La Esmeralda, Live From The Bolshoi In Moscow

La Esmeralda, live from the Bolshoi in Moscow Review by George Fleeton AT last, in its third season of ballets live by satellite from the beautifully restored State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, in Moscow – and all wonderfully well organised for us by Classical Arts Ireland – we could participate in this season’s final performance of the Bolshoi’s production of La Esmeralda on October 09, in the Queen’s Film Theatre Belfast. This wondrous ballet was composed by Cesare Pugni, a prolific Italian composer whose final years were spent in Saint Petersburg, where he died in 1870. Less than a half dozen of his ballets are danced today, of which La Esmeralda (first seen in London in 1844) is the best known. The libretto, by Jules Perrot, is based on Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris (1831), and the choreography is by another Frenchman Marius Petipa. [caption id="attachment_30577" align="alignright" width="266" caption="La Esmerelda captivates the audiences in Moscow."][/caption] Pugni and these two immense talents brought this ballet to the Imperial Theatre of St Petersburg in 1849, and this has since become its spiritual home. The evening was introduced by Katerina Novikova, in three languages, and one of those she interviewed was the Bolshoi’s recently appointed, and impossibly young looking, artistic director Sergei Filin, himself a former primo ballerino of some twenty years standing. The performance we saw in the QFT was a revival of a production which had opened in Moscow at Christmas 2009. The two key roles are Esmeralda (her clever little goat, Djali, even makes two brief appearances in the production hereunder review) and her lover Captain Phoebus of the King’s Archers, danced by Maria Alexandrova, principal dancer at the Bolshoi since 2004, and Ruslan Skvortsov respectively. Pugni’s music for this ballet doesn’t even anticipate the later, greater Russian tradition of Tchaikovsky, so it is very Italianate, as would be expected of a contemporary of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Ballet had in fact started in France in the 17^th century as short scenes within the operas of Lully and Rameau. By the mid-19^th century it had achieved a separate, classical art form status which was inherited and developed, unrecognisably beyond its origins at Versailles, by Tchaikovsky and the new generation of early 20^th composers. Alexandrova’s dancing in La Esmeralda was simply out of this world, with a concentration and intensity on Esmeralda’s rollercoaster of conflicting emotions that would be impossible to describe in mere words. Her gypsy character, surely classical ballet’s Carmen, supported by tambourine and castanets, and the world’s most dedicated and professional corps de ballet, was beautifully interpreted, with sets and costumes that constantly drew the eye to the detail. That detail is of course immensely enhanced by the close-ups achieved by ten high definition cameras, and what we don’t notice in the auditorium, can’t see without opera glasses, is the gesture and mime that convey various narrative plot points. That close, aren’t we are reminded of the expressive silent high art forms of Marcel Marceau or Buster Keaton? One particular delight of this live ballet, among a host of others, was the breathtaking second act pas de deux, a Greek mythological intermezzo involving the characters of Diana and Actéon. While little of the extensive detail of Hugo’s story survives in this ballet, it did involve both Archdeacon Frollo of Notre Dame and the cathedral’s deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo, although the set design of act three would have greatly benefited from a full frontal of Notre Dame itself and its twin towers and rose windows. The next Bolshoi ballet (of six), live in HD, is at the QFT on November 20 at 3pm: Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty (first staged at the Maryinsky in 1890). It is the second of his three monumental ballets – having been preceded by Swan Lake and to be followed by The Nutcracker. Swan Lake however is not scheduled in this season’s Bolshoi Live offerings, but The Nutcracker is and may be seen, again at the QFT, on December 18 at 3pm. Meanwhile – an unexpected bonus – there is a single performance of The Nutcracker in the Waterfront Hall Belfast at 730pm on November 02, brought to us – not by the Bolshoi – but by Moscow Ballet La Classique. All these ballets will be reviewed here in due course, and further details may be found among the selections of web sites listed below. Finally, Classical Arts Ireland is also coordinating the new season of The Met: Live in HD, and the first opera (of eleven), to be beamed in from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, is Donizetti’s breakthrough opera Anna Bolena, first heard and seen in Milan (but not La Scala) in 1830. In the greater Belfast area, these Met: Live in HD productions will be screened in the Dundonald Omniplex, from October 15th at 6pm. Other similar events of note include: * Opera Theatre Company’s production of a new opera The Diary of Anne Frank in the Waterfront Hall Studio on October 19-20th. *  The 60^th Wexford Festival Opera, October 21st-November 05. *  George Fleeton’s personal introduction to West Side Story, marking the 50^th anniversary of that landmark film, in the QFT at 6pm on October 22nd. *  And Ellen Kent’s production of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly in the Waterfront Hall on November 01. www.boshoi.ru www.classicalartsireland.com www.queensfilmtheatre.com www.waterfront.co.uk www.omniplex.ie George Fleeton teaches Cinema and Opera in Higher Education.]]>