I actually saw the performances on the
14th (rather than the
15th) because I was able to get the box office to swap the tickets for the 14th (it seems with our bad economy, ticket sales were not as strong as it could have been.

).
I can say one thing though: the stage at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA is just too small for the Mariinsky troupe--hopefully the next time they're touring in the Bay Area they go to the larger stage at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House. This proved to be a problem with the excerpt from
Raymonda, as Irma Noriadze and Yevgeny Ivanchenko had to be
REALLY careful not go get run over by other dancers on stage.
A couple of comments on the dancers:
Alina Somova--good as her performance in the except from
La Bayadere is, now I know why some balletomanes don't like her--her gymnast-like movements can detract from her overall performance at times. I for one (in my humble opinion!) would love to see her put under the same coach that trains Ulyana Lopatkina, because Somova reminds me in terms of body build of Lopatkina but just a tad shorter and could use a coach that could properly take advantage of Somova's physical build.
Viktoria Tereshkina--she's definitely a really good dancer in terms of technical skills. She just needs just a tad more "acting presence" (she's already demonstrated that in
Don Quixote as Kitri, according to some who saw her perform this role in Costa Mesa, CA about a week earlier) on more roles and (in my opinion) see the next great ballerina with the Mariinsky troupe once Ulyana Lopatkina leaves the scene.
All in all, I had a fun night on the 14th and hope to see Ulyana Lopatkina
live by this time next year!
