Moscow City Ballet performed Swan Lake at the Bath Theatre Royal on March 13th and 14th. The company take the ballet back to its traditional roots, creating a production that tells a clear story through spectacular dance, set to the iconic music of Ptyor Tchaikovsky.
The ballet tells the story of Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with Odette, a beautiful young woman who is held under the spell of the evil Rothbart. During the day she must remain as a swan – only at night can she regain her human form.
The most distinctive and challenging part of Swan Lake is that the ballerina who dances Odette must also dance Odile, Rothbart’s evil daughter who bears a stunning resemblance to Odette – essentially dancing two extremely difficult parts in one. This iconic dual role is danced in Moscow City Ballet’s production by Alevtina Lapshina. She performs this marathon part with grace and poise, seamlessly slipping from the shy, mournful innocence of Odette to the sharp cunning and teasing nature of Odile with ease. The highlight of Act Three is the sequence of thirty two consecutive fouette turns performed by Odile, which was met by thunderous applause from the audience, and deservedly so.
Other stand-out performances were delivered by Faroukh Sadyrkulov as the jovial Jester, whose jumps seemed to defy gravity and whose comic characterisation provided many laughs. The five female soloists who danced as the various foreign brides vying for the Prince’s affection showed great virtuosity and strength, mixed with the stylistic qualities of each particular country’s traditional dances. Rothbart, danced by Georgiy Sorokin, was wonderfully threatening and evil, and had an impressively dark presence on the stage.
All of these performances were brilliantly supported by the Moscow City Ballet Orchestra, conducted by Igot Shavruk.
However, at times it seemed that the company were struggling on the small Theatre Royal stage, as the larger chorus numbers sometimes felt crowded and too contained, with the dancers unable to travel their steps as much as it felt like they needed to. They handled the restricted space well, but the effect didn’t feel as impressive as it could have been if performed on a larger stage.
Despite the lack of space, the production still managed to completely engross the audience. The extravagant costumes, set against the simple painted backdrops, made sure the emphasis always on the dancing itself. The tutus of the white swans and foreign princesses were beautiful, as were the male court dancers’ jackets.
The half black and half white tutu worn by Odile in her Act Three entrance perfectly illustrated to the audience Siegfried’s confusion about her identity. Its new and unusual design is something that sets this ballet apart from other company’s productions.
All in all the production was a great example of classical ballet at its best, with a tight-knit company who create a truly magical show. The performance highlighted the immense skill of each and every performer, showing the true strength of this small company. From the opening scene the audience were transfixed, and remained so until the final curtain fell.
Our thanks to Megan Blee for this review.
