BALLET REVIEW : Bolshoi Highlights Corrupt ‘Petrushka’

The printed programs for the Bolshoi Ballet-both the skimpy hand-out sheets and the $15 souvenir magazine--have been notable this season for misinformation as well as for non-information.

Nothing has been more irksome than a one-line credit for the production of “Petrushka” introduced on Saturday:

“Choreography by Mikhail Fokine.”

The gentleman’s first name probably should be spelled Michel . That bit of trivia, however, can be left to the pedants.

More crucial is the simple truth that the Bolshoi is hardly performing Fokine’s choreography at all. Anyone who has seen the authentic productions staged by the Royal Ballet, the Joffrey or American Ballet Theatre will recognize that this version is a virtual fraud.

Fokine created “Petrushka” in 1911--in close collaboration with the composer Igor Stravinsky and the designer Alexandre Benois--for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris. The Bolshoi edition, officially “staged” by Yuri Grigorovich, dates back to the dark Soviet days of 1964. As such it is based on a fanciful “reconstruction” by Konstantin Boyarsky that had been presented at the Maly Theater in Leningrad three years earlier.

Boyarsky apparently violated both the letter and the spirit of Fokine’s unique law. He transformed the pathetic protagonist--a broken-hearted rag doll--into a conventional, multiple-pirouette-loving danseur. He even destroyed the cynical pathos of Petrushka’s final gestures atop the roof.

Boyarsky--or was it Grigorovich?--took away much of the naturalistic detail in the crowd scenes and substituted unison dance-and-kick routines for the corps de ballet. General prettification and formula banalities were added, primitive flair and expressive point subtracted.

Under the circumstances, one had to be grateful on Saturday for basic favors: the reproduction of Benois’ genial decors (a strangely barren fair set notwithstanding), and the piquant inspiration of Stravinsky’s score as performed by a rough yet able pit band under Alexander Kopylov.

One also could applaud the dancing, which looked touchingly eager in its stubbornly misguided way. At the matinee, Yuri Klevtsov served as a boyish Petrushka, with Maria Bilova as a knowing Ballerina and Alexander Petukhov as a comic Moor. In the evening, Mikhail Sharkov proved slightly more assertive in the title role, with Svetlana Filipova as a sweet-soubrette Ballerina and Andrei Melanin as a somewhat sinister Moor.

The stage seemed sparsely populated for a company that, according to the ads, numbers 160. The lighting scheme proved accident prone.

The rest of the bill was dominated by the usual Bolshoi vaudeville numbers and circus acts. Although quality fluctuated, extrovert eclecticism triumphed.

The unintentionally comic,super-macho escapades of Grigorovich’s Spartacus were entrusted to Yuri Vasyuchenko, who contributed a lightweight impersonation of Alexander Godunov, and by anonymous hordes that included the mighty Gedeminas Taranda. (For some reason, the latter was deprived of his scheduled solo, but the ubiquitous Dwight Grell tossed him the wonted posies anyway.)

At the matinee, a set of excerpts from the second act of “Giselle” provided the only showcase of the season for Michael Shannon, a talented if patently over-publicized young American who happens to be a member of the Bolshoi corps. Together with the promising Olga Suvorova, he gave a performance that resembled a graduation exercise.

The inevitable “Corsaire” pas de deux (the Bolshoi contradicts the Kirov assertion that the piece should be a trio) enlisted Mark Peretokin as the high-flying, hard-working Ali. His Medoras were the appealingly dainty Nina Semizorova in the afternoon, the splendidly haughty Maria Bilova in the evening.

Ludmila Semenyaka died prettily and with muted poignancy as Fokine’s Swan in the afternoon. Together with the strikingly light-footed Yuri Posokhov, she returned a few hours later as an exquisite Bournonville Sylphide. The nocturnal performance also offered Natalia Arkhipova and Yuri Klevtsov in a reasonably deft approximation of a Royal Danish “Flower Festival at Genzano.”

The glittery pas d’action from “Don Quixote” looked merely glitzy at the matinee as dispatched by Natalia Arkhipova and Alexander Vetrov. The same bravura challenge became a class act in the evening, as elevated by Nina Ananiashvili and Alexei Fadeyechev.

This couple alternated with Nina Simisorova and Alexander Vetrov in the ornate classical diversions of the grand pas from Petipa’s “Paquita.” Both enjoyed rather dutiful support from a collection of suave incipient ballerinas that included Natalia Arkhipova, Nina Speranskaya, Marina Nudga and Olga Suvorova.

The large audiences applauded warmly if anyone managed to raise both feet off the floor at the same time. The ovations became frenzied whenever a dancer managed to execute more than four fouettes.. Fouette marathons, not incidentally, were in long supply.