ABT'S LA BAYADERE, NYC, MAY 15, 1999 |
From: NEW YORK POST, May 17, 1999ABT'S ABLE CAST DELIVERS SUPERB PERFORMANCESBy Clive Barnes In the complex art of selling classic ballet, variety is the spice of repertory. Kevin McKenzie’s American Ballet Theater, which tonight enters the fourth week of its eight-week stanza at the Metropolitan Opera House, has learned that lesson well, devising a shrewd contrast of offerings.What could be more diverse than the two ballets dominating the programs for the last few days - Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s plodding «Romeo and Juliet» and Natalia Makarova’s magical re - staging of the old 19th -century ballet classic, Marius Petipa’s «La Bayadere»? MacMillan’s monumental and, let’s face it, rather boring, version of the Prokofiev score, although literal Shakespeare without much imagination, is all the same very grand and desperately worthy... «La Bayadere» is wonderful old ballet, as packed with pure dance - it has gorgeous gobbets of the greatest choreography ever created - as it is with pure hokum, and ABT gives both their full measure. Among the opening casts in the torrid love triangle were now peerless and masterly duo of Nina Ananiashvili and Julio Bocca tangled with a haughty Paloma Herrera... |