United Ukrainian Ballet visits the Kennedy Center with new "Giselle"

Christine Shevchenko and Oleksei Tiutiunnyk in the United Ukrainian Ballet's Giselle. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine almost one year ago, on February 24, 2022. In the wake of these barbaric attacks on cities and infrastructure, ballet dancers and ballet students fled Ukraine, along with many of their fellow citizens. Many of those dancers ended up in The Hague in the Netherlands, where they formed the United Ukrainian Ballet under the leadership of the Dutch dancer Igone de Jongh. (The male dancers joined later, since they were at first not allowed to leave Ukraine and avoid military service.) This ersatz company has toured the Netherlands and taken longer trips to London and Asia. They arrived at the Kennedy Center Opera House Wednesday night for a week-long run of the striking new version of Giselle choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, their first and so far only planned appearance in the United States.

This Giselle is the product of Ratmansky's historical research, the latest ballet to be given the choreographer's archival scouring treatment, and it emerges like a ceiling fresco with centuries of soot and grime removed. Ratmansky first premiered the new version at the Bolshoi in 2019, and now it has put him on the edges of the subsequent Russian conflict with Ukraine. (Ratmansky grew up partially in Ukraine and had already moved his family to New York: the Russian attack last year propelled him to cut all ties with Russian companies. In a related story, one of the stars of his Giselle at the Bolshoi, celebrated étoile Olga Smirnova, resigned from that company and went to the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, making prominent public statements against the war.)

As detailed in the authoritative program notes for the Kennedy Center, by dance critic Alastair Macaulay, Ratmansky has gone back to as many historical sources as he could find to restore many details from the original 1841 production, although he also preserves some of the Petipa additions found in Russian productions. Some of the patches are sections of music and action that were excised over the years: the original opening of Act II, where a group of men are drinking in the forest, only to be scared away by the Wilis; and in the middle of Act II, he has restored a fugue, depicting the confusion of the Wilis when their target, Albert, hides by the cross over Giselle's grave.

By looking closely at early sources, Ratmansky's version makes important changes to many of the pantomimed scenes, shifting the nature of most of the characters. The Giselle of Odessa-born Christine Shevchenko, who comes from American Ballet Theater to join the Ukrainian company for this run at the Kennedy Center, seems less fragile and more girlish. The extraordinary Albert of Oleksei Tiutiunnyk, a tall dancer of immense strength and leaping height, seems more genuinely in love with Giselle. Significantly, in a more hopeful ending, he heeds Giselle's last command, as she sinks back into the earth, to wed the noblewoman to whom he was betrothed. Even his fiancée, Bathilde (Marta Zabirynnyk), and the hapless woodsman who also wants to marry Giselle, Hilarion (Sergii Kliachin), become more sympathetic.

Alexei Ratmansky (center) with United Ukrainian Ballet at Kennedy Center. Photo: Mena Brunette, XMB Photography

Ratmansky's research into the details of dance movement and even the tempos of the music also yield many surprises, especially in the movements of the corps de ballet in the more rustic Act I peasant dance, where Maria Shupilova and Vladislav Bondar made a favorable impression in the pas de deux. (The corps seemed a little rough and nervous on opening night, including one dancer who slipped and fell, but the personal situation these dancers face after fleeing their home country surely explains some of the agitation.) The addition of a "flying Wili," who floated by on wires at the back of the stage a couple times, was another surprise.

Sets and costumes, designed by Hayden Griffin and Peter Farmer (on loan to the Ukrainians from Birmingham Royal Ballet), were handsome, especially the purple-infused scene of the eerie night forest in Act II (lighting by Andrew Ellis). Elizaveta Gogidze, one of the Ukrainian stars (she will take the title role at the remaining evening performances), was a frigid fright as Myrtha, queen of the Wilis, assisted by fine performances from Veronika Hordina and Daria Manoilo. Viktor Oliynyk conducted the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in the transformed score, with some misalignments that will likely be ironed out in the remaining performances.

