Swan Lake
My birthday present right on the day! ;D The ballet that I saw was a tour of the Slovakian State Opera Ballet, with
two Russian soloists -- Marina Zelezniakova and Jurij Vasilenko.
I've been to see Swan Lake at the Vienna State Opera, and I must confess that this touring production was just as
good as the one I saw there. I was especially happy with the costumes -- wonderfully done, intricate -- each costume
was different. I can't say that for the swans, but for the two scenes in the castle, every man/woman had a differently
embroidered piece, even if they wore the same colours and style of clothes.
The music from the loudspeakers was ok, the ouverture unfortunately not very well complimented by blue and red lights
on the red curtains. It looked a bit half-cooked.
However, the actual scenery was beautiful, gorgeous really. You could see the waves of the lake at all times, through
the draperies that symbolised the castles' walls/windows, and they were waving about gently. The stage looked wonderful,
very mythic, and fairy tale like and I enjoyed that immensely. In Vienna, I had had a slightly over-stuffed feeling
from the decorations at times.
The guy who played the fool was one of the best dancers -- energetic, full of joy, and very good technically. The
Prince (Mr. Vasilenko) unfortunately seemed to be ill; he wasn't sloppy exactly, his technique was great, but he
wasn't up to par and didn't look well. He also had great difficulty holding up his partner in the last scene, and
he almost dropped her in the second scene (by the lake, during their pas de deux) -- she stumbled quite obviously.
Ms. Zelezniakova is very petite and slim, but she had a wonderful stage presence. Each movement was perfectly executed.
I especially liked her as Odile, her smirk was positively evil. As Odette, she was too 'tragic'. One touch that I loved
was how, in the pas de deux, her eyes fluttered closed, as if she were concentrating only on her lover, ecstatic to be
touched by him. Made for a wonderful chemistry.
Rothbart (hopefully spelled correctly ;D), the sorcerer, was just plain wow. So cool. Brilliant dancer. He was chatting quite animatedly with the
Queen in the third scene, holding his hand in front of his mouth, but still quite audible ;D.
The ending was a surprise. While I had known that there's a "happy-end" version, I had not expected to see it. Prince
and Sorceror fought, the Prince pulled off one of the Sorceror's grey wings, and the poor "black swan" died horribly
twisting on the floor. Odette than appeared in a long white dress, confusing me for a moment (I thought it was her
ghost, hadn't figured she had actually been released from her spell ;D). Poor Rothbart then got the curtain into his
face, because he was in its trajectory when it dropped down.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the production and especially by the dancers' prowess. The corps
de ballet was brilliant. Though all dancers, including the leads, were pretty young, they had perfect technique and did
fabulously.
Questions, comments and suggestions can be directed to me at
ferngully_at@yahoo.com.