Swan Lake Mariinsky Theatre 7 May 2015 by Catherine Pawlick
Following the passing of ballet legend Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya on 2 May, the end of a brilliant artist that was felt deeply across Russia, numerous performances across Russia's major cities were held in memory of the great ballerina. At the Mikhailovsky Theatre, the ballet troupe performed excerpts from Swan Lake outside and filmed it for home viewing. At the Philharmonic, a moment of silence was requested before Yuri Temirkanov began his concert on 3 May. And Uliana Lopatkina dedicated her 7 May performance of Swan Lake to Maya Plisetskaya as well.
Uliana Lopatkina has long been an emblem of the ideal Odette/Odile character. Blessed with impeccably long limbs and a beautiful face, her embodiment of the dual swan roles has become a model for other ballerinas worldwide, and not due only to her physique. Lopatkina's Swan Lake is the version intended by Petipa, infused with nuance, detail and depth, fully analyzed and fully saturated with meaning. Every gesture, every glance has a purpose. Her performance is an iconic tribute to the best of Russian classical ballet. It is impossible to watch her in this role and come away unchanged - witnessing her rendition is witnessing part of ballet history. No one worldwide comes close to her in Swan Lake.
I have watched performances at the Mariinsky Theatre for the past 11 years. I've seen hundreds of Lakes, Beauties, Giselles and Bayaderes. I've witnessed young dancers come out in their first attempt at a role, and I've seen mature dancers perform for the last time before retiring from the stage. But in these past 11 years, which is a mere drop in the span of the history of this great Theatre, I've never seen Lopatkina offer a Swan Lake quite like the one on 7 May. Perhaps it was my seat -- in the Tsar's actual box, the box to the left of the stage, first chair, which allowed me to touch the stage floor if I were to reach over and do so -- or perhaps there was something in the ballerina herself that altered this particular performance. In any case, the video cameras behind me, (with cables running under my chair) and throughout the hall recorded this night for the Mariinsky archives. Someone will be able to see this on film at some point.
Her Act I entrance began with a chassé jeté, followed by the delicate preening of a swan. Seeing Siegfried, Lopatkina stepped backwards, frightened, and then raced to the other side of the stage where he caught her. Lopatkina froze at this moment, staring deeply into Seigfried's eyes, and only after a number of seconds began to bourrée. The emphasis is on the meeting of two beings, of two souls and then the sudden beating of her heart. The moment when the electricity passes between them and the bond is created.
But Rothbart's interruption of their meeting and his ultimate pull put an abrupt end to the soulful interlude -- as the musical chord struck, Lopatkina reached forward towards Siegfried while being visibly pulled backwards into the wing by Rothbart's black magic. The sequence wasn't mere choreographic execution, it was a visual depiction of forces stronger than Odette.
The White Adagio began with additional layers of nuance. As Odette entered the long double row of swans on stage, and ran downstage, her eyes were focused only on Siegfried, who stands outside that double line, stage right. In the historical version, Siegfried was not supposed to walk down the parallel line of swans, for that was the pathway for their Swan Queen only, and not for mortal humans. So as Lopatkina's Odette emerged from the parallel lines of swans, she mimed, asking Siegfried, please, not to harm her swan sisters. Later, she looked skyward, towards the wings, and flappedher arms slowly, indicating her flight, her transformation into a bird, before continuing the pas de deux. In the pirouettes, as she rotated in attitude devant, she looked adoringly at Siegfried each time, before beginning the turn. In her variation, she emphasized a tendu à terre in the sissone sequence before shifting to arabesque relevé. After the first set she bourréed backwards, folding forward at the waist with her arms behind her before completing the second set. At times Lopatkina's Odette seemed trusting of Siegfried but at others, she bourrées back from him cautiously, her path to trusting the suitor far from immediate. Her breath in the final dip before the penchée arabesque pose that closes the Adagio perfectly accented the conductor's timing.
Act II took a different approach. Lopatkina entered with entirely different carriage: proud, composed, sly, and devastatingly beautiful -- decorated in gleaming ruby drop earrings, a matching ruby crown, and the sleek black tutu. The intent, of course, was to entrance and seduce, to extend Rothbart's power and win over Siegfried, to maintain control over Odette. In the first diagonal her bourrée-tendu devant to attitude ended with a slight allongé before the pas de basque, adding polish to the sequence. In the usual saut de basque section she took the second set of counts in piqueé turns. Later, when Rothbart intervened to pull her from Siegfried for a moment, their lines mimicked each other identically, as if two halves of the same evil whole. After the music shifted and Siegfried sensed Odette's cry for help, we saw Lopatkina's stance shift noticeably, as softer port de bras take over in a tender pose, her eyes slyly focused on Siegfried, assessing her effect on him and thereby divulging her main goal. When the moment of danger has passed she gestured to him to move downstage. He offered his hand, and Lopatkina took two counts to knowingly place her arm in his with a grand royal gesture, emphasising her intent to garner respect and adoration from the unsuspecting victim, but also her intent to control the situation. The pas de deux closed with 10 pirouettes before the final pose.
Odile's variation began with a deliberate and well-placed double pirouette transitioning into a single pirouette in attitude. Lopatkina omits the battu before the developé à la seconde, however this doesn't detract from the initial portion of the variation. The rest was a smoothly nuanced rendition that ended on the music with a double piqué-to-double piqué close.
Act III featured Odette again, but now adorned with a tiny three-pronged diamond crown signifying her exceptional position. After Seigfried's entrance, Lopatkina used her port de bras to indicate tears, turning away from him at first under her arm/wing and then hopping backwards in arabesque as if telling him a story about her life.
Whene Rothbart appeared for the final battle, she stepped between him and Siegfried, sternum high, arms back, attempting to protect the mortal man. Following the alternating lifts by the two men, after she used her last efforts to combat the Evil Sorcerer, we witnessed her fold forward at the waist while bourrée-ing again, repeating the steps from Act I to emphasize the theme, but this time, spent of all strength, she crumbled to the floor. Ince Rothbart's wing was torn off and his powers destroyed, the spell was over. Siegfried touched Odette's arm, gently awakening her. As she stood up tentatively, Lopatkina first nuzzled Siegfried, and then, in disbelief, looked at Rothbart's body lying lifeless at her feet, before she took the final pose in a low attitude, her eyes looking towards the heavens. Words are grossly inadequate to describe the depth of emotion that she depicted throughout this performance, but it far surpassed any other Swan Lake I've seen here in the past decade. Bravo, a million times.
_________________ Author, "Vaganova Today: The Preservation of Pedagogical Tradition" (available on amazon.com)
|