Russian
Terpsichore's Soulful Flight
St. Petersburg's
Ballet Life, 1999
by lgor Stupnicov
Dance Scene
Premieres
Current Repertory
Debuts
New Books on Ballet
Ballet Exhibitions
Obituaries
Miscellany
Last January-February the
repertoire of The Maryinsky Theatre introduced to
the public many dancers in new parts. Tatyana
Nekipelova danced Gulnara in "Le
Corsaire" for the first time in January 3.
She has an ability to move generously through
space and a thorough grounding that allows her to
perform the trickier steps and jumps without
tremor. Her Gulnara was an enchanting, impish and
vital girl who communicated a joy of dance
through sensitive phrasing and elegant lines. Our
shortish, thick-legged virtuoso Andrei Batalov
got the part of Solor in "La Bayadere"
(at last! at last!) on January 8 and was given -
and it is quite reasonable - two small ballerinas
for his partners Zhanna Ayupova (Nykia) and
Elvira Tarasova (Gamzatti). His vaulting jumps,
perfect cabrioles, jetes that literally hover,
and enormous speed were much enjoyed and cheered
by the public and ballet buffs. Batalov has won
lots of international prizes but he has a rather
limited repertoire at the Maryinsky - almost all
our leading ballerinas are tall and Batalov needs
special casting for his perfomances. The same
evening Anton Korsakov danced The Golden God for
the first time; the young boy did not cope with
the difficulties of the part that is usually
performed by the much more experienced Vyacheslav
Samodurov, Andrei Batalov or Nikita Shcheglov -
obviously, Korsakov was hastily catapulted into
the gap to supersede them without yet possessing
the necessary equipment. He was much better in
his other debut - as Vaslav in the "The
Fountain of Bakhchisaray" on January 17,
with Zhanna Ayupova as his Maria. On January 29
Sofia Gumerova's debut in "Le Jeune Homme et
la Mort" took place where she was partnered
by Vyacheslav Samodurov. Gumerova was a pleasure
to watch in the new role, there was a yearning
for expression that went far beyond just dancing,
she brought a vivid theatricality to the part -
the poignancy of her gestures and facial
expressions brightly conveyed the essence of the
ballet. Veronica Part danced her first
"Raymonda"(Konstantin Sergeiev's
version) on February 5 partnered by Danila
Korsuntsev. The beautiful Veronika was coached by
Inna Zubkovskaya, her former Professor at The
Vaganova Academy, and was reminiscent of her
mentor in poses, lines and even make-up. Veronika
is a dancer who attracts the public's attention,
she is constantly improving and developing as an
artist, and her Raymonda was another proof of her
qualities - tenderness, sense of mood, good
technique. Igor Zelensky visited St.Petersburg at
the end of January and, of course, The Maryinsky
was crammed to capacity on the nights he danced
Siegfried in "Swan Lake" with Veronika
Part and Albrecht in "Giselle" with
Svetlana Zakharova. Zelensky was terrific in both
parts - expressive, full of command, exact and
musical. Then, quite unexpectedly, he prolonged
his stay in St.Petersburg, to the great joy of
the public, and danced in two more performances
in the middle of February - in "Don
Quixote" with Irma Nioradze and "La
Bayadere" with Ulyana Lopatkina -
unforgettable evenings!
On January 14-24, The Maryinsky
company visited Spain with the usual Fokin
programme: "Les Sylphides",
"Firebird" and "Sheherazade".
After basking in the hot Basque sun the dancers
returned to the terrible frosts and snow-storms
of the city of St.Peter. "Don Quixote"
on January 7 was dedicated to Inna Zubkovskaya's
75th birthday. It was a very special performance:
all female parts were danced by Zubkovskaya's
former pupils, and each act had its own Kitri and
Basil: Elvira Tarasova/Nikita Shcheglov, Oksana
Kuzmenko(Moscow)/ Andrei Batalov, Tatyana
Nekipelova/Vyacheslav Samodurov, Altynai
Asylmuratova/ Yevgeni Ivanchenko. In the final
pas de deux all the dancers were reunited:
Tatyana Nekipelova and Nikita Shcheglov did the
adagio, all the others either danced a variation
or did foutte or grand pirouette. In a way it was
also a family affair - Zubkovskaya's grandson,
Nikolai, danced Espada for the first time (and
was brilliant in the role), and her son-in-law,
Vladimir Leeyev, was a funny Gamache; the parts
of flower girls were danced by Zubkovskaya's
graduation class students; Veronika Part was The
Queen of Dryads and Natalia Tsiplakova - the
Gipsy.
Alla Osipenko celebrated the
45th anniversary of her artistic career on the
stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre on January 6.
The Evening consisted of three parts: in the
first, called "Homage to Alla", dancers
of the Maryinsky did several fragments from
Osipenko's repertory; the second part was Samuel
Beckett's play "...But the clouds"
where the ballerina played a non-speaking leading
role, which was no surprise to the public since
Alla had played drama roles in a number of films;
and the third part was a competition between
Melpomene and Terpsichore- the outstanding
St.Petersburg drama actress Alisa Freindlikh
recited lyrical poems and Osipenko had to
interpret their meaning in movement and
pantomime.
All St.Petersburg theatre
museums and many newspapers marked the 200th
anniversary of Avdotia Istomina's birthday. The
great Russian ballerina was a pupil of Charles
Didelot and created many roles in his ballets.
Alexander Pushkin immortalized her in his
"Eugene Onegin".
The Theatre Museum dedicated
its programme on January 15 to the memory of the
outstanding Russian choreographer Leonid Yakobson
(1904-1975) who would have been 95 this year. A
new documentary film about his life and creative
work - "The Heart of Punchinello"- was
shown that evening. The film was shot in 1975 but
was forbidden by the Soviet rules for ideological
reasons"(?).
