| A critic's reflections on the past season before the opening of a new one The ballet off-season this year is tiny: on August 22, the Mariinsky Theater closed with Swan Lake, today, September 4, the Bolshoi Theater opens with the Bright Stream. Two weeks - for memories, for summing up. When you start to count it, you realize that there were so many events, as if not one, but several seasons had passed. Season of premieres and season of failures. It's moving season and touring season.
Season of moving and fires
The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater was on fire. So, some costumes were slightly damaged - but they burned before the start of the performance, that is, the audience was taken out of the hall, which added drama to the event. The performance, however, was not from the Musical Theater - that evening the stage was rented by the still homeless Classical Ballet, whose building has been under construction for ten years now. That is, the troupe of Kasatkina and Vasilyev were not so lucky. But Muzykalny was still supposed to close for reconstruction - and it closed; for the next two seasons its swans will swim on rented grounds.
It is extremely difficult to imagine the Mariinsky swans in the same situation, but in the near future the same fate awaits them. An international architectural competition for the reconstruction of the Mariinsky Theater was held in St. Petersburg - the Frenchman Dominique Perrault won. (The project is wonderfully beautiful, only one thing is unclear - in St. Petersburg weather, who will wash the numerous glasses that the architect with the ancient ballet surname loves to install everywhere?) That is, things are moving, and with Gergiev’s energy - in a year? in two? - The current building will still be closed. Actually, it should have been closed much earlier - the troupe toured so much last season, not only because it is always good to make money, but also because it should have already been homeless - the process of selecting and approving the project simply took too long.
The Bolshoi has already received a new building and has begun to develop it this season. When they were planning, they called it a branch, now they are positioning it as a New Stage. A special repertoire is being created for her, seemingly more liberated, less decorous than for the Main stage. But the building itself turned out to be strange. That is, God be with him, with Tsereteli’s large autograph on the ceiling (although it’s unpleasant to raise your head). The point is different. It seems that the designers of the hall cared exclusively about the comfort of the audience - and indeed, the chairs are excellent, even the folding seats recline with a comfortable backrest. But. The main thing in the theater is not to sit softly, but to see something. There are problems with this. Probably precisely to make it comfortable for the audience, to have somewhere to put their feet, the chairs in the mezzanine and on the balcony are pushed back and turned around so that nothing can be seen from them at all. That is, if the ticket went to the middle of the row, everything is fine, but a little to the left or right is hopeless. And there are not two, not three such places; at least a hundred pieces. The man comes; lays himself comfortably in a chair; but at the first sounds of music he moves to the tip of the seat and twists his neck inhumanly. I'm convinced that this can be fixed. But, I’m afraid, it’s unlikely that anyone will do this in the next fifty years.
Season premiere
The Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters this year followed non-overlapping courses. The only thing in common is that in both theaters the premieres were released in the second half of the season. The Mariinsky Theater, with tenacity worthy of better use, continued to work with Mikhail Shemyakin, who made a one-act preface to his own “Nutcracker” - “Princess Pirlipat” to the music of Slonimsky. (They say that now our monumental practitioner and television theorist wants to expand this preface to the size of at least a two-act performance; but this is still not included in the theater plans - pah-pah-pah! - not included.) The choreographer of the rat kitsch was again listed as Kirill Simonov. Fate is cruel to the young choreographer - but in general it is his own fault, he must be able to refuse obscene offers. As a refreshment for the soul, he staged “Madame Lionel” in St. Petersburg, a small ballet to the music of John Addams and Gavin Bryers - it was a private commission from the Mariinsky ballerina Irma Nioradze. They promised to show it in Moscow in the fall.
In addition to Pirlipat, the Mariinsky Theater released two premieres, both from an undisputed series. Evening by Stravinsky (“The Rite of Spring” by Vaslav Nijinsky and “Le Noces” by Bronislava Nijinska) is part of the ongoing reconstruction project of the theater, collecting the works of Diaghilev’s people who have traveled around the world. "Etudes" by Harald Lander are part of an educational project. The pace of life of a ballet dancer is four to five times faster than the pace of life of normal people; what lasted twenty years has for them the same inertia, the same authority, the same heaviness that a century has for us. That is why it seems to people that the editions of the classics made by Konstantin Sergeev have “always been”, that they are a triumph of intellect and the height of grace. This educational project of the Mariinsky Theater is being created to broaden the horizons of artists and spectators at the same time. That is, it provides the theater with the opportunity to move forward.
The Mariinsky Theater persistently mastered Balanchine - now it was the turn of the Danish school. With her dislike of big gestures and loud poses, with respect for quality, accuracy, stability. With quiet hymns to daily work, from which a nightly performance grows. "Etudes" - ballet lesson. Built as a daily morning class (from simple to complex, from batmans to jumps), filling the ears with exercises by Karl Czerny (yes, yes, yes, this album, familiar to all music students, is taken as the basis for an academic performance), this ballet was created specifically for generating balletomanes. One of those crazy people who go to all the debuts and dream of recognizing the future prima ballerina in a girl dying of horror or, conversely, a dashingly insolent girl.
