"Giselle"
Maryinsky Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 8, 2011 & afternoon February 12, 2011
by George Jackson
copyright 2011 by George Jackson
It was a mixed bag of an opening night! The first of the Russian company's seven "Giselle" performances had some inspired dancing and apt acting in a rather routine production that was drably lit. Diana Vishneva, Maryinsky trained but now an international star, was cast in the title role of the village girl whose love lasts beyond the grave. Andrian Fadeyev as Albrecht, instigator of Giselle's love and death, had been the company's outstanding classicist. Last night he made his Washington return after injuring himself seriously two years ago on this very stage. Ekaterina Kondaurova, a dancer of commanding proportions, embodied Myrtha, the spirit of revenge whom Giselle disobeys in order to save Albrecht. The ballet "Giselle", though, ought to be more than the sum of star turns.
Fadeyev combined boyish enthusiasm, aristocratic ease, the pain of realization and the avalanche that is true love into his Albrecht. He becomes fully the hero of this story because Albrecht's character keeps gaining dimension. Moreover, Fadeyev managed his acting feat with utter finesse. As a dancer, Fadeyev still delivers leaps of breadth and buoyancy but not (or not yet) the dynamic flow he spun so silkily pre-injury.
Kondaurova kept her ample dancing wonderfully cool and controlled. It had the effect of an impersonal force, which contrasted well with Vishneva's urgency. Another fine individual performance was Ekaterina Mikhailovtseva as the Duke's daughter Bathilde, who is Albrecht's betrothed. She doesn't just turn her back on the scene when Giselle goes mad but by inclining her head and adjusting her carriage slightly shows what she thinks and feels. Except for Mikhailovtseva's and Fadeyev's performances, though, Interactions among the characters were not strong.
The finest group dancing was that of the eight girls in Act 1 who are Giselle's friends. Their intricately precise toe steps and exactly angled arms were up to legendary Maryinsky standards of pliancy and musicality. Nor were the Act 2 ranks of the Willis negligible. Yet the men's corps of villagers in Act 1 was awkward at times and the dancing of the Peasant duo (Valerya Martinyuk, Alexey Timofeyev) and Giselle's other admirer Hans - better known as Hilarion - (Yuri Smekalov) seemed of a recent rather than romantic vintage.
This production told the "Giselle" story simply, although there was little mimetic detail, especially for the roles of Myrtha and Giselle's mother Berthe (Polina Rassadina). While cuts weren't as excessive as for last year's "The Sleeping Beauty", even this "Giselle" with its stylistic discrepancies and stingy approach to narrative makes one wonder about the choreographic vision of the current Maryinsky directors - Valery Gergiev and Yuri Fateev. The flat lighting, though, noticeable earlier this year during American Ballet Theatre's visit, may be the fault of not the ballet companies but Kennedy Center.
Note: The printed program for this performance did not list Fedor Lopukhov in the Duke's role or Valeria Martinyuk for the Peasant Pas de Deux. Daria Vasnetsova and Oxana Skorik were Myrtha's lead Willis.
Mystery Solo
Tuesday afternoon, February 8, those attending the Maryinsky's dress rehearsal of "Giselle" witnessed an unfamiliar male solo as part of the proceedings. According to DanceView photographer Costas, just before the Peasant Pas de Deux in Act 1, Vladimir Shklyarov appeared on stage to dance this variation. Shklyarov was not in costume but dressed in practice clothes, so it was impossible to tell what character he was supposed to be portraying. Others, too, in the rehearsal audience had not seen the choreography before; some reported that the music sounded only vaguely familiar. The solo was not part of Tuesday evening's performance with the Vishneva/Fadeyev/Kondaurova cast nor Wednesday evening's with the Somova/Ivanchenko/Iosifidi cast which had given the Tuesday dress reherasal. It did turn up in Thursday's Tereshkina/Shklyarov/Kondaurova performance, being danced by Shklyarov as Albrecht. I saw it at the Saturday matinee, February 12, when it was again given by Shklyarov. None of the run's other Albrechts - also including Daniil Korsunttsev - danced this mystery choreography.
Four steps are important as building blocks for the unfamiliar solo. First, a grand jete, followed by a saute en l'air with ronds de jambe; this sequence is repeated. Next are some high assambles. The solo concludes with tours en l' air, for which the working leg is in passe en avant. All in all, the combination is airy and elegantly vigorous. What is this variation's provenance?
Apparently, the inserted solo is not new but has something of a tradition, going back to the middle of the 20th Century when the Maryinsky/Kirov Ballet dancer and director Konstantin Sergeyev (1910 - 1992) choreographed it for himself. In each generation since, only select performers of the role of Albrecht have danced this extra solo. Yuri Soloviev was one of the chosen, according to his wife, Tatiana Legat (see Joel Lobenthal's interview with her in Ballet Review 38 #3, Fall 2010, p. 61). The New York Times' critic Alastair Macaulay remembers seeing Farukh Ruzimatov dance an extra variation, which may have been this one, in 1988 when the Kirov company performed "Giselle" on a visit to Paris. Some viewers here in Washington felt that this solo reveals Albrecht's noble upbringing as surely as when he forgets his peasant disguise and reaches for the hilt of the sword he has discarded.
(For tracing the solo back to K. Sergeyev, thanks to Jim Griffin and to Joel Lobenthal.) ###
Konstantin Sergeyev's added Albrecht solo as rehearsed at the Kennedy Center on Feb. 8, 2011 by the Maryinsky's Vladimir Shklyarov. Some of the combinations are repeated, but the order of the photos corresponds to the steps' first appearance in the choreography. Photos by Costas.