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This Royal Ballet La Bayadere features Natalia Makarova’s reconstruction of Petipa’s ballet. Remarkable of the choreography has been lost, including the entire final act. Makarova has thus chosen to streamline the extant choreography, and through some recreation and reshuffling, reconstruct a final act. Other versions (such as the Paris version by Nureyev) decide to work with the extant choreography and ruin the ballet with the last known Petipa choreography (the Shades act) . There are plusses and minusses to both approaches. Makarova’s version gives the ballet some closure. On the other hand, she severely streamlined many of the dances in the Solor/Gamzatti Betrothal Act (including the luscious ‘pot’ dance), and redid the orchestration. The more I peek Makarova’s version, the less I like it, from the drastic slice and burn of the Engagement scene, to the artificially souped up orhcestrations (so different from the simple but gorgeous orchestrations of both the POB and Kirov), to reducing the Shades from 32 to 24, and I don’t like her reconstruction of the lost act either, which recycles earlier music and has very miniature steady dancing. Recently the Kirov Ballet has attempted to add ALL of Petipa’s choreography AND recreate the lost act, but that version is not out on videotape.
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The Nikya of this production, Altynai Asylmuratova, is unexcited unmatched in available videos. AA was prima ballerina of the Kirov ballet, and her Russian style of dancing is obvious: extremely arched encourage, long flexible extensions, an emphasis on hand gestures and an pretty port-te-bras. But what separates her Nikya is the intangible: her Nikya simply has a soul and vulnerability that is so absent, for instance, from Svetlana Zakharova’s interpretation in the novel La Scala dvd. In every scene, Asylmuratova is a revelation. In the dance Asylmuratova is forced to form in front of Gamzatti and Solor, her whole spirit seems to crumble. Her uber-flexible wait on seems to writhe in agony. In the Shades act she really does seem otherworldly. Like many Russians she is very dramatic but never over-the-top — when she enters in white during the Shade scene, I actually ached and sighed at how graceful she was.
Bussell is also colossal as Gamzatti — athletic, haughty, and sexy. She is stiff-backed, regal, and lovely, and she can certainly kick her legs high! She’s not quite as despicable as Elisabeth Platel in the Paris Opera Ballet but calm she gives the role a determined seductive charm that makes Gamzatti more believable as a rival to Nikya. Mukhamedov is less impressive as Solor — theres nothing really contaminated with him, but he lacks charisma and chemistry with the two leading ladies. I’ve seen him in other films where he’s been very impressive (a demented Mayerling, some excerpts from Spartacus and Romeo and Juliet) . So maybe Solor wasnt his role.
The Paris video’s dancing is also exquisite, but Isabelle Guerin (Nikya) is not as memorable and touching as Asylmuratova. Between Platel and Bussell, I really like both. Platel is frighteningly cool, Bussell snooty. But the inequity between Bussell and Asylmuratova is more memorable. Asylmuratova looks like an exotic dancer, whereas Bussell, blond and blue-eyed, seems like a gross princess. However, in the celebrated Entrance of the Shades scene, the Paris Opera Ballet wins over the Royal Ballet, hands down. For one, Nureyev uses 32 shades instead of 24, giving the whole scene an extra sense of grandeur. The POB Shades truly dance as one. The Royal Ballet Shades are ok, but nothing like the Paris Opera Ballet.
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There are now three La Bayaderes on video. This video, the Paris Opera Ballet video, and the La Scala video with Svetlana Zakharova. I’d say this video and the Paris Opera Ballet video are the apt “must gets” for fans of this sizable and pretty ballet.
The sizable Mariinsky Ballerina Natalia Makarova shares with the West her Russian heritage with this staging of “La Bayadere”. Here we have a comely 1990 film of her version staged for the Royal Ballet a year earlier in 1989 (this version was originally staged for American Ballet Theatre in 1980, and the production shown here includes the same decor) . Makarova’s version is very stream-lined. The biggest change is Makarova’s version of the long lost last act (mind you – this is NOT reconstruction, merely a completion of the unique libretto. Although it is calm not distinct why the final act stopped being performed in Russia, one of the most widespread theories is that after the Revolution the Mariinsky Theatre lacked the technical staff required to compose the stage effects. It is possible that the sets for Act IV of “La Bayadere” were ruined when St. Petersburg was flooded in 1924) . A very gloomy change is Makarova’s deletion of the Act II Ample Divertissement – the ‘Danse Manu’ (where a ballerina dances a pas d’action in an attempt to balance a water jug on her head, and tranquil withhold away the jug’s contents from 2 thirsty miniature girls), the ‘Danse infernale’ (a frenizied number that seems more American-Indian than India-Indian), as well as the ‘Charmeur des serpents’ from the beginning of Act III. In light of the shortened second Act, Makarova’s production changes the scene to Act I, scene 3.
