<<  -- 2 --  Robert Anderson    A VIRTUOSO PERFORMANCE

I have seen a number of Russian Giselles, mainly in Catherine the Great's Hermitage theatre in St Petersburg. The scenery is always the same, with a wooded path in the background overlooked by a shadowy Rhine castle most resembling the Marksburg. In front is Giselle's cottage to the left and a hunting lodge opposite. This 1990 performance, with choreography by Yuri Grigorovich, comes from the Moscow Bolshoi at a time when Russia was resigning as a superpower but before that noble theatre was involved in the cash problems that have since threatened its standards and indeed closed the building itself for essential structural repairs.

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