American Ballet Theatre, July 8, 2006

American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Le Corsaire
July 8, 2006
evening

I have learned through experience to fear full-length "story" ballets (particularly those in which the list of composers, choreographers, and librettists is almost as long as the cast list), and, in the end, Le Corsaire, I regret to say, did not disappoint. The first act, however, is actually entertaining, with a lot of good dancing. After the famous pas de deux (a pas de trois, when not taken out of context), which occurs early in the second act, the production starts to run out of steam, despite its good intentions and good performances.

The prologue, which takes place on the ship, and Act 1, which takes place in the bazaar, are charming and colorful enough that I even considered the ballet in light of the recently opened pirate movie with Johnny Depp (which I haven’t seen), thinking that it might be a similar kind of light entertainment, perhaps to the extent that the people who would enjoy the pirate movie might be persuaded to come to the Met and find themselves enjoying a pirate ballet (management’s thinking, too, no doubt, but I, who have no financial stake in the thing, also want people who come to the ballet and enjoy it and want to come back). I saw this, as I see most of the ballets at the Met, from orchestra standing. The leads were Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky, with Corella as the slave, Pastor as the friend and Saveliev as the bazaar owner. While the choreography is stated to be Konstantin Sergeyev after Petipa, it seems to be this first act that has the most remnants of any Petipa, at least as I understand Petipa, in particular, in the dances for the three Odalisques, here Melanie Hamrick, Carmen Corella (both replacements) and Kristi Boone. The choreography here is just about the best in the ballet: inventive, lovely chains of steps with numerous little beats and surprising développés, well done by all three girls. Again, I can’t put names to bodies, but the girl who did the first variation, with all the brisées, was very good, and the girl who did the second variation was excellent. If only the choreography for the men (and for all in the remaining acts) was as interesting; it too often degenerated into tricks; Saveliev, for example, had these jumps that were truly amazing to see, in fact I actually gasped, even after he had done this a few times already, because the angle of his body in the air is such that it seems impossible that he could land on two feet. [This also reminded me of those cheap-looking backbends that Malakhov did in Giselle last month; the tricks in Le Corsaire are forgivable compared to that.] But this was the first sign of trouble, as I started thinking, where am I, at the Met or under the Big Top? (Ok, I know I just contradicted my happy populist sentiment stated above, but maybe some lines are better off not crossed.)

I had seen this production several years ago, but I couldn’t remember and couldn’t tell from the synopsis at what point the pas de deux (as I said, really a pas de trois) would come, so I was somewhat surprised (and relieved) to see it right at the beginning of Act 2. Now I recently have been watching the DVD of Fonteyn and Nureyev (thanks, Paula!), so I was curious to see it performed on the stage again, with dancers who have some technical skills (it always astonishes me to see how Fonteyn is gorgeous in her overall line and from the waist up, but has very little technique to speak of—how did she pull it off? She must have worked like crazy.). Corella is a beautiful dancer and he performs the piece without the usual (actually, thanks to Nureyev, expected) preening and glam; yet while that dangerous, and admittedly exciting, edge is lacking, the performance gains in tastefulness and in providing the opportunity to see good dancing unadorned. Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky, on the other hand, could stand to incorporate some of that glam into their performances, not just here, but throughout. Both exhibit well-trained techniques and can execute the steps well; but that’s about it. And, while Beloserkovsky isn’t dancing the Nureyev role, so there’s no direct comparison, it is on this level that—despite the fact that they lack the latter-day Russians’ technical skills—Fonteyn and Nureyev really outperform them.

After this I am afraid, not too much of interest happens, although, since the setting is Adrianopolis, there is an interesting character dance that incorporates (I guess to the same extent as the "character" dances in Swan Lake do, anyway) elements of Balkan dancing; it wasn’t great, but at least it was different. For the rest of the ballet, most of the time, the dancers who aren’t principals stand around as part of the scenery; Roman Zhurbin, as the pasha, was a bright spot, and indeed, the acting by just about everyone was quite good. The Jardin Animée scene, which I had remembered and was looking forward to, was cloying, and while the ship had seemed already to have sunk after Act 1, the final shipwreck scene was well done.