Minkus : Don Quixote
The Bolshoi Ballet
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Pavel Sorokin
The Bolshoi spokesperson at the start of today's broadcast had to spend a good five minutes going through the permutations of the company's various versions of Don Quixote, it has been that complicated over the 147 years since its creation. What the Bolshoi is currently staging was devised in 1990 by former dancer Alexei Fadeyechev, based on Gorsky, which was based on Petipa, but with brand new (and very handsome) sets and costumes. All the complications of who has done what aside, this is still a perfectly traditional version, with a lot of character dancing (the girls of the corps wear heeled shoes, rather than pointes throughout, save for the Dream sequence), a lot of 'Spanish' colour (fake, but enjoyable), and a set of gypsies in the middle who have audibly strayed a long way from their Central European plains. Nonsensical, for the most part, but good fun, especially when delivered with the appropriate degree of energy.
I have to admit that I have yet to see a Dream sequence that inspires me with any great measure of admiration; the choreography is not the most inspired (whoever's it might be!) and it is, of course, just an extraneous passage to allow the audience to see the girls in more classical mode. However well it is danced - and I have no complaints today - it remains a bit tedious by comparison with the lively ensemble numbers and solos of the surrounding scenes. Olga Smirnova was a stately Queen of the Dryads, and Daria Khokhlova a perky Cupid, but in terms of character, they were both a bit outshone by the sultry Gypsy Dance of Anna Antropova, while Anna Tikhomirova's Variation in the Act 3 Grand Pas was a much more striking example of classical ballet, and just as well delivered.
I've seen stronger characterisations of the male character roles too; only the good-natured Sancho Panza of Roman Simachev really stood out. Ruslan Skvortsov was a fairly dashing Espada, who could maybe have done with a little more panache, but I think he wisely left the field for that to the outstanding Basile of Semyon Chudin, lithe and lean, relaxed yet powerful, playful without overdoing it, and providing magnificent, effortless-seeming lifts for the Kitri of Ekaterina Krysanova. She was bold and assertive, with fast, precise feet and rapid turns, and I could never say that she was not excellent throughout. However, having seen Marianela Nuñez in the part, and the sheer joie de vivre she can bring to it, Krysanova doesn't quite project that calibre of joyous ebullience, and I missed it. On the other hand, though, the Grand Pas was a thing of beauty, Krysanova and Chudin breath-taking in the assurance, stylishness and quality of their dancing, ending proceedings on an unequivocal high note.
[Next : 15th April]
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