The Russian State Ballet of Siberia – Swan Lake

Reviewed at Milton Keynes Theatre on 7^th March 2009

This extremely popular ballet would seem to be a fairly safe bet for any company: Tchaikovsky’s glorious music, the staging and setting, the emotional drama of the final scenes. Surprisingly then, I left the performance feeling that this is a somewhat uneven and at times lacklustre performance.

Firstly, the positives were the orchestra who did full justice to the score and were as note perfect as to be expected under Anatoly Tchepurnoi. Secondly, is the amazing Anna Aulle, playing Odette/Odile. She is an outstanding dancer and performer: technically brilliant and wonderfully expressive, both in face and body. She was the best thing about this production, utterly believable throughout and totally focussed. She is a gorgeous, gorgeous performer; I cannot praise her highly enough. The only match on stage for her as far as technical execution and dramatic expression go was Kirill Litvinenko, who was excellent as Von Rothbart. He looks the part and is a strong dynamic dancer, who is also thoroughly committed to his performance. These two had the most exciting choreography and embraced it.

The other lead, Prince Siegfried played by Nikolay Tchevychelov, is not as strong as the above. The blurb in the programme says that he has ‘striking artistic personality, creativity and scenic charm’. This may be so but it was not much in evidence last night. He has a certain amount of charm, which serves him well as the Prince, but his performance did not move beyond that and was rather one-dimensional. He seemed distant in the second half and his performance lacked expression. Dancing opposite Aulle did him no favours as frankly, she danced everyone off the stage. There was something strange about Tchevychelov though, in that his mouth is almost constantly moving. Several times I thought ‘Is he counting the beats?’  Whatever he is doing it is very distracting.

Now moving to the main problem with this production on this particular night: the corps de ballet.  Usually, I would not necessarily be focussed on these performers but they drew my attention because they were occasionally disengaged from what they were supposed to be doing; namely, acting a part and putting on a performance. However, several times some members were distracted, and distracting, when on stage; looking around and, bizarrely, speaking to each other and giggling when on stage! They are supposed to be swans! Most annoyingly this happened as the last scene drew to a close, which completely punctured the drama and emotion of the final moments. Whilst this might have only been audible in the front few rows, and most probably not noticeable to the majority of the audience it is unacceptable.

So, the performance of the orchestra, Aulle, and Litvinenko were outstanding but unfortunately these brilliant performances were overshadowed by the very odd behaviour of the corps. All in all this was an uneven night.

Swan Lake played at Milton Keynes Theatre on 7^th March 2009. Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office 0871 297 5454 (bkg fee). www.miltonkeynestheatre.com  or for details of further dates and venues please go to http://www.raymondgubbay.co.uk/newDisplayEvent.asp?eventid=1568