Superlatives seem in short supply when it comes to describing the Bolshoi. The Russian visitors have been in London for barely a fortnight yet they’ve already performed seven ballets including two mixed bills this week alone, plus they’re dancing the gargantuan Spartacus again on Saturday. But it’s not only the number of ballets as the variety, which ranges from abstract serenity, to fascinating burlesque, to laugh-aloud virtuosity. And I haven’t mentioned the dancers — the Bolshoi has talent in spades, from young soloists to older principals whose grand composure gives the juniors a run for their roubles.
In last night’s extract from Paquita, Maria Alexandrova and Nikolai Tsiskaridze dazzled in megawatt company. The pair are not in the first flush but in Petipa’s implacable piece of doily-delicate virtuosity, her gracious manner and his knowing smile proved you don’t need young things.
Nor do you need aristocrats. Opening last night’s triple bill was the Stravinsky-Fokine masterwork Petrushka, which the duo made for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1911. It depicts the emotional despair of the eponymous straw-filled puppet who loves the trivial Ballerina but she only has eyes for the nit-witted Moor. The setting is St Petersburg’s Butter Week Fair, and the zoom-like scene shifts are one of Fokine’s many innovations. The hunched-back, flat-palms and turned-in movement he created for Petrushka is another, and may be where Nijinsky, who created the role, found some of the inspiration for his 1913 work The Rite of Spring.
Nina Kaptsova was flirtily effective as the Ballerina, as was Denis Savin as the Moor. Mikhail Lobukhin started unevenly, but grew into a Petrushka of considerable poignancy.
For my tuppence, Alexei Ratmansky’s recent Russian Seasons looked equivocal next to these artistically emphatic works, although Natalia Osipova made her mark as the lady in red. She also made considerable impact in Giselle on Monday, with a stunning performance in Act II where Giselle rises from her grave to walk over ours. Osipova’s sorrow was palpable from the start, translating into a nimble, chilling pace that almost produced icicles in the Opera House.
Accompanying Giselle was George Balanchine’s Serenade, the first ballet he made in America after fleeing the Russian Revolution. It was a lengthy pairing, yet the Bolshoi made it their own.
Tonight only, then Spartacus (July 31), Le Corsaire (August 2-5), and Don Quixote (6-8). 020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk
Bolshoi Ballet triple bill
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD
