Making ‘Corsaire’ Their Own

From the 1830s to this past weekend at the Music Center, changing “Le Corsaire” has been a cottage industry in the ballet world.

Choreographer Marius Petipa inherited one version and did three major revisions of his own in the 19th century while nearly every new American Ballet Theatre principal at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday and Saturday followed his example--not only interpreting the ballet differently, but adding favorite steps as well. Sometimes interacting with previously reviewed artists, they helped make the ballet something like a personal, shrink-to-fit vehicle, enriching a feeble production with their diverse skills and personalities.

The ABT ballerinas mostly ventured bravura embellishments: startling “broken-legged” fouette versus dizzying single/double combinations, for instance. The danseurs, however, went much further.

On Saturday night, Ethan Stiefel became the only Ali of the engagement to attempt the rarely seen--and risky--hopping pirouettes that used to belong exclusively to Mikhail Baryshnikov. His coiled intensity here formed a spectacular contrast to his devil-may-care, comically anti-Romantic performance on Friday in the role of Conrad, and the edge of wildness he brought to that character’s virtuoso passages.

Stiefel’s double play may have been the big news of the ABT weekend, but for blazing sensuality, no Ali outclassed Jose Manuel Carreno in a Friday performance crowned by sumptuous multiple turns. The Friday “Corsaire” also boasted Herman Cornejo as Birbanto, inclined to bend in half during air turns (as if to touch his toes in flight) and no slouch with a cap pistol either.

Although he could not compete with the other Conrads in sheer virtuosity, Maxim Belotserkovsky brought princely classical line and high Romantic fervor to the role on Saturday afternoon: the most heroic approach to this Byronic pirate during the whole engagement.

The three Lankendems sold steps as aggressively as slaves. In his debut as the venal bazaar owner, Marcelo Gomes (Saturday night) danced the assigned choreography successfully, adding nothing of his own. Gennadi Saveliev (Friday), however, pushed himself too far, adding a brilliant series of flips but also looking off center in a turning sequence--and even falling. Sean Stewart (Saturday afternoon) also added flips but avoided accidents and never looked out of control.

As Medora, the reliably forceful and spirited Paloma Herrera left no step unpolished on Friday, and, for once, being a rather tough cookie for a ballerina helped explain how her character survived so many calamities unscathed. A more conventionally dewy and vulnerable interpretation arrived on Saturday with the long-limbed Michele Wiles: a Medora especially radiant in the last-act “Jardin Anime” sequence in which Herrera had seemed strangely saccharine.

“Corsaire” trivia collectors should note that Herrera and Wiles looked considerably barer as Medora than Nina Ananiashvili (Saturday night), who originated the role in the ABT staging and reportedly wears her own costumes through much of the ballet.

On Friday night, Xiomara Reyes efficiently swept through the role of Gulnare, doing nothing wrong but making no real effect for all her expertise. However, Maria Riccetto had enough flair on Saturday afternoon to highlight her speed, lightness and elegant line in her major showpiece opportunities and even in such minor moments as the mini-duet with the eunuch at the beginning of Act 3.

Ethan Brown and Carlos Molina alternated in the character role of the Pasha--Brown seeming more grotesquely lecherous, Molina more comically befuddled. Ormsby Wilkins and David LaMarche shared the weekend conducting duties.