Given the personal tragedy of these Ukrainian dancers and the public criticism of the Russian invasion made by Ratmansky, the curtain call was a stirring moment. The two lead dancers appeared with a Ukrainian flag. Ratmansky himself and other dancers brought on other flags. The Dutch company's artistic director, Igone de Jongh, took a bow but then left the stage before a rousing rendition from the orchestra of the Ukrainian national anthem. With the news that Russia is reportedly planning a new offensive in Ukraine, possibly coinciding with the February 24 anniversary, the message of support for Ukraine is all the more urgent.

Giselle runs through February 5. kennedy-center.org

Washington Ballet returns to its new and improved 'Giselle' at the Warner

Eun Won Lee and Gian Carlo Perez in the Washington Ballet's Giselle (xmb Photography)

In some ways the Julie Kent era at Washington Ballet began with Giselle, the big classical story ballet on her first season in 2017. After two years of pandemic struggles, the company has brought back its artistic director's production of this romantic ghost story, described by Kent as "revised and refined," this time at the Warner Theater instead of the Kennedy Center's slightly larger Eisenhower Theater. The venue change brought with it some box office woes, as delays in picking up tickets delayed the start of the performance by a half-hour, problems that can hopefully be prevented going forward.

Other Reviews: Sarah L. Kaufman, Washington Ballet’s ‘Giselle’ brims with charm and musical delights (Washington Post, April 29) Other Productions: American Ballet Theater (2020) Bolshoi (2014) Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris (2012) Mariinsky (2011)

Eun Won Lee, the Korean étoile who came to Washington to dance for Kent, remained remarkable in the title role. She was equally fragile in both acts, a bubbly girl weakened by a bad heart. As one of the Wilis in the Act II ballet blanc she was less a vaporous spirit this time, it seemed, than a soul that yearned to be still corporeal, a living woman now just out of Albrecht's reach. Her Albrecht, the strong and nobly comported Gian Carlo Perez, in an admirable debut, seemed to see her but could not grasp her at first in that darkened second act.

To their credit Kent and her partner, associate artistic director Victor Barbee, have certainly captured the frightening side of the ballet's "Halloween" act. Adelaide Clauss glowered with menace in her debut as Myrtha, queen of the Wilis, the avenging spirits of wronged women. The absurdly pompous Hilarion of Oscar Sanchez, another fine debut, got his just deserts when the ghosts drove him to his agonizing death.

The most impressive debut came in the peasant dance scene in Act I, an extended pairing often used to feature rising dancers. The chipper Tamako Miyazaki danced with Rench Soriano, who joined the Washington Ballet studio company in 2019. He was compact and strong in this athletic choreography, all leg musicle and clean vertical line in his leaps. The corps bounced with fervor in the peasant scenes in Act I, changing into rigid, forbidding spirits in Act II. The surprise moment when their white veils are ripped away, pulled by strings into the wings, added to the aura of mystery.

Charles Barker, principal conductor of American Ballet Theater, returned to the pit in his ongoing collaboration with Kent. He presided over a stripped-down chamber arrangement of Adolphe Adam's score, which other than some occasional weakness in the strings (parts covered by only twelve musicians total) was remarkably effective. Nicolette Oppelt's flute and Ron Erler Fatma Daglar's oboe were highlights in the woodwinds, with fine contributions from harpist Nadia Pessoa and an ardent viola solo from Jennifer Ries in the touching Act II pas de deux. The horns and trumpets provided heraldic hunt sounds in Act I.

The Washington Ballet's Giselle runs through May 1 at the Warner Theater.

American Ballet Theater's Gothic 'Giselle'

Hee Seo and Cory Stearns in Giselle. Photo: Gene Schiavone
American Ballet Theater returned to the Kennedy Center Opera House this week with a Giselle heavy on the supernatural side of this classic work. The Wilis, the angry spirits of jilted maidens, should inspire fear, something that many productions miss in their fluffy, white softness. The ABT Giselle, the Coralli-Perrot-Petipa choreography staged by Kevin McKenzie, definitely hit its stride in the ghostly second act.