Diana Vishneva's
"Giselle" has been postponed several
times here: for some reason she decided - at last
moment - not to dance the role. Then the rumours
had it she did dance Giselle in San Diego during
the company's US tour. But the St.Petersburg
public was none the better for it. Finally, last
March Vishneva's debut in the role took place on
the Maryinsky stage. She tackled the difficult
choreography with commendable assurance and gave
the role the simplicity of manner and an
affecting vulnerability. Her mad scene was
touching rather than melodramatic, and her love
for Albrecht was unerringly conveyed by her
searching eyes or by a sudden touch of the hand.
In the second act Vishneva was the embodiment of
spirituality. Her footwork was immaculate and the
lines - beautiful. She was partnered by Farukh
Ruzimatov (nobody had any doubt he would be
Vishneva's Albrecht) and was a very secure
partner. He danced almost impeccably, with high
jumps, neat entrachats and a commanding presence.
The dancers showed the value of a
well-established partnership, they poetically
defined relationships between the principal
characters. Maya Dumchenko danced her first Kitri
in "Don Quixote" in the middle of March
partnered by Yevgeni Ivanchenko. She was possibly
the most uneven Kitri, with moments of sparkling
magic and virtuosity marked by occasional
insecure passages. Dumchenko was at her best in
the Dream scene where her rigid classical
training was just to the point; her fouette in
the last act was performed brilliantly, but in
the first act the dancer was too reserved and
restrained, with no softness and pliancy in the
back and arms; the tempi were unusually slow and
there were minor blemishes in the first act
variations which looked on the whole like lessons
known off pat. I hope when Dumchenko has worked
herself fully into the ballet's choreography her
warm feminity should greatly enchance it. The
St.Petersburg TV channel showed recently a new
two series film "Makhar Vasiev and The
Maryinsky Ballet" where the Director of the
copany spoke about the new generation of dancers,
especially young ballerinas, whom he raised in
the theatre - Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva,
Sofia Gumerova, Maya Dumchenko, Svetlana
Zakharova, Veronika Part. The female guild of the
company had been stripped of fine names - Lubov
Kunakova, Tatyana Terekhova, Galina Mezentseva -
for the sake of one leading lady. So, Vaziev
explains, it was necessary to enrich the company
with new talented girls, recent graduates of The
Vaganova Academy. When asked who his favourites
in the company are today, Vaziev, after a pause,
answered:"My favourites are all the coaches,
ballet- mistresses and ballet-masters of the
company: they are the foundation and the backbone
of the theatre.
On March 1 the company went to
Moscow where in The Kremlin Palace of Congresses
it gave one performance of modern choreography
(modern, of course, in the Russian/Maryinsky
sense of the word) consisting of Alexei
Ratmansky's ballets - "Le Baiser de la
Fee", "Middle Duet", "Poem of
Ecstasy" - and some other numbers by
contemporary choreographers. The evening was a
success with the public and (!) the Moscow
critics who unanimously acclaimed the development
of a new trend in the Maryinsky repertory.
The presentation of the new
album of pictures dedicated to Mikhail
Baryshnikov's career in the West took place at
The St.Petersburg Theatre Museum. The 320 page
book contains scores of photographes by different
American and European masters. The originators of
the project are Valeri Golovitser and Alexander
Shein, the Introduction (in English and Russian)
is written by Vera Krasovskaya, who concludes her
essay with the following words:" What lay in
store for Baryshnikov in the West we may learn
from the pages of this book of photographs.
Today, here in Russia, we view the transformation
of Baryshnikov's dancing style as the steps in
his rise to fame. We think of him today, hazard
guesses as to his future, while impressions of
him in the past still live on in our minds".
In his short acknowledgement note Baryshnikov
says:"My warmest thanks to the wonderful
Vera Mikhailovna Krasovskaya for her kindness and
neverfailing wisdom". Baryshnikov's
repertoire in the West is given as a supplement
to the album, an invaluable document to a ballet
historian. Three copies of the book were
presented to The Theatre Museum, The Vaganova
Ballet Academy's Museum and The Theatre Library.
At the request of Mikhail Baryshnikov the fee for
his contribution to the book will go to The
Maryinsky Ballet's senior dancers.
Last April Svetlana Zakharova
danced for the first time the 1st movement in
"Symphony in C" and did it very well
technically; the only thing that surprised me was
the unchanging, slightly capricious and
aggrieved, expression of her face. Tatyana
Amosova danced "Paquita" for the first
time with gusto and at full throttle. Her style,
large and robust, is reminiscent of Olga
Moiseyeva's manner when the ballerina needs the
whole stage and the corps de ballet is pressed
close to the wings. Alexandra Iosifidi is
enlarging her repertory with every coming month.
After her successful Zarema and Zobeide she
danced The Fairy in "Le Baiser de la
Fee" and looked beautiful, imperious and
domineering in her exquisite snow-white dress.
Iosifidi gave glamour and depth to the production
and showed quite new facets of her talent.
On April 7, Gabriela Komleva's
jubilee was celebrated at The Maryinsky Theatre.
A star of The Kirov Ballet in 1957-1988, Komleva
today is one of the leading coaches of The
Maryinsky company and professor of St.Petersburg
Conservatory. The evening consisted of three
parts: it opened with the second act of "La
Bayadere" with Irma Nioradze and Vyacheslav
Samosurov dancing Nikiya and Solor; then the
audience were shown black-and-white ballet films,
shot in 1975, in which Komleva danced "The
Cowboys", a lovely grotesque miniature by
Leonid Yakobson, with Konstantin Zaklinsky, a pas
de deux from "Laurencia" with Vadim
Budarin, and Victor Gsovsky's "Grand Pas
Classique" with the unforgettable Yuri
Soloviev; the third act of "The Sleeping
Beauty" was the final offering of the
evening with Daria Pavlenko dancing Princess
Aurora with Viktor Baranov as her Prince Desire.
The evening was a big success with the public.
The 1998 Golden Mask Award
(Moscow) went to Valeri Gergiev ("The Best
conductor of the Year"), Svetlana Zakharova
("The Best female part in Ballet") and
to Boris Eifman ("The Best choreographer of
the Year").
