I did not have the chance to see Larissa. She is usually my absolute favorite. I saw all of the other couples. I liked each of them for different reasons - Sarah Lamb was technically superb, Lorna Feijoo was just amazing in every way, and Romi Beppu made a superb debut in a difficult role. I liked Nelson Madrigal, Lorna Feijoo's husband, the best in the Siegfried role, but I thought Gurevich was also very good. I really liked Nissinen's staging of this ballet, probably because I am a traditionalist. PA Ballet's version did not appeal to me. I was very impressed with Boston's corps, as I have been all year long. They have lots of depth and I think they have several really good ballerinas in the making. By the way Nissinen gave some really good opportunities to BBII members - some of them dancing the four cygnets and a pas de cinq that he choreoraphed. They did very well. Probably the only thing that weighed down the production was the heavy scenery, which seemed to inhibit the dancers at some points. All in all, it was a very beautiful and memorable production. I originally thought Lady of the Camellias was one of their best all year, but I would now vote Swan Lake.

Welcome fromthebalcony and thanks for your comments on "Swan Lake". Looking forward to your future posts.

In the Boston Phoenix, Marcia Siegel writes about Boston and Pennsylvanis Ballets' recent Swan Lake productions:
Swan migrations - Boston Ballet’s classic, and Christopher Wheeldon’s reimagining

Having watched Larissa Ponomarenko for ten years now I think it is such a shame that she remains such a secret in Boston. Her range is astounding. She is always techniqually secure but her dramatic portrayal is so complete and detailed. In Onegin she is heart-breaking, sensual and interesting in the contemporary work, and pristine in the classics. I look forward to seeing her again in "Taming of the Shrew". The first time around (8 or so years ago) she was incredibly funny. Her maturity should make her even better. She is a true gem!

Ophelia, I couldn't agree with you more. I am new to the Boston area, and I think it is a crime that this woman is virtually unknown in the U.S. She is probably one of the best dancers I have ever seen. What is so amazing is her ability to dance contemporary works as well as her ability to dance all the classics. Actually, I think it is a crime that Boston Ballet is so "under-pressed." We read so much about the New York companies, but I think Boston has some fabulous dancers. I am glad there is someone out there that agrees with me about Larissa.

Confessions on Swan Lake

The numbing spell of the work-a-day world’s monotonous refrains one endured until freed by the Saturday matinee, May 15, of Boston Ballet’s Swan Lake. Now whether swayed by thirst alone (it had been weeks since one last drank the wine of ballet) or some other confluence of expectations, the performance of Sarah Lamb as Odette nevertheless immersed this viewer in a flood of moments that either illuminated or explained the music. In Act II, Lamb for this viewer became the very avatar of musicality. And she like some pagan divinity descended and one was possessed.

That possession, now alas a memory- a precious crop of fragile yields indeed- granted one or so it seemed the power to slow time. The attentiveness brought by this state of mind keenly felt, for instance, the steady breath or drawing motion- as if she were playing an oboe or violin - that Lamb applied over the entire count of held or tied notes that drove her arabesque penchees or developpes. The careful flow of her stretch, no matter what the tempo, made the punctuation for those phrases that ended, for example, with a flourish of wrists or arms seem musically correct as well as dramatically potent.

Yet such was the rush of one’s Orphic possession that it often set one loose in a swirling rather than a steady stream of time. One passed, for instance, from a capacity-an illusion, one is certain- for noting even the tiniest of jumps or beats or cuts to a fatigue brought by sentient overload. In this over wrought state of mind, one wondered, “What, if ballerinas could fly, would the Act II coda look like danced on the ceiling?” Although the phenomena one experienced- that of being one with the music or ballet while it lasts- is a common one, it nevertheless urged a wakeful quest for the sources of Swan Lake’s affective power. One entered, then and perhaps on a fool’s errand, the threshold opened onto Tchaikovsky’s music by Lamb’s performance of Odette/Odile.

Given the vagueness of the goal, however, a rusting compass, and a want for navigational skills one’s quest went everywhere and nowhere all at once. Happily, the Pennsylvania Ballet’s production of Swan Lake ran one’s foundering quest aground and thereby provided something solid to stand on. In fact, it was the rough ground of the Overture’s dynamics that brought one’s quest to a sudden stop or focus. Under the baton of Jonathan McPhee, for example, the orchestra of the Boston Ballet delivered the setting of Odette’s twilight refuge and its somber mood with barely a ripple. With Stravinsky-like correctness, McPhee portrayed the smooth and reflective surfaces of a silent and secret lake at dusk. In contrast, under the baton of Beatrice Jona Affron, the orchestra of the Pennsylvania Ballet revealed the poem embedded in the familiar melodies of the Overture. As if pronouncing words, the breathy contrast between load and soft and the emphasis on weak as well as strong beats gave the minor key of the Overture a bluesy flavor. In this way, the musical decision of whether to steal or not to steal time, the use of ‘rubato’ in musical practice, underscored the conceptions of Swan Lake their Overtures prefaced. (Rubato names the variations in performance to the note values and tempo markings written in the score. Composers, such as Tchaikovsky, however, sometimes wrote them in. And, as a performing technique, rubato was often used to mark changes between sections, i.e. the last measure or measures of the Siegfried -startles- Odette scene are slowed without direction to do so before the mime scene begins. An argument for this slowing, over and above the practical demands of ballet, could be that it reinforces the sense of arrival and resolution heard in the music and witnessed in the ballet. Additionally, this brief scene illustrates the rubato-ized sensibility that wants to slow up on descending passages- the reverse characteristic, to speed up (and get loader) on ascending passages, is also common.) The steady state of tempo and restraint of dynamic emphasis heard, for example, in the Boston Ballet Overture underscored the public and traditional aspects of Nissinen’s Swan Lake. While, the use of varying tempo and dynamic emphasis highlighted the emotional aspects of the Overture and supported the personal, indeed Cartesian quality of Wheeldon’s Swan Lake.

Historically, the use of ‘rubato’ is synonymous with, if not rabid in the 19th century in general and with Tchaikovsky in particular. In this sense, the performance given by the orchestra of the Pennsylvania Ballet echoed a common 19th century practice, while typical, if not the accepted norm presently that of the Boston Ballet orchestra reflected a rival parallel practice. The sense of tubing, so to speak, on the rapids and eddies of musical time and the enhancement of feeling that play with time means to provide successfully exposes, one thinks, one of the sources of Swan Lake’s affective power. Another source certainly is the ‘divine’ dancer who ever that might be, whose performance takes possession of us and whose “beauty,” in the words of Rilke, “serenely disdains to destroy us.”