The passion affair of Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky leads to tragedy.
From the outset we knew she was going to be hit by the train, but the buildup to that climax was both evocative and social at the Mariinsky Ballet’s presentation of “Anna Karenina” at a gala for the White Nights Foundation at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Anna’s yearning to see her son brings her home from Italy to Russia in disgrace.
Choreographed by dance-world rockstar Alexei Ratmansky, with Mariinsky Artistic Director and General Manager Valery Gergiev conducting Rodion Shchedrin’s score, the classic Russian novel unfolded in front of us: Anna and Count Vronsky fall for each other. Shunned by her unresponsive spouse, Anna runs off to Italy with her lover. But lonesome for her son, Anna returns to Russia where she’s scorned by her husband and society and ends it all by throwing herself under a train.
Anna Karenina dancers wear costumes depicting fashions of the 1800’s
Wearing waistcoats, uniforms, and gauzy 19th-century gowns, the dancers perform the two-act show as a graceful pantomime with projections depicting a day at the races or gondoliers in Venice and clouds of smoke hissing as the headlight approaches from the oncoming train.
After a lengthy standing ovation, a recent night’s sell-out crowd, including Carolina Herrera, Lucky Roosevelt, Maria Bartiromo, and Ann Dexter-Jones, adjourned to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for pea soup and sea bass, lots of Fort Ross wines donated by the Renova Russian business group, and a toast to the cast with Elit vodka supplied by Stolichnaya, which sponsored an after-party deejayed by Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the celebrated composer/conductor.
Seated at my table, Mariinsky Deputy Director Yuri Fateyev helped clarify confusion about the company’s name. Originally created as part of the Russian Imperial Theater by Catherine the Great, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg is the center of Russia’s cultural life, encompassing the ballet, opera, orchestra, and the Vaganova Ballet Academy.
During the 1930’s, Soviet bureaucrat Sergei Kirov hung around the theater impassioned with a particular ballerina. After his death (looking for a commemorative gesture and mistakenly assuming he had been a fan of ballet), party leaders renamed the theater in his honor. Now restored to its historic appellation, the Mariinsky carries on the tradition of “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Nutcracker” and other great works created there and performed by legendary artists such as Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
pictured above: Kristina Kovalenko, of the White Nights Foundation which supports the Mariinsky Theatre, with Yuri Smekalov who danced the role of Anna Karenina’s lover Count Vronsky.
