Photo: Mikhail Logvinov (c) 2014 Bolshoi Ballet, all rights reserved Reproduced by kind permission of the company
Bolshoi Ballet, The Taming of the Shrew, Royal Opera House, 3 Aug 2016, 19:30
The Bolshoi Ballet has always been respected in this country but until last night I don't think it has ever been loved. There are many reasons for that, not least the fact that the company was seen as an instrument of Soviet soft power during the cold war coming to London as it did in the year the tanks rolled into Budapest. That may have changed with the London premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew for the audience really warned to the show. Standing ovations are quite rare in the Royal Opera House but when Maillot appeared to take a bow several members of the audience (including yours truly) felt compelled to rise.
The cast that I saw last night was very much the same as in the cinema trnsmission. Ekaterina Krysanova danced the title role. Her Petrucchio was Vladislav Lantratov. Olga Smirnova was her sister and Artemy Belyakov was their dad. Georgy Gusev who had impressed me as the court jester in Swan Lake made an exceppent Grumio.
Although Cranko is my all time favourite choreographer and his Shrew had always been my favourite work there are features of Maillot's production that I think I prefer. It is an amusing and very fast moving ballet. The plot is tighter than Cranko's and the score is definitely more memorable. I love "Tea for Two" in the final scene. Cranko's work and Maillot's are very different but each has its strengths.
Seeing it on stage I was struck by the similarities with Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet which had also been created by Mailot. The sets were similar (not surprising as they were both designed by Ernest Pignon-Ernest) as was the lighting. I had not noticed those similarities when I saw The Taming of the Shrew on screen. Audiences in the UK will have a chance to see what I mean when Northern's Romeo and Juliet goes on tour next month,
One of the pleasures of World Ballet Day is comparing the style of The Australian Ballet with the Bolshoi as the latter follows immediately after the former. The Russians are usually strong on technique and the Australians on energy and vivacity. In yesterday's ballet the company danced like Australians as much as Russians and I can't think of a better compliment than that.
Even before the housekeeper ambled on to the stage I could tell from the photos that we were in for a treat. They depicted Petruchio's loucheness in the way he wore his hat, the simple set and the timeless costumes. The housekeeper was first on stage well before the maestro. She was elegant, wearing heels, immaculately coiffed. She sat down on stage to check her make up. She donned a pair of pointe shoes and filed her nails. Then when she was good and ready she ushered in the conductor.
The ballet was very short. It consisted of two acts. The screening started at 15:00 GMT and we were out by 17:00 but it packed so much in. The dancing was magnificent, particularly the duet between Katherina and Petrtuchio in act II. There were some lifts movements I have never seen before. The most extraordinary was where Petruchio seemed to raise Katherina with his arm stretched like a piston as though she were riding a horse. It must have required enormous strength from him and I guess remarkably uncomfortable for her.
The score was by Dimitri Shostakovich and the choice was inspired. One of the greatest composers for the ballet ever. Glorious soaring crescendos and humour with his orchestration of Tea for Two for the harmony of the last scene. Of equal genius was the choreographer, Jean-Christophe Maillot, and his muse, Bernice Copieters who translated it into dance. So too was Ernest Pignon-Ernest who designed the set and the choreographer's son, Augustin, who designed the costumes. One of the highlights of yesterday's transmission was Katerina Novikova's interview with Jean-Christopher Maillot and Sergei Filin in the interval and it was there that Maillot acknowledged the contributions of his creative team.
The story kept pretty faithfully to the play with a little lot more prominence to the widow. Bianco was all sweetness and grace while Katherina was Scotch bonnet pepper - until she was bedded towards the end of the second act. Katherina is the star. Hers is the title role and it required a dancer with exceptional technique who was also a remarkable actor. Yesterday that role was danced by Ekaterina Krysanova. Her Petruchio had to be at least as strong and his role was danced by Vladislaw Lantratov. Olga Smirnova was a gorgeous Bianca. Anna Tikhomirova, .as the housekeeper was in many ways the anchor of the show from the prologue when she patronizingly clapped the entry of the conductor. I must say a special work for Vyacheslav Lopatin, one of the best character dancers ever, who played Petruchio's groom. His eyes were a picture as he tossed a sheet over his master and bride.
I have often said that Pathe Live had the edge over the Royal Opera House's transmissions though the House has recently raised its game. Yesterday's transmission from Moscow reached new heights with the interview with Filin and Maillot. It will be interesting to see how Covent Garden responds to the challenge.
The Bolshoi are bringing the Taming of the Shrew to London on 3 and 4 Aug 2016. Here is a little clip on their YouTube channel. I can't wait to see them live on stage in that show.
Northern Ballet, Romeo and Juliet, The Grand, Leeds, 7 March 2015
Having seen Seymour and Fonteyn as Juliet in my youth and having seen more recently Xander Parish and Viktoria Tersehkina in the Mariinsky's Romeo and Juliet and Friedemann Vogel and Alina Cojocaru in English National Ballet's and with Birmingham Royal Ballet's sensational Coppelia fresh in my memory I feared that Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet last night would be an anticlimax. It was anything but. It might have disappointed me had it tried to ape MacMillan or Lavrovsky, but it didn't. It was entirely original while remaining faithful to Shakespeare.
