Watching the Bolshoi in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s version of The Taming of the Shrew is like seeing a beautiful French woman dance rock’n’roll; she looks as elegant as always but is gracefully letting her hair down. Created in 2013, at a dark moment in the company’s history, it is full of bright wit and cosmopolitan sophistication. It just about makes acceptable sense of Shakespeare’s difficult play by giving Katharina (fist-pummelling, high-kicking Ekaterina Krysanova) sufficient cause for bolshiness in the bosom of her hypocritical family – and making her courtship with Vladislav Lantratov’s roaring boy Petruchio an affair of hidden and ultimately fulfilled passion. Best of all, it gives some of the world’s most dazzling dancers a chance to reveal character as well as perfect technique.
On monochrome sets by Ernest Pignon-Ernest, illuminated by Augustin Maillot’s richly coloured costumes and Dominique Drillot’s evocative lighting, Maillot (artistic director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo) creates a stylised palette of movement that is sexy and striking. Two extended pas de deux – Katharina seduced by her husband’s tough tenderness and her well-mannered sister Bianca (gorgeous Olga Smirnova) revealing her demanding side in the face of Semyon Chudin’s gentle depiction of Lucentio’s love – are particularly lovely. A patchwork of Shostakovitch provides a surprisingly effective score. The dancing, from all four principals, and Anna Tikhomirova’s demanding housekeeper, is divine. A joy to watch.
