ANANIASHVILI IN TWO ‘GISELLE’ ROLES

Giselle in the afternoon, Myrta at night: That was the challenge facing Nina Ananiashvili on Saturday in two performances of the Bolshoi Ballet “Giselle.”

At the matinee, Ananiashvili returned to the title role (which she had danced Thursday) opposite a new Albrecht: Andris Liepa. A callow, mannered actor and an effortful partner, Liepa only fitfully achieved the rapport with Ananiashvili needed for the moonstruck communion-beyond-the-grave adagios of the second act.

When lifting Ananiashvili, Liepa could not make her seem weightless (much less incorporeal), and his strain soon loomed larger than the expressive priorities of the ballet. He soloed powerfully, even nobly, but inevitably diminished the character and the relationship with Giselle through endless head-tossing, wrist-flapping and other indulgences.

Perhaps as a result, Ananiashvili’s own performance in nearly all the passages with Albrecht suffered in comparison with the “Giselle” she danced two days earlier with a relatively unaccustomed partner, Alexei Fadeyechev.

Among the afternoon forces, Andrei Buravtsev joined Marina Nudga for the breeziest, most accident-free and evenly matched peasant pas de deux in all the Bolshoi “Giselle” performances.

Saturday evening, Ananiashvili protrayed the pitiless queen of the Wilis in an otherwise familiar cast.