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Throughout the 20 th century the ballet’s home remained Russia with the companies in the West more likely to stage Corsaire excerpts such as the showy pas de deux danced by Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev as Ali, the slave to the pirate, Conrad. The partnership of Fonteyn-Nureyev riveted audiences with the contrast between her serene beauty and his panther-like athleticism. For the Bolshoi’s present production, premiering in 2007, the choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky and the ballet master and dance reconstruction specialist, Yuri Burlaka, researched dance, design and music archives in Moscow, St Petersburg and Paris to create a Corsaire that honours Petipa’s 1899 version in choreography and décor, with the addition of Ratmansky’s own choreography. The settings, by Boris Kaminsky, suggest a 19 th century European artist’s interpretation of the exotic middle east, from the opening scene in a bazaar square in the Turkish city of Adrianople to the final tableau, recalling the romantic shipwreck paintings of Turner. Of course none of this would matter if Le Corsaire did not enchant with the dancing itself and with the two principal roles of Medora, a young Greek woman who becomes a slave to Pasha Seyd, and Conrad, her rescuer and lover. The role of Medora has been danced by many famous ballerinas, among them Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina and Olga Preobrajenska, with the current generation of Bolshoi Ballet principals now excelling in both the interpretation of the heroine, and the technical skills requiring extraordinary stamina due to the length of the ballet itself as well as for her leaps and rapid turns. Conrad, a mime role in the original French production, is just as much a showcase for virtuoso male dancers whose ranks have included the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, Sergei Filin, who danced the role during the Bolshoi Ballet’s tour of London in 2007. The choreographic jewel in the Corsaire crown is Le Jardin Animé in which an array of white tutu’d dancers form shapes and patterns suggesting a formal garden of flowers. Their hair and bodices are adorned with pink roses, and they hold single stems, bouquets, baskets of flowers and garlands. The scene is a ballet lover’s delight. Danced to Delibes’s waltz from the ballet, La source, ou Naila, it has nothing to do with the complex plot of Le Corsaire and everything to do with grand spectacle. As indulgent as whipped cream, Le Jardin Animé is also a meditation, reminiscent of classical ballet’s most sublime moments in which the ballerina presides over her ensemble - the swans at the lake, the shades of La Bayadere, the Wilis of Giselle, and the dryads in the dream scene of Don Quixote. Le Jardin Animé has been called “femininity as horticulture, an idea that should be offensive to a modern mind enlightened by feminism but ravishing here nonetheless”. It’s also escapism itself, and escapism in this class is one reason we go to the ballet, to abandon all logical thought, and simply indulge in a feast of dancing. Not to be copied or reproduced.
QUEENSLAND PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE AND EVENTS QUEENSLAND PRESENT BRISBANE EXCLUSIVE Le Corsaire CAST LIST 30 May to 5 June, Lyric Theatre, <strong>QPAC</strong> Subject to change. Medora Conrad Gulnare Birbanto Pas d’esclaves Lanquedem Seyd, the Pasha Zulmea Keeper of Seyd, the Pasha’s harem Eunuchs Danse des forbans Soloists Danse des forbans A Negress A Mufti Maria Alexandrova Ekaterina Shipulina Ekaterina Krysanova Vladislav Lantratov Ruslan Skvortsov Mikhail Lobukhin Nina Kaptsova Kristina Kretova Andrey Merkriev Denis Savin Anna Tikhomirova Denis Medvedev Chinara Alisade Andrey Bolotin Kristina Kretova Egor Simachev Alexey Loparevich Maria Zharkova Ilya Vorontsov Alexander Petukhov Sergey Minakov Anna Antropova Anastasia Meskova Anna Balukova Anna Balukova Anastasia Meskova Anna Antropova Eugene Golovin Anton Savichev Alexander Vodopetov Anastasia Vinokur Alexander Fadeechev Continued
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