Triumphant Bolshoi is back to its glorious best
The Bolshoi Ballet company, newly restored to its former glory after being saved by Russian billionaires, returned to London last night to stage the most expensive ballet ever produced.
The total cost of staging Le Corsaire, which is being called the "Pirates of the Caribbean en pointe", is a closely guarded secret, but is believed to be approaching ё1 million.
The swashbuckling drama, which is based on a poem by Lord Byron, features up to 160 people on stage, and a total of 500 costumes.
A 36ft-long ship, weighing over a ton, required the stage floor to be reinforced and the production draws on the latest in pyrotechnics and theatrical technology.
The Moscow Times hailed the production as "the company`s greatest hit in many a season".
Le Corsaire opened a three-week season at the Coliseum in Covent Garden last night and marked a new high in the transformation of the Bolshoi after years of instability and uncertainty.
The company that once epitomised Soviet pride was almost destroyed by the fall of Communism. When the Bolshoi first appeared in the West, in 1956, it caused a sensation, not least because of the high, spectacular lifts that were the centrepiece of Bolshoi technique.
But the end of the Soviet Union brought financial ruin and saw many of the great dancers heading west.
There was a quick turnover of artistic directors and the height of its desperation was reached in 1996 with a disastrous Las Vegas season, which saw the ballerinas playing to sparse audiences of gamblers.
The Bolshoi has re-emerged after an infusion of money from Russian oligarchs and foreign well-wishers, and has never been in better financial health.
Among its biggest supporters was Boris Yeltsin, the late Russian president, who created a special law to protect the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow as a national treasure.
He also oversaw the beginning of a ё400 million reconstruction programme.
Throughout its 230-year history, the Bolshoi`s choreographers have often staked their reputations on the sheer size and lavishness of its productions. The company`s name itself - "Bolshoi" - means big. Its resurrection was evident as it enjoyed a sell-out season in London last year.
Critics said it was brimming with confidence, and that the company, once a hive of corruption and privilege, was back to its best and embracing modernism.
Le Corsaire stars prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and her long-standing partner, the fiery Ukranian Denis Matvienko.
Two other classics, La Bayadиre and Don Quixote, will showcase the company`s two youngest stars - 21-year-old Natalia Osipova and Minsk-born Ivan Vasiliev, who, at 18, is already drawing comparisons to Nureyev and Baryshnikov.
The ballerinas will, however, have to get used to the new no-smoking London.
Smoking is still part of the weight-conscious dancer`s arsenal.
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