Other Articles: Sarah L. Kaufman, A ‘Giselle’ that whirls with unusual lyricism (Washington Post, February 12) ---, Ballet dancers have weird and quirky pre-show rituals that would put any sports star to shame (Washington Post, February 6) Carolyn Kelemen, Former Howard County ballerina is back at the Kennedy Center, this time as a soloist in ‘Giselle’ (Baltimore Sun, February 12) Gia Kourlas, Skylar Brandt: A Ballerina Invests in Herself (New York Times, February 6)

The company brought back the beautifully matched pairing of Hee Seo and Corey Stearns, who were so heart-breaking together in their Swan Lake in 2017. Seo had an ideal combination of characterizations for the role: pert yet shy as the lovestruck girl, unraveled and distraught when she learns that the lover who has stolen her heart is already engaged to another, and wispy as vapor as the cursed spirit. Besides the finely tuned dramatic sense, Seo's infallible technique put her among the finest Giselles seen here in the last decade, including EunWon Lee, Svetlana Zakharova, Aurélie Dupont, and -- still at the top -- Diana Vishneva.

Stearns was no less accomplished in either regard, his strong body lifting Seo effortless and forming beautifully delineated lines. The score, performed with panache by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, has rarely sounded this good, made more lush and polished in the orchestration by John Lanchbery, who died in 2003. Conductor Ormsby Wilkins, who did not seem in his element conducting a much more complex Strauss score in Whipped Cream in 2018, shaped each halting phrase of the love music with exquisite sensitivity, helping to make the Act II pas de deux so moving. At its climax, when Stearns held Seo perfectly still above him in effortless lifts, it was as if she floated above him in the spirit world, only temporarily visible to him.

The set design helped create the forbidding sense of a forest haunted by spirits, with lightning flashes behind a large hollow tree (scenery by Gianni Quaranta and lighting by Jennifer Tipton). It was the severe Myrta, Queen of the Wilis, of the tall and somewhat icy Devon Teuscher that brought out the harshness of the scene. The edge of her movements and sharp face seemed to inform the cold precision of ABT's well-drilled corps, all clad in the traditional white (costumes by Anna Anni). One could only feel sorry at the fate of Hilarion (the proud, defiant Roman Zhurbin) as he faced the implacable wall of these vengeful spirits.

Giselle runs through February 16 in the Kennedy Center Opera House, with different casts and conductors.

Washington Ballet's 'Giselle' from Julie Kent

Giselle, The Washington Ballet (photo by media4artists, Theo Kossenas)
We have covered the performances of Washington Ballet here and there over the years. The increasing lack of live music in recent years, as well as the preference of former director Septime Webre for theater-hybrid productions over classical ballet, often put them low on my list. At the beginning of this season Julie Kent took over as the company's director, joined by her husband, Victor Barbee, who also left American Ballet Theater to come to Washington as associate artistic director. So far this season Kent has led the company’s anniversary performance and slightly tweaked the beloved Septime Webre Nutcracker. The current production is the couple's restaging of the classic Marius Petipa choreography of Giselle, seen on Friday night in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Kent, who was born in Bethesda and once studied at the Academy of the Maryland Youth Ballet, has said that she aims to take Washington Ballet in a more traditional, classical direction, including performing whenever possible with a live orchestra. She has done both in this elegant Giselle, last performed in 2013. She has imprinted her experience dancing the title role on one of the three new dancers hired since her arrival, Korea's EunWon Lee, and she invited Charles Barker, principal conductor of American Ballet Theater, to conduct the small but mostly refined Washington Ballet Orchestra in the pit. Neither was the best we have seen or heard in this ballet in recent years -- the history includes Svetlana Zakharova with the Bolshoi, Aurélie Dupont with the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, and Diana Vishneva with the Mariinsky Ballet -- but the future is indeed bright for Washington Ballet in the Julie Kent era.

EunWon Lee was beautiful in the title role, frail and girlish in the first act and a chilling, emotionless specter in the second. In the eerie ballet blanc of the second act, she was ethereal, seeming to appear briefly in the eye of her distraught Albrecht, Brooklyn Mack, and then vanish again. When he was able to catch hold of her, she looked incorporeal, like a mysterious fog that trailed after in wisps. Her poise and stillness in the full lifts, a sign of Mack's impressive strength, were extraordinary. Mack excelled in high leaps, strength and agility trumping sensitivity, but small touches in his gestures made his anguish at the ends of both acts quite touching.

