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Berlin State Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty and The Swan lake, January 2023


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In early January, I managed to attend two performances of Berlin Ballet:
on January 3d, there was the last Sleeping Beauty of this season staged by Marcia Haydée , a very beautiful and picturesque ballet, lasting 3 hours 10 minutes, with one break. The role of Princess Aurora was performed by Aya Okumura, and Prince Desire by Murilo de Oliveira; Arshak Galumyan played the role of  Carabosse, and beautiful Krasina Pavlova danced the Lilac fairy.
    In the prologue, the fairies, their cavaliers and servants charmed the spectators with a variety of dances.  Carabosse was very sinister, and the Lilac Fairy - consolating and pacifying, it was interesting to see their duet.
The main person of the 1st act was surely Aurora, this role suits tiny Aya Okumura perfectly. The rose adagio went very well. All the princes were superb though I liked Konstantin Lorenz (prince from the West) more than the others.
 In the second act the attention went to Prince Desire who surprisingly had a fiancée but left her to go hunting. The forest nymphs were beautiful, Carabosse was defeated and Aurora united with the prince.
The third act was perhaps the most colorful due to the divertissement, where all the princes and various fairy-tale characters were present: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Ali Baba (Gregoire Duchevet) and the treasures he found: Amethyst (Eloise Sacilotto), Sapphire (Liza Avsazhanishvili), Ruby (Bruna Cantanhede), Emerald (Julia Golitsina), White cat and Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood and Gray Wolf. Princess Florina (Evelina Godunova) appeared with the Blue Bird (Alexander Bird) as well and left a very good impression!
On the 4th of January I saw the most interesting Swan lake staged by Patrice Bart. He took the action to the early 20th century with blazers and trousers for men and flowing dresses for ladies. However the swans were still in tutus. This version's corps de ballet reminded me more than ever of a flock of  swans.
  A very large role was assigned to the dowager queen ( Krasina Pavlova), but the real star of the evening was Iana Salenko as Odette/Odile. She's one of my favourite ballerinas. She has a perfect complexion for a dancer: miniature and surprisingly harmonious, with long legs (for her height), which is rare for small ballerinas. You can never tell that she's a mother to three boys.
  Iana's Odette turned out to be tender and caring, surrending to love with the knowledge that the price to pay would be too high. Her Odile used the whole set of seducing tricks, skillfully copying her rival  - nobody could have resisted! And the fouettes caused a lot of applauses!
  Her partner, Dinu Tamazlacaru (Prince Desire) had no difficulties elevating Iana and they both looked like a perfect dance couple. 
I was pleasantly surprised by the large number of young people in the theatre, including young men.
So the both ballets were a pure pleasure and I only hope that the company will be even better under the guidance of a new leader.


 
Edited by Estreiiita
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I'm happy that you enjoyed Staatsballett Berlin! I'm looking forward to seeing Iana Salenko alongside Daniil Simkin on Friday in Swanlake. Lots of changes going on in Berlin with the company members, so I wanted to make sure to see them.

As for the Sleeping Beauty: I've seen her too in this role and it's just so perfect for her, I like it when small ballerinas dance this role.🙂

With beginning of 2023, Aya Okumura is no longer a member of SBB, but still listed as guest artist. She recently moved to Prague to join the Czech National Ballet as soloist. So you've seen her last performance as official member of SBB!

Gregoire Duchevet joined SBB last year, coming from Zurich Junior Company.

 

Edited by Sabine0308
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Thank you @Estreiiita for reminding me I saw this same lead cast in this same Patrice Bart Swan Lake in 2017!

 

What struck me then was how much dancing the Queen did!! Also how gorgeous Iana Salenko (whom I'd known only through videos) was, as both a dancer and a person. I waited at the artists' entrance and she came out and was so tiny and so nice and so generous as to speak with me for a few minutes in neither of our first language (meaning we spoke in German - I don't know any Ukrainian!).

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And thanks to Sabine for reminding me that I saw Iana Salenko as princess Aurora in Berlin in February 2015 in Nacho Duato's " Sleeping beauty" when she was accompanied by Leonid Sarafanov. I liked her enormously in that role and she danced beautifully. 

  I think I also prefer tiny ballerinas dancing Aurora - after all, she's very young.

  I enjoy Iana's performances, she does her best every time, even if it's only a short number from the summer concert of Verdensballeten - for example,  " The dying swan" in 2019:

And when she has a perfect partner as Steven McRay, what a joy to watch them (July 2022 ) :

And last year I liked a lot the final number with somewhat comical interchange between Steven McRay and Marian Walter. And Anne Rose O'Sullivan was there as well - together with Xander Parish, I liked her so much:

 

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I'm too sick (Flu) to write a long report but let me say this: last night, Iana Salenko brought me to tears as Odette in Act 1. She is one of the best of the world in this role. Her Odile was poignant as well, although I think being "a beast" is not in Iana's character 😉. She was evil, of course. Daniil Simkin was a brilliant Siegfried, convincing in the emotional challenges as well as in brilliant technique. Bad coughing stopped me from watching the last 15 minutes (I left my seat), but went back for applause and saw a Standing Ovation over many minutes. From all of the audience. Rare in Berlin, but absolutely deserved.

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39 minutes ago, Sabine0308 said:

I'm too sick (Flu) to write a long report but let me say this: last night, Iana Salenko brought me to tears as Odette in Act 1. She is one of the best of the world in this role. Her Odile was poignant as well, although I think being "a beast" is not in Iana's character 😉. She was evil, of course. Daniil Simkin was a brilliant Siegfried, convincing in the emotional challenges as well as in brilliant technique. Bad coughing stopped me from watching the last 15 minutes (I left my seat), but went back for applause and saw a Standing Ovation over many minutes. From all of the audience. Rare in Berlin, but absolutely deserved.

 

Get well soon Sabine.

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On 14/01/2023 at 13:18, Sabine0308 said:

I'm too sick (Flu) to write a long report but let me say this: last night, Iana Salenko brought me to tears as Odette in Act 1. She is one of the best of the world in this role. Her Odile was poignant as well, although I think being "a beast" is not in Iana's character 😉. She was evil, of course. Daniil Simkin was a brilliant Siegfried, convincing in the emotional challenges as well as in brilliant technique. Bad coughing stopped me from watching the last 15 minutes (I left my seat), but went back for applause and saw a Standing Ovation over many minutes. From all of the audience. Rare in Berlin, but absolutely deserved.

Hope you are feeling better soon, Sabine0308! Sounds like what I had over Christmas! Thank you for your reports!

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