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bolshoi_la_bayadere_feb_17_2013 [2013/02/19 08:57] – created tomgeebolshoi_la_bayadere_feb_17_2013 [2013/02/19 09:22] (current) – tomgee
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 ===== La Bayadere ===== ===== La Bayadere =====
 +This was the best of the ballets that I have ever seen. It has a definite wow factor, especially the 32 ballerinas in the third act in white tutus coming down a darkened spiral ramp. As each ballerina appeared it was like looking at a kaleidoscope of a sea of white tutus against a black background. 
  
 DANCE REVIEW: Bolshoi's "La Bayadere" subtly sensational\\ DANCE REVIEW: Bolshoi's "La Bayadere" subtly sensational\\
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 Nureyev's 1993 re-staging of the ballet for the Paris Opera was reprised in a "Ballet in Cinema" performance by that company last year and revealed the Russian's fondness for flamboyance and theatricality. But I preferred the more subtle and refined reading of longtime Bolshoi Ballet director Yuri Grigorovich, created 20 years ago and given fresh costumes and a stellar cast for its filming for a recent broadcast. Nureyev's 1993 re-staging of the ballet for the Paris Opera was reprised in a "Ballet in Cinema" performance by that company last year and revealed the Russian's fondness for flamboyance and theatricality. But I preferred the more subtle and refined reading of longtime Bolshoi Ballet director Yuri Grigorovich, created 20 years ago and given fresh costumes and a stellar cast for its filming for a recent broadcast.
  
- +{{:bolshoizaharova1-300x200.jpg|}}\\ 
-Svetlana Zakharova as Nikiya in the Bolshoi Ballet's production of "La Bayadere." / Photo courtesy of Ballet in Cinema+Svetlana Zakharova as Nikiya in the Bolshoi Ballet's production of "La Bayadere." / Photo courtesy of Ballet in Cinema\\
  
 Set in then-exotic India, this version of the love between Nikiya, a bayadère (temple dancer), and the warrior Solor, stymied by a rajah's edict that Solor marry his daughter, Gamzatti, was both less elaborate visually and more affecting emotionally. Grigorovich wisely replaced many of the original mime scenes with dance and refrained from definitively clarifying the plot. (Unlike in Nureyev's version, Gamzatti is not implicated in Nikiya's death by poison snake bite.) Set in then-exotic India, this version of the love between Nikiya, a bayadère (temple dancer), and the warrior Solor, stymied by a rajah's edict that Solor marry his daughter, Gamzatti, was both less elaborate visually and more affecting emotionally. Grigorovich wisely replaced many of the original mime scenes with dance and refrained from definitively clarifying the plot. (Unlike in Nureyev's version, Gamzatti is not implicated in Nikiya's death by poison snake bite.)
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 For two acts there is a mix of classical ballet with folk and character steps based not so much on actual Indian dance but an idea of what Indian dance should be (arms akimbo, flexed feet, palms upturned). It's still hard for me not to blanch at the antics of the children dressed in blackface as slaves. But afficionados will appreciate the skill in the familiar Act II variations — the Golden Idol, the Manu (jug) dance and the drum dance — and the understated but fresh costuming (based on sketches from the original production). The corps work, as one has come to expect from the Bolshoi, is nothing less than exceptional. For two acts there is a mix of classical ballet with folk and character steps based not so much on actual Indian dance but an idea of what Indian dance should be (arms akimbo, flexed feet, palms upturned). It's still hard for me not to blanch at the antics of the children dressed in blackface as slaves. But afficionados will appreciate the skill in the familiar Act II variations — the Golden Idol, the Manu (jug) dance and the drum dance — and the understated but fresh costuming (based on sketches from the original production). The corps work, as one has come to expect from the Bolshoi, is nothing less than exceptional.
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 +{{:bolshoizaharova-300x200.jpg|}}\\
 +Svetlana Zakharova in Act I of Yuri Grigorovich's interpretation of Marius Petipa's "La Bayadere." / Photo courtesy Ballet in Cinema\\
 +
 +It is little wonder that the third act "Kingdom of Shades" has often been presented alone. It has, essentially, nothing to do with the previous two-thirds of the ballet, other than the vague suggestion that we are now in Solor's dream world.
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 +The folkloric costumes are exchanged for the stiff white tutus and white arm floats of 32 corps dancers, who zig-zag down a long ramp for almost 200 counts of an arabesque-tendu repetition. In the Paris Opera version this was tedious; here, with a black ramp that disappeared with effective lighting, the dancers seem to multiply as if viewed through a prism, leaving no wonder that this sequence is often referred to as the first instance of neo-classicism.
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 +As Solor and Nikiya shared a long stretch of chiffon in their final pas de deux, I found myself moved in a way I hadn't been before. And I especially appreciated that there was no attempt to punctuate the story by sending the lovers off to eternal bliss in the afterlife. Some things are better left unsaid.
bolshoi_la_bayadere_feb_17_2013.1361282225.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013/02/19 08:57 by tomgee