The time of turbulence has come in Russian ballet

Loud resignations

The ballet companies themselves are also being reformatted, and their management is also undergoing major changes. Thus, the Ballet Moscow team will join the Stasik (MAMT), which at the very height of the season also changed its ballet director: the youngest ballet director in theatrical history, 24-year-old Maxim, replaced Laurent Hilaire, who left for the West Sevagin. And Hiler, in turn, replaced Igor Zelensky at a similar post in Munich.

Shaking and Big. On the day the special operation began, choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, a resident of the American Ballet Theater (ABT), left Russia, canceling his premiere at the Bolshoi, a ballet to music by Bach. Tugan Sokhiev, musical director and chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, followed him.

Nevertheless, the main theater of the country, with the exception of the Ratmansky ballet, fulfilled all its plans. The only pity is that an abundance of new products will not surprise the audience next season: the only big ballet premiere is The Queen of Spades to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky and Yuri Krasavin. The rest – Mikhail Fokine’s famous ballet “Chopiniana” and “Grand Classical Pas” from the ballet “Paquita” choreographed by Marius Petipa – are restorations of the well-forgotten old. However, they took this path already last season, restoring instead of the promised premiere of Ratmansky, Vladimir Vasilyev’s ballet Anyuta, beloved by the audience, was restored.

Ballet about the devil, mystical omens and horrors of the Bolshoi Theater

But the beginning of the theatrical season did not give any cause for worries, but ominous omens of impending trouble were already felt in the air … So, in the Bolshoi season began with a whole series of misfortunes, and therefore the fact that the first premiere of the season – the ballet “The Master and Margarita” in choreography by Edward Klug would take place, there was no certainty even on the eve of the scheduled show … The theater was shaken by “mystical” incidents: during the opera “Sadko” on the Historical Stage, a mimance artist died, who fell under a two-ton scenery that ran over him. Moreover, on the New Stage that day, the scene of the death of Berlioz was rehearsed and specifically the very place in Bulgakov’s novel where this character falls under a tram. Mystic and more!

A week and a half before the premiere, on the day of Michael the Archangel and the name day of the author of the cult novel, the fire safety button suddenly worked at night, and the stage of the Bolshoi was flooded with water. The premiere was in jeopardy, but the electronics were not damaged, and the performance still took place.

Naturally, even the famous flight of Margarita over Moscow was canceled at the very premiere “out of harm’s way”. In it, the ballerina was supposed to jump from a specially built springboard at the edge of the pool, but she was afraid of heights … But even without this jump, the premiere happened, and there were no incidents during the show: the chandelier did not fall, and the audience, after a session of black magic held on stage, unlike the heroes of Bulgakov’s novel, they left the theater dressed. And the premiere itself became an event of theatrical Moscow and an undoubted successful acquisition of the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater.

Not only the ballet itself turned out to be extremely successful, but also the scenography for it (set designer Marco Japel) – it was an abandoned pool and hinted at the outdoor pool “Moscow”, which in the 60-90s was located on the site of the one blown up by order of Stalin in 1931 year of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Director Edward Klug deciphered it this way: “totalitarian ideology is against the philosophy of Christianity, the artist is against the system, Stalin is against the Church and Bulgakov, and Pilate is against the philosophy of Yeshua.”

The last premiere of the 246th season at the Bolshoi was a program that had been expected for three years, but was canceled at the height of the pandemic. It consisted of three new ballets at once: “Made in Bolshoi” (“Made in the Bolshoi”) by Anton Pimonov, “The Seasons” – premiered by the Bolshoi Theater Artemy Belyakov and “Dancemania” by Vyacheslav Samodurov. The biggest success here fell to two: “Made in Bolshoi” and “Dancemania”. The main task of Anton Pimonov in the first ballet was to create, if not a ceremonial, then an everyday portrait of the famous troupe. And the main character here, of course, is not a premiere or beautifully dancing soloists, but a corps de ballet.

“Dancemania” could also be called “Made in Bolshoi”, because only the artists of this theater can dance such choreography anyway. In the new ballet, everything goes off scale from wild and unbridled energy: the luxurious “high-voltage” score by Yuri Krasavin, the well-thought-out driving choreography with its “powerful collective release of energy”, the frenzied motor skills of the Bolshoi soloists.

Mahar Vaziev moves artists up the career ladder

In general, work in the main theater of the country was in full swing, and the 246th season in ballet became, although one of the most problematic, but also one of the most fruitful. The problems were primarily related to the artists: after the February events, several foreigners left the troupe, the theater lost both the prima ballerina Olga Smirnova, who became the prima ballerina in the National Ballet of the Netherlands, as well as her premiere, the Italian Jacopo Tissi, the best dancer in the world today. But in La Scala, the artist who left has so far moved only to the position of a guest star and has not become a permanent member of the troupe. And everyone hopes that he will return to the Bolshoi, as foreign artists who had previously left have already returned to our ballet theaters.

As before, the course of the head of the Bolshoi Ballet Company Makhar Vaziev is aimed at attracting young talented performers to the theater and their further promotion. Based on the results of the Bolshoi International Competition, they say that Makhar Khasanovich successfully negotiated the transition from Munich to the Bolshoi for the unique dancer Dmitry Vyskubenko, who won a silver medal. And now attention: the dancer is expected to open the ballet season at the Bolshoi in September, appearing as Prince Siegfried.

