The St Petersburg Ballet’s Swan Lake
Irina Kolesnikova may not have webbed feet, short legs and a large beak but, in every other respect, this exquisite, Russian, prima ballerina was the epitome of a beautiful white swan as she graced the massive Plenary stage of Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre for the opening of the St Petersburg Ballet’s Swan Lake.
Before Pyotr Tchaikovsky first composed Swan Lake in 1897, musical composition for ballet was barely recognised and not considered to have any great merit. As a result, it was a rocky road for the extraordinary music that was eventually aligned with this most popular ballet of all time.
There have been many interpretations of Swan Lake and some conflict between purist balletomanes who wish to maintain the classical format, and those who would like to see a more modern version, especially to vary the first and third acts which can sometimes become repetitious.
The St Petersburg Ballet, the only independent classical ballet company in the world, has compromised to a degree. While retaining the traditional, gorgeous, white tutus and feathered headpieces for the swan scenes around the lake, it has also presented a breathtaking selection of costumes and scenery, from Medieval to Spanish.
In both these scenes, Sergei Fedorkov, the typical court jester in blue and red, delivers thrilling leaps and turns that take your breath away, as Siegfried, Dmitriy Akulinin, desperately tries to accede to his regal mother’s desire for him to marry. A trio of beautiful young women dance enticingly before him in a Pas de Trois, but he remains unmoved. Searching for his true love, Siegfried wanders by the lake with his bow and arrow till, suddenly, one of the swans attracts his attention and ours.
For anyone who had never seen a white swan, this vision of Irina Kolesnikova emerging as Odette, the Swan Queen, would remain imprinted forever. Her every movement, from the languid entwining of her long, slender arms and expressive hands to the tremulous shaking in her legs, as she portrays her fear of the stranger and gradually transforms from swan to exquisitely beautiful woman, is hypnotic poetry in motion. It is that talent for interpretation that made Margot Fonteyn famous and it makes your heart leap to see it happen again, in spades, so many years later.
As the St Petersburg Ballet’s first Prima Ballerina in 2001 at only 21 years of age, Kolesnikova has now performed this dual role of Odette/Odile 500 times throughout the world. Seamlessly transitioning character to become the metamorphosed Black Swan, the symbol of impending doom, the elegant movements are still there ​and Kolesnikova’s depiction of the conniving, brittle, Odile as the direct opposite of Odette ​is just as mesmerizing.
Akulinin is the perfect partner in their pas de deux but it is Kolesniova’s 32 effortless fouetté pirouettes, at whiplash speed, that leave the 2000 strong audience gasping. As a major show-stopper, this brilliant execution never ceases to amaze.
There are 55 members in this St Petersburg ballet performance and they are all graduates of the famous Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersburg. The precision and synchronicity of these dancers, whether grouped as twos, threes, fours, twenties or thirties is a faultless joy to watch and you hardly hear their feet touch the ground.
While television has made beautiful ballet available to the masses, nothing can ever replace such an immediate, electrifying performance, accompanied by a live orchestra, playing music that never ceases to stir us. It is a combination of creative excellence that will live on for generations.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Swan Lake
St Petersburg Ballet​ Theatre
Plenary, South Wharf Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
19 – 24 June, 2015
