THE LOVERS BY THE LAKE

At the heart of classical ballet is a fine line between dated museum piece and timeless living treasure and Staatsballett Berlin under the artistic direction of the contemporary ballet master Vladimir Malakhov straddled it perfectly, offering audiences at the Bangkok International Dance and Music Festival last Tuesday and Wednesday one of the best performances of “Swan Lake” in recent years.
Choreographer Patrice Bart modified the tragic love story between a prince and a cursed swan princess. In his version, the focus shifted from Princess Odette to Prince Siegfried, a sensitive and troubled young man dominated by his mother, the widowed queen.
When the prince meets Odette by the lake in the woods, he swears to love her forever and release her from the evil spell, not just because of his romantic feelings for her, but also because she represents another world far away from his court.
But complicating matters is his best friend Benno, who turns out to have more feelings for Siegfried than he should. He witnesses the tryst and in his jealousy reports the lakeside incident to the equally envious queen. Paranoid at the thought of losing her son, she joins with her prime minister Rothbart in dreaming up a scheme to separate the lovers.
Together, they fool the prince into confess his love to an impersonator, Odile, thus ruining his chance to break the spell as well as free himself from his mother’s authority. Humiliated and hurt, the prince returns to the lake to find out that Rothbart is behind everything including Odette’s curse and kills him before following his beloved to the grave.
I personally found this new interpretation, riddled with psychological distress and elements of homoeroticism, a little overwhelming and contrived though it was an admirable attempt to add more logic and depth to the ballet’s simplistic storyline and flat characters. It also allowed the queen and Rothbart to have much more substantial dancing roles in Bart’s delightful, new dance numbers.
As the queen, Elisa Carillo Cabrera stood out in her solo of twists and bends, effectively reflecting the character’s disturbed mind. Leonard Jakovina as Rothbart was especially impressive in his brisk footwork during his pas de deux with the queen that replaced the much less exciting original Russian dance.
Amidst these changes, Bart made the right choice to leave the choreography “white scenes” almost untouched. The much-loved sequence of the four cygnets dancing hand-in-hand was executed with great precision, and the corps de ballet’s dancing was neat and solid.
On Tuesday night, Iana Salenko was the dainty swan princess and excelled in the small, speedy steps as well as the glowing, big poses. She was absolutely ravishing as Odette with her arms rippling like wings in flight, and her slow, controlled back bends were breathtaking.
Salenko interestingly portrayed the wicked double Odile as an icily beautiful figure rather than embracing the voluptuousness usually seen in this role. She was also sharp-cut in her techniques and left the audience wide-eyed in amazement during the Black Swan coda, completing the famous 32 fouette turns with double and triple pirouettes throughout.
Marian Walter as Prince Siegfried was a good match for Salenko. His leaps were high and effortless, with crisp beaten steps in the petite allegro. With the prince now more of a complex character and at the fore of the plot, he needs to work a little more on his acting though.
Luisa Spinatelli’s art nouveau-inspired set design of a simple, black backdrop and floral lines on the stage wings also merits mention. Under bright lights, the set made for a very tasteful palace, magically transforming into the woods when dimly lit in shades of blue.
  STEP RIGHT UP
n Next Friday is the contemporary quadruple bill by the Lim