2017 Bolshoi production of Swan Lake

The first week of February 2017 has been exceptionally worrying for the ordinary citizens Britain, for the people of Europe and the United State but I have also experienced some amazing artistic events at the opera, in theatre and at the ballet. I also watched all ten programmes of Michael Portillo on his wondrous exploration of the railways from mid-America to the Grand Canyon, together with Homeland and Scandal, listened to Desert Island Discs, the Archers and a programme about Corbett’s rural rides, spent the week making a new statement about child abuse while also watching Unforgotten and the Apple Tree Yard, together with the Halcyon Hotel series but last night went to bed after the half time Lady Gaga Super bowl show to miss one the great turn arounds in the history of that competition.

I want to begin with the most unexpected of experiences, the Bolshoi Ballet Swan Lake, relayed to a packed audience on Sunday afternoon February 5^th at 3pm at the Cineworld Bolden, South Tyneside.  Of all the art forms, the dance in general has always less engaged my interest but since first hearing an orchestral suit by Tchaikovsky during the Promenade Concert season back in 1956 and immediately buying a Vinyl LP I have taken the opportunity of the Cinema Relays to view the ballet for its music. Not reading reviews prior to the performance on what had been a spring like day on my way there and back to a supermarket before an enjoyable lunch I was not prepared for what now ranks as one of the important cultural experiences of my life.

I have since learned that Svetlana Zakharova is regarded as one of the great ballerinas, particularly for performing both roles of Odette and Odile in the ballet. Now I understand why as the beauty of her movement is breath taking and inspiring, and I am urging Cineworld to arrange and encore performance as they have recently done following the relay of the new production of the Tempest from the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford with tits use of digital motion capture and projection for the time in live theatre. In the instance of this production while praise is also due for the performance of the English sounding but Russian born Denis Rodkin as Prince Siegfried whose solos and duets with Svetlana brought repeated and prolonged Russian style rhythmic applause, the dancer whose performance I can only label as amazing, is that of Artemy Belyakov as the Evil Sorcerer and who with an interpreter was interviewed during the interview for English and French speaking audiences, demonstrating  that he is also an articulate and profound thinker as well as having the ability to act and leap height and  appear to momentarily float, the  ability  he shares with Denis Rodkin. It will be difficult to impossible get hold of a ticket at the Royal Opera House when this production goes on World Tour so in the meantime I am pressing Cineworld for an encore. There are long excerpts on you tube as the three dancers perform parts of the earlier production plus several full-length productions including by the Bolshie and Kirov companies. The 2015 production is available on Blue Ray but several purchasers have commented on judder.  Hopefully it will not be too long before the 2017 cinema related production becomes available