But the biggest and most clear differences is the revised Minkus collect, done by John Lanchbery. Minkus’s accumulate for “La Bayadere” was orchestrated in the usual rushed fashion of the era it was tranquil in, with endless scoring for first violins and flutes to carry the main melodies. Nevertheless Minkus’s unusual gather has a astonishing antiquated charm. Although Lanchbery’s orchestrations are consuming in some sections, they are not that titanic, and in some sections they are foul (or in the words of Clement Crisp, they are “gratuitous burblings”) . His work however extends beyond mere orchestration – those familiar with Minkus’s unusual gain will perceive differences in editing, as well as the complete omission of the opening theme of the recent overture, which occurs throughout the ballet. The music for the final act, with the exception of the “Dance of the Golden Idol” (or Bronze Idol, as Makarova calls it), and the music which accompanies the dance for the corps de ballet (which is by Pugni) is all Lanchbery’s beget work. Here he does a pleasurable job, and is appropriate to the station (his music for the “Destruction of the Temple” is really well-behaved) .
The Prima Ballerina of the Kirov/Mariinsky Altynai Assylmoratova guest stars in this film as Nikiya, perhaps the greatest behind 20th century interpretor of the role (today Assylmoratova is director of the famous Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) . Irek Mukhamedov dances Solor, a Bolshoi trained power-house with distinct English style coaching since his arrival at the Royal Ballet in 1989 – making him a factual Danseur Pleasant and fair performer. A young Darcey Bussel dances the role of Gamzatti. She is a attractive ballerina, with long legs, high extensions, and expressive arms. Her style, physique, and reach to ballet are not typical of Royal Ballet Danseuses, but she is very British in her dancing. She is a immense actress as well (peep her and Assylmoratova in the ‘cat-fight’ scene in Act I, scene 2 where the heroines feud) . Tetsuya Kumakawa dances the variation of the Bronze Idol, and his performance makes the ever so polite English audience gain the loudest it ever got during this performance.
The corps de ballet does not enjoy a candle to the Kirov or the Bolshoi in the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene, but they give it thier all and do better than most (especially ABT, whos corps contains far to many ballerinas from different schools to be able to carry out just perfection) . Due to the miniature stage of the Royal Opera House, Makarova was forced to lop the number of the corps de ballet from 32 to 24 in “The Kingdom of the Shades” scene, as well as changing the poses of the ballerinas as they stand on the sides of the stage, due to the contrast of physique from the Kiorv/Mariinksy Ballerinas to the Royal Ballet Ballerinas. The three shades solos are approach perfect, if only the first two ballerinas would wipe those unimaginative smiles off of thier faces, as they have no business in the opulent “Kingdom of the Shades”. But regardless of our first two shade girl’s grins, all of the classical variations in this performance are examples of ballet dancing at its best, and the revised Minkus obtain by John Lanchbery gives the soloists a titanic drum roll at the extinguish of a variation for added carry out.
The greatest highlight of all in this film is the miracle that is Altynai Assylmoratova dancing in the scene “The Kingdom of the Shades”. She gives the best performance I have ever seen live or on film. In her entrance she really does seem other-worldly. She dances this scene in the diagram it should be, with her Vaganova training showing through in the beauty of her severly arched backed, explain port de bras, clearly defined movements, and opulent carriage. Her technique is agreeable, but it never makes a spectacle of itself, and, as it should be, her artistry is the focal point. Never does her leg go higher than 100 degrees (unlike many original ballerinas who say on having their leg advance into contact with the side of their head in an a la seconde), but the perfection of her placement is the moral spectacle. She is divine in every plan here, particularly in the “Stout adage”, where she demonstrates that she is a legal St. Petersburg Tall Ballerina; a well-deserved successor of the Ballerinas of faded who once graced the stage of the Mariinsky.
In 2001, with the abet of the choreographic notation from Petipa’s 1900 revival for the ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya, and of the recently re-discovered hand-written come by of Ludwig Minkus, the Kirov/Mariinksy Ballet fully reconstructed “La Bayadere”. The ballet was completely restored, music, sets, costumes and all. Hopefully the Kirov doesnt let this production halt absent from DVD or video for to long (as they have with thier reconstruction of the 1890 premiere of “The Sleeping Beauty” from 1999) – it would be a ample disservice to the world of dance.
