News

01.06.2016

Poetry comes to life on stage

Peter the Great’s formidable image, Pushkin flourishing his quill, the delicate Parasha wrapped in a shawl, St. Isaac’s Cathedral engulfed by the depths of the Neva... The reactions of theatre critics to the ballet "I Love You, Peter’s Great Creation..." are already filling newspaper columns.

“Lar Lubovitch, an American choreographer of Slavic descent, has created a quintessentially St. Petersburg ballet without a trace of the traditionally requisite Russian imagery of peasants, bast shoes, birch trees, and endless arabesques,” writes Olga Fedorchenko, columnist for Kommersant. “His concept was simple and bold: Pushkin, complete with his famous overgrown sideburns and dishevelled curly hair, with a flourish of his quill pen, composes his narrative poem The Bronze Horseman. The poet leads his characters onto the stage, twists and twirls them around as he pleases, sends them on a walk, forces them to confide their love, makes desperate attempts to assist them during the flood, and mournfully searches for them among the victims of the disaster.”

Also reviewing the production was the preeminent and hugely respected ballet critic Professor Igor Stupnikov. Writing in St. Petersburg Vedomosti, he observed that “Rather than retelling the poem, the choreographer strived to capture the creative process behind it. The poetry comes to life on stage. In this production the poet appears as a magical puppeteer of sorts, commanding the characters he has dreamed up.”

Lar Lubovitch describes his own choreography as a “third way” — a dance between classical and modern genres. Reviewers remarked on the unique style and aesthetic which the American choreographer brought to the new ballet.

“The ballet master strikes an even balance between neoclassical and free movement without undue dramatic or emotional expression. The ballet’s characters, St. Petersburg phantoms, wander the streets along with the many ghosts whose shadows fill and enliven the city,” continued Fedorchenko, describing the action on the stage.

Writing in Izvestia, Svetlana Naborshchikova commented that the visual imagery flows through dance. “Lar Lubovitch takes a sweeping and fluid approach to choreography. The movement in this ballet blends into the city’s virtual landscape: grand, beautiful, and indifferent to the hopes and dreams of its inhabitants. And this image is the ultimate victory achieved by the creators of the ballet.”

The staging concepts and visual effects produced by the designer George Tsypin attracted special attention. “The water apocalypse, rendered by means of ultra-contemporary video projections and 3D effects, stands out as truly impressive,” writes Moskovsky Komsomolets ballet columnist Pavel Yashchenkov. “The phantasmagorical scenes of a perishing city, staged realistically in this contemporary ballet, are evocative of a horror film. Thus the Bronze Horseman appears, growing menacingly in size and intensity, galloping towards the audience from the sun, and then, in reflection of the biblical apocalypse, shatters into a flock of black birds.”

The critics were unanimous in their views on the music featured in the new production. “The Mikhailovsky Theatre orchestra conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov conveyed the beauty of Glière’s music — the serene essence of its lyrical movements, the vigorous spirit of its folk dances, and the dramatic effect of its finale,” reports St. Petersburg Vedomosti. Izvestia praised the harmony of music and narrative in the production: “The striking musical imagery, sharp contrasts, intense culminations, and catastrophic fulminations suited Pushkin’s story line perfectly.”