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A rare chance to see this difficult to stage ballet at a provincial theatre was an opportunity not to be missed and one that was well worth the outing. La Bayadere (the temple dancer) calls for the most varied and sumptuous of settings which are difficult to create on tour without looking second rate. The ballet also calls for a very strong corps de ballet as it has perhaps more emphasis on group dances and employs more dance variations and choreographic inventiveness than most other ballets. The SPBT copes with all of this quite admirably however and, although the whole of Act IV (where Solor awakes from his dream and is married to Gamzatti before the Gods intervene and destroy the temple killing everyone and re-uniting Nikiya and Solor in heaven) was omitted from this performance, the result is an evening of splendid and quite spectacular entertainment.
Set in India, the ballet weaves a dramatic web of lust, betrayal, vengeance and justice in the tale of temple dancer Nikiya’s doomed love for the warrior Solor. The locations range from the simplicity of the warrior's apartments to the grandeur of the palace interior and the temple gardens, the latter being colourfully rendered in exquisitely painted layered backdrops with a raised walkway in front of the final backdrop to stage-rear - not hugely impressively at the Royal Opera House perhaps, but on a provincial stage far beyond the ordinary. The sets throughout in fact were stunning by provincial theatre standards and the costumes not only gorgeous but bewildering in their multiplicity.
In the titke role Irina Kolesnikova calls upon all of her extensive experience in a compelling performance. She dances the part with considerable assuredness and faultless technique, using her lithe torso and sinuous arm movements in a performance of sublime intensity. She brings enormous grace and dignity to the part as she performs perfectly in unison with Minkus's superb score. She was ably supported by Vladimir Iznov as Solor, who also has good technique and an elegant style and captured the aloof hauteur of the princely warrior with some aplomb. La Bayadere of course has no real grand pas de deux, but the scarf adagio between the pair, where they do not directly touch each other but each dance holding opposite ends of a gauze scarf, was beautifully executed.
The corps de ballet was superb and the production abounds with some fabulous group dances, most notably perhaps being the fast and hugely energetic dance of the fakirs, performed by eight male and one female dancer all in flame red. The famed entrance of the shades in the third act (where the ballerinas traditionally descend a long ramp in single file, each taking two steps into an arabesque in plié, followed by two steps to pose in tendue derriere repeatedly until every dancer has descended the ramp on to the stage) had to scaled down due to the limitations of a provincial stage but was beautifully done nevertheless. The ramp was limited to only a short viewed through a window, permitting only two dancers to be seen at a time, one in each attitude, as they descended - a clever arrangement which had the advantage of showcasing each of the dancers individually as they progressed through the window.
The only down side to this ballet was the ommision of the fourth act, not least because one did not want it to end. It is not unusual for the fourth act of this ballet to be omitted but without it the story lacks closure, and I do feel that companies that take this route do need to provide some resolution. This could be easily acheived by opening the third (if it is to be the final) act with an identically dressed body double of Solor on the divan which could then be drawn off-stage when the action begins and returned at the end for the discovery of Solor's body, dead from an overdose.
Superb music, first class staging and wonderful performances - a sumptuous treat for the senses.