The famous Russian ballet
historian and critic Vera Krasovskaya presented
her new book- "Profiles of Dance" - on
March 19 at The Vaganova Ballet Academy. The opus
magnum consists of several chapters, each one is
dedicated to great dancers of the XX century -
"Through the Veil of Years" (Elizaveta
Gerdt, Mikhail Mikhailov), "The
Legendary" (Galina Ulanova, Konstantin
Sergeyev, Natalia Dudinskaya, Alla Shelest); a
very interesting chapter - "Absence without
Leave" is about the life and artistic career
of the famous "prison-breakers" -
Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail
Baryshnikov. Alla Osipenko's generation is
vividly described in the chapter "It was not
long ago..." (Irina Kolpakova, Gabriella
Komleva, Yury Soloviev, Anatoli Gridin, to name
but a few). The volume is gorgeously illustrated
- more than 200 photographs. The presentation of
the book was very well organized by Leonid
Nadirov, Director of The Vaganova Academy, and
Boris Illarionov, professor of The Academy and
the editor of the book. Vera Krasovskaya was
sitting in a Voltaire armchair surrounded by her
relatives, pupils and former Maryinsky dancers,
Natalia Dudinskaya among them. The opening
speeches were given by Leonid Nadirov and Igor
Belsky, Artistic Director of The Academy. To cap
the situation, bottles of champaigne were
uncorked to the great joy of all those present,
Yelizaveta Surits and Natalia Kasatkina from
Moscow among them.
The second International Ballet
and Dance Festival opened at The Maly Opera and
Ballet Theatre on March 27 and continued through
April 20 with participants from both the former
USSR republics and many foreign countries
including Japan, USA ("Dancing
People"), Hungary, Holland (Ester Gal and
Peter Player's company), Cyprus
("Diastasis" troupe), France
("Ballet Preljocaj" with its version of
"Romeo and Juliet"). The Festival
promises to be a showcase for new dance, for the
new breed of spectators, and to give a fresh
impulse to the choreography of the future. The
Maly Theatre itself is no stranger to
experimentation, as its illustrious past full of
balletic first performances testifies. One of the
sponsors of The Festival is The Fedor Lopukhov
Charitable Fund, and on April 3 it organized a
competition of young choreographers with
participants, again, from different countries of
the world. The Jury Panel awarded prizes for
innovation, original treatment of dance and music
themes, and work with dancers. On April 9 the
performance was dedicated to the memory of Fedor
Lopukhov - it was the one-act ballet
"Concerto for the Old Age"
choreographed by The Maly Theatre's own Georgi
Kovtun. The ballet is geared towards the plight
of the older generation of dancers in these
difficult times in Russia. Out of the long list
of the participants of The Festival, I should
like to single out The Tbilisi Ballet Company
headed today by Georgi Alexidze, a former student
of Fedor Lopukhov; the Cyprus company
"Diastasis" and, of course, Angelin
Preljocaj's troupe. The transition between the
19th and 20th centuries was marked by
such immortal ballet stars as Anna Pavlova,
Mikhail Fokin and George Balanchine. If The
Second International Festival is unlikely to
unveil dancers of that caliber, then at least its
involvment with the new and the progressive might
help the world of dance through the doors of this
century into the next.
On April 30 The Maryinsky
Theatre was crammed to capacity, additional rows
of chairs were put in the parterre - journalists,
critics, figureheads of the ballet world, ballet
buffs, dancers from different companies... The
premiere of the original version of Marius
Petipa's "Sleeping Beauty" (1890) was a
great event in the artistic life of
St.Petersburg. The publicity before the first
night was enormous - the Maryinsky's
press-officers worked hard, our TV showed a 30
minute film by Innokenty lvanov, a leading media
man, "Awakening of The Sleeping
Beauty"; the newspapers published articles
explaining the readers why the company decided to
revive the original version of the ballet; the
Maryinsky Theatre newspaper issued Professor
Roland John Wiley's article "Dances from
Russia" which gives many interesting and
important details about the way the original
score of the ballet, with the dance notations
based on musical symbols (Vladimir Stepanov's
system described in his "Alphabet of
movements of the human body", 1892) got
finally in 1969 into the Harvard University
Libraries' Theatre Collection.
The ballet was revived by The
Maryinsky troupe's principal dancer Sergei
Vikharev, the conductors Valeri Gergiev and
Gianandrea Noseda, the decorand costumes
designers Andrei Voitenko and Yelena Zaitseva.
Vikharev did a thorough research job comparing
all possible and available today versions of the
ballet - Fedor Lopukhov's, Pyotr Gusev's and The
Royal Ballet's among them; later he confronted
all these variants with the dance notations made
by Nikolai Sergeyev, regisseur of The
St.Petersburg Imperial Ballet in 1903-1918, who
took up Stepanov's system, supervised the
notations of the Maryinsky classics and later
brought the notations to the West where he worked
from them when he produced these for different
companies. The elaborate costumes were made to
Ivan Vsevolozhsky's original designs which are
among the holdings of The Maryinsky Theatre
Collection and the collections of The St.
Petersburg Theatre Museum. The premiere was a
great success with the public which was given,
finally, a rare opportunity to see how the ballet
looked like a century ago - in its
"cradle". I wish Professor Ronald John
Wiley could be present at the first night
performance. I am sure he would have enjoyed it
too. There are several casts of the new
"Sleeping Beauty". The part of Aurora
is danced by Altynai Asylmuratova, Diana
Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova and Daria Pavlenko;
as to the role of Prince Desire, only two
principals are properly coached and ready for it
- Andrian Fadeyev and Victor Baranov (Danila
Korsuntsev has injured his leg, lgor Kolb - after
two operations on his knee - is slowly
recovering, Yevgeni lvanchenko has been operated
on his knee only recently). The leading roles at
the premiere were danced by Diana Vishneva
(Aurora), Andrian Fadeyev (Prince Desire),
Veronika Part (The Lilac Fairy), Irina Zhelonkina
(Princess Florina), Anton Korsakov (The Blue
Bird), Islom Baymuradov (Carabosse). So far I
managed to see only two casts: Vishneva-Fadeyev
and Zakharova-Baranov. Vishneva's Aurora is a
charming, slightly spoilt child; a smile, a
glance, a gesture - all this enriches the
portrait of the coquettish princess. Zakharova's
Aurora looks more exquisite and more serious as
if the young girl knew what the future had in
store for her. Fadeyev's Desire is elegance
incarnate, the dancer's technique is superb.
