Russian drama travels overseas
What do Anna Karenina, Carmen Suite and The Little Humpbacked Horse have in common? All of the above have made it to New York where the signature Russian ballets will be presented at the summer festival.
ґRussia`s landmark Mariinsky Ballet Company has chosen two of its "most Russian productions of recent years" - Rodion Shchedrin`s ballets Anna Karenina and The Little Humpbacked Horse to take part in the annual festival at the Lincoln Center.
Needless to say, the tour will feature the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Gergiev. In the last 20 years, the Mariinsky Theatre has become a regular in the Big Apple, with memorable appearances in joint projects of the Metropolitan Opera and the Lincoln Center.
The festival at the Lincoln Center brings together a roster of opera, ballet, drama, dance, jazz and classical music stars from all over the world. One of its objectives is to familiarize American audiences with high caliber artists.
Over the last two years, companies and individual performers from over 50 countries have taken part in the festival.
Among the highlights of the festival this year is Rodion Shchedrin`s fairytale ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse, which the prominent composer created when still a student, back in 1955.
With cutting-edge choreography by Aleksey Ratmansky, the ironic performance blends fairytale themes with grotesque and avant-garde, with sets and costumes evoking direct allusions to Malevich and Kandinsky.
Shchedrin`s other ballet, Anna Karenina, gives a different idea of the "mysterious Russian soul" - her penchant for drama.
The tragic love story is interpreted by the leading light of Russian ballet - Diana Vishneva and Ulyana Lopatkina, as well as Yekaterina Kondaurova who was awarded Russia`s most prestigious theater award, the Golden Mask, for her delivery of Anna Karenina.
The Mariinsky tour in America will come to a close with 20th Century classics - George Balanchine`s one-act ballet Symphony in C set to music by Georges Bizet, and Alberto Alonso`s one-act Carmen Suite to music by Bizet and Shchedrin.
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