Petrushka / Russian Seasons / Paquita
Bolshoi Ballet
Royal Opera House
29 July 2010
In the middle of a summer season dominated by popular full-length classics, Giselle and Le Corsaire were last week eclipsed at the box-office by a balletic Tom Thumb: a triple bill. The participation of the ever-popular Nikolai Tsiskaridze and of the undoubted stars of this tour, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, may have helped matters, but whatever the merits of individual dancers, this essentially Russian program is most overwhelming in the breadth of talent on display in the music, choreography and sets. Alexei Ratmansky’s remarkable Russian Seasons is confronted with Petipa and Fokine; from Stravinsky to Leonid Desyatnikov, a century of music written with ballet in mind flashes by. The Bolshoi Ballet has perhaps never been more conscious of its past, with two reconstructions shown in one evening, and yet by showing the strikingly different Petrushka and Paquita, the company is experimenting with its identity like few others.
Having recently seen the Paris Opera Ballet version of Petrushka, a fascinatingly colourful affair, Sergei Vikharev’s recent reconstruction came as a surprise to me. Why were the order of the music, part of the designs, and a great deal of the choreography so significantly different? This essential Ballets Russes work first came to the Bolshoi in 1921, 10 years after his premiere in Paris, but although the sets could be recreated, Vikharev explained to the Moscow Times that the choreography for this version was lost – what we saw last well was a reconstruction of the 1920 Mariinsky version, with the choreography, notated not too long after, “mostly that of Fokine*.”
Complicated though its history may be in this particular case, Petrushka remains an early 20th-century masterpiece, with Stravinsky’s powerful score an undisputed highlight. Set in a traditional fair in St. Petersburg, it conjures up images and legends both entertaining and enigmatic, from the bear brought in to entertain the crowd to the Charlatan who locks up his puppets in very singular rooms. At once lively and dark, its theatricality and deep Russian roots clearly open the door to a reflection on Russian identity as it is projected in ballet. (…)
