Metropolitan Classical Ballet New & Reviews

Posted on Sun., Jun. 12, 2005

Belle of the ballet

Ballerina shines in season finale

By Mark Lowry

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Anatoly Emelianov played the title role in two of three works at Metropolitan Classical Ballet's season finale at Bass Performance Hall on Saturday night: Leonid Lavrosky's Paganini and George Balanchine's Prodigal Son.

But principal ballerina Olga Pavlova was clearly the night's star.

She has the qualities that make one a ballet luminary, from those pierce-of-death eyes to ultraexpressive arms to a leg extension that would have made Cyd Charisse envious. All excellent qualities for Balanchine's angular shapes and exact moves.

Pavlova's turn as the Siren who toys with the Prodigal Son while he's away was a mix of Salome and Spiderwoman, only more seductively stylish than those two wallflowers.

Before that, in the evening's big crowd-pleaser, Marius Petipa's Paquita, she churned out a lightning-fast sequence of pirouettes that brought the house down.

Where Pavlova proved herself adept in athletic virtuosity, Emelianov excelled in acting two different roles: the tormented perfectionist Paganini and the disheartened, lost prodigal. In both, he showed a distinct flair for soul-bearing drama, not to mention fantastic leaps.

The entire company was in top form. Andre Prikhodko demonstrated breathtaking height in Paquita, and Maria Kudyakova and Kalen Hansen were the finest of six excellent variation solos in that work.

Ron Spigelman, conducting the Texas Chamber Orchestra, must have felt the heat. He and his musicians attacked the music of Minkus (Paquita) and Prokofiev (Prodigal) with spunk, intimately connecting with the dancers. He had extra help on Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini from Bolshoi pianist Alexei Melentiev, playing vigorously on that work's intense keyboard composition.

GRADE: A+