The Legend of Love - Mariinsky Live 05 April 2018

[Richard LH]

Did anyone watch this strange production live, and manage to see it through  to the end?

 

I caught up with it on YouTube today, which at least had the advantage of enabling a skip-through.

 

I'm sure these are talented dancers,  but this is a ballet with ponderous, tuneless  music and  choreography. The latter often seemed to revert  to a general jogging excercise for the corps, with  a "repeated and rather tiresome display of pseudo-oriental hand, arm and body movements" (this borrowed from a review of an earlier performance). There was a general lack of characterisation that you could relate to, not helped by the leads changing casts for each Act,  preventing any continuity or development in their performances. 

 

 It  made the whole thing pretty depressing - which seemed to be reflected by the sad/bored faces of the interviewer and her various interviewees (not understanding Russian I can only go by body language).  

 

The rather unfortunately-named lead male, "Ferkhad", was supposed to be some sort of painter,  but appeared in what looked like the garb of an ER medic, whilst the spotty costumes on many of the ladies included two larger upper  frontal spots, thoughtfully  placed, with jewelled additions in the case of the  favoured few. And even tassels!  Pretty tacky, all round. 

 

Referencing  our  "Are 32 fouettés necessary" thread, they seemed to be thought so here, as such a sequence was arbitrarily thrown in at one point (I think I counted about 24 turns but was distracted by the annoying applause half way through). 

 

Much of the audience  seemed to have already left by the end of the curtain calls, and the co-ordinated clapping of the remainder seemed contrived and oppressive.

 

Perhaps it's me, and the fact that  I am not entirely in love with Mother Russia at the moment, and that I am comparing this effort with some superb recent  productions here in the UK.

At least the Mariinsky have not yet been forced to abandon the use of English when instructing the audience to turn off mobile phones prior to curtain-up.

[MAB]

First of all it's worth pointing out that this ballet is massively popular in Russia and I myself once saw a performance of it at the Bolshoi  that I rate as being one of the most outstanding performances I've ever seen.   I'm afraid the bizarre casting arrangements put me off watching, but as I understand Kondaurova was involved somewhere, I'll certainly take a look at you tube over the weekend.

 

Agree with your comments regarding the female costumes, I find the sequinned nipples embarrassing to look at.  Why would they not make announcements in English?  The language has now become the equivalent of Esperanto.

[Richard LH]

27 minutes ago, MAB said:

Why would they not make announcements in English? 

No real reason, MAB, I was just trying to be a little sarcastic about our current issues with Russia....

As you are familiar with the ballet,  I will  be interested in your further thoughts once you have watched this performance. As I said, perhaps it's me...

[Buddy]

5 hours ago, Richard LH said:

Did anyone watch this strange production live, and manage to see it through  to the end?

 

 

 

I loved it, Richard. My comments can be seen here.

 

http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/topic/42914-2017-2018-season/?tab=comments#comment-398154

 

What you say about the curtain calls is interesting. Folks seem to stream out of even the best performances as soon as possible. It’s late in the evening and they want to catch the buses. But…usually about a 100 or more devoted fans will stay on and have actually brought back the best in the world for several more curtain calls. I’ve often joined them. It can start with only one or two spectators and then it builds. Folks leaving will stop and join in. I remember when Diana Vishneva returned appreciatively numerous times with only about 50 folks left in the audience. I can’t imagine that happening somewhere else.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Buddy

[Richard LH]

I'm pleased you loved it Buddy. When you consider how much effort goes into putting on a production like this, it would be a great shame if everyone reacted to it like me.

[Buddy]

50 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

I'm pleased you loved it Buddy. When you consider how much effort goes into putting on a production like this, it would be a great shame if everyone reacted to it like me.

 

Thanks, Richard. You are being very kind in your response and I appreciate it. The rerun can still be seen here.

 

 

https://mariinsky.tv

 

If you catch the audience reaction at the end of Act II, you’ll find it to be about as enthusiastic as I’ve seen at the Mariinsky. I will say again that I did love it. I find it to be one of the most inventive works of ballet that I’ve ever seen, even if the theme is somewhat ‘ponderous’ for my sensitivities. But I certainly respect your right to disagree although I totally disagree.  Cheers !  

 

Added: MAB, Yekaterina Kondaurova's main dancing starts at 15:00. It was one of the absolute highlights for me.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Buddy
New video added

[Vukasin]

I would watch Kondaurova dance the Macarena, so thanks for the heads up.

