Big about small – Moskovskaya Pravda

On December 24, the documentary “Big. Season” about the behind-the-scenes life of the Bolshoi Theatre. The film includes exclusive interviews with Svetlana Zakharova, Vladislav Lantratov, Makhar Vaziev and other theater stars. Maria Chamberlain looked one of the first, and that’s what she found interesting.

It seems that we know everything or almost everything about the Bolshoi Theatre. About his scandals and intrigues, about stars and ticket prices. But few people think, see and know what a colossal work of a huge number of people is behind the worldwide fame and incredibly high level of the Bolshoi Theater – from decorators to tutors, from stage directors to orchestra inspectors.

Did you know that stage workers, for example, work three shifts and change and iron the curtain with a giant steamer at night? That the scenery of The Nutcracker is occupied by several huge refrigerators, the caravan of which travels around Moscow no worse than Santa’s trucks in the well-known advertisement? That acting directors meticulously work with singers on every intonation? After all, at the conservatory they teach you to sing, but they rarely teach you to play. What do corps de ballerinas always remember about the eversion foot, perhaps even in their dreams they hear the shouts of the head of the ballet troupe Makhar Vaziev, who personally monitors each one at all rehearsals? That one unfinished toe is capable of driving him into a frenzy, but that nowhere in the world is there a better corps de ballet? This is a constant factory of perfectionism, where if you are not the best of the best, then tomorrow ten more who are better than you will take your place.

No one is ready to give up such exhausting, but noble work. Because striving for the daily search for the ideal is almost a religion. This is what the new documentary is about. With a fresh, unbiased look that does not cover up shortcomings, but tries to see in each hero of the film an inner desire for development. This is what inspires you to work on yourself, no matter who you are and whatever you do. This is what fascinates the audience, who feel a huge return and return the spent energy with constant admiration.

There is no voiceover in the film, there are practically no stars, this is a new generation’s look at how the Bolshoi Theater lives, a huge organism where the efforts of everyone are invaluable.

Everyone has their own image of the Bolshoi Theater in their memory, no matter the time of Maya Plisetskaya or Natalia Osipova. It is interesting to see and realize what daily invisible feats are performed in order for it to be and remain the number one theater in the world.

Maria Chamberlain.