Baranov in the part is an excellent dependable
partner, with no exciting moments though in the
general treatment of the role, without any drama
or emotion.
The problem now is whether to
keep both "Sleeping Beauties" (let's
call them conventionally Petipa-Vikharev's
original version and Konstantin Sergeiev's 1952
version) in the company's repertoire and show
them in turn, or let Konstantin Sergeiev's
production fall into oblivion?.. Natalia
Dudinskaya, Konstantin Sergeiev's widow, was not
present at the premiere.
With all the episodes of
Petipa's version restored - lots of mime, the
knitting women scene, Cinderella and Prince
Fortune's pas de caracter, the endless procession
of the Fairy tales, etc. - the performance became
unbearably long, the premiere started at 7 p.m,
and was over at 11.20. p.m.
At the end of April Maya
Dumchenko danced the role of Gamzatti in "La
Bayadere" for the first time. Slim and tall,
she looked fragile and absolutely defenseless
opposite Yulia Makhalina's Nikiya - rather a
pupet in the hands of her majestic father than a
miscreant who carefully schemed Nikiya's ruin.
Dumchenko tried to impose her gentle, quiet
reading of Gamzatti and imbued the part with
melancholy and grace. In the second act she
danced perfectly well partnered by Danila
Korsuntsev.
Boris Eifman's company showed
its premiere of the ballet "Paul I"
("The Russian Hamlet") to music by
Beethoven and Mahler at the beginning of May. The
perfomance (strictly speaking - a
dress-rehearsal) took place in the company's
rehearsal studio accomodating over one hundred
people. One may ask: Why in the rehearsal studio?
The thing is the world premiere of the ballet
will be shown by Eifman's company in Warsaw in
July, then the ballet will be staged by Eifman at
The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in February 2000,
so the Petersburg public will see it only in the
next century. That is why Eifman decided to show
the ballet to local critics, journalists and
ballet lovers now and make them, the citizens of
that provincial, backwater city of St.Petersburg,
the first viewers of his new production. Among
those present at the preview were Yekaterina
Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev of The Bolshoi.
They enjoyed the performance very much and
Vasiliev said he hoped his dancers would cope
with Eifman's choreography which is very
difficult and unusual for any classical company.
The leading roles were danced by Yelena Kuzmina
(Catherine the Great), Albert Galichanin (Prince
Potyomkin), lgor Markov (Paul I) whose
unbelievable plastisity and fierce physical
independence gave Eifman's new creation a
ferocity that has long been lacking in many
productions here. "Ballet through the eyes
of artists" - this is the name of the
permanent exhibition that opened at The House of
Painters last May. It included the works of
painters, sculptors, scenery designers,
photographers who devoted the major part of their
careers to ballet art. One can see portraits and
bronzes of the dancers, figurines, statuettes,
sculptures; costumes and costume - designs,
puppets and dolls, Easter eggs with the
silhouettes and profiles of the dancers and
ballet - masters. A separate hall is dedicated to
the works of Valentin Baranovsky whose
photographs are well-known to the readers of
"The Dancing Times". My attention was
rivited to the portraits and bronzes - form the
private collections - of Mikhail Baryshnikov,
Rudolf Nureyev, Inna Zubkovskaya, Natalia
Dudinskaya, Galina Ulanova and Anatole Vilzak - I
have never seen them before.
The new "Sleeping
Beauty" garnered lots of reviews in the
local newspapers and, which is only natural, the
opinions differed much from one another. Some
comments were very negative, saying the
production looks very old-fasioned like our
grandmother's coat smelling of moth-balls; quite
a few critics were sorry The Lilac Fairy is
almost deprived of her choreography and dances
only in the first act; almost a general opinion
is that, with all additional personnages - pages,
servants, courtiers, - the stage is overcrowed
and there is little space for dancing. Vera
Krasovskaya, the most influential ballet critic
in Russia to-day, writes:"No ballet
production can be fossilized. I saw the old
"Sleeping Beauty" with Konstantin
Korovin's decoreand costumes: I entered the
ballet school in 1924 and in 1925 we, kids,
already took part in the ballet. That was Fedor
Lopukhov's version and, I believe, he restored
Petipa honestly, down to minute details. Now the
company tries to revive what was created more
than a hundred years ago. But it cannot pan out.
The idea itself is wrong. Petipa wrote that any
ballet, like a human being, is continually
changing and developing. I believe that a ballet
production can preserve the delicate aroma of the
past and its inherent energy but it cannot be
fossilized. The pantomime of the new production
is miserable. To my mind, it is not worth the
pains the company has taken to revive it. When
recreating the old classics it is necessary to
work slowly, thoughtfully, patiently, without any
hurry and not to announce to the whole world -
"We have uncovered the original
Petipa!"
As to the dancers, the arrows
were shot at both Diana Vishneva and Svetlana
Zakharova for their six o'clock arabesques that
break the style of old choreography. Zakharova's
answer to this reproach can be found in one of
her recent interviews: Correspondent: Your
astounding arabesques impress the public from a
purely athletic point of view, but arouse
negative reaction among the critics because they
(Arabesques and sidesplits) violate the style of
old classical ballets and go against Petipa's
aesthetics. - Zakharova: I take it easy. Times
have changed, the XXI century is approaching.
Everything is changing quickly in the world, even
The Maryinsky Theatre has made some progress in
choreography. How ever long the critics may talk
about my arabesques, I'll do what I've been
doing.