Meanwhile, in the troupe over the past season, there have been many career moves: Alexandra Trikoz moved from the corps de ballet to the rank of soloist, Arina Denisova and Dmitry Smilevsky became the first soloists. Interestingly, the latter received a promotion even before his victory (gold medal) at the most prestigious Moscow competition.

The season turned out to be rich for such wonderful dancers as Mark Chino and Mikhail Kryuchkov. Moreover, the latter participated literally in all ballet premieres in a row: he was the unforgettable Ivan Bezdomny in The Master and Margarita, without a break and every day he danced in all the casts of all three new ballets of the July program. But, despite the significant solo repertoire and success with the public, both continue to be listed in the corps de ballet.

Makhar Khasanovich strengthened the troupe and the leading soloists: they were two girls, still recent graduates of the Moscow Academy of Choreography, Elizaveta Kokoreva and Eva Sergeenkova, who is now called the “future” and “hope” of the Bolshoi Theater, and her debut in the part that all ballerinas dream of in the world – Odette-Odile in “Swan Lake”, this season has become a sensation.

Alena Kovaleva and Yegor Gerashchenko were elevated to the rank of prime ministers at the end of this season. Both were invited to the troupe of the Bolshoi, and Kovalev immediately to the leading positions. Yegor Gerashchenko’s career advancement turned out to be even super-fast: last season he became the first soloist, at the beginning of the current one he was the leading soloist, and at the end of the season he became the premiere.

“Romeo and Juliet” by Konstantin Bogomolov is another major hit of the season

You can’t call calm this season the life of the Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Here, too, fundamental changes continue. Last season, the general director of the theater changed (Anton Getman was replaced by Andrey Borisov), and this season, the artistic director of the ballet.

The last high-profile premiere of the theater under the direction of Laurent Hilaire was the ballet Romeo and Juliet, directed by Konstantin Bogomolov and choreographed by Maxim Sevagin. This production became the most sensational and successful ballet of the past season. The infamous director turned to ballet for the first time and, of course, came up with many surprises. The traditional Bogomolov titles for performances in the style of Wilde’s witticisms are an old ballet tradition, so they have their place in the ballet. But I must say that this performance is based solely on the director’s tricks. Maxim Sevagin’s very beautiful and inventive choreography was enough for just one act. And already on the second one, it was felt that the young choreographer was exhausted …

New ballets of the new artistic director

Unfortunately, without a director’s supervision, the choreography of the 24-year-old Sevagin, who became the new director of the Stasika ballet in March, loses in many ways. This became clear already at the second premiere of the season, an evening of one-act ballets, in which the young artistic director staged the ballet “There is no one more just than death”, choosing complex music for it – “Concerto for harp and orchestra” by the Argentine Alberto Ginastera, who is called in the world “Mozart 12 -tone technique.

In fact, the plans of the Musical Theater for this summer were completely different. But due to all known circumstances, with the arrival of a new artistic director, they changed. Initially, two evenings were planned, which would include ballets by such world-famous choreographers as the classic of American choreography Jerome Robbins, the famous experimenter William Forsyth, and the Israeli Sharon Eyal. After the huge success of her ballet Autodance, which won the Golden Mask, the world-famous director herself expressed a desire to work with the troupe.

However, due to the current situation in the world, instead of two premiere evenings, there was one, and the production of Eyal was postponed indefinitely. However, we found our own craftsmen who could replace it, because Vladimir Varnava’s ballet “On Nature”, shown in the first part of the premiere evening, is a clear modification of Eyal’s productions, created under the influence of the unusual style of this choreographer. Barnabas took something from her, and something from others, added his own imagination, and it turned out to be a very good ballet, based on the poem of the ancient Greek philosopher and physician Empedocles “On Nature”.

And Kekhman puts on “Swan”

As always, the Mikhailovsky Theater, which opened its 189th theatrical season as one of the first in the country, should also be included in the ranking of the best ballet productions of the season. And immediately with a loud premiere – the famous ballet by Alexander Radunsky to the music of Rodion Shchedrin “The Little Humpbacked Horse”. In this performance, Maya Plisetskaya once appeared on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in the role of the Tsar Maiden, and Vladimir Vasilyev in the part of Ivan, and all theatrical Moscow was eager to see him. Now the legendary ballet in St. Petersburg has been restored by Mikhail Messerer, heir to the famous ballet dynasty. And the “Humpbacked Horse” appeared in a new ultra-modern theatrical design, transformed, rejuvenated. Just as the hero of this fairy tale Ivanushka was transformed, having bathed in turn in three cauldrons.

Another hit of the season, produced in Mikhailovsky, is Swan Lake. “If you want to create a successful ballet, call it Swan Lake,” George Balanchine, the founder of American ballet, liked to repeat. The artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater Vladimir Kekhman decided to follow this practical advice, which ultimately brought great financial benefits. And he released the second premiere of this season – “Swan Lake” edited by his famous artistic director Nacho Duato.

The venerable Spanish modernist choreographer, like a true Soviet choreographer, continues to revise the Russian classical heritage. And after The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and La Bayadère, he “edited” the ballet of ballets, and in the next season he already announced Don Quixote.

From Nacho Duato it was natural to expect all sorts of extravagances in the same spirit as Bogomolov. But, as was already the case in all other cases with the editions of the classical heritage, which the Spanish choreographer managed to stage during his leadership of the ballet troupe at the Mikhailovsky Theater, he did not take any radical steps to change the classical choreography. So the experiment with the classic Don Quixote, a ballet with many Spanish dances, which the Spanish director considers pseudo-Spanish in essence, is awaited by everyone with great interest.