Minkus - La Bayadere / Kirov Theatre Review

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(More customer reviews)If any ballet can truly be associated with the Kirov/Mariinsky, it is La Bayadere. This is the ballet that made Anna Pavlova in instant star. Even the Kirov defectors (Nureyev, Makarova) could not forget about La Bayadere, as both of them staged the ballet in the west. Petipa's ballet about the doomed affair between an Indian temple dancer and a warrior is such a part of the Imperial Ballet's history that it's a surprise that to date this is the only official video of the Kirov's Bayadere.
But rest assured, despite being old (filmed in 1977), it's an excellent document of the ballet. You can tell this is a ballet the company has danced for ages. Each character dancer really SELLS his/her part in the Grand Betrothal Act, from the Golden Idol to Manu (the girl with the vase over her head). The Kirov dances the ballet as if it were in their blood. This is particularly apparent in the famous Kingdom of the Shades, in which Solor, high on opium, hallucinates Shades descending down the Himalaya mountains, one by one. Each shade lunges forward in an arabesque, then stretches backwards. Notice the almost nonchalant way the 32 shades descend down the ramp, in complete unison. It looks easy, although any ballerina will tell you it's probably the most terrifyingly exposed choreography in classical ballet.
The two female leads (Gabriela Komleva as Nikya, Tatiana Terekhova as Gamzatti) are very strong. The Kirov nowadays favors very tall, imperious looking dancers like Uliana Lopatkina as Nikya, so if your idea of Nikya is a Lopatkina or Svetlana Zakharova, you're likely to be disappointed with Komleva who is considerably smaller and more compact (and less glamorous looking). But she's a delicate, vulnerable Nikya, with a pliant back and expressive face, and she handles the treacherously difficult part without any technical problems. If I have one criticism of her it's that in the Shades scene she isn't quite as otherworldly and ethereal as the best of Nikyas. Tatiana Terekhova is simply astonishing as Gamzatti. She simply drips hauteur and evil. Her confrontation with Nikya is exciting, and in the Betrothal Grand Pas she steals the show with her spectacular grande jetes and series of Italian fouettes. The weak link is the Solor. There is tragedy behind Rebdan Abdyev's Solor -- originally the telecast was slated to go to Yuri Soloviev, but Soloviev died in an apparent suicide, an event that devastated the company. Abdyev is an appropriately macho Solor, but he has a distinct lack of finesse, and one does long for the incredible elevation and elegance of Soloviev.
I would say this is *the* Bayadere to get as an introduction to the ballet, but it also faces some stiff competition on video. The Royal Ballet video has Altynai Asylmuratova on loan from the Kirov dancing the Makarova production (see below). Asylmuratova, exotic, beautiful, and heartbreaking, is probably the best Nikya on video, and Irek Mukhamedov is a wonderful Solor, but I dislike the Makarova version. The Paris Opera Ballet video boasts the POB Shades which are as stunning in their own way as the Kirov's, beautiful sets and costumes, and wonderful performances by Isabel Guerin, Laurent Hilaire, and Elisabeth Platel. There is also a video from La Scala starring Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle in the Makarova production. I'm not a huge Zakharova fan, but Nikya is probably her best role.
*The Kirov dances the Chabukiani version of the ballet, which debuted in 1941. This ballet dropped the last act (in which the ghost of Nikya destroys the temple during Solor and Gamzatti's wedding), and instead ends the ballet after the Kingdom of the Shades. This was probably for technical rather than artistic reasons -- even without the lost act, the ballet is over two hours long. After the Russian Revolution, the theater could not afford the elaborate stage machinery required to depict a destroyed temple. Years later, Kirov defector Natalia Makarova staged her own La Bayadere for the American Ballet Theater, in which she streamlined the mime and the character dances in the Betrothal Scene considerably, and then recreated the "lost" act by some creative reshuffling of music and barebones choreography. Then in 1992, a dying Rudolf Nureyev staged La Bayadere for the Paris Opera Ballet. His version is almost a carbon copy of the Kirov/Chabukiani version. In 2002, the Kirov finally staged a reconstructed Bayadere based on the 1900 production, which contained the "lost" act. This version is not available in commercial video.

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Here is La Bayadere (The Temple Dancer) a ballet in three acts performed by the company that first brought it to the West. Filmed at the Kirov Theater (on the stage where it was premiered in 1877), La Bayadere stars Gabriella Komleva as the pathetic temple dancer, Nikia; Tatiana Terekhova as Gamzatti, the Rajah s daughter, and Rejen Abdyev as Prince Solor. Based on an ancient Indian poem, the ballet concerns the love between Nikia and Solor. Solor, unfortunately, is obliged to wed Ganeatti, who murders her rival by sending a basket of flowers hiding a poisonous snake. After Nikia s death, the inconsolable Solor envisions Nikia inviting him to join her in the Kingdom of the Shades. In their final dance together, they manage to find a measure of happiness among the phantoms of other maidens who have died of unrequited love. A piece of history, and a work of art, La Bayadere is quite simply a gem to be savored again and again.CAST:Gabriella Komleva ............ NikiaRejen Abdyev ................... SolorGennadii Selyutsky ............ Chief BrahminYuri Potemkin .................. The RajahTatiana Terekhova ............. Gamzattiand the Company of the Kirov Ballet Choreography: Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev after Marius PetipaMusic: Ludwig Minkus Conductor: Victor Shirokov

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