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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Alexei Ratmansky.
Cast: The Bolshoi Ballet, Maria Alexandrova, Maria Allash, Anna Antonicheva, Sergei Filin, Dimitri Gudanov, Yuri Klevtsov, Svetlana Lunkina, Vladimir Neporozhny, Marianna Ryzhkina, Galina Sepanenko, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Andrei Uvarov
Description: The famous Russian classical company returns to the UK, with a new staging by Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky, of the spectacular tale of love and deception, based on the poem by Lord Byron. Music by Adolphe Adam.
Trains: Tube: Leicester Square/Charing Cross 
, Tube / Bus: 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 77a, 88, 91, 139 
Phone: 0871911 0200
Website: www.eno.org
Email: access@eno.org
Pirates en pointe: the Bolshoi's extravagant new production of Le Corsaire
Gorgeous: Matvienko and Zakharova
When ballets are as big and as bonkers as Le Corsaire, all you can do is watch and wonder.
You shouldn't try to read the programme or fathom the plot, let alone keep tabs on which Greek maid loves what corsair, or how many times she is kidnapped, then rescued, then kidnapped again.
Don't attempt to work out where it's set, or when it happens, or whether it's a whizz-bang rom-com or grand morality tale.
This new Corsaire, premiered in Moscow a few weeks ago, hasn't worked it out either. The ballet is a riot of plot twists, mood swings, and flouncy trousers, with the pirates (corsairs) fighting each other, fighting the eunuchs and rescuing the slave girls.
It's Pirates of the Coliseum one minute, Sleeping Beauty the next, and Dido and Aeneas the next, a see-sawing that leaves you tired and baffled. The barminess, and marathon length (three-and-a-half hours), won't bother enthusiasts.
This is the Bolshoi, one of the biggest and best ballet companies in the world and it's in London for three weeks.
Even if this is over-long and emotionally slight, the dancers are dazzlingly good. Denis Matvienko, the corsair of the title, is poetry in tights.
His cashmere leaps and accelerating spins are gorgeous and give his character the oomph and enthusiasm the swashbuckler requires.
Long-limbed Svetlana Zakharova is less well cast as the heroine Medora.
An icily perfect, über-elegant dancer, she is a little too grand to portray the "young Greek woman" described in the programme.
But her pin-perfect spins are wonderful, even if she gives them more hauteur than emotional depth.
That's the rub. The production has oodles of style but almost no heart. The dancers play it big, somehow spurning the inherent comedy but skip the seriousness their grandness requires.
There is also, to London eyes, considerable cheesiness in the corps de ballet, with the odalisques so coy in Act II that you almost mistake them for Benny Hill playthings.
The plinky-plonky musical patchwork doesn't help, nor do the sets that seem to trip the dancers on every turn.
Much better was the pas de trois in Act II, with Anna Nikulina, Ekaterina Krysanova and Natalia Osipova combining both girlish charm and sensuous grace.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
A fabulous - if overly lengthy - evening. The quality of the classical dancing (from corps and solists alike) was wonderful in its academic clarity and although perhaps Zakhara could have been less of a 'ballerina' and more in character, she was so tirelessly effortless in a very demanding role that the sheer beauty and zest of her dancing soon made one forget the lack of histronics. Matvienko was magnificient in his showpieces with height and spin to spare when needed and remained an attentive partner throughout . The 'new boy' to look out for, Ivan Vasiliev, hinted at the bravura to come in Don Q and (hopefully) perhaps) as the Bronze Idol in Bayadere?
With such a new look at such an old ballet (the director eschews the escriptions 're-construction) it was fascinating to see points of reference with other wonderful old war horses. (ACT 1 shared remarkable similiarities with Don Q.) Act III could be trimmed of its rather insipid pas de deux; what it needs is a cracking male solo to inspire the audience. The final (protracted) shipwreck scene sat
oddly and, although spectacular, didn't really hit the spot as an ending. The Bolshoi orchestra - the big, powerful engine that drives the remarkable company with its uniquely energising sound - perfectly underpins these exceptional artists. Can't wait for the season to unwind. A great start.
- Clive Burton, London
