Trockadero Land: Scene Analysis

Thanks for your review. You found the work DOA. Mr. Macauley found it "boring". I found it hilarious! And not in a good way. There were so many moments when I needed to cover my face from laughing so hard. Really? This is the Bolshoi? For a moment there I thought I might be in "Trockadero Land", but without the Trocks' magnificent sense of timing and joie de vive! I too agree that the scenery (and many of the costumes) are simply so ugly that they constantly distract. All those curtains going up and down!! The first Court scene set in what looked like some leftover from a bad "R&J" production had the knights seated at what looked like a large stone casket! And those same knights mostly looked like refugees from some Middle School production
We see the swans and Odette before we actually get to see them enter. More curtains! Anna Nikulina's portrayal was not just cold, but uninvolved, emotionless. Almost zombie-like. Absolutely no rapport with Seigfried. At one point when she did a high arabesque she came dangerously close to hitting his hairdo! He ducked and avoided tragedy! Because this version has almost no mime, one has to wonder how and why Seigfried knows what's going on. He's totally clueless! Maybe that's why he has no friends! Here again, the choreography had some resemblance to the Petipa/Ivanov, but it was badly danced by a corps that looked to be sleep walking . No interesting patterning. Arms that went up and down and up and down, relentlessly. Poor feet on all the small jumps. If the stage at the State Theater cannot make room for all these ladies, cut back a few to give some air and space to the corps. Just because it's called the Bolshoi doesn't mean you have to put every dancer on stage. I also didn't find Nikulina's technique to be anything remarkable and since there's nothing to act here, she doesn't. The pas de deux was simply tepid. No chemistry here. And now it's time to address the role of the Evil Genius. More borrowing from Eifman. I mean really. All that pointless jumping around, trying to look nasty. I wanted to roll him up in one of his curtains and boot him off the stage! Curtains for you, Mr. so-called Genius! I never thought I would eagerly look forward to ABT's Swamp King of a Rothbart, but after this guy prancing about, our Swamp King begins to look like Hamlet! Odette's farewell at the close of Act I was almost an afterthought. No passion, no lingering arms, nothing. I felt she just wanted to get off stage and have a