[Sim]

What a lovely example of how people should totally disagree with each other!  

[assoluta]

On 4/6/2018 at 07:44, Richard LH said:

Did anyone watch this strange production live, and manage to see it through  to the end?

 

I did.

 

Quote

I'm sure these are talented dancers,  but this is a ballet with ponderous, tuneless  music and  choreography.

 

I think the music is generally very well composed, the choreography is remarkably musical, the composition of ensembles masterful. For me it is the best of Grigorovich's original works.

 

Quote

It  made the whole thing pretty depressing - which seemed to be reflected by the sad/bored faces of the interviewer and her various interviewees (not understanding Russian I can only go by body language).

  

The whole situation of ballet at Mariinsky is depressing, nobody can do anything about it, Mr Gergiev "hates" ballet, unfortunately he is a "friend of Putin". He gives very little money to the ballet company. This may be the main reason why only Mr. Fateev's favourites get any real promotions, and even this  may cost Mr Fateev a lot of long term efforts and thoughtful planning. Another side effect of Mr Gergiev's attitude towards ballet is that nobody, no scholar, no choreographer, not even the rector of the Vaganova Academy, can get access to the ballet scores that are stored in the same building as the Vaganova Academy but are under Mr Gergiev's control. It is easier to get a copy from any other place in the world, if there exists one, of course. This adversely affected several projects to celebrate Marius Petipa's 200th Anniversary.

 

Quote

Referencing  our  "Are 32 fouettés necessary" thread, they seemed to be thought so here, as such a sequence was arbitrarily thrown in at one point (I think I counted about 24 turns but was distracted by the annoying applause half way through).

 

You counted correctly. There are 32 fouettés in "Swan Lake" because the "Odile" variation was made for Signora Legnani, and Legnani wanted to show off, to demonstrate one of her circus tricks that nobody could repeat. For the exactly same reason the Lilac Fairy role in the original production of "Sleeping Beauty" had practically no dance, and that little dancing was mostly on heels. The role was made on Marius Petipa's own daughter who lacked proper training, she was essentially a character dancer, and due to her advanced age her only, and easy, variation in the Prologue was soon abandoned, she couldn't do it. So, there are 24 fouettés in "Legend of Love", because the legendary dancer who was one of the original Mekhmene Banus couldn't do more than this number. This doesn't make that dancer any less legendary, she was widely considered as one of the greatest ballet artists of the second half of 20-th Century.

 

Quote

Much of the audience  seemed to have already left by the end of the curtain calls, and the co-ordinated clapping of the remainder seemed contrived and oppressive.

 

I wouldn't be judging every audience everywhere in the world by what is a custom, say, in London. I attend a lot of performances, UK, Europe, both Americas, occasionally Australia and New Zealand, and the customs vary greatly.

 

Quote

Perhaps it's me, and the fact that  I am not entirely in love with Mother Russia at the moment, and that I am comparing this effort with some superb recent  productions here in the UK.

 

I am neither "in love with Mother Russia at the moment", even visiting the Russian consulate in London and meeting there the same "Soviet nomenklatura" apparatchiks gives me shivers. Fortunately, this does not affect my perception of Russian ballet, of Russian artists, of Russian ballet pedagogues and critics, several of which are my dear friends and colleagues. By the way, which recent UK productions (I mean ballet), do you consider "superb"?

[Richard LH]

Thank you for your informative insights, assoluta. 

In answer to your question, I particularly had in mind  the recent  Royal Ballet producions of The Nutcracker, Giselle, The Winter's Tale, and Manon.

[MAB]

5 hours ago, assoluta said:

The whole situation of ballet at Mariinsky is depressing, nobody can do anything about it, Mr Gergiev "hates" ballet, unfortunately he is a "friend of Putin". He gives very little money to the ballet company. This may be the main reason why only Mr. Fateev's favourites get any real promotions, and even this  may cost Mr Fateev a lot of long term efforts and thoughtful planning.

 

No, Valery Gergiev does not hate ballet, he is a musician and has no specialist knowledge of ballet at all, therefore he delegates.  You may not like Yuri Fateyev but he is expected to do his job and Gergiev doesn't have the expertise to tell if he is doing the job well or not.  Presumably he feels that as long as the company is attracting audiences and plaudits he is doing his job well.

