The Bolshoi Ballet has made regular appearances in the American capital (2007 — Cinderella and Don Quixote, 2009 — Le Corsaire, 2010 — Spartacus and Don Quixote, 2012 — Coppélia) and always fills the Center’s capacious Opera House to capacity. The audiences, as a rule, give the Company’s productions a rousing reception. The critics are more pernickety, though they too have many words of praise for the Bolshoi dancers.
“In short, this production, which opened Tuesday and runs through Sunday afternoon, fairly bursts with dazzling ingredients. But most exciting of all, for its entire three (!) hours it runs on a current of extraordinary energy.It’s rare even at the upper reaches of the field to find an entire ballet company that can transfer such unmuzzled electricity to its audience, but that is the Bolshoi’s distinction. We’ve seen the same deeply held investment in what it’s been doing on earlier tours here”. This is an excerpt from a review by the Washington Post’s chief dance critic, Sarah Kaufman, a recipient of the 2010 Pulitzer prize for criticism.
Kaufman admits that this time round she, and her colleagues, are awaiting the Bolshoi with particular interest and curiosity (see her piece on the forthcoming tour — WP, 31.01.2014). For this is the Bolshoi Ballet Company’s first American tour after the troubles it has recently undergone. And it will be American Ballet Theater premier David Hallberg’s first appearance as Bolshoi premier, a title he added to his credentials three years ago. Finally, Giselle is an intrinsically romantic ballet and it will therefore be of interest to see how the Company shows its paces in a work which demands more than just technique and bravura to dance... Thus the Bolshoi Ballet, as usual, is undertaking a very responsible mission!
Principal Casting (Yuri Grigorovich version)
May 20, 7:30 p.m.; May 22, 7:30 p.m.
Svetlana Zakharova (Giselle), David Hallberg (Albrecht), Maria Allash (Myrtha)
May 21, 7:30 p.m.
Anna Nikulina (Giselle), Artem Ovcharenko (Albrecht), Angelina Karpova (Myrtha)
May 25 1:30 p.m.
Anna Nikulina (Giselle), Artem Ovcharenko (Albrecht), Maria Allash (Myrtha)
May 23, 7:30 p.m.; May 24 7:30 p.m.
Ekaterina Krysanova (Giselle), Ruslan Skvortsov (Albrecht), Maria Allash (Myrtha)
May 24, 1:30 p.m.
Anna Nikulina (Giselle), Artem Ovcharenko (Albrecht), Angelina Karpova (Myrtha)
Art. Lebedev Studio