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The Corsaire in Munich, with Lucía Lacarra · · · · · article by Carolina Masjuan
We are keen of dance, we love to enjoy it, to comment it and to show it the best way we can, we like to see it in different places and move to theatres and cities and taking advantage of the fact that our dancers succeed everywhere, we follow them with delight to bring them closer to the Spanish aficionados and to any one liking to know a bit more about them. On this occasion fotoescena went to Munich, to meet one of our best dancers: Lucía Lacarra. In Munich the capital of the prosperous Bavaria, Ballet has tradition, it has the same roots than other European cities, names such as Paul and Mary Taglioni danced in its National Theatre. In 1847 they could enjoy a performance of Giselle only four years after its premiere in Paris and they always maintained their Ballet Company, even in the wars period where they rehearsed in a building that was about to fall down with great risk for all. A bit of history Along his history there have been many directors contributing to its survival and development bringing new choreographies, but focussing in the more recent time one has to mention John Cranko who between 1968 and 1970 was the managing director of the Munich Ballet in addition to his job in Stuttgart. Some counted on him to finally be established in the Bavarian capital but even if he didn’t, his works remained in the repertoire of the company and his style has created an unmistakable mark on it. His works, Romeo and Juliet or Onegin continue to be the repertoire great favourites.
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During many years the ballet company depended on the opera management and that caused many conflicts. The arrival of Konstanze Vernon, acclaimed dramatic ballerina from the decades of the 60 and 70 was a must for the development of the company. She transformed the opera ballet school into a state-owned company up to the level of the ones of music and arts and this school was the first one in Germany to teach the Vaganova technique getting great success in it. She also established the Heinz-Bosl Foundation to support dance students –the name honouring the memory of Heinz-Bosl, her unforgettable ballet partenaire who was from Munich and who tragically died very young because of a bone cancer-. The financial independency from the opera that they reahed in 1988 with the support of the Bavarian State Government, got that the former Ballet turned to be one of the most important companies of the dance international panorama. The Bayerische Staatsballett repertoire maybe is the most important under an artistic point of view after the Paris Opera Ballet. It covers more than fifty ballets, from the masterpieces of the Romanticism such as Giselle and The Sylphide, the great classics as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty or Don Quixote, and the already mentioned contemporary ballets of Cranko, The Fille mal gardée form Ashton, A midsummer night dream, the “Dama de las Camelias” and Nutcracker from Neumeier. They also have works from Balanchine, Kylian, van Manen, Peter Martins and representative pieces from the great choreographers of modern dance, Lucinda Childs, Twyla Tharp, Angelin Preljocaj and without forgetting Mats Ek’s Giselle and Shannon Rose – an Irish Love Story, the impressing drama that Youri Vamos created for the company. The first performance in Germany of The Bayadère, the complete reconstruction by Patrice Bart, was the great achievement of the end of the Vernon era.
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In September 1998 Ivan Liška, who during twenty years was soloist in the Hamburg Ballet of John Neumeier, took up the post of Bayerische Staatsballett Director. Since then he not only has increased the recreations of the Sant Petersburg era classics with ballets such as Raymonda and the Sleeping Beauty (2003), but he also initiated several contemporary creations from Jean Grand-Maitre, Saburo Teshigawara, Lucinda Childs, Amir Hosseinpour, Jacopo Godani or Itzik Galili. Other works to point out are the little jewels presented on the Terpsichore-Galas by the principal dancers of the company, the Balanchine's Sylvia Pas de Deux, the Five Waltz’s of Brahms in the manner of Isadora Duncan, My Way of Stephan Thoss and the reconstruction of Anna Pavlova’s solo, The Night. The Bayerische Staatsballett has toured to a lot of countries. To sum up one might talk about their triumph in the mecca of the dance, New York, and on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg where the Russian audience applauded the company from Munich enthusiastically. It is a cosmopolitan company with sixty eight dancers from more than thirty nationalities, seventy performances per season in their city and with nearly the ninety per cent occupation of their 2000 seats, no doubt about the interest it deserves and the passion they are followed with. |
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Among this dancers and as principal dancer admired and acclaimed by all, ranks from year 2002, Lucía Lacarra, an exceptional dancer, winner of the most important international awards that nevertheless she never ambitioned to have as her only wish was dancing, but her constant hard work, her complete scene presence and her capacity to perform a wide range of roles, have lead her to the highest position in dance Olympus.We had been able to see all this by our own: a delicious Medora in the Bavarian capital. Lucía's Corsaire in Munich The Bayerische Staatsballett of Munich dedicated the 2006/2007 season to Marius Petipa and its director, Ivan Liska, produced this Corsaire who was premiered the 27 of January. It is a new version and at the same time a historical reconstruction: using Adam’s and Delibes’ original scores as a basis of the music and the Stepanov choreographic notations for the choreography. The first ballet “The Corsaire” we know is from 1826 but it is the one created by Joseph Mazilier in 1856 for the Paris Opera, based on a Lord Byron’s poem and with music of Adolphe Adam, the one who set the basis for all further productions. Jules Perrot saw it and got enthusiastic about, so, two years later, he transferred it to San Petersburg according to what he remembered but making some choreographic and musical arrangement. |
