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Classical Ballet Evening of one-act Ballets: Chopiniana. Carmen-Suite. The Lesson.
World famous Bolshoi Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1776) - Small Stage


Schedule for Evening of one-act Ballets: Chopiniana. Carmen-Suite. The Lesson. 2022

Composer: Georges Bizet
Composer: Frederick Chopin
Choreography: Mikhail Fokine
Music Director: Pavel Sorokin
Composer: Rodion Shchedrin
Choreography: Alberto Alonso
Designer: Boris Messerer
Designer: Vadim Ryndin
Music Director: Yuri Fayer
Light Designer: Alexander Rubtsov
Choreography: Flemming Flindt

Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra

Chopiniana

Ballet in one act
to music by Frederic Chopin

Premiered on October 31, 1958.

ChopinianaFrom the History of the Ballet

Chopiniana is the first of Mikhail Fokine`s masterpieces. The twenty-six-year old choreographer composed it for one of the usual charity performances, which were organized in Petersburg in their hundreds, in order to add novelty to a classical repertoire that set the teeth on edge. But if today we were to see the Chopiniana that was presented on February 10, 1907, we would not recognize it: it consisted of four little genre scenes to the music of a polonaise, nocturne, mazurka and tarantella, orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.

In the Polonaise, Poles danced with great verve in a ballroom. In the Nocturne, Chopin himself wrestled with his nightmares and met his muse amidst the ruins of a monastery. In the Mazurka, a girl, who was being forced to marry an old man, eloped with her sweetheart. The Tarantella was danced in Italian costume against the background of Vesuvius. At Fokine`s request, Glazunov orchestrated, specially for the occasion, one more piano piece by Chopin, the 7th Waltz.

Anna Pavlova, whose exquisite appearance brought to mind the age of romantic ballet, danced in this waltz the role of the Sylphide, a sublime dream, eluding The Youth`s grasp. The choreographer-revolutionary who had spent his entire life fighting against absurdity in ballet, found in the romantic age a model of spirituality and poetry. Inspired by the images of the great romantic ballerinas of the XIX century and by Anna Pavlova`s dancing, a year later he created a new version of Chopiniana.

The premiere took place at the Mariinsky Theatre on March 8, 1908. In it the brilliant Polonaise served but as an overture, forming a counterpoint to the elegiac mood of the overall ballet which consisted of: the Nocturne, 11th Waltz, a Prelude, two Mazurkas, 7th Waltz and 1st Waltz, forming the coda. The work had no plot. It just conveyed the mood of reverie and light melancholy, condition, veering between dream and reality, of The Youth-poet, who had found himself in the world of the Sylphides. The choreographer found an ideal cast for the premiиre: the main roles were danced by Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky. And in 1909 they conquered Paris in this ballet during the first of Diaghilev`s Russian Seasons.

Chopiniana at the Bolshoi Theatre

ChopinianaIn the hundred years of its existence, only very rarely Chopiniana has been performed by dancers with enough sensitivity to convey its stylistic nuances. The ballet occupied a very special place in Galina Ulanova`s career: she chose Chopiniana for her examination performance at the Leningrad ballet school, an occasion which introduced a unique lyrical dancer to the world of ballet, and it was in this same work that she gave her farewell performance at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Chopiniana had its Bolshoi Theatre debut in 1932, but soon after this it was dropped from the repertoire and it was not until 1958, thanks to the Leningrad choreographer, Yekaterina Heidenreikh, that it was returned to the Theatre on a more or less permanent basis. Since then not one outstanding Moscow ballerina or lead male dancer has passed the work by.

A real sensation was the 1961 debut in the ballet of Natalia Bessmertnova who, several years later, was to acquire an ideal partner in Alexander Bogatyrev. The following are among the dancers who have given acclaimed performances in Chopiana: Raisa Struchkova, Marina Kondratieva, Yekaterina Maximova, Lyudmila Semenyaka, Nikolai Fadeyechev, Maris Liepa, Boris Khokhlov, Alexander Godunov, Nina Ananiashvili, Alexei Fadeyechev. And today too Chopiniana remains a much desired work with the new generation of Bolshoi Theatre soloists.

Anna Galayda (text from the handbook, abridged)

  • Characters and performers

    Carmen-Suite

    Ballet in one act
    to music by Georges Bizet and Rodion Shchedrin
    Carmen-Suite

    For the first time entered the repertory of the Bolshoi Theatre on April 20, 1967.

    Revived on November 18, 2005.

    Libretto Alberto Alonso based on the story Carmen by Prospero Merime

  • Characters and performers




    Additional information

    Carmen-Suite Carmen-Suite Carmen-Suite Carmen-Suite Carmen-Suite Carmen-Suite Carmen-Suite

    Lesson

    "The Lesson" Based on the play La Lecon by Eugene Ionesco

    Part of the Kings of Dance project

    Choreographer, scenographer, costume and lighting designer - Flemming Flindt

    The ballet is of special interest in that it requires huge powers of dramatic expression from the soloist dancing the role of The Teacher.

  • Characters and performers

    Flemming Flindt - Danish dancer and choreographer. He made his debut as choreographer in 1963 with The Lesson. Following its transmission on Eurovision, the ballet received the Italia prize for best European television musical work of the year. In April 1964, The Lesson had its Paris debut at the Opera Comique and, in October of the same year, its Copenhagen debut at Royal Danish Ballet.
    As artistic director of RDB (1966-78), Flindt built up an "unconventional" repertoire: The Young Man Must Marry (mus. Per Nergad), The Miraculous Mandarin (mus. Bartok), Three Musketeers (mus. Delerue), The Triumph of Death (mus. Koppel); and he re-staged Bournonville’s La Sylphide and Toreadoren. He did new versions of the classics - Swan Lake and Nutcracker. He was the first to introduce Glen Tetley, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor to Europe. In 1978, he formed his own company. Among his other ballets are The Overcoat (mus. Shostakovich) and Death in Venice for Rudolf Nureyev, Legs of Fire (mus. E. Norby).
    He was a jury member of the two first International Ballet Competitions in Moscow.



    Schedule for Evening of one-act Ballets: Chopiniana. Carmen-Suite. The Lesson. 2022


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