A Hero of our Time

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Bolshoi Ballet A Hero for our Time streamed from Moscow, 9 April 2017

I could not help wondering whether I was letting my love of ballet get the better of me as I drove for nearly an hour to the nearest cinema to show the Bolshoi's A Hero of our Time on the first really good day of the year, especially as the forecast for the rest of the week is nothing to write home about. But I am very glad I did because this was one of the best live screenings that I have ever seen. It was the Bolshoi Ballet at its very best.

One of the reasons why I trekked to the Pictureville cinema at the Science + Media Museum in Bradford is that I read Lermontov's short stories in translation when I was at school. It was just after I had made the acquaintance of Leon Bakst and other late 19th and early 20th century artists who in turn led me to Diaghilev and eventually to ballet. I had read Princess Mary with particular attention because the death of Grushnitsky in a duel with Pechorin foretold the manner of the author's own death. Lermontov was only 26 when he died. He had published A Hero of our Time the year before his death and it was already in a second edition in his lifetime. Think what he might have achieved and he lived as long as Tolstoy.

A young man's novellas need to be interpreted by a young composer and that is precisely what we got with Ilya Demutsky's score. Demutsky speaks English well having studied in San Francisco and he discussed his work in that language with the presenter Katya Novikova in the interval. He told her that this was his first full-length ballet which makes it all the more remarkable. Novikova had noticed that he opened each ballet with a single instrument on stage: a clarinet for Bela, a cello for Taman and a cor anglais for Princess Mary. Demutsky explained that was to set the atmosphere. For instance, Lermontov had described Taman as "the nastiest little hole of all the seaports of Russia". Demutsky spoke how he had expressed that nastiness in his music.

Lermontov's book is a collection of novellas or long short stories centring around the adventures of Pechorin, a young army officer, who makes his way through the Caucasus mountains which were then the frontier of the Russian empire. The choreographer, Yuri Possokhov, has taken three of those stories, Bela, Taman and Princess Mary. Rather than repeat the plot word for word I shall leave it to my readers to consult the excellent introduction on the "About Performance" and synopsis pages on the Bolshoi's website.

As Pechorin appears in all three ballets, it would have been asking far too much of one dancer to perform that role through the whole show. Especially as there were was a lot of jumping to be done, The role was therefore split between Igor Svirko in Bela, Artem Ovchanrenko in Taman and Ruslan Skvortsov in Princess Mary. Readers will remember that Skvortsov impressed me particularly for his performance as Siegfried in Swan Lake when the company visited London last year.

The Bolshoi fielded three of their best leading ladies with Olga Smirnova dancing the beautiful, tragic Bela,  Yekaterina Shipulina the enticing and ultimately treacherous Undine and the magnificent Svetlana Zakharova as Mary. All three ballerinas were impressive but Zakharova showed her genius in one prolonged camera shot immediately after a duel where her face expressed her complex emotions more completely than any poem or novel. I have never seen this in a dancer before and rarely in an actor, Truly an artiste sans pareil.

There were several other memorable performances in Princess Mary. Denis Savin as the unhappy Grushnitsky. How my heart leapt out to him as he flinched from aiming at his friend Pechorin who seemed to have no qualms in dispatching Grushnitsky. Why is duelling so prominent in Russian literature? There is another in Pushkin's Onegin. Duelling is homicide no less. Kristina Kretova was a compelling Vera. Yet another victim of Pechorin. Finally, the wheelchair dancers deserve a cheer. They are every bit as polished and graceful as the rest of the cast.

I should say a word for the set designer Kirill Serebrennikov and the lighting designer Simon Donger. The conjuring up of ripples of water on the backdrop in Taman impressed me particularly. So, too, of course, did the sanitorium in Princess Mary.  

I am not sure when the Bolshoi will return to Covent Garen but I hope that they will bring A Hero of our Time when they do.

Lady of the Camellias Streamed from Moscow

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Bolshoi Ballet, The Lady of the Camellias, HDTV transmission for Moscow, 6 Dec 2015

We don't see enough of John Neumeier's work in this country which is a shame because it is dramatic and beautiful. I saw a bit of it live on stage this year in two galas.  In March Alexandr Trusch and Lucia Solari danced the final pas de deux from his production of The Nutcracker in Leeds at Northern Ballet's Sapphire gala. In September I saw Marijn Rademaker and Igone de Jongh dance an excerpt from the Dutch National Ballet's production of La Dame aux Camelias (see A chance to see more of Neumeier's work: Dutch National Ballet's La Dame aux Camelias 18 March 2015) at the opening gala of the Amsterdam ballet season (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 Sept 2015).

