Is it unfortunate timing? Do we need another Swan Lake in town? After all, we’ve recently had high value Royal Ballet and English National Ballet productions. Possibly not, yet the State Ballet of Georgia’s love triumphant, happy ending version, staged by Alexei Fadeechev, artistic director Nina Ananiashvili’s long-term dancing partner, and herself, is a gentle way in for first-timers. Family friendly, I’d say. And Tchaikovsky’s music always sends a shiver down the spine.
Danced with great diligence and care by the whole company, it is a safe production. I feel little chemistry between Siegfried and Odette (Vadim Muntagirov lookalike Oleg Ligai and Nino Samadashvili). Both are fine dancers, solos excellent, great leaps from him and spins from her, but there is no visible passion from him for this enigmatic creature, just reliable partnering. No moodiness either, he seems a dutiful son.
All rather well mannered and tame, if beautiful to look at, but my emotions are not engaged. The swans are well drilled, Benno (Efe Burak), Siegfried’s friend, has beautiful arms and a soft landing, and the Spanish quartet brings some zing with astonishing back bends from the women. The evil Rothbart (Marcelo Soares) does not, zing I mean: he will not scare any children in the audience. He has very little to do but glare and flex his fingers. His vanquishing is imperceptible and lacking in drama.
The drama seems to be happening in the orchestra pit, the English National Opera Orchestra under the baton of Georgian conductor Papuna Gvaberidze at its most ‘Wagnerian’, loud, strident and, at times, at quite a tricky pace for the dancers.
Sets by Vyacheslav Okunev, beautiful picture-book, hand-painted backcloths and costumes with a Georgian medieval flavour, the company’s first visit to London is a special occasion, not least for former Bolshoi and international star Ananiashvili (AD since 2004), who is sitting with her husband just across the aisle from me.
”Swan Lake has always had an important place in my career. It was the first ballet that I performed in the Bolshoi Theatre and was my first and final significant performance at American Ballet Theater.” Who better to show the company the way? She was a beautiful dancer. There’s an interesting interview with her by Ismene Brown on YouTube.
The glossy souvenir programme is full of information on Georgian history (“The Mystical Land of Georgia”; “The Creative Soul of Georgia”; “The Sons and Daughters of Georgia”), on the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre and its evolution from the mid-nineteenth century, cuisine and more. It is great promotional literature and a fascinating read if you know little of its culture apart from the fact that Stalin was a Georgian, the ‘Rothbart’ of his time.
Swan Lake was always a big deal in the Soviet Union: any state emergency and a film of it is played on state TV. It’s in the DNA. The best ever, the most soulful, dancer for me as Odette / Odile was Mariinsky’s Ulyana Lopatkina. The young dancers tonight have a long journey ahead of them. Acting skills and life’s experiences will enhance their performances along the way.
After this their first ever visit to London, the 65-strong company will present their Swan Lake at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy from 20–24 November. Next time, and I hope there will be a next time, maybe with a work channeling Vakhtang Chabukiani’s (Siegfried to Galina Ulanova’s Odette) passion… Ananiashvili was one of his students.