aesthetics.

The dance of Prince Siegfried – Andrey Sorokin – impresses with its refinement and strength, the height of the jumps and the energy of the rotations. Denis Klimuk is more poetic. This is not only a truly handsome prince from a fairy tale, but also a technically equipped dancer who perfectly performed his variation in black pas de de jet-en-tournand. The image of the evil genius Rothbart, which Klimuk showed in a different cast, convinces of the breadth and versatility of his acting and performing abilities. Let us also note the image of Rothbart in the jumping Italian Lorenzo Lodi, a promising theater artist, who was perfectly prepared for the performance by his famous teacher Andrei Batalov (winner of the Grand Prix of the Moscow International Competition in 1997). The ballet is spectacularly designed by Vyacheslav Okunev in a strict Gothic style and beautifully danced by the entire troupe.