On the other hand, many critics
(myself- among them) enjoyed the performance -
the original decor and costumes, (more or less)
Petipa's choreography, the old pantomime scenes;
all that gave rise to nostalgia and the reviews
were written with a Victorian gusto. So, on the
whole, it was the battle of oil and vinegar. And
to pour oil on troubled waters I suggested my
colleagues resort to the help of Jerome K.Jorome:
"...all our art treasures of to-day are only
the dug-up commonplaces of three or four hundred
years ago. I wonder if there is any real
intrinsic beauty in the old soup-plates,
beer-mugs, and candle-snuffers that we prize so
now, or if it is only the halo of age glowing
around them that gives them their charms in our
eyes... . Will it be the same in the future? Will
the prized treasures of to-day always be the
cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our
willow- pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the
chimney-pieces of the great in the years 2000 and
odd?"
On May 11 Altynai Asylmuratova
danced her Aurora in the new production of
"The Sleeping Beauty" for the first
time. The dancer was bewitchingly musical and
showed, again, her experience and maturity skill.
In her movements, now graphically detailed, now
ingratiatingly elusive, one sensed the grace,
hidden mischief and lyricism of the princess.
Another Juliet appeared in The
Maryinsky's "Romeo and Juliet". Guess
who danced the part on May 21? I'll tell you in
strict confidence: Yulia Makhalina. She should
not have danced this role and not because she
cannot cope with the choreography but because it
is just not her part. Juliet is sincerity,
spontaneity and freshness incarnate and Makhalina
with her artifisial mannerisms did not feel the
role but just acted it. It was strange to see -
instead of a young Juliet standing in front of
the mirrow and discovering for the first time,
with surprise, the beauty of her face and body -
a mature woman who has long been aware of her
charms and fascination. One can draw only one
conclusion: it was great ballerinas who were able
to shed any number of years and make us believe
they are juvenescent Juliets.
Last June Marina Vivien, the
Curator of The Vaganova Ballet Academy's Museum,
opened two exhibitions. One is dedicated to the
ballets inspired by and based on Alexander
Pushkin's works. Many photographs, documents,
programmes, statuettes and costumes illustrate
the first productions of Zakharov's "The
Fountain of Bakhchisaray", Lavrovsky's
"The Prisoner of the Caucasus",
Varkovitsky's "The Tale of a Priest and his
labourer Balda", Kholfin's "The
Gypsies", Boyarchikov's "The Queen of
Spades", "Tzar Boris", Fenster's
"The Princess and the seven Knights".
This ballet pushkiniana is absolutely amazing and
proves again that Pushkin and St.Petersburg have
always been blood-brothers. The other exhibition
is a traditional one and this year is devoted to
the 1949 Vaganova Ballet School graduates, some
of them still working at The Maryinsky Theatre.
Last June white nights came to
St.Petersburg again. There is something eerie
about a midnight when it is still dusk. Darkness
comes,but in an hour or two it is dawn. On June 6
all Russia celebrated the 200th anniversary of
Alexander Pushkin's birthday. The centre of the
city was turned practically into one big stage -
orchestras and bands were playing in all big
squares, actors were reciting Pushkin's verses
and poems, amateur and professional
terpsichoreans in the XIX centuries costumes
performed the popular ballroom dances of the
period - mazurka, polonaise, waltz - in front of
the beautifal Winter Palace. The whole town was
bright and many-coloured with a profusion of
flags, posters, baloons and other decorations. At
night the illuminations and fireworks were
dazzling. The Maryinsky Theatre devoted two
performances/concerts to the memory of the great
poet; the ballet part of the homage consisted of
scenes from "The Fountain of
Bakhchisaray", "The Bronze
Horseman" and the polonaise from the opera
"Eugene Onegin".
"The White Nights"
Festival was, as usual, grand affair. The ballet
company showed two performances - "Stars of
the Maryinsky" (Ulyana Lopatkina, Svetlana
Zakharova, Igor Zelensky and many other soloists)
and "Balanchine's Ballets".
Svetlana Zakharova's name
appeared several times in the posters announcing
her debut in "Don Quixote" but she
never danced in the ballet. Time after time she
invented some excuse - she was not ready
phychologically to dance Kitri, she was not
properly coached, or she wanted to have only Igor
Zelensky as her Basil... So, this debut never
took place. And then in the middle of June
Zakharova's debut in "Le Corsaire" was
announced. Well, I thought, what does the
capricious young lady have in store for us this
time? Surprisingly enough, Zakharova did dance
Medora and danced beautifully at that. And was
partnered by Igor Zelensky whose Ali seemed a
heaven-made match to her charming and seductive
Medora. Zakharova was colouring and timing her
dancing with a real sense of purpose, she gave
individual passages a definite texture according
to circumstances; bold and expressive dancing in
Act 1, plenty of brilliance in Act 2 - strong,
perfectly paced fouettes, utterly secured
balances. Zelensky's Ali was predictably great
and panther-like, he increased the difficulties
of his variations adding numerous nuances; both
the public and the corps de ballet watched him
with bated breath.
Several days later the part of
Ali was danced by Andrian Fadeyev. His Ali was so
refined and elegant that it seemed the youth had
graduated the Oxford University and knew his
Byron perfectly well.
On June 15-19 the company
visited Baden-Baden with two "Swan
Lakes" (Irma Nioradze, Ulyana Lopatkina) and
Mikhail Fokin's ballets. The American tour
started on June 27 and continued through July 11.
The repertory included the new production of
"The Sleeping Beauty",
"Giselle", "The Fountain of
Bakhchisaray" and George Balanchine's
ballets - "Serenade",
"Apollo", "Symphony in C".
President Boris Yeltsin's 1998
prize for the achievements in the field of arts
went to Valery Gergiev, Chief conductor and
Artistic Director of The Maryinsky, and Ulyana
Lopatkina, a principle dancer of the ballet
company, for her Odette-Odile in "Swan
Lake", a role in "Symphony in C"
and "Dying Swan". Boris Eifman also got
the prize for his ballets "The
Karamazovs", "Red Giselle",
"Tchaikovsky" and "Don
Quixote".
