The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra are concluding their tour to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London (Great Britain), which runs from 24 July to 12 August. Every three years, the Mariinsky Ballet takes the finest productions in its repertoire to the British capital. This year British audiences were presented with Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Anna Karenina and the programme Contrasts, which included Carmen-Suite, Infra and Paquita "Grand pas".
The tour opened on 24 July with a series of performances of the ballet Don Quixote by Ludwig Minkus featuring leading soloists of the Mariinsky Ballet. Critic of the portal The ArtsDesk.com Hanna Weibye lavished praise on the ballet: "Tasteful design and perfectly poised dancers in classy first outing for Russians visiting the Royal Opera House." The reviewer of The Stage newspaper was thrilled by the performers of the lead roles: "Don Q is really a vehicle for its principal couple: Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim are stunning. The latter has the boisterous exuberance and enjoyably manic energy of a kitten, then dashes off magnificent pantherine leaps and masterfully controlled turns. Tereshkina brings glamourpuss sass and sureness, etching the prancing pointe-work of her variation with sly wit, shaping legato passages with silkily nuanced phrasing." Among the performers of other roles, compliments rained down on Yekaterina Chebykina as the Queen of the Dryads "who moves with expansive grace and warmth", the "dashing fandango from Elena Bazhenova and a lively Mercedes from Olga Belik." The Independent
After performances of Don Quixote, the Mariinsky Ballet presented its "calling card" – Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. On 27 July after the performance it was announced that Xander Parish, who performed the role of Prince Siegfried that evening, had been made a Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet. News of the St Petersburg company's first British dancer's promotion caused a furore among UK journalists.
Speaking of the performances, the critics unanimously praised the art, precision and elegance of the performers of the lead roles: Ekaterina Kondaurova was an expressive Odette and a vivid and fervent Odile, Viktoria Tereshkina, tender and vulnerable in the "white" acts, captivated with her temptations in the "black" act, Xander Parish's Siegfried was remarkable for his character, gallantry and, at the same time, his boyish naivety, while Andrei Yermakov as von Rothbart was compared with a soaring demon. Also of note were Nadezhda Batoeva and Sofia Ivanova-Skoblikova, who "were gracious, precise and ethereal as the Prince's friends." The Independent.
The highest praise fell on the Mariinsky Theatre corps de ballet. Clement Crisp, one of the oldest and most respected British ballet critics, wrote of the performance in his review for The Financial Times that "The Mariinsky’s performance on Friday night was honourable: the legion of swan-maidens spoke of elegance of means, vital traditions, impeccable style. The third act mazurka was a marvel. Splendid decors. A fine orchestra." Sarah Crompton (The Guardian) commented on the unity of the ensemble: "When those swan girls of the corps de ballet swoop across the stage in flawless, absolutely understood unison, creating a fretwork of perfectly placed legs and arms, heads and hands delicately inclined and shaped, you reach the heart of why a visit to London by the Mariinsky is such an event, and why it is one of the world’s great ballet companies."
The the tour programme's contemporary ballets, which received mixed reviews, critics commented on the invariably high quality of the performances, particularly focussing on the Mariinsky Theatre's prima ballerinas. Louise Levene (Financial Times) wrote of the ballet Anna Karenina: "Konstantin Zverev is a fine dancer and a noble partner but the piece is, inevitably, a star vehicle and Vishneva is that star. Her technique and stamina appear undiminished. Weightless legs still tick into high extensions and the spine has lost none of its plasticity, but it is in the ballet’s rare moments of stillness that she truly excels. When Karenin – the impressive Viktor Baranov – denies access to their son, she lets her hands fall slowly to her sides, her body seeming to shrivel with shock, distilling a lifetime of Juliets, Odettes and Tatianas into the embodiment of despair."
This interpretation of Wayne McGregor's ballet Infra, created for London's Royal Ballet, roused great interest among the critics: "It was fascinating to see their Vaganova-trained bodies perform these steps, and the physical and emotional heft they brought to McGregor’s little vignettes of human interaction (or lack of it) was quite hypnotic. The passage where Ekaterina Kondaurova (...) crumpled in solitary devastation, as dozens of her colleagues strode unseeingly past her, was a hauntingly vivid picture of existential angst." The Telegraph
The Paquita "Grand pas" was acclaimed as ideal for the St Petersburg company: "Whilst they’re a staple in gala evenings, grand pas are harder to appreciate out of the context of the ballets from which they are taken, however the Mariinsky was excellent in this final bouquet. Throughout, the corps sections, variations and the pas de deux, faultless technique, impeccable musicality and stylistic precision demonstrated the company is still, by far, one of the very best classical ballet ensembles in the world," concluded Alexandra Desvignes from the portal Bachtrack in her review of An Evening of Contrasts. Meanwhile, Mark Monahan, dance critic for The Telegraph, again picked out certain performers: "Vladimir Shklyarov made a splendid Andrés – but this ballet belonged to Viktoria Tereshkina. She served up a Paquita of such technical exactitude, unfettered energy and cheeky, nanosecond-sharp musicality that it was impossible not to leave with an exhilarated spring in your step."
The tour by the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, comes to a close on 12 August with a performance of Ludwig Minkus' ballet La Bayadère featuring choreography by Marius Petipa (1877), revised version by Vladimir Ponomarev and Vakhtang Chabukiani (1941).
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