"Swan Lake"
American Ballet Theatre
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 20 and 22, 2009
by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson
Two generations of ballet goers have grown up with Kevin McKenzie's ABT production as their standard "Swan Lake". Compared to the many deviant versions concocted over the years, this production's story - although retold - has been neither updated or remotivated. Despite cuts in the score, nowhere does the mood of a scene mangle the music. Nor are new choreography (McKenzie's from 2000) and old (after Petipa and Ivanov, ca. 1894/5) like the proverbial apples and oranges that won't add up. One should be grateful for such virtues of omission! In the first (Friday, Feb. 20) and last (Sunday, Feb. 22) of the ballet's four* Washington performances, the dancers cast as the romantic hero and his nemesis switched roles. Marcelo Gomes was Friday's Prince Siegfried and Saturday's evil magician Von Rothbart; David Hallberg was magician first, then prince two days later. Veronika Part on Friday and Michele Wiles on Sunday in the dual role of true and false Swan Queen are both tall, impressively long- limbed women. Yet they are dissimilar in other physical respects, as well as technically and temperamentally. Watching became a different experience on these two occasions, not withstanding the context of the same "Swan Lake" text.
Part in arabesque is like a billowing sail whereas Wiles suggests architecture - sharp lines that, when they meet, form a corner. The anatomic ingredient in these images is Part's more curvaceous and Wiles' straighter legs. The technical ingredient is Part's use of her body as a single, harmonious entity and Wiles' diverse, slightly polyphonic fonts of motion. Part projects a melancholy soul. She's a Hamlet of a heroine in both roles although her Odile, the false Swan Queen, has been reconceived since she last danced "Swan Lake" in Washington. This Odile now seeks to dominate Siegfried - which shows in the imperial carriage of her head - whereas before she tried to seduce him. Also, Part's fast turns, both fouettes and piques, have become sharper and stronger. Wiles, whose turns can be diamond cut but whose extensions sometimes start out being abrupt, is given to action more than contemplation. On occasion, Wiles forgot who she was supposed to be. The most noticeable moment was as Odile in the adagio of the Black Swan pas de deux with Siegfried: reveling in her ability to balance and stretch, she seemed too innocently joyful.
Gomes, tall and full bodied, has exceptionally plush landings. The jump preceding the landing tends to be large and terminates in a plie sinking softly towards the ground at touchdown and then rising so slowly that the recovery becomes a duration - an effect as haunting as a distant echo's. Yet at other times Gomes, as Siegfried, seemed to be struggling against a slight sluggishness in his dancing. He overcame that delay for the Black Swan pas de deux 's bravura and was totally in top form two days later as a darkly commanding Von Rothbart. Hallberg, also tall but slim, does legwork as handsome as his legs are long, meticulously stretched and elegantly shaped. He is learning to hold his upper torso less stiffly than heretofore and is tackling acting with determination. As Siegfried he wore his blond hair a bit mussed for the lakeside acts; for the Black Swan act, it was back to its golden helmet shape of yore.
Neither "Swan Lake" conveyed fully the story of the great love between Odette, the true Swan Queen, and Prince Siegfried. On Friday, Hallberg's obsession as Von Rothbart to make Gomes' Siegfried suffer was the dominant relationship. Neither as Odette or Odile did Part need a partner to rouse her emotions. Ditto for Hallberg's Siegfried on Sunday. So the Friday performance became a story of jealousy and revenge - like "Othello" when Iago overwhelms or Klingsor in "Parsifal" or Mephisto in "Faust". In the Sunday performance, each of the men seemed mostly concerned with himself and the story became one of self discovery.
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* The Saturday matinee featured Gillian Murphy, Gennadi Saveliev and Cory Stearns. Saturday night, Nina Ananiashvili gave her Washington "Swan Lake" farewell with Jose Manuel Carreno and Jared Matthews.