Another piece of news: the
position of the chief choreographer at The
Maryinsky Theatre, according to the All-Russia
newspaper "Arguments and Facts", has
been eliminated. Makhar Vaziev, company manager
(or, as he is called here, Director of the
Ballet) will be inviting choreographers, Russian
and foreign, to stage their ballets on the
Maryinsky stage.
...But now it's time for the
ballet.
The theatre's wicked
legislator,
Who unto every fascinator
In turn his fickle flattery
brings,
And boasts the freedom of the
wings,
Onegin flies to taste the
blisses
And breathe the free air of the
stage,
To praise the dancer now the
rage,
Or greet a luckless Phedre with
hisses,
Or call the dancer he preferred
Just for the sake of being
heard...
Believe me, the general spirit
and atmosphere at The Maryinsky have not changed
much since Alexander Pushkin's days. One
especially feels that when one comes to the
theatre to see the graduation performances of The
Vaganova Ballet Academy which have become with
years a kind of a solemn and heartfelt ritual for
both the general public and the critics. And, of
course,- for the young dancers who are ready
"...to be sentenced by a
crooked jury
And earn the fame and sound and
fury".
This is Pushkin again.
The graduation performances
were shown three times on The Maryinsky stage.
This year the professors of the girls' graduation
classes were Inna Zubkovskaya and Yelena
Yevteyeva, of the boys'-Yevgeni Shcherbakov,
Vitali Tsvetkov and Yuri Umrikhin. All in all
thirty-two Russian students got the diploma of a
professionai classical ballet dancer. Nine
foreign students from Japan, Findland, Korea and
Portugal also graduated The Vaganova Academy.
Sixteen students have become members of The
Maryinsky company, one went to Boris Eifman's
theatre. As the reader will remember, Makhar
Vaziev, Director of The Maryinsky company, took
only three graduates last year, so now he has
made up for the deficiency. The graduation
performances lasted for three hours, the
programmes consisted of the big pieces like the
Grand pas de deux from the second act of "La
Bayadere", or the scene from "Swan
Lake", and shorter fragments like the pas de
deux from "La Fille mal Gardee",
"La Esmeralda", the pas de trois from
"Paquita". The repertory of the
character class was represented by the famous
"Flamenco" suite from
"Laurencia"(what a pity this ballet has
dropped out of The Maryinsky repertory) and
Gopak, a lively Ukranian dance, from "Taras
Bulba". It is strange that with every coming
year the character repertoire of the graduation
performances is smaller and smaller. I remember
the times when The Vaganova Academy could boast
of its students dancing "The Hungarian
Rhapsody" from "The Humpbacked
Horse" with Lev Ivanov's choreography,
"The Spanish March" from "Don
Quixote", "The Sabre Dance" scene
from "Gayane", "The Basques"
scene from "The Flame of Paris". None
of them is included nowdays in the programme. It
is a pity because, to quote a British critic,
"how elegantly all Russian trained dancers
take the stage for the "boot"
dancers!"
Many graduates are former
Maryinsky dancers' children, so the performance
were pretty much family affairs. Out of a large
number of graduates I should like to single out
Viktoria Kutepova, a beautiful, slender girl of
marvellous proportions and charm. She danced
"Tchaikovsky Pas de deux" brilliantly
and was partnered by Artyom Shpilevsky, a tall
handsome youth, a future Siegfried, I am sure.
Yekaterina Mikhailovtseva and Dmitry Semionov
were very good as Gamzatti and Solor in the
second act of "La Bayadere", they
danced with gusto and panache - energy, beautiful
lines, well-paced fouettes and grand pirouette.
Ilmira Bagautdinova was a charming Sylphide - a
lovely petite with chiselled face and body;
Yekaterina Osmolkina(already an International
Ballet Competition prize winner) and Sergei
Kononenko were the handsome heroes of the Greek
myth about Diana and Actaeon choreographed by
Agrippina Vaganova. When watching these young
dancers one involuntary recalls the Shakespearean
lines from "The Winter's Tale":
"...when you do dance, I
wish you
A wave of sea, that you might
ever do
Nothing but that; move still,
still so,
And own no other
function..."
Igor Belsky, People's Artist of
Russia, Artistic Director of The Vaganova Ballet
Academy, died July 3, 1999, of a stroke, aged 74.
An outstanding character dancer and
choreographer, he graduated The Leningrad Ballet
School in 1943 and became very soon a character
soloist of the Kirov company. He created roles in
Leonid Yakobson's "Shuraleh",
"Spartacus" and "Choreographic
Miniatures", Yuri Grigorovich's "The
Stone Flower", Konstantin Sergeiev's
"The Path of Thunder", Boris Fenster's
"Masquerade" and "Taras
Bulba". His repertory included all character
dances in both classical and contemporary
ballets.
Belsky taught character dance
in The Vaganova Academy in 1946-1966; he was the
chief choreographer and artistic director of The
Maly Ballet company in 1962-1973, of The Kirov
Ballet in 1973-1977, of The Music Hall Company in
1979-1992. He had long been active at
choreography. His ballets covered a range
indicated by his choise of music by Dmitri
Shostakovich ("The Leningrad Symphony",
"The 11th Symphony"), Rodion Shchedrin
("The Humpbacked Horse"), Sergei
Slonimsky ("Icarus"), Andrei Petrov
("The Coast of Hope") as one extreme,
and Tchaikovsky ("The Nutcracker") and
Bizet ("Carmen", a number of
choreographic miniatures) as the other.
Those who worked with him as
dancer, choreographer and later artistic director
of The Kirov Ballet included Nina Anisimova,
Irina Gensler, Irina Kolpakova, Alla Osipenko,
Alexander Gribov, Gabriela Komleva and many
others. When Konstantin Sergeiev, artistic
director of The Vaganova Ballet Academy in
1973-1992 died, Belsky was choisen to succeed
him. Unlike Sergeiev, he did not teach, but he
proved a good replacment as a kind but strict
father-figure to the students, besides his work
in ensuring the smooth running of a complex
organization and helping raise funds for it.
Belsky had a wildly
enthusiastic, very generous nature, and an
uninhibited love of life's pleasures. He read a
lot and painted very well. He will be remembered
as a splendid dancer, talented choreographer and
man of enourmous sense of humour.
