Tag Archives: Elena Zaitseva

Tilting at windmills: Bolshoi’s Don Quixote cranks into top gear

Don Quixote Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera House, 15th August 2019 Don Who? It’s best to forget Cervantes when it comes to the ballet version of Don Quixote, especially in Alexei Fadeyechev’s three-year old Bolshoi production, last seen here at Covent … Continue reading

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Listen with Mother: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Tsar Saltan as autism parable at La Monnaie

Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan La Monnaie, Brussels, 16th June 2019 Look at it from the point of view of the child. The father he’s never met sentences him and his mother to be nailed into a barrel and … Continue reading

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Carmen as therapy: Tcherniakov challenges clichés but is stumped in Aix

Bizet: Carmen ** Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 4th July 2017 Love may well be a rebellious bird, but that’s as nothing to maverick director Dmitri Tcherniakov. In his beloved Russian repertoire he displays genius – his recent Snow Maiden in Paris fully … Continue reading

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Tcherniakov triumphs with Iolanta, but hobbles Nutcracker at the Garnier

Tchaikovsky: Iolanta/ The Nutcracker *** Opéra de Paris, Palais Garnier, 11th March 2016 At the 1892 première of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and The Nutcracker, it was the opera which scored the bigger hit with the critics, even though it’s the ballet which … Continue reading

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