Cinderella

Tonight I went to the ballet with a friend and was again astounded by the artistry of the Marinsky (Kirov) company.  Those who follow this blog will remember that while my family was visiting Peter my parents treated us to front row seats for Swan Lake, making tonight's performance of Cinderella my second time enjoying the best ballet company in St. Petersburg.

Let me start at the beginning: about half way through my bus journey to the theater, two girls sat next to and across from me, looking rather dressed up.  With a quick glance down at my own attire--especially the flip-flops i was wearing instead of heels for the benefit of my bad knee--my first thought upon seeing these two was, 'God, I hope they're not going to the ballet, too. I'll feel even more underdressed than I'd expected to.'

Two stops later, the leggy blonde next to me turned and asked, "Do you speak English--a little?"

With an inner chuckle, I removed my earbuds and replied, "Yes."

"Thank God.  Do you know how to get to this theater?" She asked, while pointing to the Mariinsky on her tourist map (the kind you get from a hotel).

"Actually, I'm going there myself."

"Oh, you are going to the ballet? Do you think we will get there in time?"

"I certainly hope so," I tried to sound confident, even though I'd been worrying about that exact issue ever since getting on the bus.  We did, in the end, arrive with about 15 minutes to spare, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Turns out that these two girls were from Switzerland (the German speaking part, as I found out when they talked to each other). They were visiting a friend who, I guess, speaks and/or is Russian, but she had spent the day at work and left these two to navigate public transport on their own--only knowing, in their words, numbers and a few words of Russian.  Needless to say, they got turned around  and were very grateful that I could provide directions.

The weirdest part of the ride, however, was the man sitting across from me who, when I mentioned being from the US, asked which state.  He said that he was from San Francisco, although his accent made me wonder if he'd grown up somewhere in Eastern Europe.  Anyway, when I said I was from Massachusetts, this guy (who very much looked the part of the California hippie with his shoulder length greasy/unwashed hair and woven tote bag) asked me, of all things, how the weather was in Boston.  When I tried to explain that I haven't been home in a while, he kept talking about how he's heard that the weather there has been terrible recently.  Thankfully he got off soon after, leaving me to just awkwardly sit picking up words here and there in the conversation of the Swiss-Germans.

Arriving at the theater, I successfully found my way to the correct section and found my seat, even having the courage to ask for directions from a few ushers.  I guess after being asked for directions myself from several Russians, I'm gaining more confidence about it.

The ballet was amazing, but not really what I'd expected.  The Swan Lake performance was very traditional, with over-the-top costumes and sets reminiscent of the 19th century.  Prokofiev's Cinderella, on the other hand, looked a lot more like a modern dance performance, with minimalistic sets, scaffolding, and simple costumes.  As I said, though, it was amazing.  I'd never really thought of ballet as a comic medium, but there were several moments of this show that were simply hilarious.  Cinderella's father comes home drunk, with all of the built-in comedy that entails, but also remains oddly graceful throughout the whole thing, somehow.  There was also a scene wherein the step-sisters are given a dance lesson and can't dance. The juxtaposition of a well-choreographed "bad" dance was just ridiculous.


The lighting and other technical aspects of the show were spectacular as well. I even took a few photos at my favorite lighting moments, but I'm too lazy to upload them now. Maybe I'll put them up here later.

In other news, this weekend I (finally) went to the cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and saw (among others) the graves of Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Rubenstein.  I'll post some photos of that soon, too.