Gala Tchaikovski : Le Lac Des Cygnes, La Belle Au Bois Dormant, L'Oiseau Bleu, Casse Noisette (Extra [Blu-ray] [Import anglais]

Un spectacle habilement construit, quelques uns des meilleurs moments de Casse-Noisette et de la Belle au bois dormant se trouvant comme enchâssés dans l'acte III du Lac des cygnes, hélàs ! dans la chorégraphie décevante de Burmeister.
Roberto Bolle est semblable à lui-même, admirablement beau et bien dansant, tandis que la Semionova est une Odile venimeuse à souhait.
P.S. : j'ai peine à croire qu'un spectacle de 1 h 23 minutes ait constitué l'entièreté de la soirée de réveillon à la Scala en 2007. Bel Air nous ferait-il, comme cela lui arrive, payer au prix plein une demi-portion ?

Ce court spectacle (une grosse heure) proposé par la Scala pour la Saint-Sylvestre est constitué par l'essentiel du troisième acte du « Lac des Cygnes ». Comme de nombreuses danses viennent divertir les invités du grand bal avant l'arrivée du Cygne noir, il y a été ajouté deux extraits de la « Belle au bois dormant » (le grand adage à la rose, et le pas de deux de l'Oiseau bleu et de la princesse Florine) et la grand pas de deux final de « Casse-Noisette ». Si ces insertions à la chorégraphie se font assez naturellement, on ne peut pas dire qu'ils améliorent le rythme de l'action, et l'on comprend que le prince Siegfried s'impatiente...

Il n'y avait pas grand intérêt à éditer en DVD ce gala conçu pour une fête particulière, et qui perd tout son sel quand le champagne ne coule à flots pas à la fin. Un gala peut être très intéressant quand il donne à voir des œuvres rares, mais ce n'est pas le cas ici. Ainsi, qui veut connaître Roberto Bolle dans le « Lac des Cygnes » de la Scala se reportera à l'excellent enregistrement avec Zvetlana Zakharova... Pour qui voudrait découvrir Polina Semionova en Reine des cygnes, il existe un DVD avec le ballet de Zurich. Et pour « Casse-Noisette » ou la « Belle au bois dormant », des versions remarquables existent, qui ne rendent pas celle-ci indispensable.

On est d'autant plus agacé par une telle édition qu'un tas de grands ballets restent mal représenté, ou même pas du tout, en DVD. Quand aura-t-on une bonne version récente du « Corsaire », ou d'« Esmeralda » (pour ne prendre que deux exemples très anciens...) ?

Acquire this DVD (Bel Air Classique BAC-037), or the alternative blu-ray edition, if you do, for the sake of this Teatro alla Scala ballet gala as a whole, rather than for the sake of one dancer alone. I say this at the very outset of my comments, because the relative prominence in the product's presentation of the great (and exceedingly handsome) Italian dancer, Roberto Bolle may lead the unwary buyer to think (as I myself had assumed) that he is purchasing a DVD of a ballet gala oriented to display Tchaikovsky's genius, of course, but also to serve as a "star vehicle" for Roberto Bolle's undeniably glamourous star qualities as a dancer and celebrity. It really is only at the end of this staged ballet suite of excerpts from Petr Ilich Tchaikowsky's "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", and "The Nutcracker" (to cite these works by their familiar English titles) that Bolle really gets the opportunity to do some relatively extended and blazingly virtuosic solo and female-partnered dancing. This 2007 gala in Milan is a showcase for La Scala's ballet troop as an entity, one that has attained status as one of the greatest in dance, now fully (well, very nearly, at least!) on a level with the longstanding fame of La Scala's opera forces and roster of distinguished singers.

However, that said, do not let the fact that Roberto Bolle (as Prince Siegfried) very much shares the spotlight and the glory with the dancing of several other male soloists, namely the very elegant Ronald Savkovic (as the Nutcracker prince) and the pert, diminuitive, and lively Antonio Sutera (as bluebird), very balletically "cute" (and, for such a role, quite appropriately so). Others of the male dancers impress mightily, too, but have rather less solo exposure in the choreography than do those men and the the roles which they perform. As for the female dancers, they are, predictably, very, very good, but I shall not mention them much further since I am trying to clarify the appeal of this gala for the sake of its several fine male dancers. The Teatro alla Scala's orchestra is world-famous for its excellence, which also adds to the lustre of the production and of this video product thereof.

Vladimir Bourmeister's choreography (incorporating some of the original choreography of Petipa and that of Patrice Bart) and his staging are traditional yet full of imaginative touches, stitching together music and dance from the three ballets into a simple tale of a prince and his royal parents who are viewing a choreographic concert held in their honour; this requires only a single set and facilitates the continuous action. It is a spacious and beautiful set of which the eyes never tire. The costumes for dancers, and for non-dancing personages, too, are rich, varied, and quite splendid, as well. The fairy-tale prince (the one whom Bolle dances) falls in love with an occultic lady beauty, but he is thwarted in his desire to obtain her for himself and so the ballet ends, after their final sequence of solo and duo dancing, with the prince being bitterly frustrated, but (thankfully!) still alive to lead the rest of his life, one assumes, without her. With the eye-poppingly attractive physical assets of Roberto Bolle's lithely slender and muscular physique (which enables him to do lifts and other demanding male dancing feats with the ease and smoothness of few others than Carlos Acosta and himself) and, of course, of his nobly beautiful face, one can assume that his character can have, when that day comes, any future princess that the prince desires among those who may come his way!

If the buyer would like to acquire such a gala production, with splendid choreography and a tale that only touches tangentially on the action of the ballets' original synopses, this is a worthy purchase. For those whose interest primarily centres on Roberto Bolle, another of Bolle's several DVDs would make for a better choice, especially in acquiring an initial sampling of his combination of impressively athletic skill, physical beauty, and superb artistry.