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".
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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