Ana Karenina...

We are now working on Ana Karenina, the ballet Tchaikovsky didn’t write. It was arranged by some Brit by the name of Guy Woolfenden (or something) for the Australian ballet back in the late 70’s. Now, in my opinion, this is foolish. If you want a ballet about Ana Karenina, just commission it. I suppose that considering they couldn’t commission it from Tchaikovsky himself because he’s been dead for a while, piecing the ballet together from his obscure works was the next best thing.

Our conductor du jour is Jose Luiz Dominguez, a Chilean who is blessedly clear, kind, and inviting for the musicians. Also, he can cue and keep the beat pattern. AMAZING. We had our dress rehearsal today, and Erika Zamora (sister to Maria Elena) plus one, as well as my Spanish teacher Piedad del Solar plus one were there to listen. I think it went over quite well, except for one thing…

Warning: if you are reading Ana Karenina and don’t want the ending spoiled, skip ahead. Well, this one thing is the coordination of the suicide train. It seems that this is the part rehearsed the most – Ana throwing herself in front of the train instead of just trying some couples therapy and some intense one-on-one counseling. Alas, had the plot been changed, we could just cut to a sofa and chair with a therapist saying “Now, how does it make you FEEL when your ex-husband because you left him for another man forbids you to see child?”

Alas, this is not the case, and instead, there is a massive black train with headlight backstage that is quite noisy and creaky, but not in a train way… this is in the “oh no, I hope the 2x4’s that we made the train out of don’t fall apart” way.

In the meantime, while we’re waiting for the train to rumble onstage, the orchestra is holding a tutti high F-sharrp, or some such note above the staff, and the violins are using as much vibrato as possible, and the fermata is obviously held to wait for the train, and it is much too long. Aside from this small technicality, *ahem*, everything else seems to be appropriate. Lots of lights made to look like falling snow, the Russian sleigh-bell, “yeah, it’s winter and probably also Christmas” bit, the waltz that sounds VERY similar to the sleeping beauty waltz but not as interesting, good ol’ Tchaikovsky drama, and a bit taken from his Suite #3 for orchestra, entitled “Polacca.”

All-in-all, a must see, even if it was pieced together by a guy named Guy.