Laurencia

I have attended another performance at the beautiful Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater. I didn't take a picture before the performance started, but this one was taken during the break between the acts. Gives you an idea of how beautiful and grand the theater is as well.

This time it was a 2-act ballet, titled Laurencia, created in 1939 by a most famous Georgian ballet dancer and choreographer Vakhtang Chabukiani (1910-1992).

It was first performed in 1939 at the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Opera and Ballet Theater in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). During the Soviet times, contemporary ballet had to be as close to the classical Russian ballet as possible, with rigid structure and variations (think Swan Lake, Giselle, and the Nutcracker).

At the same time, there was a constant need to create new performances to highlight the achievements of the Soviet ballet, which would continue the traditions of the Russian ballet but also feature some historical lessons and class struggles. For Laurencia, Chabukiani turned Lope de Vega’s 1619 Fuenteovejuna play into a ballet. At its heart is a love story between a young Spanish village girl Laurencia and shepherd Frondoso which is interrupted by an evil military Commander, who after the beautiful Laurencia had rejected him and secretly married Frondoso, threw the latter to jail. Grief-stricken Laurencia shames the villagers into the uprising that ends with Commander's death by Frondoso and the happy newlyweds' reunification.

In the first years of its production, Chabukiani himself danced Frondoso. Coming from the Georgian dance tradition, he made sure to feature powerful male dance in the ballet. There are many solo variations by male dancers in it, as well as group male dances in battle and uprising scenes. In short, males in this ballet are not just support in pas de deux for females' spins and jumps. Their solo dances are just as formidable as females'.

Laurencia became so popular that in 1955 Georgia Film Studio made a black-&-white movie (later restored and colorized) based on it, with Chabukiani as Frondoso and the Georgian formidable prima ballerina Vera Tzignadze as Laurencia.

I have found the first part of the film on YouTube, and you can see Chabukiani's level of mastery right from the start, in the first whimsical scene, where he tries to profess his love for Laurencia and she playfully rejects him:

Note that Chabukiani was 45 at the time of making the movie, but you still can see the power and mastery of his dance.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Georgia became independent and made every effort to resurrect its own cultural traditions. As Chabukiani's legacy, Laurencia became a staple of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater repertoire, offered almost every season. Just like Keto and Kote opera, that I wrote about here, it became incredibly popular and I again found myself in the totally sold-out theater.

It was the most delightful performance. It preserved the original choreography by Chabukiani, but the libretto, new choreographic version and staging were done by our contemporary Nina Ananiashvili. This season, it also featured first appearances by Mariam Lomjaria as Laurencia and Lorenzo Lodi as Frondoso.

I wish I could take pictures or a short video of the ballet performance, but it was not allowed. I managed to snap one pic for the cover image and people were giving me judgemental looks. But if you ever attended a live ballet, you'd understand that a 7-minute standing ovation at the end is not given for bad performances.

I did manage to find another clip from the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theater, from an earlier 2017 performance, featuring the last appearance by the great prima Lali Kandelaki as Laurencia and Yonen Takano as Frondoso. It's the wedding dance the snapshot of which I managed to take, with Laurencia and Frondoso dancing in the middle, flanked by the other two couples.

If you are ever in Tbilisi during the opera and ballet season (September-March), I highly recommend that you attend any of their performances.