Shostakovich : The Golden Age
Artists of the Boshoi Ballet
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Pavel Klinichev
Now that 'event cinema' seems to be here to stay, and the major houses involved have tested the waters thoroughly with their safest bets, some of them are beginning to expand what they're prepared to show the rest of the world, into repertory that is very personal to them, and rarely seen outwith the main house. It's starting to happen with the Royal Opera House, and it's happening with the Bolshoi, as is very evident from this season's offerings.
It's doubly interesting in that we're starting to see the big Soviet ballets, names that are known to those familiar in some degree with the history of the house, but which it seemed unlikely that we would ever see, outside of a trip to Moscow. However, in recent years, and to a considerable extent under the impetus of Alexei Ratmansky, during his short reign as the company's Artistic Director, the Bolshoi is reviving these works; The Bolt, The Bright Stream, The Flames of Paris, The Legend of Love, amongst others, have all reappeared on the stage of the Bolshoi, and even on tour. (The one I'm really waiting for is The Fountains of Bakshisarei - maybe one day!). We won't get into how politically expedient it might be for the company to do this in the current climate, but it's still welcome to see this very important part of their history respected.
The Golden Age is another such, one of the three Shostakovich ballets written between '29 and '35, which were pulled unceremoniously from the roster after Shostakovich fell foul of the system. However, you don't just leave a custom-built, full-length ballet score by the likes of Shostakovich to moulder in the attic, and in the early 70s, Yuri Grigorovich proposed reviving it, only to meet opposition from the composer himself. After Shostakovich's death, Grigorovich returned to the idea, and completed the project in 1982, but with a new libretto, for which I can't blame him. The original was about the shenanigans of a Soviet football team on a visit to a Western city!
The current version is a rather more traditional tale of nice girl and boy meeting in a seaside resort and falling for each other, but the girl is the star dancer at a louche nightclub (the titular Golden Age) run by a shady character, her professional dance partner, who's keen on her himself. Throw in a jealous gangster's moll, and the usual opposition of healthy, energetic Soviet workers versus decadent bourgeoisie corrupted by the West, and you get the general idea.
Grigorovich and his designer very explicitly set the action in 1923, which carries socio-political connotations regarding the New Economic Policy in force at the time, but which are probably more obvious to the 'local' audience than they were to me, and the nightclub setting makes sense of Shostakovich's modern dances (for the period), such as the tango and the foxtrot. It also gave Simon Virsiladze ample room for magnificent neo-Art Deco designs and costumes, with a set constructed of skewed polygonal flats covered in textured brush strokes, rather German Expressionist in inspiration, and glamorous flappers and vamps in the nightclub, all in gorgeous bi-coloured dresses in black and white, but with a tremendous variety of shapes and textures.
The choreography is pretty much exactly what you would expect of Grigorovich; broad strokes, some very characteristic moves, plenty of work for the men (both soloists and corps), occasionally a bit long-winded, but also some good, effective moments. He brought some additional Shostakovich music in to the score, notably the slow movement of the 2nd Piano Concerto, for the third and last pas de deux between Boris and Rita, which was lovely, but I kind of wanted to shut my eyes and listen to the music, rather defeating the purpose. The orchestra was playing particularly well tonight, with a great deal of verve, it has to be said.
As usual, the company's dancing was invigorating, to say the least. Vyacheslav Lopatin, as the nightclub's MC, had the equivalent of the Jester's role common in many Russian ballets (or versions thereof), and made an appropriately dazzling show of it in his brief appearances. As is also often the case, the 'bad guys' were a bit more interesting than the 'good guys' - Mikhail Lobukhin explosively powerful as Yashka, the gang leader/nightclub owner, and Ekaterina Krysanova excellent as his accomplice Lyuska, at first a ditzy flapper visibly getting all hot and bothered when Yashka shows his true colours, then later more overtly venomous.
Ruslan Skvortsov bounded across the New Stage with big, open gestures, very forthright and confident, as the exuberant young hero Boris, but I was slightly less happy with Nina Kaptsova's Rita overall. She has a lovely line, and captured something of Natalia Bessmertnova's drooping grace (Rita was created for Bessmertnova), but while at times Kaptsova was really compelling - the Foxtrot, towards the end of Act 2, was outstanding, with Lobukhin partnering - at other times she seemed a little vacant, such as in the first pas de deux with Boris, or the start of Act 2 where Rita expressly rejects Yashka's advances. However, in the end, it was a relatively minor point in a generally very entertaining performance.
[Next : 18th October]
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