The Bolshoi Theater is also looking to distant countries - but, having forgotten the Americans (in the beginning season, however, the Balanchine program will be restored), it is in full swing having romances with the French. Roland Petit reproduced his “Notre Dame Cathedral” from forty years ago in the capital. The impression was similar to Yevtushenko’s current performances. And our mothers and grandmothers once found something in this, no? And you sit and think about what exactly.
With huge breaks, after which the performance needs to be rehearsed again, but still the long-suffering “Pharaoh’s Daughter” appears in the repertoire. This fall they will make an official video version of it - maybe this will at least a little console Pierre Lacotte, whose “Ondine”, it seems, will never appear at the Mariinsky Theater. The premiere was supposed to take place back in February, but rehearsals dragged on... the theater kept going on tour... intrigue swirled... and apparently, this is how it will all end. Here, of course, it would be worthwhile for the Moscow people to take the time to remember how much better the corps de ballet began to work after rehearsals with the corrosive Frenchman. Moreover, Svetlana Zakharova, who rehearsed the main role with Lacotte, moved to the capital’s troupe. But the management of the Bolshoi Theater is not particularly mobile.
Let's hope it's no different for now. Since January, Alexey Ratmansky has become the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, who last season produced the theater’s most resounding premiere, “The Bright Stream.” (Jumping to the next rung of the management ladder, to the position of head of the troupe - an assistant responsible for daily work, was Gennady Yanin, a classmate of Ratmansky - they graduated from MAHA together - and the sunniest creature of the Bolshoi Theater.) One can only hope that Ratmansky, whose career took place in Canada and Denmark (he is now 35, and apparently he will stop dancing ahead of schedule, he says that he will not be able to combine his artistic and production careers), will open up new opportunities for the theater. And it will stop the practice of dull revivals - like “Raymonda” last season, when everyone together - artists, audience and orchestra - fell into a heavy sleep.
Province season
Non-capital cities lived their own quiet lives. Events happened only in Novosibirsk, Perm and Yekaterinburg. In the first two cities there are artistic events, in the last - administrative ones.
In Novosibirsk in June, Sergei Vikharev released the new-old Don Quixote. This is a continuation of the eternal work of the choreographer-restorer with ancient works - in the Mariinsky Theater “The Sleeping Beauty”, “La Bayadère”, in Novosibirsk there was already “Coppelia”. With Don Quixote everything is not as obvious as it was with other performances - there is no record of what Petipa composed; in St. Petersburg for almost a hundred years the same version has been going on that Gorsky did in Moscow. Therefore, the new-old Don Quixote is more varied in composition than Vikharev’s previous works, but no less interesting. Perm continues to collect Balanchine in the repertoire - the solemn Balle Imperial was released, and for a year now it has been working with the new chief choreographer, Yuri Avdysh - he made The Master and Margarita. And Yekaterinburg only at the end of the season met the new chief - he became the head of the Moscow Russian Ballet, Vyacheslav Gordeev. He is not going to part with the capital's troupe. He plans to work both here and there, to raise the level of the non-capital troupe, and when it matures - at least to the level of the Russian Ballet, which drags out a completely miserable existence in the capital, then Spartacus will appear in the repertoire. In whose choreography it is still unknown. The Yekaterinburg theater, which still has tickets for five rubles, will clearly not be able to afford Yuri Grigorovich’s fees.
Season of Failures
No, he probably wasn’t like that. Sometimes there were incidents beyond good and evil, but there were very few of them. Well, “Spartak” at the Kasatkina and Vasiliev Theater. There, crucified slaves busily climbed down from the crosses, and the dictator Sulla walked across the stage on buskins with a live dachshund. Since Soviet times, the first ballet dissidents wanted to argue with the first ballet tyrant - Yuri Grigorovich - in the interpretation of Khachaturian's ballet. Now we have an argument. Roman debauchery became similar to Soviet films about the moral decay of the West - those that were filmed with the participation of dancers in Baltic cafes. A pitiful sight.
A man of another generation, Konstantin Uralsky, also fell loudly into the puddle. A teacher of a ballet school somewhere in the American wilderness (oh Moscow choreographic school! You give bread to all your graduates!) was invited to stage a performance for that part of the Russian Chamber Ballet Moscow troupe that deals with classical choreography, and composed something called “Waltz white orchids” - sort of based on the works of Remarque. What was Remarque’s in the formless opus, where each performer clearly did his part himself according to the principle “here I’ll trust myself, and here I’ll wander around with a thoughtful look, anyway, after all, the choreographer can’t offer anything,” is unclear.
PR season
“Everything comes to the giraffe slowly, we still like the giraffe.” And so the war of appearances against essence comes to ballet. Anastasia Volochkova ceases to be the only dancer convinced that you can work as badly as you like, the main thing is advertising. No one can reproduce the scale of our pop diva, but small people also want to have their own small business. This same “Russian Chamber Ballet Moscow”: like they tried with “Waltz of the White Orchids”. I didn’t invite critics to the premiere. Of those who came, those who took care of the faint of heart. (Oh, what a picture it was: one of my fragile esthete colleagues spent two acts and an intermission literally under the escort of two stately ladies; the result was an approving note in a completely sane magazine; and the colleague hides his eyes.) In another respected daily at the time of vacation their ballet critic - two months after the premiere - a laudatory review appears under a pseudonym. No, I understand that everyone is used to it - but these hares have appeared in the ballet forest for the first time, so I’m not too lazy to shoot yet.
