American Ballet Theatre`s week-long series of ”Giselle” performances at the Auditorium Theatre proved firm evidence of the mix of highs and lows that that ever-popular classic now provides.
The company`s current production, restaged by ABT artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov and associate director John Taras from 19th-Century versions, is spotty and uneven. Dramatically, it mingles dead time and meaningless mimes with stirring heights of beauty and grandeur. Its overall sweep–as long as the lead dancers are up to the acting challenge–remains moving and poetic, a haunting love story and a fascinating distillation of several key features of Romanticism.
But it can be pretty hard on a modern audience, presenting sanitized peasant frolic in the first act and bloodthirsty, man-hungry virginal witches in the second. The ABT scenario is a great opportunity for two dancers to radiate in the love match; but, with its almost goofily happy Act I peasant staging and its overly melodramatic Act II special effects, the company`s current mounting manages to showcase the ballet`s weaknesses as well as its strengths.
The current choreographic line is similarly zig-zag. The Act II pas de deux and solo work, along with the spectacular (and exceedingly well-performed) corps dancing, are exquisite. But much of Act I is filler, and a few of Giselle`s sillier moments survive inexplicably. (Her Act II hopping sequence undid most of the ABT ballerinas and earned a few of them some inappropriate chuckles.)
Nevertheless, ”Giselle” is quite the vehicle for its leads. Cynthia Harvey, all princess beauty and graceful flow, teamed with the handsome, statuesque Patrick Bissell and made for a dashingly romantic duo Thursday evening and at Friday`s matinee. Harvey`s rendering is more clean and fluid than distinguished or exciting, but her arms move with liquid expressiveness and she was particularly coquettish as a peasant girl.
Bissell, a little rough in execution and hammy in acting, lifts Harvey with great flair and enthusiasm and rushes into his own twirls and leaps with invigorating force.
Baryshnikov, performing the male lead three times here, including Wednesday and Saturday substitutions for the injured Kevin McKenzie, was, not surprisingly, the best. His exquisite, flowing style is still awesome, even if his leaps right now aren`t, and he dances the role with such passion and flair that he sets up a standard few could equal. On Saturday, he attacked the spins and acrobatics of the climactic male solo with astonishing energy, finally giving the audience something to really cheer about.
Marianna Tcherkassky proved even better in the title role Saturday than on Wednesday. Although she never managed the unearthly style of Alessandra Ferri (Baryshnikov`s Giselle Monday), Tcherkassky brought frail delicacy and taut legwork to the part. Her Act I dramatics put her at or near the top of the current ABT crop of Giselles, and, in her Act II dancing, she was elegant, lyrical and musical, a gossamer wisp delivering a sad loveliness.
Leslie Browne Saturday proved a strong, sharp Myrta, the queen of the gorgeous but evil-doing Wilis. But perhaps the surprise star in this part was Carla Stallings, dancing Tuesday and Friday afternoon. Her thin limbs and eager attacks–she zoomed into her eerie spins with determined speed and relish–combined with her mournful acting to make her a disturbing, Gothic presence.