Last July the theatre's
repertory looked very peculiar because the major
parts of both the ballet and opera companies were
cut of town on different tours. There were seven
days off (!) - the theatre own them to the staff
which had worked continuously last June during
The "White Nights" Festival; five times
the Maryinsky was rented by smaller ballet
companies and orchestras; and four nights the
public were fed with "La Sylphide",
that saving remedy and maid of all work. It was
only in the second part of July that "Don
Quixote" and "La Bayadere",
"Swan Lake" and "Le Corsaire"
appeared in the posters again.
The 216th season closed on July
31 with "Romeo and Juliet" with Zhanna
Ayupova and Andrian Fadeyev.
Mikhail Shemiakin, a famous
Russian-American sculptor, painter and
scenery-designer, visited St.Petersburg last
summer. He had made many presents to the city:
his monunents to Peter the Great, to The Victims
of the political repressions and to The First
builders of the Great City are enjoyed by
Petersburgers. "I came to my native city on
the invitation of Valeri Gergiev, - he says. -
His ideas, as you know, are always extraordinary;
he suggested I create settings for the new
production, of "The Nutcracker" at the
Maryinsky he is going to stage. The offer was a
great surprise for me. Quite recently I watched
an American production of "The
Nutcracker" and thought: "Oh, God! How
happy I am not to work at the ballet
theatre!" And two hours later (surprise,
surprise!) there was a call from Gergiev and he
talked and talked about his
"Nutcracker" project. My first reaction
was a terrible snarl. But he calmly went on:
Wait, wait! You just listen how I
understand this ballet. May be you will take it
to heart too". Finally he did persuade me to
take part in creating a new production of the
ballet - not traditional and not sugary. That is
why I am in St.Petersburg, spending much time in
its wonderful libraries, looking for everything
that might be connected with the history of
"The Nutcracker". I am checking again
and again the dimensions of the Maryinsky stage,
its space and wings. The job is very serious,
indeed. And I am pressed for time: with Gergiev,
you know, everything must be shipshape ahead of
time". (Note: Not a word about the
choreographer. Who is going to choreograph a new
version of "The Nutcracker", I wonder.
The numours have it will be Alexei Ratmansky or
the famous mime-clown Slava Polunin).
When both the Maryinsky and the
Maly companies were out of town smaller ballet
companies gave free play to their activities.
Askold Makarov's "State Academic Ballet
theatre", Alexander Bruskin's "Russian
ballet", Vladimir Korolkov's "Classical
ballet" flooded the city with their numerous
"Swan Lakes", "Giselles" and
"Nutcrackers", the standard of which,
in many cases, is very low. The critics had been
sharpening thier pens for a long time and finally
last summer gave vent to their ire. Akulina
Volynskaya, for example, savaged the productions
of Askold Makarov's company: act after act, she
analysed their "Swan Lake", its
corrupted version, criticized the jejune settings
and costumes, terrible miming and poor dance
technique. The trouble is that summer folk and
foreign tourists, usually invading St.Petersburg
in July-August, do not often realize what company
exactly they are watching: for them any troupe is
a St.Petersburg company, a representative of the
legendary ballet traditions. It is easy to
imagine their disillusion after seeing a
production like Askoid Makarov's "Swan
Lake".
Nikita Dolgushin, a ballet idol
of the 60-70ies and the Artistic Director of The
St.Petersburg Conservatory's ballet company,
presented his vertion of "Swan Lake"
last August. On the whole it might be called an
academic revival, as close to the authentic
variant as possible. The music score was edited
by the conductor Sergei Stadler, a famous
violinist, who restored much of the composer's
original music; he played all the violin solos
himself and, when conducting, used his violin's
bow instead of the baton. The swan scenes and the
black pas de deux were preserved intact. The
first and the last scenes were choreographed by
Dolgushin, he also enlarged the part of Siegfried
(which is called by our dancers "a variation
and a half") using his own experience of a
dancer-perfectionist. The role of Odette-Odile
was danced by Margarita Kullik from the
Maryinsky.
The famous St.Petersburg
brewery "Baltica" is a very powerful
sponsor here and at the end of July it awarded
quite a few artists of The Maryinsky with its
prizes. The bonus funds this year were S 17.000.
The first prize went to Sergei Vikharev for his
revival of Marius Petipa's "Sleeping
Beauty"; a special prize, "Our
Hope" ,was awarded to Veronica Part.
The XXI Moscow International
Film Festival closed on August 3. The award
ceremony was, as usual, a grand affair with all
film stars and government officials present.
Spechees, smiles, friendly hugs, tears...
Suddenly the Master of ceremonies interrupted the
refined ritual and said: "And now a special
present to our guests !", and UIyana
Lopatkina appeared on the stage, all clad in a
black elegant suit with a broad-brimmed hat on
her head. Everybody gasped - so beautiful and
stunning was the young lady. She danced a tango
to Piazzola's music, it was an absolutely
ravishing show - the audience roared and shouted
"Bravo".
The September broadcasts of the
"Behind the Scenes" TV programme were
dedicated to Altynai Asylmuratova and Diana
Vishneva. Asylmuratova talked about her artistic
career, her grandparents and parents who were
dancers, about her work with foreign companies
and her little daughter Anastasia,who was shown
in the class trying to imitate her mother's
movements. Vishnevas programme was
different: the young ballerina was interviewed by
Innokenty lvanov, a leading-media man. The talk
was about the recent American tour of the
company. Here are some questions and answers
which seemed to me most interesting:
Q.: Is there any difference
between Russian and American public?
A.: The American public is
strange. I am not sure the Americans understand
the aesthetics, beauty and culture of dance. They
go into raptures over the settings or athletic
tricks. This is only natural but some deeper
comprehension is desirable. Only a couple of
reviews were so-so, the rest were quite
enthusiastic. Everybody was amazed our company is
so young and called it the best in the world.