Yesterday afternoon I saw the whole of that ballet (albeit in two dimensions) streamed live from Moscow to the Huddersfield Odeon. I like other British ballet goers have been brought up on Ashton's Marguerite and Armand which he created for Fonteyn and Nureyev and is also based on the Dumas novel. Neumeier's ballet created 15 years later for the great Brazilian ballerina Marcia Haydée to Chopin's music is at least as beautiful and perhaps even more dramatic.

The synopsis for those who missed the transmission is here. Marguerite was danced magnificently by Svetlana Zakharova who was Giselle in October (see The Bolshoi does the Business - Giselle streamed from Moscow 12 Oct 2015) and Armand by Edvin Revazov. The production had been facilitated by Kevin Haigen of the Hamburg Ballet who represented Neumeier in Moscow. The excellent Katerina Novikova interviewed him during one of the intervals as well as Anna Tikhomirova who danced Manon Lescaut in the other. She was interviewed in costume which was gorgeous as Ms Novikova observed. The designs were Jürgen Rose's originals.

The ballet was beautiful but emotionally draining to watch as I tweeted at the end of the second interval

Awed by.@BolshoiOfficial's performance of The Lady of the Camellias. Very beautiful but also emotionally draining.

— Terpsichore (@jelterps) December 6, 2015

I long to see this whole ballet on stage. I could kick myself for missing it in Amsterdam earlier this year when I had the chance. Too much loyalty to Ashton I guess.

The Bolshoi does the Business - Giselle streamed from Moscow

The Bolshoi Theatre

Author Theeler

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Source Wikipedia

Bolshhoi Ballet, Giselle, 11 Oct 2015

Just as the Americans excel in films and we in state pageantry the Russians excel in ballet. There are other countries that do very well including ourselves as World Ballet Day reminded us but the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky are masters of the art as yesterday's live transmission of Giselle from Moscow showed. I have seen a lot of performances of that ballet in my time and I am set to see at least two more before the end of the year but, despite a couple of hiccups that I barely noticed at the time and of which I had to be reminded, yesterday's performance from my perspective was about as good as they get.

The title role was danced  by Svetlana Zakharova who was as expressive in her acting as she was impressive in her dancing. I am not the most emotional person but I was close to tears several times in the show. The first time was when she plucked the petals and found the cad loved her not. The second was when she clutched her chest. The third time as she felt the material of Bathilde's garment and her girlish joy at receiving a gift from the grand lady. Tears actually formed in the sword scene. Even though I have serious problems with Act II of the ballet for the reasons I tried to explain in Reflections on Giselle 29 Jan 2014 I was enthralled by Zakharova's dancing from the moment she emerged from her grave to the second she handed a flower to Albrecht as she went down.

The perfect partner for Zakharova was Sergei Polunin. I have not seen much of him on stage since he left the Royal Ballet - I think the last time was at the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School Gala in September 2013 - but he has never failed to amaze me with his athleticism. Can that man jump! His turns and jumps as he danced for the wilis were breathtaking. However, he can also act and he almost persuaded me with his contrition in Act II.  I can see why Giselle begged Myrtha to spare his life even though I would not have bothered.

The other star ballerina was the magnificent Ekaterina Shipulina. A strikingly beautiful woman and a fine dancer she was a perfect queen of the wilis. In the interval she was asked about the coolness with which she despatched Hilarion (called "Hans" in this production for some reason and danced well by Denis Savin) and would have done the same to Albrecht had it not been for Giselle's intercession by Katerina Novikova. The answer was that she is a spirit and that is her character.

There were two other performances that deserve mention and that is the peasant pas de deux by Daria Khokhlova and Igor Tsvirko in Act I. I had admired Tsvirko in Swan Lake earlier this year, as the jester in Legend of Love and as Pepinelli in Marco Spada and it was great to see him again. Both dancers executed that piece magnificently.

One of the advantages of watching ballet in the cinema is that viewers get to see the Bolshoi stage which seems as cavernous as an aircraft hanger. The disadvantage is that you see the backcloth which looked a bit dowdy compared to Thurrock's scenery as did the costumed.  But overall the performance was excellent. I  am looking forward to seeing Jewels next month.

Giselle in Moscow, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, High Wycombe and Manchester

Dutch National Ballet's Giselle


This afternoon at 16:00 the Bolshoi Ballet's Giselle will be transmitted to cinemas across the United Kingdom and many other countries (see Live Performances streamed from the Bolshoi and Covent Garden 20 Sept 2015). I shall watch it at the National Media Museum in Bradford but I believe it will be shown by the Odeon, Cineworld and most of the other nationwide chains. It should be a very good performance. Svetlana Zakharova dances Giselle, Sergei Polunin Alnrecht, Denis Savin Hans (aka Hilarion) and Yekaterina Shipulina as the queen of the wilis. I shall review the show tomorrow.

