Giselle. - Teatro dell'Opera, Rome, Italy - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, May, 1994 by Freda Pitt

Russian danseur Vladimir Vasiliev had danced the role of Albrecht in Italy on several occasions. But when, as the newly installed ballet director, he produced Giselle at the Rome Opera, it was the role of Hilarion that he decided to amplify. He considered this amplification the innovation of his production: Retaining the essential mime, he allotted great slabs of virtuoso dancing to Raffaele Paganini, the theater's star. Hilarion is depicted as a sympathetic character and a valid rival for Giselle's affections.

The balance of the work suffered from having Hilarion perform a big solo in Act II that was not sufficiently differentiated in style from Albrecht's. The only other considerable change from the traditional choreography was the introduction of an elaborate pas d'action culminating in a pas de huit, replacing the Peasant Pas de Deux.

The two principal roles were performed by guests, one American, one Georgian, and two Russian; the two couples they made up were very different, even physically. Amanda McKerrow and Vladimir Malakhov, who appeared in the first two performances, are slighter, with different coloring and a less flamboyant style than the Bolshoi pair, Nina Ananiashvili and Aleksei Fadeyechev, who danced the remaining four performances.

All four are fine artists, but it was the first two - who had never danced together before - who provided a more moving and satisfying evening. McKerrow's mad scene, reflecting the influence of Gelsey Kirkland rather than McKerrow's initial coaching in the role by Natalia Makarova, was unusually poignant: her evident simplicity and fragility made her loss of reason, with blank, unseeing eyes, quite credible.

Ananiashvili is so pretty and has such winning manners that she immediately enchants the audience as well as Albrecht, but I found her mad scene rather unconvincing. Both Giselles danced beautifully in Act II, though greater elevation would have been welcome. The revelation was Malakhov's Albrecht, the spectacular dancing being allied to impeccable partnering and an unshowy personality for a sympathetically drawn prince. Fadeyechev's interpretation was more ambiguous in Act I, which affords greater contrast, but his dancing was less memorable.

Exceptionally tall Svetlana Romanova provided a cold and expressionless Myrtha, with little elevation. Vasiliev's discipline produced a real improvement in the long-inactive Rome dancers; may it continue. The orchestra, under Gheorgy Yemchouzhne, sounded rather tentative.