Prokofiev’s Cinderella choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, good and sincere story of Cinderella, Prince, Love and basic values of Life, was premierred at the Mariinsky Theatre in March 2002.
At the time, Ratmansky was a little-known figure: a Bolshoi-trained dancer who had worked for several western companies and was launching his career as a choreographer. A decade later he is the world's most influential ballet-maker, credited with revitalising classical dance through a series of highly individual productions.
His Cinderella is an uneven work which shows evidence of the choreographer's struggle to reconcile highly diverse elements.
The Copenhagen Post: "Ratmansky’s production is attractive for its light and playful atmosphere, its irony and its self irony. The choreography successfully combines good traditions with inventiveness. A healthy sense of humour guarantees a “democratic feel” and intelligibility to the performance, the thirst for the acting finds a joyous response from the performers, and the exaggerated attention to stylistics gives the ballet a western gloss."
Libretto: Nikolai Volkov after motifs from the fairytale: Charles Perrault
Music For Ballet:
Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky´s version: 5 March 2002, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
Ratmansky’s production is attractive for its light and playful atmosphere, its irony and its self irony. The choreography successfully combines good traditions with inventiveness. A healthy sense of humour guarantees a “democratic feel” and intelligibility to the performance, the thirst for the acting finds a joyous response from the performers, and the exaggerated attention to stylistics gives the ballet a western gloss.
The Copenhagen Post
The choreographer has filled Charles Perrault’s tale with links and various phenomena of the 20th century. We have seen much that is familiar from European ballet, from cinema, from the stage, from TV – but all together, the montage itself, bears a new meaning and a new vision of the changing world.
Peterburgsky Teatralny Zhurnal