Like a Marc de Champagne from Switzerland's Top Chocolatier

A Third “Raymonda” at the Zurich Opera-House
The Zurich Ballet
Zürich Opera-House
October 31, 2009-11-04

by Horst Koegler
copyright @2009 by Horst Koegler

It is already Zurich´s third production of "Raymonda“ –- after Rudolf Nureyev´s brillant staging of 1972 with Marcia Haydée in the title-role and Nureyev as Jean de Brienne, both at that time 34 years old (and the unforgotten Gabriel Popescu as Abderakhman) –- and after Bernd Robert  Bienert´s version of 1993, dominated by the Italian star-architect Aldo Rossi´stage-design rather than by any Petipa-ambitions. The new Zurich “Raymonda 3rd” represents an entirely different approach, lovingly staged by Heinz Spoerli, with assistance by the Petipa-specialist Sandor Nemethy from Budapest. It materialized on October 31 at the Zurich opera-house, unanimously acclaimed for its musical splendour under Mikhail Jurowski´s electrifying direction, and its smashing dancing potency as it was performed by the soloists and corps de ballet members of the company.

With some musical cuts and clever dramaturgical operations, the rather uninspired libretto by Lydia Paskova has been injected with a strong dose of dramatic thrust, shortening its original three acts into two, with just one intermission and a performing length of 140 minutes. Alas, it resulted not in a masterwork, lifting the 1898 St. Petersburg classic on the same exalted level as the three Tchaikovsky classics  - for this the story of the coy Provencal Lady and her Crusader Knight, whose idyllic amour is  threatened by the advent of a fierce and sensual Saracen warrior, is just too insipid. Thank goodness no ´tanztheater´ dramaturg has tried to jazz it up by presenting Raymonda as a contemporary Carla Bruni, whose adored Nicolas is on a diplomatic mission in the Near East, an occasion for the Lybian Gadaffi to tempestuously woo the Parisian Lady. But unfortunately Spoerli has decided to shift the story from medieval times to the end of the 19th century –- where it musically belongs, but the hodgepodge designs of the Italian Luisa Spinatelli, and especially her rather drab and badly fitting costumes make the production look rather dreary, contrast sharply with the glittering silver heraldry of Glasunov´s  miraculous orchestration.

Storywise Spoerli emphasizes the conflict of Raymonda, brought up by rigid social conventions and educated to the ideals of ´pure  love´ and her strong sexual desires raised by the sensual Muslim, and he goes even so far as to extend the famous dream pas de deux of Raymonda and Jean de Brienne into a pas de trois, with Abderakhman intervening tempestuously like an erotic flaming-sword and thus building up an explosive climax, which at the last moment is saved through the appearance of the mysterious White Lady – obviously a near relative of the “Sleeping Beauty´s” Lilac Fairy -  who fetches her back from her sexual nightmare into reality. The miracle of transformation of a pas de deux into a pas de trois is a stroke of genius, without violating the music.

Even earlier Abderakhman is introduced as a blazing elemental macho, with his retinue of wild warriors, and a lady at his side, Maria Saletskaya as Galiani, who accompanies him into exile after he has lost his combat with Jean de Brienne, thanks again to the intervention of the White Lady. It emerges as a scene  in which full use is made of the two leitmotivs, the scarf which Jean de Brienne has presented to her as his marriage pledge (it is handled by her almost like a fetish) , and Abderakhman´s  chain of precious stones; this lends the production a strong dramatic backbone. Anyway it is Abderakhman who dominates the scene, the virile Vahe Martirosyan, one of Spoerli´s boisterous horde of Armenians, coming from that obviously inexhaustible source of energetic young men at Jerewan. Martirosyan is an especially strong representative of it, with a healthy portion of arrogance, a leap loaded with bravour and flash and an inborn winner´s identity. Against him the decent and well-behaving Jean de Brienne of Stanislav Jermakov, who hails from Tallinn, stands no real chance. Decent and clean dancer that he is, he looks like e senior civil servant due to his unflattering costume (with the socalled provencale ´troubadours´ being dressed in uniforms like the cadets from a French Ecole Militaire).

Anyway Jean is no match for the simmering erotic volcano of Abderakhman, and it is very much to be doubted that Jean and Raymonda´s marriage at the end is a guarantee for their future happiness, as Raymonda has been severely infected with Abderakhman's priapic virus. And Aliya Tanykpayeva, the Raymonda who comes from Kasakhstan, is not a woman forever satisfied with her virginal purity. Tanykpayeva is a solid rather than charismatic dancer, with a well-established technique, but without spreading electric flashes from her pirouettes or her quicksilver pas de bourrées and pizzicato hops.

Nonetheless the Petipa  borrowings, so skilfully amalgamated with the Spoerli inventions, make it a perfect piece of danced Swiss patisserie from Zurich´s  top-chocolatier, which certainly whets our musical, and visual appetites. There are so many ingredients from other Petipa ballets like “Sleeping Beauty”, “Bayadère”, “Le Corsair” and “Paquita” that one thinks of Raymonda´s friends and  her court d´amour as close relatives from the stock of the Petipa genealogy. Again as so often in the past, Spoerli has choreographed especially dynamic male ensembles, bursting with energy –- always as if they sprung directly from the music -- while the many solos and minor ensembles (for instance the quartet of Raymonda's close friends Clémence and Henriette, Bernard de Ventadour and Béranger, danced by  Vittoria Valerio and Galina  Mihaylova, Arsen Mehrabyyan and Armand Grigoryan, emerged like brilliantly polished jewels from the bijouterie of Fabergé.

I could forgive easily the cutting of the children's ensembles and the Spanish number in the final Grand pas hongrois, I pitied, though, the sacrifice of the apotheosis –- perhaps as a reflection of the not quite so happy end, but nonetheless a murderous amputation of the music´s glorious build-up. And so the Zurich production ends with the spirited gallop, demonstrating again the professional efficiency the company has acquired during the now 18 seasons of Heinz Spoerli´s reign as artistic director and chief-choreographer of the Zurich Ballet.