Varna International ballet

[Morechocmorechoc]

Has anyone ever seen Swan lake or the nutcracker with them? I saw another thread on here advising some companies were way better than other and don't want to chose incorrectly, but they are coming locally. Any thoughts would be welcome! Thanks

You can Google reviews of them. Principals look to be good, corps de ballet less so. Some reviews mention the orchestral playing is a bit dull. Also the scenery, etc could be better. Whether to go would also depend on the ticket price for me. Have a look whether anyone like the Royal Ballet is on at the cinema. That might actually be a better experience although the dancers aren't live on stage in front of you.

I don't know much about Varna international ballet as a company, but Varna is like the cultural capital of Bulgaria with loads of really good art, music and plays.

Has anyone seen them by any chance?!!

Bump for the evening crowd!

Hi

Don’t know whether this is far too late, but I saw their Swan Lake last year.

The principals were good, the corps OK, but the orchestra were really bad. Lots of missed entries in the wind section and it seemed that the orchestra was uncomfortable with the tempi in the first act, although this settled down. The string section was very small, and there was seriously poor intonation at parts throughout the ballet. Bad enough to be intrusive. The leader of the orchestra was exquisite in his solo though.

Initially I thought it might be because it was the first performance of Swan Lake, as they were also touring Giselle, but it wasn’t. Then I wondered whether they pulled together a scratch ensemble, but the orchestra tours with them.

I realise this is old but I was looking for reviews and couldn't find any and since I've just seen the Varna International Ballets performance of Romeo and Juliet, I thought I'd share to help future searchers.

I sorry to say I did not enjoy the production. The choreography was very "interpretive dancy" to the point that it was funny. Many of the dancers were not in sync, the sets sort of washed out, and the costumes weren't appealing to me. There were of course some good things. They did a good job of portraying the romance as young and immature, the death characters were genuinly scary, and mercutio was amusing. On the whole it wasn't good, particularly considering the price.

I wouldn't go to see any of their performances again and if someone asked me, I would not reccomend it.

Quite often with companies touring from overseas the sets are not great or pretty non existent because they need to be put up and down in a hurry. It may not be a big consideration for you and it depends on the ballet but I do quite enjoy an opulent set for a classical ballet.

@Henachoko really helpful thanks. Ballet fan here and we often get companies coming through (always Nutracker and Swan Lake) but sometimes not sure whether to risk it.

Ironically Varna is the home of a really famous ballet competition...not sure if its still going anymore. The past prize winners are a roll call of amazing dancers.

I saw their Swan Lake in Norwich last week and I thought for a touring company they were lovely.