'La Bayadere' by the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House

A couple of weeks ago we went to see the Mariinsky Ballet in their summer season at the Royal Opera House. Last summer it was the turn of the Bolshoi Ballet so it was a good chance to see another big Russian company. The Mariinsky used be called the Kirov Ballet and, before that, the Imperial Russian Ballet, so it has a lot of history. I'd never seen 'La Bayadere' before so this was an opportunity to see it danced.

'La Bayadere' has a paper-thin plot but that doesn't really matter when it's an opportunity to see some great dance sequences and, once it got started, there were plenty of those. I think of the first act as lots of arm waving and stately movements but not much dancing as we get the basics of the story. Act two had more dancing and act three was lushness itself with some non-stop glorious dancing.

It's the tale of the love of a temple dancer (the bayadere of the title) and a hunter in the forests of India and they swear their undying love over a sacred fire outside a temple. Unfortunately the head Brahmin also has feelings for the dancer so, when the the local Rajah wants the hunter to marry his daughter, the Brahmin spills the beans in the hopes he'll call off the marriage. The Rajah doesn't, but, rather, swears that the dancer will die. The dancer unknowingly dances the wedding feast of the hunter and the Rajah's daughter and is given a bowl of fruit with a poisonous snake inside that bites the dancer. The Brahmin has the antidote but the dancer chooses death. Our rather feeble hero then has a pipe of opium and dreams his way into the underworld to be reunited with his dancer. Some productions take the story further but that's the version the Mariinsky danced.

I expected exotic sets and costumes, exuberant dancing with lots of show-off bits (because that's how the Russians dance) and that's what we got, with a cast of thousands. It was the spectacle of the 'Dance of the Golden Idol' that really brought the ballet to life with the idol leaping unbelievably high into the air and staying there, defying gravity, while he posed and preened, quicksilver fast around the stage.

Then later we had the 'Kingdom of the Shades' with dancer after dancer appearing on stage working their way down a slight hill to reach the stage and create formations of beauty, all 32 of them (yes, I counted). It was a gorgeous, elegant sequence that went on and on, with the dancers wearing diaphanous sleeves to make them seem almost like shimmering swans (a heavy motif for ballet). I loved it as more and more dancers appeared and wended their way onto the stage to take up formation and dance beautifully, virtually perfectly synchronised in their movements. It was truly lovely.

Ten out of ten for the Mariinsky? No, not really. I thought they were better than the Bolshoi last year but still a bit technical and clinical - where was the humanity of our hero and heroine? Where was the love, the little tender moments between them? I really enjoyed it once it got going but I've been spoiled by the Royal Ballet. Isn't it lucky I live in London?