Swan Lake revisited: Vienna State Ballet, March 13th, 2022

Facts are facts and if one is realistic enough to face them, there should be no problem. Things are as they are, at least as long as the specific conditions that have made them possible, do not change to give space for something new.

It is an open secret how the Vienna State Opera's present direction has been trying to change reality at the Opera House and lead an institution, which is paid with Tax-Money, to a forced „Renaissance". What Ballet is concerned I think that just to mention the following statement is saying it all: „Swan Lake" is being performed four times this season and a new contemporary work made for Brahm's „A German Requiem" eleven times. There is no point in arguing about that. Another fact.

Perhaps in „bumpy" times like these, we should be just grateful to be able to go to a performance of „Swan Lake" (1877). Considering the strong Radicalism in which our contemporary society is moving in, I am honestly perplexed that it has not been forbidden yet for the reason of just being „Russian". Isn't this sad? Sometimes we can loudly ask in which world we are living in...

Does this radicalism, explain also the more than obvious lack of respect towards Art, Ensembles, and Audiences? Lack of respect...

Not only Covid and last-minute cast changes are responsible for the poor performance we have seen yesterday but also lack of sufficient Rehearsal time and members of the ensemble who cannot show the necessary and proper professional level for an Opera House (A corps de Ballet member, before going into sick leave, was originally unable to be cast as Swan): One can read on the programme that Members of the Junior Company and Students from the Ballet Academy were cast in this production (while there are so many professional dancers worldwide out of a job).

”Respect” is a good word, a good „bridge" to describe how not only Ballet Masterpieces and the Ensemble are being treated but also the members of the audience. For a part of the paying Audience, this is not an acceptable situation. I mean those who understand something about Ballet and have had many opportunities in life to which compare the present performances to. NOT the ones that will give a standing ovation and scream „Bravo" unexceptionally at ANY performance, despite its accomplishments, as it was yesterday the case. But I am not here to write about the public.

I had so wished to write positively about this „Swan Lake": Out of respect for the members of the Ensemble that either rehearsing and coaching or dancing were trying to save this production. But there are too many factors working against them. Time being the strongest of them all.

When opening the (very uglily lay-outed - why does everything have to be so ugly?) programme one is immediately confronted with visible problems on two pictures of the Corps during the second act: Head positioning angles, arms, shoulders, croisés, effacées, the height of the legs while on traveling arabesques. One knows, before the performance started, what to expect. But it was even more than that: to the points above I could add problems with formations, Space Perception, Distance…

Nureyev's version of „Lake" is not my favourite. Nor its use of music for the Black Swan Pas de Deux and Coda. Personally, I enjoy much more the Royal Opera House version after Petipa/Ivanov with additional choreography by Ashton (and partly by Nureyev) and the ABT's one also after Petipa/Ivanov but with additional choreography by Baryshnikov. But this is a question of taste. Unfortunately, being in Vienna, I have to „live with" this version as well as Tschernichova's „Giselle". Another fact of life.

Copyright: Ashley Taylor / Vienna State Ballet

The Prince’s friends offer great moments for the four dancers: Ioanna Avraam, as expected, highlighted and lived up to the expectations: a great Story-teller, fleet-footed, precise, pin-pointed to the last detail as well as Edward Cooper despite his having great problems keeping the tempo at the End of this foursome. Elena Bottaro's frozen smile is a bit annoying and her precision, especially when compared to Miss Avraam leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, the fourth „wheel" in this constellation, Duccio Tariello, gave a disastrous performance. Insecurity in every step. A typical case of wrong casting as this part is obviously a „notch above" his „pouvoir". Later, back in the „group" one could see and feel how much more relaxed and at ease he was.

Gala Jovanovic shines as a special Queen: haughty and nearly arrogant but possessed of such surpassing beauty in her movements and her behaviour, so filled with Nobility, she transforms her entrance on an „occasion". And, very important, tells us a story. Miss Jovanovic later changed in a Swan Costume to give us a very precise „Big Swan", changing again into the Queen's costume (and beautiful wig) for the Third Act changing again into a Swan for the fourth. When mentioning the Big Swans I cannot refrain to write about Miss Iulia Tcaciu, a member of the Corps de Ballet with a very charismatic presence. I am looking forward to following her career more closely in the future. She CAN tell a Story.

The noble „Damsels" gave us a very mixed, uneven impression as not every one of them could reach the clarity of movements (and relaxed, more elegant, and classy way of using their feather fans) as Eszter Ledán, Natalya Butchko, and Alaia Rogers-Maman, who tell us stories beyond these characters, not only smiling automatically and set quite a scale for others to follow,

The Spanish dancers, always an eye-catching moment, especially well danced by Iulia Tcaciuc, vigorously interpreted by Rebecca Horner, much more at ease than with the Big Swan and doing what she does best. Calogero Failla's hands clashed very strongly with the rest of this foursome. A “school” problem.

The Neapolitan dancers were beautifully led by dynamic Anita Manolova and Daniel Vizcayo, a vibrant dancer.

Even though there is not really a „main couple" in the Polish Dancers part, Ioanna Avraam and Francesco Costa, did their jobs perfectly. She displays all the versatility, „pouvoir" and flexibility so required in an Opera House (Remember: 1st act Friend of the Prince, 2nd act Little Swan, 3rd Act Polish Dancer, and back to the little Swan on the 4th). Francesco Costa, much more at ease in such character parts (as with Balanchine), gave a dynamic display of power.

The last of the „character" segments, an extremely lively one, was masterly led by Sveva Gargiulo and Géraud Wielick. Exactness mixed with joy, fiery temperament, and stage presence.

