Review: STATE BALLET OF GEORGIA’S SWAN LAKE, London Coliseum

Photo credit: Sasha Gusov

All great works of art can withstand reinterpretation and rethinking, and this is certainly true of Swan Lake, the archetypal classic ballet and now 147 years old. The original production at the Bolshoi did not meet with approval, and it was not until the Petipa/Ivanov production at St Petersburg in 1895 that it was successful. It is that production which most others have since built upon, but sometimes it is good to revisit something nearer to the original concept.

The production of Swan Lake by the State Ballet of Georgia is a faithful classical rendition, beautifully danced, and enhanced by traditional sets and glorious costumes. Restaged by Alexey Fadeechev and Artistic Director Nina Ananiashvili, the production is given as part of the first visit to London by the State Ballet of Georgia, previously seen in the UK only at the Edinburgh Festival. Papuna Gvaberidze conducts the English National Opera orchestra in a spirited and full-blooded rendition of this beautiful score.

The London Coliseum, Matcham’s masterwork from 1904, is the ideal home for this ballet. Vyacheslav Okunev has designed a series of traditional settings for the Royal Park, the Palace and the Lakeside. Composed of serried backdrops and cut-cloths, these traditional sets are well lit and yet do not overpower the costumes, especially for the National Dances in Act 3. The Queen even manages to upgrade her Act 1 crown for an even more impressive and much larger one in Act 3. The vision of Odette in Act III would be enhanced, however, if the lights fully fade before she steps off her off-stage dais.

It is good to see Acts 1 and 3 in more detail than is often the case, and the rejection of the suitors for Prince Siegfried is nicely done. The lakeside acts are the heart of the ballet, of course, and the 24 members of the Corps de Ballet playing the swans are immaculate and well-drilled. Few surprises then for the experienced ballet fan, but much to recognise and admire, until the final moments. There have been many different endings to Swan Lake, with various resolutions to the relationship between Odette/Odile and Siegfred. In this production, the ending comes as something of a surprise to some in the audience, following as it does the Bolshoi/Mariinsky versions (and indeed ENB’s My First Ballet), and with an effective transformation.

At press night, Von Rothbart was played by Marcelo Soares. His performance was much enjoyed by the audience, who heartily booed him at the curtain call, an example of pantomime practices creeping into other forms; we hope he was forewarned about this British predilection, and did not think it was a comment on his performance! Prince Siegfried was danced by Oleg Likai, an athletic and confident performer. As his Odette/Odile, company lead ballerina Nino Samdashvili gave a bewitching and technically faultless performance, her arms in particular taking on the necessary allusions to flight and the elegance of a swan. Her performance was received rapturously by the audience, not all of whom, however, were used to the number of mid-act bows by several of the dancers, occasionally leading to dancers only just getting off stage before the audience stopped applauding.

The dance of the cygnets (called Little Swans here) is greeted with recognition, and the seriousness with which it is danced serves to quell any titters of recognition from those more used to this sequence being parodied. This is one example of the mix of people in the audience, with balletomanes and those used to the genre being joined by other theatregoers who may only know this work from productions like that by Matthew Bourne. Fans of his work will gain much from viewing this classic production, containing as it does many of the tropes and movements on which he builds.

A rare opportunity, then, to see a production with a lineage stretching back to the original production but danced superbly in a beautifully-designed production, and in a theatre which is well-suited to the art form.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Chris Abbott

The State Ballet of Georgia’s production of Swan Lake plays at London Coliseum until 8 September, with further info here.