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For a mid-19th-century comic work, Don Q is unusually complex with a huge cast of dancers and numerous set changes and theatrical effects, and it is generally accepted that only a select number of companies can stage it successfully. The legendary Bolshoi Ballet is, arguably, top of that list.
The Bolshoi artists have a special understanding of Petipa’s preposterous adaptation of this celebrated novel, and never turn the whole work into a cheap, circus-like display of bravura steps —which is how many treat Don Q. As far back as memory goes, the Bolshoi Ballet’s Don Q has always come up with ingenious ways to tell the comic story with sparkling élan, and yet elegant panache.
There is no doubt that, from a technical point of view, the ballet is pure ‘circus’. But in the hands — and feet — of the Bolshoi dancers, it becomes both technically dazzling and highly engaging circus. And the performance last week was no exception. Danced with a thrilling caution-to-the-wind approach to break-neck tempi — when was the last time such speeds were seen in the West? — the performance brought the house down from its very first scene.
Sumptuously revived with much attention to detail by the former Bolshoi star Alexei Fadeyechev, this production is based on the historically significant staging of Alexander Gorsky in 1900. A man with a powerful sense of theatre and a great respect for the tenets of ballet classicism, Gorsky bestowed narrative fluidity and dramatic unity on Petipa’s ballet, turning it into a milestone in Russian ballet and, more in particular, in the history of ballet in Moscow.
Rich, almost too rich, with dance numbers, the revived production has loads to offer. There is classical virtuosity, funny mime episodes, and tons of character dancing, in the shape of the often risible balletic adaptation of real Spanish dancing. Many of these numbers are often cut in the West, and yet the Bolshoi’s performance never felt tiresome. On the contrary, even the most choreographically naive outbursts of ‘local’ colour came across as enthralling and electrifying.
On the night I went, the leading roles —those of the innkeeper’s daughter Kitri and the penniless barber Basilio — were splendidly portrayed by Natalia Osipova and Denis Matvienko. Rumour has it that the opening performance celebrated the much-deserved promotion to principal status of the former, a corps girl according to the programme. If this is true, I could not subscribe more to it, for Osipova is a star. Pretty and diabolically talented, she is a dream Kitri, for she pairs admirably fiery technique with seductive, bubbly acting skills. Her jumps, turns and quick footwork are unforgettable. But she is more than a soubrette dancer, as demonstrated by her impeccable response to the more classically constrained and refined virtuoso solutions of the ‘vision’ scene that concludes the second act.
Matvienko, a guest artist, spins like a top and knows how to impress an audience, eliciting enthusiastic outbursts of applause. His Basilio is one of the youngest I have seen and complements beautifully Osipova’s teenage coquetries. He, too, took every step as if there was no tomorrow, but luckily in Don Q everything is allowed and anything goes. The rest of the cast was superb, too, and there could not have been a better way to conclude the 2006 Bolshoi season in London, for this Don Q was a real firework.
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