ONCE AN OUTCAST, NOW A `GENIUS'.

GRIGOROVICH TRIUMPHS AGAIN WITH SWAN LAKE AT BOLSHOI

Yuri Grigorovich, who left the Bolshoi Ballet under fire in 1995, returned in triumph March 2 when a production of Swan Lake that he had produced and choreographed was thunderously welcomed at the Bolshoi Theater.

When the curtain fell and Grigorovich appeared on stage, he was greeted with a deafening ovation and chants of "Grigorovich! Grigorovich! Genius!" He and the dancers were onstage, bowing, for about forty minutes.

Grigorovich, who ran the Bolshoi Ballet for three decades, left the troupe in 1995 after a massive attack from opponents within the theater. In January, the current directors invited him back to stage his 1969 version of Swan Lake. Former Bolshoi prima ballerina Natalia Bessmertnova, his wife, who left the theater with Grigorovich, was also invited back to rehearse the ballet with the first and second casts. The Bolshoi's artistic director, Boris Akimov, for whom Grigorovich staged the Evil Genius role (more familiar as Rothbart) in 1969, rehearsed the male roles. Pavel Sorokin conducted Tchaikovsky's score.

Grigorovich updated the 1969 choreography (after Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Aleksander Gorsky) and brought back the tragic ending, which was originally banned by the Soviet cultural authorities. The charm and originality of the ballet are found, however, not in the tragic finale, but in its completely different inner workings. The choreographer transformed the ballet from the fairy-tale genre to a lyrical and symbolic account of the struggle between good and evil within a man's soul. As Tchaikovsky originally had imagined, the hero of the story is the Prince. Odette is the Prince's romantic ideal, while Odile represents the other side of a woman's beauty, the realization of worldly desires. The Evil Genius is the personification of the hero's destiny and the dark side of the Prince's soul. While chasing his ideal at the lake, the Prince falls under the Genius's spell and is tortured by the appearance of the elusive ideal. Having betrayed that same ideal, the Prince destroys Odette. The semi-transparent "magical" curtain with the images of the white and black swans separates Odette and the Prince. She then dies in the arms of the Evil Genius. At the end, the Prince reaffirms his fidelity to Odette as a symbol of sacred love. In other words, Grigorovich's ballet is a work about the maturing of a romantic personality after experiencing tragedy. This is why his finale is such a fitting conclusion to the ballet.

The evening was also a triumph for Anastasia Volochkova, who danced Odette/Odile at the premiere as a guest artist at Grigorovich's invitation. (I saw the second cast only in rehearsal.) Vladimir Vasiliev, toppled last August as the Bolshoi Theater's director, had invited Volochkova to come to the Bolshoi as a guest artist from the Kirov, but her contract with the Bolshoi wasn't renewed and no explanation was offered. Her huge success with the audience in Swan Lake came as vindication. Volochkova was beautiful as Odette, appearing as the ideal of eternal femininity and displaying highly musical dance skills. As Odile, she needs to emphasize the contrast of her "dark" beauty as opposed to Odette's light.

Although a good technical dancer, Andrei Uvarov portrayed the Prince as an abstract figure of a valiant hero, without any emotional depth. Nikolai Tsiskaridze's Evil Genius, on the other hand, was a phantom who fully fit the meaning of the ballet. He is a sophisticated and flexible dancer with incredible jumping abilities. Mafia Aleksandrova deserves special mention for her performance in the Spanish dance.

Overall, the troupe danced superbly. The updated staging, the sets and costumes originally created by the incredible Simon Virsaladze, and the performances by the young dancers all contributed to the premiere's celebratory air.

At the post-premiere banquet, Mikhail Shvydkoi, the Russian Minister of Culture, said, "This ballet is a real Bolshoi ballet, in the truest sense of these words."