Manfred  |  none  |  不明  |  2016年10月06日

For the past few years in the Mariinsky Theatre, the princess Aurora has been danced by such brilliant female dancers as Yekaterina Osmolkina, Maria Shirinkina, Victoria Tereshkina, Olesya Novikova, Anastasia Kolegova, Anastasia Matvienko, and Alina Somova. The lucky one who has taken the role of the leading lady in this long-awaited remake since the last filmed performance in 1989 and might be regarded, rightly or not, as representative of the revered Mariinsky tradition is Alina Somova. Ms Somova was received most favorably from the start of her career; she danced Odette/Odile in Swan Lake during her first year in the theatre, and was promoted principal in only five years. Also, in an article of Telegraph in 2009, Ismene Brown wrote as follows; This year as the Princess in Alexei Ratmansky’s new The Little Humpbacked Horse for the Mariinsky, she was a delight, as dewy as a milkmaid. After the show, ballet’s grande dame Maya Plisetskaya plucked her diamond earrings off her ears, handed them to the awestruck girl and told her to go grab herself a brilliant career. Then what about her other roles, for instance, Aurora? The following is also a quotation of the same article; (...) Somova is peculiarly flexible. She throws her leg high over the vertical, even in a long skirt. She leaps more like a hurdler than a drift of silk, her very long legs flying weirdly above horizontal. Eye-catching it is; classical, beautiful, musically eloquent it is not. Last year I thought Somova 40 per cent intriguing and 60 per cent circus pony. (...) How does she answer the charge that she overeggs the physical side and distorts a glorious tradition? “I think I would like to be thought of as able to dance, to really dance, not just do a combination of gymnastic movements. But we will never dance like they used to in the past. Yes, in a ballet like Sleeping Beauty I agree, I need to control it. My natural flexibility doesn’t suit the artistic demands of that style but at the same time I can use it, (...)” Somova might have improved artistically in other roles during the years since the interview, but watching her Aurora in this performance filmed in 2015 I can’t find her different than commented by the dance critic quoted above. First of all, Somova doesn’t quite suit the part itself; she’s too tall and even omits tour lent in arabesque penche in pas d’action of act 2. (this is one of the highlights in the Konstantin Sergeyev’s revised version and Alla Sizova did this in 1964 film.) It would’ve been much better if the part had been entrusted to Yekaterina Osmolkina, whom I believe the most ideal Aurora; she actually starred as the part in DVD-Video titled New Year’s Eve in Saint Petersburg and filmed in 2006, when the ballet troupe was directed by Makhar Vaziev, the current director of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet. Maria Shirinkina is also a near-perfect Aurora, reminiscent of the best Aurora Irina Kolpakova; even if she might not be technically strong enough, as far as the classical purity of the exemplary Petersburg style is concerned, she has no equals. Ms Tereshkina is a fine Aurora, too. Another issue that I would like to mention is about the conductor Valery Gergiev. Mr Gergiev is ackowledged as an authorty especially in Russian repertoire, many recordings of which have been critically acclaimed. However, leading an orchestra in concerts or operas is one thing, and accompanying ballet dancers is another; conducting in ballet performaces belongs to another professional realm. Gergiev’s direction constantly fails to set the proper tempo for each dance and keep pace with the dancers’ movements. For instance, Gergiev’s tempo is too slow in the entry of Aurora in Act 1, especially during Somova’s jete en tournant, so the music fails to end at the same time as the dancer does. Gergiev also conducts too slowly in the subsequent Rose Adagio, so Somova apparently slows down and adjusts her movement to the insensitive musical direction as she crosses the stage along the squires. Nevertheless, the conductor still makes it so slow at the end of the number that one of the four princes barely manages to hold the hand of Aurora in arabesque penche; she might’ve almost lost her balance and fallen down if she had not been such an experienced and technically accomplished ballerina. Also, as the princess does a series of emboite-pirouettes in the subsequent variation, the conductor constantly fails to keep pace with her movements, and at the end of the act, as she starts tombe arabesque sissonne, the orchestra even falls a beat(a quarter note) behind; here the conductor is supposed to indicate an upbeat in advance so that the dancer could see it and get ready for the entry on time. The case is not easy for the other dancers, either; Gergiev conducts too fast in the lilac fairy’s variation in the prologue and the allegro for the corps de ballet prior to Aurora’s variation in act 2, making the dancers rush. When it comes to Aurora’s variation, the tempo gets too slow again. In act 3, the marche, which accompanies the dignified and elegant entrance of the guests to the hall, is played hurried and aggressive, which sounds at odds with the atmosphere of the occasion. In Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat, the music frequently hesitates to go on and it even seems to hold back the dancers. Also, in the pas de deux of the princess Florine and the blue bird, Gergiev holds the final note too long, making the male dancer lose his balance. I have watched many performances of the Sleeping Beauty by the Mariinsky ballet company with different conductors, and Gergiev’s is the most disconcerting. As far as the casting goes, Vladimir Shklyarov as the prince Desire, Kristina Shapran as the lilac fairy, Igor Kolb as the wicked fairy Carabosse, Valeria Martynyuk as the carefree fairy, and Yana Selina as the brave fairy, they all leave nothing to be desired. In contrast, though Diana Smirnova as Tender fairy is quite good, I was expecting Xenia Ostreikovskaya for the part. Tatiana Tiliguzova appeared as Playful Fairy and Gold Fairy, but Anna Lavrinenko should be the natural choice for the roles. Also, the princess Florine should’ve been assigned to Yekaterina Osmolkina rather than Oxana Skorik. The real star in this performance is the corps de ballet; simply phenomenal. The fact that among them is Svetlana Ivanova, admired by the renowned choreographer John Neumeier, guarantees that they could hardly be equalled, let alone surpassed, by any other ballet company in the world; she also appears as one of the maids of honor in act 1. There’s nothing else so pure, ethereal, and beautiful. One final word; in this performance, the Panorama in act 2 is abridged, 52 bars omitted, and there’s no forest backdrop moving sidewards as the lilac fairy and the prince sail toward the sleeping castle; which you can see in the DVD-Video filmed 1982 in the Kirov Theatre (Warner Music Vision). The Panorama