MOSCOW CLASSICAL BALLET
As a general rule, touring productions cut back on lavish sets, which are too cumbersome to tote around, and concentrate more on the dance and dancers. This works well, more often than not, but Swan Lake is the cultural icon of Russian classic ballet; it should be total theater, with sumptuous settings and costumes, a pit orchestra capable of doing justice to Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous music, and dancers who can master the ballet’s numerous technical and dramatic demands. To MCB’s credit, despite simple sets and frequently less-than-inspired sounds from the orchestra (led by Pavel Salnikov), the company mounted a creditable production, one that showed its modestly sized roster of dancers off to fine advantage.
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Several of the embellishments contributed by MCB we could have done without. In the first act peasant dance, the men, while whirling their partners around, stand them on small stools and then immediately lift them onto other stools–a pointless eccentricity. In the third act, a so-so variation for a prospective bride princess has been added. Danced in a tutu by Galina Shlyapina, a principal with the company, it seemed to have been inserted solely to give one of the company’s stars a chance to shine in a brief turn.
