Published on Apr 16, 2018

Rating:

Genre: NCPA

Dates: May 22-25, 2018

Times: 7:30pm

Venue: Opera House of NCPA

Prices: 280, 380, 500, 680, 820, 960, 1080, 1280

Features: The Flame of Paris is a full-length ballet in four acts, choreographed by Vasily Vainonen to music by Boris Asafyev. From May 22nd-25th, The Bolshoi Ballet will presents the The Flame of Paris at Opera House of NCPA.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Flames of Paris is a full-length ballet in four acts, choreographed by Vasily Vainonen to music by Boris Asafyev based on songs of the French Revolution. The libretto by Nicolai Volkov and Vladimir Dmitriev was adapted from a book by Felix Gras. It was premiered at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad on 7 November 1932, with Natalia Dudinskaya as Mireille de Poitiers, Vakhtang Chabukiani as Jerome, Olga Jordan as Jeanne, Nina Anisimova as Thérèse, and Konstantin Sergeyev as Mistral. The conductor was Yuri Fayer.

The Bolshoi Ballet premiered the full work on 6 July 1933 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with Aleksey Yermolayev (Jerome), Anastasia Abramova (Jeanne), Nadezhda Kapustina (Therese) and Marina Semenova (Mireille de Poitiers).

The Bolshoi Ballet
In 1776, Prince Pyotr Urusov and English entrepreneur Michael Maddox founded a theatre company in Moscow. From this very date the history of the Bolshoi Theatre started: the first permanent company, the first professional music theatre that in the ensuing years acquired the status of the main stage of the country. Architects Osip Bove and Andrei Mikhailov later fronted the classicist building with eight Dorian columns, its portico surmounted by a bronze Apollo driving his four-horse chariot. At this stage the ballet company was comprised only 47 dancers.

From the very beginning the Moscow ballet had its specific features: "Moscow style" that was formed in the middle of the 19th century implied that acting play prevailed over pure dance. Don Quixote, which was taken from Moscow to St Petersburg, became a showcase of Moscow ballet.

Alexander Gorsky was at the head of the company at the first quarter of the 20 century. His choreographic ideas reflecting the spirit of his time stipulated a new rise of popularity of the Bolshoi Theatre. The history of these years includes experiments by Kasyan Goleizovsky who added a lot to the development of the Russian ballet, while from 1930s until the mid-1950 drama ballets prevailed: The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by Rostislav Zakharov, Romeo and Juliet by Leonid Lavrovsky were brought from Leningrad. Both Moscow stars – Olga Lepeshinskaya, Asaf Messerer – and Leningraders that entered the Bolshoi Company – Galina Ulanova, Alexei Ermolayev, Marina Semionova performed in these ballets.

A new rise of the "Bolshoi style" is the period of Yuri Grigorovich's directorship. He brought from Leningrad to Bolshoi his innovatory productions and created new versions of classical ballets (Spartacus, Ivan The Terrible). This was the time when the world famous duets appeared, such as Ekaterina Maximova – Vladimir Vasiliev,and Natalia Bessmertnova – Michail Lavrovsky.

The new stage opening in November 2002 contributed to a considerable enrichment of the repertoire: along with the classical masterpieces by Tchaikovsky and Glazunov a new contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev. Other new productions include three ballets on Shostakovich's music: The Bright Stream, The Bolt (both with Alexei Ratmansky's choreography) and The Golden Age by Yuri Grigorovich; ballets by Roland Petit, Léonid Massine and George Balanchine, A Midsummer Night's Dream by John Neumeier, Cinderella by Yuri Possokhov as well ballets by young choreographers created especially for the Bolshoi Theatre.

Now the Bolshoi presents to its public the Russian classics, including those from the 20th century; Western classics, again including recognized 20th century masterpieces; and specially commissioned works. In recent Bolshoi Ballet history, there are several examples of the latter: Misericordes produced by Christopher Wheeldon, Leonid Desyatnikov's Lost Illusions produced by Alexander Ratmansky, Laurent Garnier's dance piece and then One Thousand Years of Peace produced by Angelin Preljocaj with the participation of the latter's Company.

Tickets for The Bolshoi Ballet - The Flame of Paris are Available now!