Posted on 08/09/2006 1:41:12 PM PDT by sergey1973
This summer's twin Russian ballet and opera seasons in London are drawing to a close: the Bolshoi has barely a week to go at Covent Garden and the Mariinsky (formerly the Kirov) has already left the Coliseum.
Both companies have enjoyed packed houses, winning new fans and rewarding old ones.
Critical opinion has largely favoured Moscow's Bolshoi while devotees of St Petersburg's Mariinsky may feel bewildered by some of the comment in the British press.
"The reviews didn't represent what the audiences saw," says Paul Cardwell, from the UK-based Mariinsky Theatre Trust's board of directors.
He admits a season devoted to Dmitri Shostakovich - a Soviet composer not known for his ballet music - was always going to be difficult but he feels the critics could have been fairer.
"Look at The Bedbug ballet, for instance - this was very anarchic, satirical stuff with some real Little Britain-style humour and political criticism," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
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