Last of the Maryinsky season

Posted on August 8, 2011

The Maryinsky Ballet concludes its London season this week. Ekaterina Kondaurova and American star David Hallberg dance Swan Lake tonight, followed on Tuesday by Anna Karenina, a UK premiere.

This adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel was choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, whose story ballets include The Bright Stream, an adorable romantic comedy that proved a huge hit with London audiences in the Bolshoi Ballet’s 2006 visit. With Anna Karenina, he takes on one of the great works of Russian literature, to a score by Rodion Shchedrin (husband of the Bolshoi ballerina Maya Plisetskaya). On Tuesday, Diana Vishneva plays Anna, the married woman who falls disastrously in love with the dashing officer Vronsky, danced by Konstantin Zverev. On Wednesday, Uliana Lopatkina and Yuri Smekalov dance the leading roles.

The Maryinsky visit ends with four performances of La Bayadère, with its exotic melodrama and showcase for the corps de ballet. Viktoria Tereshkina plays the temple dancer Nikiya on Thursday, with Vladimir Shklyarov as the warrior Solor and Anastasia Matvienko as Gamzatti, Nikiya’s rival. Friday’s cast is led by Diana Vishneva, Igor Zelensky and Anastasia Kolegova, followed by Alina Somova, Denis Matvienko and Anastasia Matvienko at Saturday’s matinée. On Saturday night, Uliana Lopatkina, Daniil Korsuntsev and Kolegova dance the final performance of this summer season.

Picture: Diana Vishneva and Konstantin Zverev in Anna Karenina. Photograph: N Razina.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.