Bolshoi leaps over top for one hell of a show The Bolshoi Ballet in Le Corsaire at Brisbane's Lyric Theatre. Picture: Liam Kidston Source: Supplied DANCE Le Corsaire Bolshoi Ballet. Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, May 30. THE Bolshoi's taste and gift for the large gesture has no better example than Le Corsaire. It isn't just bolshoi - big - it is gigantic; an extravaganza that sets new standards for going over the top even before you get to the brief postscript, in which a pirate ship on stormy seas breaks in half. The show weighs in at about 3 1/2 hours, comes with a cast list that names nearly 50 dancers before we get to the corps, children and supernumeraries, and offers a version of the ballet that harks back to the days when the Russian court was the last word in luxury. Le Corsaire is a mad amalgam of stun-gun and sugar hit: resistance is futile. Through the years Le Corsaire has been tinkered with greatly so it's something of a Frankenstein's monster of a piece, including using the music of enough composers - seven, headed by Adolphe Adam - to start up their own guild. The result is a feast of melody, sounding exceptionally fine on Thursday with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pavel Sorokin. For this 2007 version Alexei Ratmansky, then artistic director of the Bolshoi, and Yuri Burlaka delved into original sources and added their own touches. The plot need not detain us long (the synopsis takes nearly 2000 words to explain it) but involves pirates, slaves, kidnapped maidens who couldn't be more cheerful or compliant, a harem, disguises and that shipwreck. It's a highly perfumed fantasy that's happy to deliver outrageous caricatures of Middle Eastern appearance and manners alongside a glittering stream of set-piece dances whose only aim is to delight with virtuosity or vivacity. It's tutu heaven, essentially, with women plucking an opulent new ensemble out of thin air at a moment's notice. The logic is that of the dream world and of imperial-era classical ballet. The spectacle is the thing, and nowhere more mesmerisingly than in the lengthy Act II scene known as Le Jardin Anime. A strictly organised garden is a metaphor for the hierarchies of ballet, cascading down from heroine Medora (Maria Alexandrova on Thursday) and seconda donna Gulnare (Nina Kaptsova) to the women of the generously stocked seraglio. Men are reduced to holding floral hoops in the background while the women - magisterial prima ballerina, lively solo ballerina, demi-soloists and the corps - present themselves to advantage and support one another in the sisterhood with some gentle partnering. The whole ballet could, in fact, be seen as a bouquet to the art of the ballerina. The men's big dance moments are fleeting and Vladislav Lantratov as Medora's pirate lover Conrad had an ordinary night, failing to deliver the thunderous impact one hoped for in his big solo. Alexandrova has a vivid, warm stage presence and the most beautiful arms, although didn't quite scale the heights of grandeur called for in Le Jardin Anime. Kaptsova's quick precision and spark lit up the stage and the Odalisques pas de trois was illuminated by Maria Vinogradova's quiet radiance and exquisite line. Not all the dancing hit the dramatic heights one might have anticipated from this storied company, but it's a hell of a show. Ends Wednesday. Tickets: $69-$244. Bookings: 136 246. Tomorrow Le Corsaire will be simulcast to theatres in Ayr, Bundaberg, Cairns, Gladstone, Mackay, Hervey Bay, Rockhampton and Toowoomba.