Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin
As the well-heeled audience took their seats to the dissonant sounds of the orchestra warming up, Dublin christened its new Grand Canal Theatre with a magical interpretation of Swan Lake. Gone are the days of watching ballet from creaking seats with music blaring through loudspeakers, as is the uncertainty of whether dancers will safely exit into makeshift wings. The elegant, contemporary interior welcomes audiences and artists, drawing them together seamlessly.
The Russian State Ballet's Swan Lake, with its resplendent costuming and accomplished dancers, appeared as polished as the gilding around architect Daniel Libeskind's proscenium stage, matched by the RTÉ Concert Orchstra's energetic accompaniment. Even Act I's sometimes disconnected dancing progressed smoothly, although it offered the only scene where the performers looked like they were still tight for space.
Act II’s demanding lake scene featured an entire corps of swans mirroring each other, showcasing Russian ballet precision at its finest. The fleet-footed Four Swans lived up to their crowd-pleasing reputation, and the Swan Queen (Galina Stepanenko) and Prince Siegfried (Alexander Volchkov) danced a dramatic, if bordering on overly languorous, pas de deux. The dancing, theatrics and music coalesced in Act III, and if Stepanenko and Volchkov had been holding back slightly in earlier scenes, here they unleashed their virtuosity. Stepanenko reeled off a sequence of knife-edge sharp turns, and Volchkov proudly paraded around his chosen princess, all to a dynamic performance of Tchaikovsky’s score, conducted by Georgy Zhemchuzhin.
Some ballet companies stay true to Swan Lake's original ending, with Odette and the Prince throwing themselves into the lake, but the Russian State Ballet follows its homeland's tradition by reuniting the lovelorn pair and allowing the swans to turn into women. As the corps de ballet metaphorically traded feathers for feminine gestures, this mimicked the other transformation happening simultaneously. Dublin has evolved from a city with no suitable space for full-scale ballets into one that may now welcome such productions with hospitality and grace. Bravo. Ends tonight.
