"The Sleeping Beauty"
The Maryinsky Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 11, 13 Matinee & 9 Public Dress Rehearsal, 2010
by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson
The Maryinsky Ballet used to be the bastion of "employ", the practice Hollywood in its heyday called type casting. Top talents, from Nijinsky and Pavlova to Baryshnikov and Makarova, were deemed unsuitable for certain sorts of parts due to their personality or anatomy. Our ballet too, when it was new, often adhered to the idea that aptitude depended in large part on appearance. Americans, though, always liked to experiment and so set Saturday afternoons aside for casting dancers against the grain. Once in a while it paid off powerfully. During this "Sleeping Beauty" run at Kennedy Center, the Maryinsky has opted for experimentation with a vengeance. Odd casting wasn't reserved for just the Saturday matinee.
The principals at Thursday evening's "Sleeping Beauty" were Viktoria Tereshkina and, again as on opening night, Vladimir Shklyarov. Tereshkina's isn't your expected fairytale Princess Aurora. Austere, she is a veritable Aurora Borealis temperamentally - clear and cool as the northern lights. Yet her dancing is so pure that this instance of experimental casting must be counted a success. Shklyarov was close to his best, giving a fleet, finely felt performance as the Prince. He seemed fully at ease partnering Tereshkina and danced his ample, elegantly controlled solos as if offering bouquets to his lady and the audience. Anastasia Kolegova, as Florine, wasn't badly matched with Kiril Saffin's Bluebird, and both were of some individual interest.
Kolegova, though, and Anton Korsakov as the principals, Princess Aurora and Prince Desire, on the afternoon of February 13 weren't just chancy choices individually but looked mismatched the moment they met. Kolegova is large and lush of body. Korsakov is short, counter streamlined and to all appearances a veteran. He makes her seem a giantess. She dwarfs him. Was it the good Lilac Fairy or the cruel Carabosse who decided on this casting?
Mostly, Kolegova managed the mechanics of Aurora's role. Yet her phrasing was monotonous and her projection of the Princess's bright, forthright persona seemed inconsistent. Korsakov still dances decently although not the way he used to. As the Lilac Fairy, the tall Alexandra Iosifidi had fine bearing, filigree arms but sometimes moved abruptly. All sorts of minor mishaps, the sort one would overlook in a generally good performance, marked this matinee: Aurora stumbled over the Queen's gown, the lighting for Carabosse's disappearance in Act 1 was off, so were some of the dancing's finishes in relation to the music's.
Nadejda Gonchar, I think, and not the broader boned Tatyana Tkachenko, actually did the Diamond variations although Gonchar's first name in the program was misspelled "Nadeja". If this identification is right, opening night's Diamond was Tkachenko. Both ladies are commendable classical soloists. Bluebird, Vasily Sherbakov, looked sensual and earthy rather than aerial but delivered his sets of beats smoothly even if not always with fully pointed feet. As his Florine, the delicate Maya Dumchenko was even more unusual, turning this princess into a finicky character who has the habit of hunching.
Dress rehearsals, even with an audience in the house, can't be considered full out performances. Alina Somova was the Aurora at the February 9 afternoon rehearsal. Elongate, she's not as spindly as she used to be and the cushioning that has come into her dancing is welcome. Evgeny Ivanchenko looks a prince and danced Desire with dignity. Kolegova wasn't a particularly interesting Lilac Fairy.
This production of Petipa's "Sleeping Beauty" after Konstantin Sergeyev does not endear itself on repeated viewings. Cuts and abbreviations are too apparent. The Prologue, with its celebration of Princess Aurora's birth, starts with a starry night sky that then changes to a gray yet still starry dawn. The final act with its wedding is also set at night. What odd hours for court occasions! The last act's splashing fountain is fun, but why doesn't the one at Aurora'sa birthday party function? Last year it was London which complained about the Maryinsky Ballet's questionable casting and the last minute look of some performances. Washington was spared until now the total impact of there being only an "acting" ballet director. What is the future of this once great company?
