SWAN LAKE
New York City Ballet, at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center; (212) 870-5570. Season runs through Feb. 26.
PETER Martins’ full-evening “Swan Lake” is something of an odd duck.
Originally staged for Martins’ old alma mater, the Royal Danish Ballet, in 1996 and taken into the New York City Ballet repertory three years later, this two-act “Swan Lake” has been called a “shortened version.”
In fact, the production now playing the New York State Theatre uses more of the original Tchaikovsky score than any other production I can recall – and the time saved comes only from the reduction of the intermissions (from two or even three to one) and the brisk tempos at which the music is played.
The somber, vaguely abstracted designs are by the Danish painter Per Kirkeby, and the costumes stagger a gamut from bright-colored, inappropriate tights and tops for the men to elaborations for the Courtiers that would look at home in Velasquez paintings of the Court of Philip II.
Visually malnourished – it is a “Swan Lake” with no evident lake! Martins’ choreography, although conceived in the style of the 1895 Russian definitive original, lacks its musical authority and period authenticity.
Yet, any version of “Swan Lake” that clings even tentatively, as this does, to the proper outlines of its leading roles – the dual ballerina role of Odette/Odile and the doomed Prince Siegfried – should and will prove popular.
The first performance on Friday proved somewhat lackluster, with the male dancers particularly dismal, except for Damian Woetzel’s Prince Siegfried, and he was at less than his superlative best, and Tom Gold’s perky Jester.
Even the usually arrow-bright Wendy Whelan was less than eloquent as the Swan Queen Odette, while as the wicked Odile she proved hardly incisive.
Things picked up a lot with the ballet’s second performance Saturday afternoon, when Jenifer Ringer made her debut as Odette/Odile, partnered by another first-timer, Sebastien Marcovici as Siegfried. The two had a quietly romantic chemistry and danced with style and feeling.
The women looked better this time around, as did the men. Leading the latter were a dazzling Daniel Ulbricht as the Jester, Andrew Veyette splendid as Benno, and Joaquin De Luz leading the Second Act Pas de Quatre with smooth virtuosity.