Peter Viney's Blog

by Pyotre Tchaikovsky

International Classic Ballet Theatre

Artistic Director Marina Medvetskaya

Poole Lighthouse Theatre
Friday 6 January 2023 7 pm

I’ve criticized Poole Lighthouse a fair bit in the past, but this proves that if you want to fill a theatre, put on what people want to see. It was packed. Not an empty seat. Thursday night, two shows Friday, switch to the Nutcracker for two shows Saturday, then one on Sunday. On to the next town.

I don’t know if I’ve even seen a full Swan Lake before. I have seen extracts often enough … the Pas de deux, the Dance of the Cygnets. In full it was 65 minutes for Acts 1 & 2, 35 minutes for Act 3, 25 minutes for Act 4, though they labelled Acts 1 & 2 together as their Act One. That reflects on the music, because we’re used to suites, highlights or selections from Swan Lake: Swan Lake’s Greatest Bits perhaps. A real Swan Lake recording fills 2 CDs.

The Artistic director was a prima ballerina in Tblisi, Georgia and this production has been ‘touring the USA’ according to the publicity. The same blurb is repeated everywhere on line. They must have been touring it for a while because the flier has different dancers in different costumes in front of a different backdrop. The one above looks right on dancers but wrong on backdrop. Having shelled out £8 for the colour programme for my 11 year old granddaughter, who was with us, I’d be really annoyed if it were different costumes and dancers. Yes, I know that ballet companies switch around and have understudies, and they’re doing two shows a day, but even so.

A majority of the names look at least ‘ex-USSR’ (which is why I’ve scanned the list rather than typing it out laboriously). I suspect a Russian connection has been replaced by ‘International’ for 2022 / 2023, understandably and rightly. Names look Kazak, Uzbek and Georgian as much as Russian. There are Japanese and English names in there too, so ‘International’ is fair.

Countries have achieved pre-eminence in areas of the arts. Britain for stage drama, the USA for stage musicals, Italy and Germany for opera, Spain for flamenco and obviously Russia for classical ballet. There are things you should see – Hamlet, West Side Story, Swan Lake. This is an opportunity to see a full Swan Lake in provincial theatres with a full cast and a live orchestra. The live orchestra is vital …is the ballet illustrating Tchaikovsky’s music, or is the music the soundtrack to the ballet? They are mixed, yet the music also stands quite capably on its own shorn of the ballet. I thought the orchestra was superb, down there in the pit only ever opened for pantomimes. I think we all looked over going out or coming in. I’d say at least twenty-five musicians were down there.

Then we have the dancers. How many? Sixteen swans and four principals at the curtain call … Odette, Prince Siegfried, Rothbart, the Jester. Yet the other males weren’t in the curtain call … there were six courtiers in act one, plus one who did solo work, and one who did the Spanish dance. I’d say eight, but they didn’t come on at the end. They’re also simply “with artists of the corps de ballet” on the cast sheet. (I think that should be artistEs – in my backstage variety show days the stage manager would have castigated us for dropping that E from artiste.)

The logistics interest me. Twenty-eight dancers? The same nunber of musicians approximately. Lighting? Stage management? Costumes? They must have more than sixty on the road. I can recall the difficulty of placing 25 in a film crew in smaller towns. I’d assume for economy it’ll be twin rooms, but even so. Hotel bills, food, travel then people want to be paid.

I have no technical knowledge to be critical. I loved seeing and hearing the full ballet with a full set and marvellous playing. Karen and my granddaughter both thought the six men as courtiers were not up normal standard. I bow to their expertise, though even I had worked that out. I liked the fact that unlike so many ballets, the dancers were not of a template – different heights and (slightly) different builds. That was a positive, though not in the Dance of the Cygnets, where the height differences cause a visual problem.

The principals were excellent with a shared name … Assel Askarova and Azamat Askarov. The jester, Yassaui Mergaliyev, was a show stealer, exhorting the audience to more applause. I’m not sure the casts looks behind him as he also stole the applause (he was fabulous) were encouraging. He has quite an online profile with history from companies in Croatia to Peru, and was born in Kazakhstan. OK, the man has star quality. All ballets and operas in stage drama terms milk applause extraordinarily, but Karen said she’d never seen such efforts in a ballet.

My granddaughter was off to see The Nutcracker the next day. We envied her. We couldn’t go. It’s a wonderful opportunity to see the whole thing. If it’s coming your way, see it … if you can get tickets.

I have highlights and selections of Swan Lake on CD and LP. I’m off to order the full thing!