Eno Peçi needs no mention as Rothbart. For many years this role „belongs" to him at the Vienna State Opera. Energy and Stage presence at its very best. He knows also how to tell a Story. His Rothbart is mean, ugly but at the same time dynamic. It seems that he is everywhere at the same time. Perhaps this Rothbart is the only real improvement that Nureyev managed to achieve over the „original" versions. But you know... Royalties pay well and are very high for Choreographers. That was very important to Mr Nureyev and still is for many others, as behind every Artist seems to be a Business man.

Denys Cherevychko is a perfect choice for Siegfried. Technically at the highest point of his career, he has the capacity of making everything, that takes lots of hard work, look so easy. Nearly effortless. A dancer, just like a few others at the Vienna State Opera as Olga Esina, Davide Dato with real world-class, international level.

Here and there I had but the feeling that perhaps he was too often left alone during rehearsals with his own judgment of the role. And not every time is the „inside looking out" the same as the „outside looking in". That is why a good „Production Director/Supervisor" is so essential, as I have mentioned in my last Critique of „Giselle".

One of my rules is never to look back. But my rules are made to be broken, well, at least by me. Apart from his immense „Encyclopedical Knowledge" about Dance, that is another of the things that Manuel Legris really can do. Supervise a production from A to Z, not just „sticking" scenes together but sensing that they belong together. It makes sense in the continuity and the sequence they are told. A point to be respected to achieve the perfect story-telling. No stage work is complete without this care. But no one seems to be responsible for that - as one can plainly see on stage. This was such a capable company… and now… And here we are again. Not only at „Story-telling" but also „respect" for Art.

This Season's casting of „Odette/Odile" is far from being a perfect one. Nina Poláková left the company and Olga Esina is still on Maternity-leave. From both the first and second cast of the „Swan", I was lucky to witness the first, Maria Yakovleva. Although not a Swan - I mean that special quality that “makes a Swan”, she can give the best imitation of a Swan. Just a few days before this show I saw her at a Gala at the Hungarian Embassy in which she danced the second act pas de Deux with Jakob Feyferlik (HET – Dutch National Ballet). As the room was quite small, it made me even more aware of some details of her interpretation that I would perhaps not have exactly seen from the distance at the Opera. The important thing: She was somehow intense, not a Swan but a whole person. This has completely disappeared on yesterday’s performance. It is obvious that on the bigger stage of the Opera you cannot compare a stage performance with one given in a room in which I was sitting just two meters away from the Soloist couple. It was a cliché-like movement, a tilt of the head, a lttle evocation of a Swan… Gone.

But, to tell a story, think of Ferenc Molnár's last monologue for his play „The Swan". Perhaps the best (romantically fantasized) description of what it is to be a „Swan". It goes (more or less) like this:

„Think what it means to be a swan... to glide over the smooth surface of the lake and never go on the shore. On dry land, where ordinary people walk, a Swan is awkward and painfully resembles another kind of bird. A goose.

So there she must stay, on the Lake, silent, white, majestic.

Be a bird and never fly, know one song but never sing it, until the moment of her death.

So it must be for you, Alexandra, with head held high, cool indifference to the crowds along the bank.

And the Song? Never... „

(note: I love this description… but… did you ever sit at Regent’s Park in London? There are so many on the Lake. And they are really nasty creatures - beautiful but always hissing at you… This makes me think of Odile)

Copyright: Vienna State Ballet / Ashley Taylor

When you think of the description above, a romantic glimpse at a magical creature, we know that Miss Yakovleva did not tell a story. Surprisingly, she managed very well the technical issues of both roles (although Odile's movements and their edgy sharpness when compared to sweet and mellow Odette did not come along as it should) nevertheless there was no interaction with the Prince, no real fear when she met him for the first time, just a coolness and aloofness that did not penetrate the audience through the fourth wall. No love, no desperation, no sadness… not even a real good-bye. No projection. Perhaps it reached the first rows. But it did not come until the 13th row (!), in the middle of the audience, where I was sitting. To make a long story short: NO Story-telling. Neither as Odette nor as Odile.

Story-telling is not only the way characters communicate with each other, following the script and its dramaturgy but also that particular quality of telling us „accidentally" what is beyond the character. This is the difference between a frozen smile that makes a face resemble more a wooden doll or a dumpling or a round cream cracker and the smile that is so significant in its subtle nuances. Yes, the one that „tells a Story". And that is what was missing and left us at times completely in a blank space as if after one solo or pas de deux or pas de quatre NOTHING would happen until the next dance. This „vacuum" was so disturbing in its capacity to stop the story. I can only imagine that it was assumed that all dancers knew the story and there was no need to tell them the „Story" accompanied by precise dramaturgical guidance. The audience would have deserved that.

All this added to the lack of empathy from Conductor Robert Reimer, in his „Swan Lake" début at the Vienna State Opera which produced a heavenly sound but got so lost in that, that it failed to accompany the dancers with the necessary „tempo" causing a hard time for the dancers, especially for the soloists.

Even with all the flaws and problems of this production, I would recommend it. There is no way of saying how long it will take to have „Swan Lake" here again – even when this kind of full-evening, narrative Ballet, is what the audience wants. The Opera was full. The next performances are full. Much on the contrary of the last performances of the „Three Ballets a night-Formula".

In case you know someone who has seen “Swan Lake” for the first time and doesn’t know its Story… I am looking for someone exactly like that for an Interview! Thank you.

Ricardo Leitner

March 14th, 2022