Petipa danced Conrad’s role and five years later he created his own version from Mazilier’s original. Later on he revised it and added the passage of Le Jardin Animé, with music by Leo Delibes, that lead this ballet to be one of the greatest successes of the Imperial Ballet. Between 1894 and 1906 it was registered by several Mariinsky government employees, Nikolai Sergeyev among them, using the notation system of Vladimir Stepanov. Those documents, together with violin scores, librettos and programmes, are deposited in the Harvard University Library and they are the basis of this Munich Corsaire staging. The interpretation of these documents has been made by the eminent American specialist Doug Fullington, one of the few persons able to decipher Stepanov’s manuscripts. Fullington had already revised the Jardin Animé, the most complete part of the existing documentation, for the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Female variations are the most concerned being the three odalisques and mainly Medora and Gulnara who more suffer or benefit –depending on tastes- of the review, in male parts one gets surprised by Alí’s variation in the first act. When in other productions it is Lankedem who performs the spectacular jumps in his solo –being the most compromised participation and where the dancer can show off- in this version it means another challenge for the slave and leaves Lankedem’s role rather marred. |
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On the other hand in Alí’s variation in the second act one misses the well known part with pirouettes a la seconde. But one has not to forget that this is a historical version and although one could miss some more virtuosism -we neither see any female Grand Jetée as we know it nowadays- the ballet is still remaining very attractive, we clearly notice Petipa’s touch and his spirit remains evident on stage. The performance is seen with great delight and German audience fills the theatre and applauds enthusiastically. We attended the performance with the following principal dancers on stage: Lucía Lacarra-Medora, Natalia Kalinitchenko-Gulnara, Lukás Slavický-Conrad, Cyril Pierre-Birbanto, Alen Bottaini-Alí and Norbert Graf-Lankedem. Lucía is a slender and refined Medora, in love and vain –delicious in the 2º act variation “The Petit Corsaire”- but strong and decided. Her perfect command of the technique together with the passion she transmits and the way she lives the role, captivates from the very first instant. It was from long ago that I had not seen her in a complete classical role and the truth is that I’m already dreaming to see her again. She touches me in a very special way I recognize that I always have been especially sensible to her way of dancing and to her presence in scene. |
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The level of the Company is very good and in general all dancers performed very well, soloist and corps. Particularly well done is the third act with the jewel of this ballet Le Jardin Animé. Medora and Gulnara, -in this version a slave so in love of luxury that she gives up her freedom -, showed off once more. And how wonderful was it to see so many children from the school on stage! What a great experience is given to them to be there performing in that ballets! As far as music is concerned, the Munich Opera orchestra shined under the conduction of Myron Romanul and one has to mention the work done by Maria Babanina, born in San Petersburg and with an extensive career as pianist and musicology specialized in the historical investigation of the ballet music, she joined the Munich Ballet in 1990 and she has been in charge of the musical arrangements. In the very complete program each scene is very well detailed, one can clearly see who is responsible for every part, music and choreography. The music being mainly from Adam, with the so great participation of Delibes (mainly in I) but we also find parts due to other composers, Drigo, Pugni, Prinze Oldenburg, Gerber and in Medora’s variation of the second act, normally attributed to Drigo, it is stated that it is due to Boris Fitinhof-Schell from the disappeared ballet “Cinderella” (1893). The stage designs of Roger Kirk just do the job, being also more accurate in the third act where they are inspired on the paintings of the Wittelsbach Bavarian dynasty and the dressings, of the same Kirk, even if in the two first acts were not very right, they showed off quite better in the third and specially, once again, in the part of the Jardin Animé. |
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If anyone makes up his mind to visit the beautiful German city one has to know that this season Lucía also has in her repertoire Cranko’s pearl, Onegin, another excellent opportunity to go to Munich and enjoy the great Art of our brilliant ballerina, perfectly surrounded by a great company. By fotoescena, © 2007 - Carolina Masjuan
Bayerische Staatsballet web site
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Acknowledgements: Yvonne von Duehren, Bayerisches Staatsballett |
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