Just got home from seeing Glazunov's ballet "Raymonda" at the Bolshoi Theatre with Francis Ford Coppola... Well, actually he was sitting in a box next to the stage with his entourage, and we were sitting in the back of the theatre. But still, as we were both in the same opera house, at the same performance, I think I can honestly say that tonight I was at the Bolshoi Ballet with Francis Ford Coppola.
He looked just like he did on television last night. And I got a good look at him, too--though unfortunately, I didn't rent the famous Bolshoi binoculars from the lady in the cloakroom. Too bad that I didn't run into him in the lobby during intermission. It is a shame, because I remembered that both Coppola and myself are UCLA Film School Alumni, and that maybe if I had a chance to mention the "old school tie", perhaps he might have agreed to come to talk to my American Studies class, after all? Then again, maybe not.
Francis--I'm told that his friends call Coppola that--seemed to enjoy the ballet. He stayed for all three acts, the last of which dispensed with plot altogether. He didn't fall asleep, even though the first act was a little slow. The plot is something about the Crusades, that "Clash of Civilizations" that people around these parts seem to remember, especially because the Catholic knights pillaged Christian Constantinople, which is one reason Moscow became what they call the Third Rome. (Rome itself, being Catholic, doesn't count).
Anyway, the ballet Raymonda was about a triangle between the French Crusader knight Jean de Brienne, the Saracen Abderame, and Raymonda. Actually, I think Abderame seemed more attractive, but he was killed in a duel.
The second act reminded me of Uabekistan. Mark Peretokin, the powerful dancer playing a very dynamic Abderame wore a costume that looked like it came from Amir Timur's official Tashkent wardrobe. The Bolshoi set was straight from a 1960's Ptushko movie, some of the choreography was a little stilted, and Raymonda as played by Bolshoi prima ballerina Nadezhda Gracheva (herself a native of Kazakhstan, she had some vocal supporters in the audience) seemed a bit butch and stilted. At least compared to some dancers we saw a couple of years back at the Mariansky Theatre in St. Petersburg, who really were breathtakingly graceful. I wish I could have seen Raymonda danced by Anastassia Volochkova, who was let go in a famous scandal over her extra weight. I've only seen the dazzling Anastassia on quiz shows and talk shows, never dancing (she does look pleasingly plump on TV, but the camera adds 10 pounds, they say).
Anyhow, there was plenty of leaping around at the Bolshoi tonight. Ruslan Skvortsov's Jean de Brienne was a good Russian male dancer, and the music was pleasant. I'm sure Francis, sitting practially in the dancer's laps, had fun.
The Bolshoi is really big, as its name indicates. It was built in 1856, during the time of serfdom. The former Tsar's box has a hammer and sickle displayed prominently (there was one over the top tier of Coppola's box, too). The proscenium curtain also features woven hammers and sickles, red stars, and the letters CCCP (USSR in Cyrillic). In fact, the atmosphere remains quite Soviet. The buffet had the crummy quality of pre-capitalist Russia--especially compared to the charming Novaya Opera buffet, it was expensive, and overall, the performance lacked some zest and charm. Maybe if they invested in some new decorations and lost the Soviet symbols, it might liven up the joint.
Still, the Bolshoi is the Bolshoi, and it was a night to remember, especially since we shared it with Francis--along with a couple of thousand other people.
BTW, Francis is still getting his wish for Russian winter. Here in Moscow it is now ten below, and snow, snow, snow...