Other Reviews: Sarah L. Kaufman, Washington Ballet’s ‘Giselle’ marks company’s transformation (Washington Post, March 3) Alastair Macaulay, Review: ‘Giselle’ Bounds With Experience (New York Times, March 3)

Francesca Dugarte was an imperious Myrta, dominating the corps de ballet in the second act as Queen of the Wilis, with excellent supporting dances from Nicole Graniero and Stephanie Sorota. Corey Landolt was a strong and angry Hilarion, the huntsman who unmasks the deceitful prince, Albrecht. The corps de ballet danced with remarkable precision in the second act, the heart of this ballet, which included the whipping away of their veils by hidden cords (also seen in the Giselle from Paris).

The orchestra was stripped down to chamber size (6-4-3-3-2 in the strings, and with only two of the four horns and two of the three trombones indicated in the score by Adolphe Adam) and had a few insecurities, but by and large produced a lovely sound, guided expertly by Barker at the podium. The viola solo in the Act II Grand Pas de Deux was especially fine, a moment of musical wonder, presumably played by principal musician Julius Wirth.

Washington Ballet's Giselle runs through March 5, at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

'Giselle' from Paris

J. Homans, Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet (2010)

Giselle is one of the hinge works of the history of ballet. As Jennifer Homans puts it, in her comprehensive history of the genre, "La Sylphide and Giselle are bookends," works that grafted Romanticism onto the branch of Renaissance and Baroque ballet, creating the art form that we recognize today. "La Sylphide and Giselle were the first modern ballets," she continues. "We feel we know them because they are still performed, although in much-changed versions, but there is more to it than that. The French Romantics invented ballet as we know it today." So this week's visit by the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris to the Kennedy Center, performing their classic Giselle seen last night, was naturally one of the highlights of the summer.

As familiar as this ballet seems, the choreography has a very complex history. The original choreography was by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, in Paris in 1841, where the ending, as described by Homans, was a bit different from the version we know today. Carlotta Grisi created the title role, and Lucien Petipa created the role of Albrecht, a significant point because Lucien's brother, Marius Petipa, revived and modified the ballet in St. Petersburg, first in 1884, and refined it over the next two decades. It was in that form that Giselle came back to Paris, where the ballet had disappeared from the repertory, because Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes brought the Petipa version back to Paris in 1910. For that reason the Paris version, last updated by Patrice Bart and Eugène Polyakov in 1991, has much in common with the latest incarnation from the Mariinsky Ballet, seen last year at the Kennedy Center.

This was the first Washington appearance of Paris étoile Aurélie Dupont (the company last came to the United States in 1996), who was also an "incredibly captivating" lead in La Bayadère this season, according to dance critic Ariane Bavelier in Le Figaro. While Dupont's Giselle is not yet in the same class as the Mariinsky's star, Diana Vishneva, she brought some virtuosic dancing and remarkable dramatic power to the title role. Her shy hesitations in the love duet in Act I, partnered with the strong, tall Albrecht of Mathieu Ganio, were timed perfectly to the longing phrases of the score by Adolphe Adam. So innocent and frail, Dupont produced a mad scene that was not so much manic as fainting, making the ghostly echoes of the love scene in Act II, with a remembrance of the same music, even more tragic. Transformed into a Wili, the spectral shade of a jilted brides -- the inspiration for the libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier came from the poems of Heinrich Heine -- Dupont was like something made of air. Ganio's Albrecht, earnest and bewildered, could seemingly catch her for a moment, but her body moved liked wisps of vapor in his arms.

Other Reviews: Roslyn Sulcas, Visitors From France, Elegant and Precise (New York Times, July 8) Robert Johnson, Ballet with a French twist: Paris Opera Ballet makes its long-awaited return (Newark Star-Ledger, July 7) Sarah Kaufman, Paris Opera Ballet’s ‘Giselle’ soars at Kennedy Center (Washington Post, July 7) ---, ‘Giselle’ ends Paris Opera Ballet’s 19-year absence from the Kennedy Center (Washington Post, June 29) Sid Smith, Paris Opera Ballet's spellbinding 'Giselle' (Chicago Tribune, June 28) Hedy Weiss, Gorgeous, fluid Paris Opera Ballet triumphs with ‘Giselle’ (Chicago Sun-Times, June 27)

Marie-Agnès Gillot was an icy Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, frigid of face and gesture, rigid as a weightless statue as she floated en pointe in the Act II ballet blanc, her feet in tiny motions often lost in the fog. The corps de ballet danced with elegance and precision, looking patrician and polished even in the peasant scenes in Act I, making graceful waves of motion that were echoed in the arching phrases of music skilfully conducted by Koen Kessels. Especially unified and poised were the group of eight women, playing Giselle's friends in the first act, who were extraordinary to watch. This is a testament to the womb-to-tomb system in Paris: all three of the stars -- Dupont, Ganio, Gillot -- entered the Paris ballet school as teenagers and worked their way up through roles like these, learning each ballet from the inside out.