Much closer to home the Dutch National Ballet is staging Giselle in Amsterdan between 13 Oct and 15 Nov. Tsygankova, Makhateli, de Jongh, Wotmeyer and Shesterikovare in the cast together with many other of my favourite dancers. That will be good too.

Another Giselle will come to us from New Zealand.  Adult Beginner wrote a great review of that ballet when the Royal New Zealand Ballet visited Los Angeles last year (see Giselle 8 Feb 2015 Adult Beginner). The company will dance that ballet in Edinburgh between 27 and 31 Oct and High Wycombe between 6 and 7 Nov where I shall see it.

Finally, our very own Manchester City Ballet (the performing company of Northern Ballet School) will dance Giselle at the Dancehouse between 10 and 12 Dec 2015. Tickets are on sale on Ticketline.

Grigorovich's Swan Lake in Bradford

National Media Museum

Photo Wikipedia

Last Saturday Bradford City Association Football Club beat Premier League leaders Chelsea by 4 goals to 2, a remarkable achievement for a first division club. But the city has more than just a successful football club to celebrate. It has fine public buildings such as the City Hall, Salt's Mill and St George's Hall, a great cathedral and, more recently, some impressive mosques, famous sons and daughters like the Brontës, Hockney and Delius and some great museums including the National Media Museum.

The National Media Museum is part of the Science Museum Group. It has 7 floors of galleries with permanent exhibitions on photography, television, animation, video games, the internet and optics. It often hosts temporary exhibitions on those topics. It maintains a collection of 3.5 million pieces in its research facility. It has 3 cinemas where it hosts the Bradford International Film Festival. One of those cinemas is named after Cubby Broccoli who made the Bond films. It was to that cinema that Pathe Live transmitted Yuri Grigorovich's production of Swan Lake. That was probably the best venue outside the theatre to see the show because it attracted a mature, appreciative crowd who had seen ballet before.

Pathe Live treats its audience like adults. It has an excellent presenter in Katherina Novikova. Yesterday she interviewed Ludmila Semenyaka who had danced Odette-Odile as well as many of the other great roles and Artemy Belyakov who danced von Rothbart (or "the evil genius" as he is called in Grigorovich's production) in yesterday's performance. It would have been nice to have had an interview with Denis Rodkin who danced Siegfried and Svetlana Zakharova who danced Odette-Odile. However, Rodkin did talk to Ms Novikova in the interval of The Nutcracker transmission so I know what he is likely to have said (see Clara grows up- Grigorovitch's Nutcracker transmitted directly from Moscow 21 Dec 2014). Mercifully Pathe Live does not see the need to project audience tweets during the screening unlike the Royal Opera House's screenings.

Grigorovich's version of Swan Lake is different. As I have noted von Rothbart becomes "the evil genius". The show is compressed into two acts instead of three or four. There is no prologue explaining how Odette became a swan, no gift of a bow, no trip by the lads to the lake to try it out, the lovely divertissements in the royal palace in what is normally Act III are turned into a pitch by the various princesses and the whole episode takes place in Siegfried's imagination so that nobody has to jump into the lake in the last scene. Looking on the positive side there are expanded roles for the jester (danced by Igor Tsvirko) and also for von Rothbart danced by Belyakov.

Now I was brought on Ashton's version for the Royal Ballet  which has been lovingly preserved by English National Ballet (see What Manchester does today 10 Oct 2014) and I have to say that I do prefer that version. I don't take kindly to change for change's sake when it comes to my favourite ballets such as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake but that's not to say that I am against innovation. Grigorovich's versions of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker do work though not perhaps as fairy tales as much of the magic of those stories is removed from them. 

Overall I enjoyed the performance very much indeed. Tchaikovsky's magnificent score remains which was conducted well by Pavel Sorokin. Above all there was some glorious dancing. Particularly the pas de deux in the seduction scene in the palace. Rodkin and Zakharova are fine artists. His jumps and her fouettés were thrilling. They were both supported well by Tvirko and Belyakov and a splendid corps. Simon Virsaladze's designs did not show up well in the cinema but they may well have been more impressive on the Bolshoi's historic stage.

The last production in this series of transmissions will be Ivan the Terrible on 19 April 2015. That is not a ballet that is well known in this country and I have never seen it. The transmissions that I have enjoyed most have been of ballets that are not performed here regularly such as A Legend of Love, Spartacus and Marco Spada. I look forward to Ivan very much indeed.