The State Ballet Theatre of Russia – Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. January 23, 2011.

Matthews Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey – Seat Front Balcony (EE18, $48).

Odette/Odile – Svetlana Noskova, Prince Siegfried – Alexander Lityagin, Rothbart – Ivan Alexeev.

Story. See prior post.

There was no conductor for this performance because the music is taped. The “Russia State Ballet” is actually The Voronezh State Theatre of Opera and Ballet” established in 1961. This is harsh reality running into the hype and consequent expectations.

The performance was sold out, and Anne and I didn’t have adjacent seat (close, though). The theatre is quite small and the staging was as complex as one can reasonably expect. Actually the small stage has an advantage: the effective can be mesmerizing when there are 24 swans on it at the same time – it seems the whole stage is covered with them.

It would be bad form to comment on taped music, nonetheless it sounded quite bad at times. Evidently one doesn’t need a conductor to put out a ballet performance.

Swan Lake is known for the pirouettes expected of Odile. Indeed we counted 33. The court jester didn’t do that badly either, he spun around about 25 times. Anne was looking at some YouTube clips of the ballet and remarked that some troupes do it much better.

I also notice Odette looked serious and sad all the time. At first I thought it was the dancer. But then as Odile she would smile. This is probably one of the contrasts called for by the ballet.

All criticism aside, I don’t mind going to this concert. We stopped by Tiger Noodles for dinner before we came home.