Hi lovelies!
How was your weekend? Mine was fabulous, first it was the Jazz showcase in Rialto (you can find more about it here), and then on a Sunday, the cinema’s once again welcomed the live screenings of the ballet. Specifically, it was a live screening from Bolshoi of their masterpiece Spartacus.
Spartacus is one of those ballets where if you’ve seen it once it becomes your all time favourite. For me, it was when I was 12 or 13 year old, and my grandma bought a DVD or maybe it was a VHC cassette of Spartacus. 5 minutes into the ballet and I was mesmerised! The music by Khachaturian, the choreography of Grigorovich, the decorations of Versaladze. And of course let’s not forget the fantastic performances of the dancers, specifically that of Spartacus and Crassus. For me, it was Liepa’s Crassus, that blew my mind, and even now when I am seeing other reproductions, I am unconsciously comparing them.
So, another 13 years passed, and I could only watch the recordings of the ballet, or see just some parts of live when back in 2020 February, the Russian Ballet had a showcase in Nicosia. But never have I seen it in the theatre, and taking into account the current pandemic situation, it may take me some years to go to Moscow and see it there.
But if you’re like me, who loves ballet and opera but there’s nothing in the theatres, don’t get discouraged, check your cinema schedule. Because many, and I mean many of the opera houses across the world have the live screening straight to your cinema screen.
But let’s get back to Spartacus! Also, just to let you know, that this was the first in the season, but 4 more ballets will be coming to screen so do be on a lookout as I’ll be updating the blog with more information of this!
I think you’ve already established that I love this ballet, and I seeing it live (even on a cinema screen) was something that I was looking for and enjoyed immensely. Usually, I go to my cinema in Nicosia, but as I was in Limassol I had to adjust my plans. If back in Nicosia, there’s at least a small community of opera and ballet enthusiasts (usually people in their 50s and up, but sometimes younger generation drops by), in Limassol, there were 3 people (including me!). You would have thought that a city full of Russian people would be excited to see the ballet, but nope, there was me, and an old greek couple.
The performance was spectacular, in the beginning, I didn’t quite like Crassus (Artem Belyakov), but he soon exceeded all my expectations. His expressions, his movements, were fantastic, he may not have had the jumps of Liepa, but he was amazing in his own portrayal of Crassus. We also got to have an interview with him and first Crassus in Grigorovich’s choreography - Boris Akimov.
It is usually said that the role of Crassus is more towards to earth, as he’s whole personality in the ballet is that of dominating and trying to suppress Spartacus. On the other hand, Spartacus is associated with the sky, as he’s trying to fly away and get away from Krassus’s oppression. Igor Tsvirko today’s Spartacus, was fabulous, his portrayal of Spartacus was that of a man, who had his life taken away from him, being separated from his wife, but striving to get back to her and freeing from the oppression of the Romans. The role of Spartacus is one of the challenging roles taking into account that the ballet has 9 monologues and 5 are that of Spartacus. His dance moved you, you could feel his despair when he kills his friend, and his love for Phrygia as well as his loneliness when they were separated.
I loved Phrygia, however, I’d like to talk more about Aegina, because she was AMAZING! Svetlana Zakharova showcased her talents. She was sensual, she was cocky and she was the woman who made the Spartacus’ man distrust him and turn away from him. Her dance inspired, and brought you into the scene, as if you are with his following her to the Spartacus’ camp, or feasting together with Crassus, plotting her agendas.
But I guess I’ll leave today’s event review at this, but before I go, in case you are wondering do check out the ballet, you can always search on YouTube and if you’re okay with an older but absolutely spectacular production, do watch this one, as it stars Vladimir Vassiliev (Spartacus), Ekaterina Maximova (Phrygia), Maris Liepa (Crassus), and Nina Timopheeva (Aegina):
No comments:
Post a Comment