The sets, designed long ago by Alexandre Benois, were convincingly three-dimensional vistas, of two thatched huts in a glen in Act I, with a vista of Rhine valley Bergschlößer in the distance, and a haunted Romantic forest in Act II, with craggy limbs hanging down. The Wilis entered wearing veils, just as Heine described them, only to have them whipped off by hidden cords after a short while. The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra sounded in top form, after a somewhat uncertain start to the introduction music, taken very fast, responding well to the clearly presented ideas of Kessels. The solos for cello and viola were particularly poignant, and the whole ensemble, a few dicey moments aside, followed Kessels through the many odd detours of tempo fluctuation.

This performance will be repeated at the Kennedy Center through July 8. The company's North American tour continues at Lincoln Center in New York (July 13 to 19).

DCist: Diana Vishneva in 'Giselle'

See my review of the Mariinsky Ballet's production of Giselle, published at DCist today:

Mariinsky Ballet's Classic 'Giselle' (DCist, February 10):

The yearly visits by the Mariinsky Ballet -- as in their Sleeping Beauty in 2010 and Don Quixote in 2009 -- are generally one of the highlights of the Kennedy Center's dance season, and this is certainly true of this week's production of the St. Petersburg company's classic Giselle. It is a choreography and staging that are instantly recognizable as the best that the classical ballet tradition has to offer — especially the ballet blanc of the second act, pictured at right — giving the spectator a sort of mythic image of what ballet is. The dancing, going back to the turn of the 20th century and Marius Petipa's updating of the original choreography, focuses more on storytelling than on acrobatic athleticism. Although the lead roles especially are quite demanding, grace is the emphasis more than strength, or at least that is the way it should appear.

The libretto, created by Vernoy de Saint-Georges and French Romantic poet Théophile Gautier from a Germanic legend retold by Heinrich Heine, concerns a medieval love story gone bad. Prince Albrecht, betrothed to Princess Bathilde, disguises himself as a villager to woo an innocent peasant girl named Giselle. Although she is pursued by Hans, the local gamekeeper, Giselle falls desperately in love with Albrecht and dies of a broken heart when Hans reveals Albrecht's identity. In the second act, she reappears as one of the Wilis, spirits of dead girls abandoned at the altar. The Wilis, led by their queen, haunt men in the night, forcing them to dance to exhaustion and then drowning them in lakes. Both Hans and Albrecht fall into their trap, but Giselle sacrifices herself a second time to save Albrecht from doom. [Continue reading]

Adolphe Adam, Giselle
Mariinsky Ballet
Kennedy Center Opera House

Other articles:

• Sarah Kaufman, Mariinsky's 'Giselle': Less is more (Washington Post, February 10)

Mediocrity, Not Betrayal, Does Giselle In

Please note that earlier today, I misidentified the lead dancers in this review. Irina Golub and Andrian Fadeyev (neither seen nor reviewed) must be considered innocent. Olesya Novikova and Leonid Sarafanov, the other alternative couple, were reviewed (together with Pavleko/Kolb) by Jean Battey Lewis for the Washington Times.

The Kirov-slash-Mariinsky, fond of spreading its cultural riches far and wide – and surely not unaware of the benefits of hard currency – makes Washington, D.C., a regular stop on its tours. We are thankful, especially if Gergiev himself manages to lead the main band in enthralling performances (Verdi Requiem); truth be told, Washington is usually just as grateful even if they give us something from a lower shelf. And the Kirov knows that. Or so it seemed when they sent the Kirov Ballet to D.C., except that they forgot to ship the best soloists in.