Edited April 12, 2018 by MAB
typo

[assoluta]

You know nothing about the subject, I am afraid.

[MAB]

11 minutes ago, assoluta said:

You know nothing about the subject, I am afraid.

 

You'd be surprised. 

 

Once again, and for the third time of asking, will you please enlighten everyone as to exactly how you have superior knowledge of every aspect of the ballet world.

[LinMM]

My like for your post Assoluta is for not getting what's going on in politics at the moment muddying our view of the ballet or other aspects of Russian Life plus your info on the fouettés in both ballets. 

It may be true ....I have no idea .....but wouldn't it be very difficult for this Gergiev to be in the job he is in if he truely "hated" ballet? 

It does seem more likely he just prefers the Opera and so is not so clued up about ballet etc ....nevertheless I would hope his preference would not go so far as to affect funding!!

[BeauxArts]

It is clear that strong views are held in some quarters about Gergiev's true position vis-a-vis the Mariinsky ballet.

I recently attended a concert and ballet performance in Munich at which Gergiev conducted the Munich Philharmonic in Stravinsky's Petrushka in a new production choreographed by Vladimir Varnava (soon to choreograph Isadora with Osipova - details on another thread). This was effectively dance theatre, with Gergiev interacting at times with the dancers, and in particular Shklyarov in the title role. He seemed completely at ease and engaged with the ballet performance. He will be conducting a Prokofiev programme at Baden Baden with the company this December, in their annual visit to that theatre.

I have noted from Russian ballet fora that some regulars at the Mariinsky are generally critical of him. They may have other reasons.

I am inclined to think the situation is not as one-dimensional as some present it to be.

 

https://www.festspielhaus.de/en/events/gergiev-dirigiert-prokofjew-ballette

[Richard LH]

On 4/8/2018 at 10:24, Sim said:

What a lovely example of how people should totally disagree with each other!  

Getting back to the topic of the ballet itself, Buddy and I did at least find some agreement around the word  "ponderous"!

[Buddy]

4 hours ago, Richard LH said:

Getting back to the topic of the ballet itself, Buddy and I did at least find some agreement around the word  "ponderous"!

 

Hi, Richard. Yes, that word did creep into both our posts, but I have to say for completely different reasons. My choice of the word was that I find the plot to be somewhat on the less than happy side. But, I saw the Mariinsky perform this and I've watched occasional Mariinsky video clips, and I found this performance to be handled somewhat more poetically, more sensitively, making it easier for me to focus on what I continue to feel is the brilliance of the choreography and the structure. One thing that comes to mind in regard to Yuri Grigorovich is that a lot of his 'filler material', the stuff that goes on while the leads are resting, has much interest because of his exceptional choreographic ability. In his Swan Lake, for instance, the character dances are performed by ballet dancers, not by character dancers. In Legend of Love, I find his choreography throughout to be highly inventive, interesting and entertaining. 

 

While the video remains I could maybe mention some of my favorite parts.

 

Yekaterina *Garbo* 's (Kondaurova) wonderful theatricality starting at 13:00 and her excellent dancing starting at 15:00.

 

Renata Shakirova's usual, vibrantly embracing self, appearing amidst the above at 18:40

 

 Kristina Shapran and her wonderful arms at 2:50:25 surrounded by the dramatically fine appearance of Andrei Yermakov. 

 

Viktoria Tereshkina as Mekhmeneh Bahnu sitting above the stage at 1:29:30. Yes, seriously. No matter what excitement is going on below, she manages to grab my attention -- The silent "sovereignty" of women. (See my post here (mid-page), if you want to know what I'm getting at.)

http://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/16965-grace-on-ice/?page=6&tab=comments#comment-241366

 

The conductor sympathetically discussing the music with Anastasia Matvienko at. 2:44:20. Yes, this is in response to whether Valery Gergiev pays any attention to the dancers or not. In my viewing experience, he doesn't during a performance....But!....at the Festival Gala this year, when the critical moments of dancing arrived it all seemed to come together beautifully including the wonderful music. So I'm trying to keep an open mind on this one. I would hope that BeauxArt's comment above represents how things might be, overall. (And how Olga Smirnova was ever allowed to slip away to another company is another huge question. But, I hardly know anything about this one.)

 

I do love watching this video. I've looked at my favorite sections over and over during the week.

Edited April 13, 2018 by Buddy
Minor changes and last sentence added