So it is not surprising that the Bolshoi Theater is creating a special department that will be engaged in “developing a corporate identity and presenting a new image of the theater.” Yuri Grymov is in charge. Brothers, the theater’s signature style is formed on stage. True, true. It's better to invest your money and brains there. Look, the Mariinsky Theater does this. There is a press service, in the press service there are two girls and a boy. That's all. But for now, the Mariinsky Theater will somehow do better with its image.
Touring season
Although there were few premieres in Moscow (Three at the Bolshoi, Spartak by Kasatkina and Vasiliev, and Muzykalny released a children's horror film The Circus Has Arrived), the season does not seem poor due to the many tours. How they started in September with the cold graphics of Heinz Sperli’s “Goldberg Variations”, and how they continued with the magnificent, zealous, ageless Bejart! (The Moscow public could see the master’s ballets twice per season - first his main troupe toured with “The Firebird”, “Bolero”, “Barbara and Brel”, then it was the turn of the youth troupe, dancing “Mother Teresa and the Children of the World”). But most of all, for some reason, MacMillan was brought to Moscow this season. In the fall, La Scala toured with Romeo and Juliet; then the Mariinsky Theater danced “Manon”, and already in June - Macmillan from his historical homeland, touring Covent Garden. This concentration turned out to be useful: it became possible to consider this English classic, who once fell so in love with Ulanova-Juliet that he decided to build the entire national choreography in the same melodramatic spirit of the Soviet performance. MacMillan turned out to be thinner and more pretentious than the domestic drama ballet; in general, and more varied. And yet - this turned out to be an inoculation: the Bolshoi artists all suffered that they did not have MacMillan in their repertoire - now, one can hope, they will dream of something more sublime.
In St. Petersburg, the tour fit within the framework of two festivals - the winter ballet festival, where mostly artists came, not theaters (the exception was the Netherlands Dance Theater of Jiri Kylian), and the summer Stars of the White Nights, where Covent Garden replaced the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, and the finale was performed by the New York City Ballet. The abundance of top names (oh, how Alina Cojocaru danced “Giselle” with Johan Kobborg!) could have crushed a weaker troupe to the ground and made it develop a complex. It never happened at all: when we were in the city, and not on tour ourselves, we walked, looked and assessed them as equals.
Contemporary dance season
This year, people from the association of dance theaters “Tsekh” started the “PerformMania” project, something like a permanent contemporary dance festival. Once or twice a month, premieres take place on the stage of the Meyerhold Center; all this is approaching December, the big festival “Tsekha”. There have been no super discoveries at PerforMania yet, but there have been no outright failures either; in a normal working atmosphere, you see, something will sprout. Of the two performances that became the events of the season, one (“Tea Party Flights” by Tatyana Baganova, Yekaterinburg troupe “Provincial Dances”) was first shown at the December festival. The second, however, has nothing to do with “Workshop” - it was produced by the modern dance troupe of the Russian Chamber Ballet Moscow. The furious, rough, stunningly beautiful “Rite of Spring”, covering the stage with black sand dust, was staged there by the Frenchman Regis Obadiah. “Russian Chamber Ballet Moscow” once every two years invites excellent contemporary Western choreographers. It could be more often.
Artist Season
People were having a blast at the "Bright Stream" - Maria Alexandrova flew into the dance of the highlanders and Kuban people with the determination that was characteristic of the heroines of Lyubov Orlova, Sergei Filin wonderfully flirted on pointe shoes, posing as an inexperienced sylph. In "Notre Dame de Paris" there were two completely different Quasimodos - Nikolai Tsiskaridze put into this boulevard toy, composed by Roland Petit, the blizzard horror characteristic of a real Gothic novel, his hero consisted entirely of skewed corners. And Dmitry Belogolovtsev, on the contrary, was unbearably smooth, this smoothness arose from the muscles slowly rising in bulges, it formed a leitmotif - caution. Careful handling of Esmeralda, protection, tenderness. Tsiskaridze went on a rampage, Belogolovtsev guarded. At the Mariinsky, the season became a season of growing up, of consistent improvement of Andrian Fadeev - in the dance of the exemplary classical boy, such a familiar Mariinsky inconspicuous gentleman, a nerve and a breakdown appeared, which allowed him to perfectly perform “Young Man and Death”. And the season of the rise of Leonid Sarafanov’s star - it was the star dancer who he danced in “Etudes”.
And finally, the season of return
After expecting a child, having a child, raising a child (however, the process, of course, is still ongoing), at the anniversary concert in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theater, Ulyana Lopatkina again appeared on stage with “The Dying Swan”. And the gap in the Russian ballet space that arose during her long vacation finally disappeared. Anna GORDEEVA |
|
