Russian Companies

“I feel like Lensky”

August 19, 2016 1 Comment

Semyon Chudin, Bolshoi Ballet
Royal Opera House
London, Great Britain
August, 2016

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2016 by Ilona Landgraf

I first saw Semyon Chudin dance in Stuttgart Ballet’s end-of-the season gala this July. He had danced the Wedding Pas de Deux from “Sleeping Beauty” next to Anna Osadcenko and immediately caught my attention. Chudin has an aura, which only a great personality is able to radiate.

As it happens the Bolshoi toured London for three weeks during this summer. One and a half weeks after the Stuttgart gala I sat in the Royal Opera House, watching the company in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s “The Taming of the Shrew”. The following day I met Chudin in the Opera House’s cafeteria to talk about his career and his life offstage. We spoke twice, first in the afternoon, and, after rehearsals and with translation support by Sonia Serduk, a longstanding friend of Chudin from St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theatre, again in the evening. Chudin’s English is good but he feels more at ease when speaking Russian. I guess our group of three attracted attention as we had much fun.

Chudin is natural, kind and easy-going. He does not make the slightest attempt to cultivate a glossy image of himself or to feign a conformist mindset. Telling people what they want to hear isn’t his. The timbre of his voice simply reveals his true opinions. Centered in himself Chudin radiates calmness but at the same time is very self-critical. After the Stuttgart gala he asked Filip Baranciwicz and Mikhail Kaniskin to give him corrections. How many principals act in the same way? “One could always improve something. When you’re satisfied with yourself you should stop,” he later stated. (more…)

Maillot’s Idea of How to Tame

August 9, 2016 0 Comments

“Taming of the Shrew”
Bolshoi Ballet
Royal Opera House
London, Great Britain
August 03, 2016

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2016 by Ilona Landgraf

The Bolshoi Ballet’s three-week tour to London draws crowds of ballet aficionados to the Royal Opera House. Every evening each of the five productions is sold out. Those include the much-loved classics, “Swan Lake”, “Don Quixote” and “Le Corsaire”, as well as “The Flames of Paris” by Alexei Ratmansky and Jean-Christophe Maillot’s “The Taming of the Shrew” which premiered two years ago at the Bolshoi. “Shrew” was scheduled only twice. I saw the first performance.

Similar to Kurt-Heinz Stolze’s Scarlatti-pastiche for John Cranko’s “Shrew”, Maillot also cobbled together the score. He assembled less well known film music and excerpts of symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich which go along with the events on stage like lubricating oil. Whether swooshing or romantic, the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre under Igor Dronov’s baton played with verve.

The story sets off at the estate of Baptista, a wealthy lord in Padua. But the two broad, curved outdoor stairs arching over the house’s entrance, designed by Ernest Pignon-Ernest, don’t relate to any specific town. Baptista is beset with two daughters, the prickly Katharina and her younger sister, the much-adored Bianca. But the latter will not be allowed to marry until Katharina first wears her wedding ring. (more…)

A Trivialized Classic

December 30, 2015 1 Comment

“Swan Lake”
Maryinsky Ballet
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden, Germany
December 23, 2015

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2015 by Ilona Landgraf

“Swan Lake” is an ever-present work in the Maryinsky Ballet’s luggage when visiting Baden-Baden. This time the white swans graced the large stage of the Festspielhaus on two evenings. The first performance was led by Viktoria Tereshkina and Timur Askerov in the roles of Odette/Odile and Prince Siegfried. I saw the second cast on the following day, a pairing of Alina Somova and Vladimir Shklyarov.

For all its classic status, “Swan Lake” has changed over the years. It varies from staging to staging. Yet the story, the tragic love between Prince Siegfried and Odette, the beautiful woman damned to turn into a swan, remains. (more…)

The Maryinsky Fabulously Horses Around

December 27, 2015 0 Comments

“The Little Humpbacked Horse”
Maryinsky Ballet
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden, Germany
December 20, 2015

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2015 by Ilona Landgraf

Traditionally the Maryinsky Ballet tours Baden-Baden at the end of December, offering ballet aficionados the opportunity to enjoy the troupe on the Festspielhaus’s stage during the holiday season. This time two performances of “Swan Lake”, three of “Le Corsaire” and a gala were included. The opener, “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky in 2009, was extra candy in the box of treats.

“The Little Humpbacked Horse” (Konyok-Gorbunok) is a cute, fanciful and heart-warming Russian fairytale, written by Ppyotr Pavlovich Yershov in 1834. (more…)

Petipa’s Vapid Aesthetic?

December 27, 2014

“Raymonda”
Maryinsky Ballet
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden, Germany
December 21, 2014

“Raymonda” in several aspects marks a turning point amidst the classics. Premiering in January 1898 at the Maryinsky Theatre it was Marius Petipa’s last grand ballet before being gradually disempowered at the Imperial Theatre from 1903 on. By comparison, its score was Alexander Glasunov’s first attempt at ballet music. Relatively unknown as composer, he had been chosen to fill the gap caused by Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893. Though not pleased at first when he faced the kind of detailed array Petipa had used to predetermine Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet scores, Glasunov nonetheless produced varied, colorfully romantic music which won him public appreciation. Albeit a pillar of the ballet repertory in Russia, “Raymonda” attracted little attention abroad possibly because of its unconvincing libretto. Set in medieval times in Southern France, it’s about a young noble lady Raymonda who waits for her fiancé Jean de Brienne’s return. Being an Hungarian knight, he’s off crusading in the Holy Land. While preparing for the celebration of Raymonda’s birthday (or, depending on the text source, name day) the Saracen knight Abderakhman appears as one of the well-wishers. (more…)

Glitter Globe Classics Plus a Fresh Breeze

January 1, 2014

“Ballet Gala”
The Maryinsky Ballet
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden, Germany
December 26, 2013

The Maryinsky Ballet’s end-of-the-year visit to Baden-Baden’s Festspielhaus is a long-cherished tradition. Usually the company brings its famous classics to the Black Forest and this year too its holiday programs included Konstantin Sergeyev’s versions of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Swan Lake” as well as a matinee mixed bill for families plus a Ballet Gala on the day after Christmas. I caught the gala. Termed in the playbill “an exhibition of the Maryinsky dancers’ diverse potential”, the gala items ranged from classic bravura to contemporary choreography. Sandwiched between Fokine’s “Chopiniana” (“Les Sylphides”) and an Act 3 “Le Corsair” excerpt (“Jardin Animé”) were William Forsythe’s “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” and the recently premiered “Choreographic Game 3×3” by Anton Pimonov.

(more…)