But not slavishly faithful. There's a puppet show but no sword fights in Jean-Christophe Maillot'sRomeo and Juliet. Tybalt clubs Mercutio with a blunt instrument for which he is strangled by Romeo. There's a bedroom scene but Juliet is not in her nightie. She's sitting on her bed with her nurse when Romeo arrives. When she first sees him Juliet tries to thump him one as she is beside herself with rage and despair having learnt what her husband had done to her cousin. The biggest innovation is the pivotal role that it gives to Friar Lawrence. In most ballets and in Shakespeare's play he is a minor character solemnizing the marriage and supplying the drug that knocks Juliet out cold. But in Maillot's ballet he is a much more important and interesting character. He's the do gooding cleric whose clever wheeze to bring peace to Verona backfires disastrously. The ballet opens with him the friar and he remains on stage at the close. In that respect Maillot has not just rewritten the ballet. He has actually rewritten Shakespeare and perhaps improved on the play.
Maillot's choreography is not pretty but it is dramatic. The dancers individually and in pairs or groups adopt unusual shapes. At many times I was reminded of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. There was extensive use of mime. Emotion was transmitted with clarity and immediacy. There were some delightful touches. The balcony appears as a slope and Juliet slides down into view as Romeo appears. He helps her down. She shakes her legs as he lowers her down communicating a frisson of excitement and not a little apprehension. In the wedding scene a length of fabric is cleverly transformed from veil into an arch indicating a chapel.
I should at first say something about the designs for they are nothing like Pyotr Williams's in the Mariinsky's version with its landscape vistas or the lushness of Nicholas Giorgiadis's in the MacMillan version. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's set is compact and functional. Ideal for touring perhaps but a little austere. My heart sank when an image of a church, the title of the ballet and the names of the dancers were projected onto the stage as in a PowerPoint presentation in the overture. Were we to be treated to a flickering light show? I wondered. But that was the only use of the technique and elsewhere Dominique Drillot's lighting was effective. Particularly the partially inverted cross in the crypt scene. It interacted well with Jérôme Kaplan's costumes and the set. They appeared bland and almost monochrome at first but the understated use of colour prepared us for delight at Juliet's shimmering gold ball dress.
And now the dancers. Where do I begin?
I saw my beloved Northern in a completely new light last night. I knew Tobias Batley to be dashing and handsome from his other work but he communicated sensitivity and even vulnerability last night. I also saw another side of Dreda Blow. I had last seen her as Mina in Deacula in which I had admired her dancing but did not warm to her. I was surprised when I heard that she had been cast as Juliet. I had expected Leebolt in the role, of course, but I would have chosen Pippa Moore as the alternate Juliet. Casting Blow for the role was an inspiration. She was a perfect Juliet. Playful and feisty. Loving but conflicted. Brave but fearful. Blow is elevated to my pantheon of favourites.
But we still got Moore as the nurse. This is a character role and she danced it beautifully. She is also a complex and conflicted character that demands much from a dancer. Again, it was perfect casting.
Gita Mistry's Lee-Baker
The pivotal role, as I said before and also in my preview is Friar Lawrence. He reminds me of the preacher in Appalachian Springand of the minister in Gillian Lynne's re-staging of A Miracle in the Gorbals. He appears not in a habit but in a suit and dog collar. It requires a strong and dramatic dancer and we found strength and drama in Isaac Lee-Baker. This is a strenuous role and amazingly he is performing it night after night in both casts. After he had danced Wilson in Gatsby at the Alhambra my friend Gita named one of her puddings in his honour. Had she seen him last night I think he would have merited one of her famous curries.
There were strong performances also from Hannah Bateman as the haughty Lady Capulet, Mlinde Kulashe as the headstrong Tybalt (another bit of inspired casting and another career for me to follow), Joseph Taylor as Paris, Abigail Prudames as the lovely Rosalne - the list could go on but then it would read like a telephone directory. Nearly all my favourites had a role yesterday including Rachael Gillespie and Kevin Poeung. Why do I like them especially? When they move they make my spirits soar. Why's that exactly? Dunno. Maybe it's because they love their dancing so. It reminds me of a story about Sir Peter Wright that one of my favourite dancers from the Birmingham Royal Ballet once related but I won't go into it now.
Unlike many balletomanes I like to let a ballet sink in before I see it again, even with a different cast. A matinee and an evening performance on the same day or even in the same season is usually too much for me. But I think I will make an exception with this work. I am dying to see what Leebolt, Contadini, Brooks-Daw and Torres make of this show.
And I need to see this show without thinking of cushions whenever the Dance of the Knights is played. Why cushions? Ernst Meisner knows for he favourited this tweet:
I just couldn't get Bart and his cushions out of my mind when watching Romeo and Juliet tonight.
— Terpsichore (@jelterps) March 7, 2015
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You must read my review of Bart Engelen's performance of Milena Siderova's Full Moonto find out.
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