Formerly, the critics wrote about the spirit of
The Maryinsky, about our legs, feet and insteps,
now they say: "Look, they are so young but
they can already do so much".
Q.: Does American criticism
differ much from Russian one?
A.: It was possible to talk
about Russian criticism before, now it is almost
non-existent (At this point I gasped and was
deprived of speech. - I.S.) At home our
production are rarely discussed, but in the USA
every performance was thoroughly analized, each
dancer was scrutinazed and taken stock of.
Q.: Do you read ballet reviews
and critical articles?
A.: Yes, I do, but I
immediately forget them. Whatever critics say
-either praise or savage my performance - I
consider all this to be very personal: usual
likes and dislikes. The only thing I have to
believe is my coach's opinion. But when my
performance is criticized I always
think:"Let them write, it is better than to
fall into oblivion".
Q.: What was your most
successful day in New York?
A.: It was the day when I
danced Aurora in "The Sleeping Beauty"
recently revived. Obviously, that evening
"the winds were breathing low, and my stars
were shining bright".
Q.: What did you manage to see
in New York?
A.: Fortunately the soloists
had a few days off during the tour, so I was able
to visit The Metropolitan Museum. I was taken to
some Broadway shows which, honestly, I did not
like at all. I never thought Broadway could
produce such shows with such unprofessional
actors.
Q.: You seem to be quite a
successful balerina to-day. What do you lack?
A.: I have not yet danced many
roles in our repertory. I've been dreaming of
"La Bayadere" for a long time.I also
want to dance Raymonda and Odette-Odile, but most
of all I would like to work with a choreographer
who would create a ballet specially for me. Then
you have the feeling of an owner: this ballet is
yours, it is your property.
Several days later the
All-Russian newspaper "Commercial
Daily published the complete text of the
interview under the title: "Vishneva does
not like Broadway.
Last September Marina Vivien,
the Curator of The Vaganova Ballet Academy's
Museum, opened the exhibition to mark the 120th
anniversary of Agrippina Vaganovas
birthday: photographs, rare documents, Vaganova's
correspondence with her pupils, and two
Vaganovas biographies written by her former
pupils - Galina Kremshevskaya and Vera
Krasovskaya.
Boris Eifman was awarded by the
French government with L'Ordre des Arts et
Lettres. So we have got another Chevalier in town
Now to marriages and divorces.
Yulia Makhalina divorced Yevgeni Ivanchenko: last
summer she went down the nave of the St. Nicholas
Cathedral with a young graduate of The
St.Petersburg Conservatory. Ilze Liepa, the
sister of the famous dancer Andris Liepa,
divorced Sergei Stadler, a violinist and
conductor, and married Director of the Moscow
filial of "Coca-Cola".
Valeri Gergiev entered the
state of blessed matrimony on September 4. He
married a nineteen-year-old Ossetic girl, a
musician, a graduate of The Gergiev Music School
in Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia) where the wedding
ceremony took place. The Independent TV Channel
broadcast the ceremony; unfortunately, we could
not see the brides face because, according
to the Ossetic traditions, the bride is to be
covered - from head to feet - with a white muslin
veil.
Well, as Samuel Butler put it
in his "Hudibras"-
"For in what stupid age or
nation
Was marriage ever out of
fashion ?"
and his compatriot, George
Farquhar the dramatist, added about thirty years
later: "Hanging and marriage, you know, go
by Destiny".
No doubt, very wise old saws.
The famous Russian ballet
historian and critic Vera Krasovskaya died after
a long illness, aged 84, on August 15, 1999, at
her home in St.Petersburg. She was an
outs-tanding figurehead of Russian and
St.Petersburg culture, Doctor of Arts, professor
and academician. To her last days she was the
chief of The Department of Ballet History and
criticism at The Vaganova Academy where she
brought up scores of pupils many of whom became
well-known critics and ballet historians.
Vera Krasovskaya was born into
the family of the St.Petersburg architect Mikhail
Krasovsky who had designed quite a few buildings
in the city. Her grandfather was a senator, the
fact the family carefully concealed during the
years of the Soviet regime. Her mother spoke
several languages and was a very well-educated
woman. Vera Krasovskaya graduated Agrippina
Vaganova's class in 1933 and danced in the Kirov
corps de ballet for ten years. She wrote her
first article - about Alla Shelest - in 1941, her
first book, "Vakhtang Chabukiani", was
published in 1956. Since then her books and
articles appeared, one after another, with an
amazing speed: the four-volume edition of
"The History of Russian Ballet" was
followed by the four-volume publication of
"The History of West-European Ballet".
This stream of heavy tomes was interlaid with
monographs - "Anna Pavlova"
(1964),"Nijinsky" (1974), "Natalia
Dudinskaya" (1982), "Irina
Kolpakova" (1984), "Nikita
Dolgushin" (1985), "Agrippina
Vaganova" (1989). Her books were translated
into English, Polish, German, Czech. On the whole
her bibliography makes up a thick volume: scores
of articles and reviews in Russian and foreign
press, bookltes and introductions to different
editions of books on ballet art, lots of entries
for encyclopaedias and reference books. A woman
of sharp mind and great sense of humour,
Krasovskaya was a staunch advocate of everything
new and progressive, she helped a lot to the then
young choreographers Yuri Grigorovich and lgor
Belsky passionately defending their first ballets
on the Kirov stage.
Vera Krasovskaya was an avid
reader of "The Dancing Times":
"This is my window on to European
ballet", - she used to tell me. She was
happy her photograph was published in the June
issue of the magazine - the picture was taken at
The Vaganova Academy when Krasovskayas last
book, "Profiles of the Dance" was
launcned.
The funeral service was
performed on August 18 at The Court Stables
Church. Though it was summertime and many people
were out of town, the number of those present at
the ceremony was enormous. Vera Krasovskaya was
buried at The Memorial Komarovo cemetery, the
last refuge for many writers, actors, scientists
and musicians. Krasovskaya is survived by her
husband, David Zolotnitsky, Doctor of Arts, and
her son, Yuri Krasovsky, a professor of The
St.Petersburg Theatre Academy.
|