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| | Arts Calendar / February 23 / Ballet |
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 Comic ballet in two acts to music by Dmitry Shostakovich. 120 min. (with interval). Libretto by Adrian Piotrovsky and Fyodor Lopukhov. Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky. Designer: Boris Messerer. Music Director: Pavel Sorokin. The premiere of The Bright Stream took place in Leningrad Minor Opera and Ballet Theatre on April 4, 1935. Both audience and critics accepted the ballet eagerly so it was decided to be staged on the country’s main stage. It does not happen often that you burst out laughing while watching a ballet, nor is it common to see a male dancer in a tutu. Yet The Bright Stream has it all. This Soviet style ballet was banned in 1936 (it was seen as a a parody on happy Soviet life) and forgotten until Alexei Ratmansky revived it in 2003. It successfully premiered at the Bolshoi and now still amuses, surprises and enchants audiences in Moscow and abroad. The ballet has a vibrant and dark history. Although set in a collective farm, the dancing farmers, a cycling dog and men on pointe shoes did not amuse the Soviet leaders. The ballet was banned, the careers of composer Shostakovich and choreographer Lopukhov damaged and co-librettist Piotrovsky was sent to the gulag and never heard of again. When former Bolshoi Ballet director and choreographer Alexei Ratmansky came across the score in 1995 he was determined to get it back on stage again.
Boris Pokrovsky Chamber Stage  |
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