Kirov Ballet: Romeo & Juliet

Kirov Ballet: Romeo & Juliet
with Diana Vishneva (Juliet) and Andrian Fadeev (Romeo)
Orange County Performing Arts Center - Tues., Oct. 17, 2006, 7:30pm

A ballet? Perhaps. More like Romeo & Juliet: The Three Hour Twenty Minute Pageant Display. The mighty Kirov Ballet, aka the Mariinsky Ballet (Mariinsky is their real name, but they tour as the Kirov - their Soviet era name - because it's the more established brand name in the West) is performing in Orange County this week as part of the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Mariinsky Festival, a three-week festival of opera, ballet and symphony imported from the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg Russia to celebrate the opening of OCPAC's new hall. Mighty the Kirov certainly is - its supposed to be one of the best ballet companies in the world, and that much certainly shows in the impeccable training of their dancers. They're all beautiful: perfectly placed, gorgeous bodies and immaculate technique.


But oy, this ballet. I've had problems with the Kirov dancers' acting in the past. As wonderful as their dancing is, their acting is usually flat, melodramatic, boring and unconvincing. Dramatic scenes often fall like deadweight, and please don't ask them to sustain dramatic tension through a three hour story ballet. I don't care how many articles quote the dancers as working so hard on the drama, on trying to expressive themselves so much and emote so hard during their ballets. Diana Vishneva - tonight's Juliet - in particular loves to talk about acting and infusing roles with emotion. Problem is, the Kirov dancers either overdo it, causing portrayals to ring false - or more commonly, clash with one another onstage through vastly differing interpretations.

There was plenty of both problems on display during tonight's Romeo & Juliet. Vishneva was ravishing and fabulous, but sometimes in a melodramatic horror movie kind of way. She was fond of throwing her arms high up with fingers splayed, her face a picture of profound agony. Meanwhile, everyone else around her appeared to be in different ballets of their own... Islom Baymuradov was Benvolio with bright red hair and a costume of brightly multicolored patterns, looking and acting manicaly like a cartoon character; Leonid Sarafanov as Mercutio was in his own bravura ballet competition; and the adults were in the Renaissance Paintings period from Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach.

Then there's that pageant element. That's how this whole thing came off - a pageant of lush costumes, elegant walking and folksy dance numbers, punctuated by the appearance of principal dancers on pointe performing generic ballet choreography and over-emoting to their own internal script. It had the feeling of a very, very, very long running musical (its hard to compare it to any other artform, since it seems only musicals run now and forever). In a long running show, dramatic and directorial cohesion seems to have floated away; each actor has developed his/her own very personal interpretation of the role - whether or not it meshes with everyon else's - and the show trumbles along to all the famous numbers disjointedly, and only vaguely tells a story. The Kirov's Romeo and Juliet desperately needs a single director with a strong vision, to whip everyone back into shape and send the production on a single, artistically chosen path. Isn't that what an artistic director is for?

Though I suppose the ballet's length and melodrama aren't completely the Kirov's own fault. I have generally found the ballet version of Romeo and Juliet, particularly, the ones set to Sergei Prokofiev's score, to be among the more boring ballets. The score is immense and it isn't very flexible either: Mercutio gets a five minute death dance, Juliet contemplates for ages before finally drinking her poison. The music trudges along symphonically, all well and lovely to hear in the concert hall, while the stage activity rapidly loses steam.

It may require the right choreographer and dancers to pull it off. Every once in awhile, the Royal Ballet does it, with their production by Kenneth MacMillan (American Ballet Theatre also has the MacMillan production). Though the MacMillan has plenty of faults of its own, and I've been bored bored bored at a few ABT performances of it, the dramatic moments are much more well chosen and focused. I've seen the Royal Ballet bring it across marvelously, and with exactly the kind of acting and drama that this ballet - A STORY BALLET - truly needs.

I mean really if you're going to do a story ballet: tell the audience a story from beginning to end. Dramatic ballet is more than a collection of moments, no matter how brilliantly, lyrically, or emotionally rendered. Tell a story from beginning to end, with everyone on stage invested in the same direction. This Kirov production could certainly learn a thing or two from the way a play or musical is performed - or are they too snooty and good enough for that (I'm talking to your interviews, Kirov divas!!).

I was sorely disappointed with today's Kirov showing, if you couldn't tell. My hope is that Swan Lake will erase the disappointment. I was thrilled by their Swan Lake when I watched from the standing room at the tippy top of the Royal Opera House in London two years ago. The dancers' coldness is fused into a style that just works for Swan Lake - no huge dramatic acting required, its all in the choreography thank you. Originally, I was intending to go to see the alternate casts of Romeo & Juliet. No thank you! Swan Lake, please save the run!!

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