The Mariinsky Theatre’s tour of the USA continues. The ballet Raymonda has been called a “living masterpiece” by the press, a series of performances having taken place in Costa Mesa in California.
American audiences are much more familiar with highlights from Raymonda than with the full-length ballet At American Ballet Theatre over the years the repertoire has seen the inclusion of the Hungarian Grand Pas and the divertissements from Acts II and III. However, the three-act plot of the ballet production by the Mariinsky Theatre has been seen by many journalists for the first time. The columnist of The Orange Country Register wrote: “The Mariinsky’s Raymonda, restaged in 1948 with additions from Konstantin Sergeyev and Fyodor Lopukhov, is pure vintage ballet, shuttered for decades at a time, rarely toured in its entirety to Western audiences, unchanged in design for 60-plus years now. Yet thanks to outstanding performances by the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra, it transcends anachronisms.”
According to the columnist of The Los Angeles Times, there was “Petipa’s scenes of symmetrical magic for the corps de ballet” embodied in “ those near-perfect rows of Mariinsky men and women, whose heads, shoulders, arms, fingers and toes are all placed neatly, specifically and simultaneously in intertwining groupings that translate to poetry.”
Critics were enchanted by Viktoria Tereshkina’s technical perfection. The reviewer for the portal Dancetabs was captivated by her variations in Act II with her “precise diagonal of développés” and “perfectly-spaced changements hopped en pointe” as well as her piano-like variation of the Hungarian Grand Pas, in which the ballerina appeared “seductive, mesmerizing and haughty.” The reviewer of The Orange Country Register noted that “Tereshkina demonstrated the waves of security and fragility that pulse with Raymonda’s changing moods”, going on to state that the ballerina was “Mona Lisa come to life – enigmatic, alive, and so singular”, making the audience feel that “a still reverence feels more apt when standing before a museum masterpiece.”
Critics have praised Vladimir Shklyarov’s “high elevation and ardent manner.” A vital element of theatricality, in the words of the critic of Dancetabs, came with Konstantin Zverev’s performance as Abderakhman. The reviewer of The Los Angeles Times admired Kristina Shapran and Renata Shakirova as Raymonda’s friends, while Dancetabs commented on the success of Yekaterina Ivannikova in the variation and Anastasia Petushkova in the Spanish Panaderos.
And every publication was unanimous in their opinions of the Mariinsky Orchestra, from which conductor “Gavriel Heine elicited opulent sound” (The Los Angeles Times).
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