We are not a culturally discriminating town and ought not complain that the best is withheld from us in favor of London, St. Petersburg, or Vienna – perhaps even New York – performances. The indiscriminate applause for just about any “scene” of Giselle (even at the fact that there was “fog” on stage for the second act), last Sunday, seemed to underscore that point. If, however, some audience members were curiously unmoved or not entirely convinced that Giselle is in fact one of the best, certainly most dramatic, classical (well, Romantic) ballets there is, well, it may have had something to do with Daria Pavlenko in the title role and Igor Kolb as Count Albrecht, the male lead.

The two displayed the kind of dancing that an expert ballet watcher will find full of flaws, fraught with sloppy execution, insufficient extension, insecure landings, and too little air. The more casual observer – and I count myself among them – merely wonders what the whole dancing business is all about; why people get quite so excited about Giselle, or any other ballet, for that matter, in the first place. Giselle has everything that should make it at the very least enjoyable: for a ballet of its time (1842), it has superior music (by Adolphe Adam; inferior still to Delibes or Tchaikovsky, but leagues above the kind professional hacks like Minkus churned out), suffers from a hackneyed story no more than ballets all tend to do (the fewer humans involved – Mandarin, Coppelia – the better it usually is for a ballet’s story-line; but that’s based on a rather flimsy survey of mine) and comes with its tried and true, ever popular Marius Petipa choreography (with a little Jean Coralli here, a little Jules Perrot there) from 1884, in a reconstruction of which the Kirov presented this work.

I need not be detailed in my particular feelings about any interpretive art form (like ballet or theater or opera) being offered in a way that carefully excised any and all hints of new ideas over the last 130 years – but in the combination with sub-par dancing it didn’t help the appreciation of this production. The morticians who applied the lovely (cliché-expectation fulfilling) set and costume design are Igor Ivanov and Irina Press. In this form, ballet has only an accidental relation with other art forms we cover at Ionarts, namely being the off-and-on paymaster – and occasionally inspiration – of some composers. Indulging so deliberately in the artificial, its stylized ways can be either entrancing to the newcomer, or more off-putting than the haughty, pompous, screeching world of opera. In fact, it makes your average Donizetti opera look like a study in dramatic realism.

Other Reviews: Jean Battey Lewis, Kirov bows after 'Giselle' (Washington Times, June 19) Sarah Kaufman, From the Kirov, A Bright and Buoyant 'Giselle' (Washington Post, June 19)

All this came to the fore because the listless performance of the lead dancers never managed to kindle the necessary suspension of disbelief; because neither Pavlenko nor Kolb managed to offer that extra bit of excellence that transports the viewer and enchants him or her. Instead, what Count Albrecht and - in this case - his rival Hans (Dmitry Pykhachev) delivered amounted to little more than homoerotic pantomime in tights. Both Giselle and Tavarisch Albrecht were artificial in the portrayal of their roles. One could tell they did not believe an iota of their character’s emotions, and consequently we ourselves refused to believe. Giselle did not go mad: she became, by turn of fate, surely, idiotic. To all that, Kolb was digging out every effeminate and affected stock-phrase in order to undermine even the last remnant of a sense of masculinity in his role, offering but a sad stereotype of ballet dancers rather than the real thing. It took only the fine Ekaterina Osmolkina and the exemplary Vladimir Shklyarov to show, if briefly, how ballet can be danced without succumbing to all these shortfalls, when they stole the show in the first act Pas de deux. Alina Somova’s Myrtha, too, was very good (if not great) in her regal potrayal – and unlike Giselle, the Fairy-Queen didn’t stumble.

On a more positive positive note the Corps de Ballet must be mentioned as having been very good – in the first scene even excellent. I grew up in a time when classical ballet – and by that we instinctively thought of the Kirov or Bolshoi as prime exponents – meant perfection, when symmetry was not something to be approximated but executed with machine-like precision. This is a skill that has all but disappeared, even from Russian troupes (the art only survives in synchronized swimming) – but here it faintly peeked through every so often. In that, these scores of girls were already better than anything I’ve seen of late. With their quality, they kept a tantalizing hope alive that was never fulfilled by the Kirov’s second or third string of soloists. Perhaps that hope would be better invested in the Kirov not shortchanging this little backwater town of ours, Washington, next season?