Left: Zellerbach Hall.Interesting and beautiful show!
On Sunday afternoon, Sally and I traveled to Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall to see the Bolshoi Ballet's "La Bayadère" (Choreography by Marius Petipa, Music by Ludwig Minkus, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Pavel Klinichev, conductor):
Exciting changes are in store for Russia's legendary Bolshoi Ballet, one of the world's preeminent artistic institutions. The company's 2009 visit marks the first under new artistic director Yuri Burlaka, a dynamic young talent famous for his extra- ordinary revivals of 19th-century dance classics. And in a development that has captured the interest of the ballet world, Yuri Grigorovich, the Bolshoi's Soviet-era artistic director, returns to oversee stagings of the full-length ballets that he choreo- graphed. The company's "profoundly moving" (Guardian, London) La Bayadère is a drama of passion, betrayal, and redemption, unfolding against the exotic backdrop of India and culminating in the radiant choreography of the "Kingdom of the Shades".
Left: Intermission #2 in Zellerbach Hall.
Left: A statue of Natalia Makorova in Zellerbach Hall.
Left: Bows, as seen from the balcony.The impact of Act III was stunning: seeing 32 ballerinas in white, in unison (although in alternating unison).
Nadezda Grachev was wonderful as Nikiya the Bayadère, but I actually enjoyed more the dancing of Ekaterina Shipulina as Gamzatti, the Rajah's daughter. Andrey Uvarov played Solor the Warrior wonderfully, and the fellow who played what I believe was the Golden Idol (Denis Medvedev) did an excellent job too.
There was some weirdness after the second intermission. I noticed that worried ushers were working together to keep someone from entering the house proper (Berkeley does have some strange folks ambling about).
Afterwards, dinner at Stenger's fish restaurant, then a return to Sacramento!
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