Full house sees inspired ‘Swan Lake’ performance

Joe Delaney

Friday, March 28, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

This production of "Swan Lake" is an ideal choice to close out Nevada Dance Theatre's 25th season and a fitting farewell, hopefully only temporary, to founder and outgoing Artistic Director Vassili Sulich.

As we understand it, all six performances are sold out, but there are no-shows. It would be worthwhile, taking the chance that a seat might be available over the weekend.

From every standpoint, this is a world-class production. There are minor flaws, of course, in every show, especially on opening night. What few there might have been were completely lost in the overall quality of Thursday's performance.

Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's choreography; Denise Schultze and Louis Godfrey's staging; Peter Cazalet's outstanding costume and scenery design; Jose Ontiberos E.'s lighting; Ballet West's sets, costumes and props, plus the magnificent music of Tchaikovsky were the perfect complement for the performances onstage.

Clarice Geissel gave an award-winning interpretation as Odette, as did Irina Boitsova-Matiash as Odile, the Black Swan. Richard Bradley was Prince Siegfried in every respect. John Burdick's Von Rothbart was a hiss-able villain, and Sergei Popov's Jester was just right. The entire ensemble gave an inspired performance, warmly appreciated by the capacity crowd.

Four acts preceded by a prologue and two intermissions make for a long evening, but this time it didn't seem long at all. Nevada Dance Theatre gave us 2 1/2 hours extremely well spent. Time permitting, I would see it again this weekend. We're looking forward to NDT's next 25 years.

JOE DELANEY is a SUN entertainment critic.