I saw the Mariinsky Ballet at the Kennedy Center several years ago when they performed Swan Lake(read that blog post here). They are a Russian-based company, and the famed George Balanchine got his start there. I was dying to see them again, and was disappointed when the MyTix tickets sold out so quickly for their performance of Le Corsaire. But I was able to find discounted tickets at the last minute, and went to the show last night!
I had no idea what Le Corsaire was about, so I very much appreciated the synopsis in the program book. This ballet has been around for more than 150 years, and composer Adolphe Adam (the program lists his name as "Adan" incorrectly) wrote the music based upon Lord George Byron's poem, "The Corsair."
The prologue is a brief scene of a ship caught in a storm. Images of rain and clouds were projected onto a transparent screen, and the effect was pretty realistic! A large piece of blue, billowing fabric mimicked the waves of the ocean, which was really cool.
The girls dance on the beach where the pirates' ship has landed. Image found here.
The three men (who call themselves pirates) are shipwrecked on the shore, and a couple of them were shirtless (yum). A group of women comes to their aid, and their flowy pants made me think of Jasmine in Aladdin (or the costumes for the Arabian Coffee dance in another bullet, The Nutcracker). Conrad (played by Xander Parish) falls immediately in love with Medora (played by Yekaterina Chebykina), but the Turkish police show up and take the girls prisoner, selling them to a slave-trader named Lankedem (played by Philipp Stepin).
While a slave market is, well a slave market, this part had the most BEAUTIFUL set! It was so colorful and larger-than-life. The costumes mirrored that, with robes and turbans and gem stones of all colors of the rainbow. I'm sorry I couldn't find a photo of it; it was amazing!
I wasn't crazy about the dances during this part. There were several groups of women dancing for the men (it was hard to understand who was who), and their dancing included a lot of back-bends, which can seem impressive, but for fellow yogis like me, isn't really all-that. Their long wigs distracted me, and they wore bangles to create sound while they danced, but it really wasn't that effective (I think they were going for the sound of coins on one of those skirts, but sounded more like clunky wood). And the tutu that Medora's friend Gulnara (played by Maria Shirinkina) wore wasn't great: it looked like swatches of different fabrics were simply sewed onto a basic white skirt (see the photo below). When the men and women danced together, the lifts were unimpressive; the men just lifted the women up and moved them to different parts of the stage, as if they were carrying a heavy box or something. And the dancers would break character and bow to the audience, which I think took away from the story.
I just wasn't impressed by this costume. It looks crafty... Image found here.
The pirates are able to help the girls escape (capturing Lankedem at the same time), and they flee to a cave (which is VERY large with rocks shimmering with gold). There was a lot more dancing, but the principals almost made it a spinning contest, which I think is a cheap trick in dance (and every time Chebykina turned she looked scared to death). Some of the costumes felt very out-of-place, like the bedazzled suspenders worn by Ali (played by Timur Askerov) or Medora's magenta tutu (when everyone else is wearing the flowy pants or multi-colored skirts). But Askerov was probably my favorite dancer of the night: his jumps were very high, yet he landed without making a sound!
Does this look like what you would wear inside of a cave? I didn't think so. Image found here.
All of the men wore these gross wigs and drew on fake facial hair. Ew. Image found here.
The girls want to leave, but Conrad's friend Birbanto (played by Yuri Smekalov), wants to keep them there. With the help of some other bad guys (who held their capes up much like the crocodiles in Fantasia), and a sleeping potion to give Conrad, the women are then taken back to the slave market.
The final scene is in the palace of Seid Pasha (played by Soslan Kulaev). The palace is very sparkly with peacock-inspired decor and a fountain in the background. He purchased Gulnara previously, and she has been a part of his harem since. He now wants Medora to join his harem, too. Both women dance for him, Shirinkina in a slightly better tutu than the first one and Chebykina in a pink number that fits the setting better than a tutu (for the story, at least).They are joined by many other women (and young girls) in pink who carry stiff feather boas (in the shape of an arch); they had terrible blonde wigs on, too. This was probably my favorite dance portion of the performance because of the classical bits.
In the end Gulnara and Medora are able to run away with Conrad and Ali. The story ends with them sailing away on the boat (with much better weather).
A few notes about my experience:
1. When the men lifted the women in dance, some of their fake facial hair (which I assume was drawn on with make-up) would get onto the white tights of the women. So Chebykina and Shirinkina had to dance with dark smudges on their tights! I can't believe this problem wasn't discovered during a dress rehearsal. You'd think someone would have thought about this.
2. I LOVED the music of this piece. I can appreciate classical music, but when I'm at the ballet, it usually just becomes part of the background for me. But this time I think I liked the music better than the dancing itself!
3. Several of the men around me were reading the synopsis of the story to their wives/dates. Were those women incapable of reading? I found it very patronizing, and I wasn't even involved!
4. Because I bought a subscription to the next ballet season, I got a free drink ticket as a "thank you." So nice!
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