Search the Community

Per the Bolshoi Theatre's Instagram, the premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's The Art of Fugue has been postponed. It will be replaced with performances of Don Quixote.

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I got this email from Trafalgar Studios with details of new cinema cultural events. Some of them are plays and Metropolitan Opera season but there is the 2021/22 Bolshoi ballet season as well. https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/inbox/id/AQMkADAwATYwMAItZGQAMzQtOTFjMC0wMAItMDAKAEYAAAO%2FXQFqTsSFTrjvHgqOeEmSBwCPA1%2Fr9w2lRZyeVAuTnF7CAAACAQwAAAB4WvjRaiXXTIQShAX9COQgAAP%2FRTZNAAAA If this doesn't work (it is linked to my email) this is the Bolshoi link. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FhxDwQIygZV9rHUGy69T83cS02Yn8NH-/view Spartacus Nov 7 2021 Nutcracker Dec 19 2021 Jewels Jan 23 2022 Swan lake Mar 6 2022 Pharaoh's daughter. May 1 2022

Jacopo Tissi and Igor Tsvirko have both been promoted to Principal dancer. Congratulations to them.

Just back from seeing Spartacus at my Picturehouse and it was great, despite a technical break-down in act 3- which, thank goodness, sorted itself out eventually. It was delightful to be back in Moscow again and the interviews- with some old footage as well this time- were excellent. Not my favourite ballet but, after such a long hiatus, it somehow suited the mood for me: a bit of over the top, full-on emotional overload.....

I've opened this thread for discussion of WBD 2021, so anything which isn't simply information should go here please. Thanks!

If anyone went to see The Golden Age today and wants to discuss, please use this thread. Thanks.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Yuri Grigorovich's famous masterpiece, A Legend of Love, and the Bolshoi is presenting it five times this month. I'm a particular fan of the young, captivating and highly talented Alena Kovaleva, who has risen fast having been given the coveted Odette/Odile from Swan Lake almost upon her arrival. Now she just debuted as Queen Mekhmene Banu (the lead) partnered by Jacopo Tissi with the lovely Anna Nikulina as Princess Shireen, her sister. I am reading what seems to be a very nice review by Inna K at the Bolshoi oriented Balletfriends, Большой - Балет и Опера, Forum. Not wanting to rush through, I'm stopping here to post two Google translated quotes. "I will say right away that I really liked her Mekhmene...." And most touching and important to me: "As a simple spectator, I am guided by a very simple criterion - it touches the soul or not, and in this case Mehmene convinced me from the very first minutes of her appearance". I may write some more at another time. I do wish her much success with this and her entire career. http://forum.balletfriends.ru/viewtopic.php?t=9480&start=135 Google translate -- https://translate.google.com

According to the Bolshoi's Twitter feed 3 members of the Company have been awarded honours by the State. The translation reads:- For his great contribution to the development of Russian culture and art, many years of fruitful activity, the honorary title "Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation" was awarded to the conductor of the orchestra Pavel Klinichev and the ballet troupe's premieres Artem Ovcharenko and Semyon Chudin. Congratulations! Congratulations to Pavel, Artem and Semyon!

The Bolshoi have announced three cinema broadcasts for next season, all obviously recordings. 4 October + Romeo and Juliet 1 November + La Dame aux Camelias 20 December - The Nutcracker They are obviously hoping to be able to broadcast some live in 2021 as they haven't announced any thing further. Let's hope they can.

The Bolshoi loaded their full Spartacus production today on youtube. Svetlana Zakharova as Aegina. Mikhail Lobukhin as Spartacus Anna Nikulina as Phrygia Svetlana Zakharova as Aegina. https://youtu.be/TvZ0XXY1uHU

Its certainly a boon time for Ballet companies putting up on the internet past performances of their ballets, below are a three Stuttgart Ballet's "The Sleeping Beauty" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GDNAN6x-C4 Teatro San Carlo The Nutcracker (with Vadim Muntagirov and Lauren Cuthbertson) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVTr1oxbFs&t=14s Cinderella Act 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DauSAFpSApI Act 2 and 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgEHoSIALYU&t=9s We all need a bit of light in such trying times

Well, I'm afraid it wasn't a flawless broadcast of Raymonda today at the cinema I went to: in addition to numerous (and seemingly regular) gaps in the audio (and often video) of about one second, we had two long losses of picture and sound, one in each of the first two acts. One of them resulted in the screen becoming more horribly pixelated than anything I'd seen since the motherboard on my new laptop failed about a decade ago I hope others fared better. Technical issues apart, I'm afraid I found myself nodding off several times during Act I: not sure to what extent that was due to the very dark set. The third act is quite different in many respects from the Raymonda Act III which the Royal Ballet are currently performing, in particular due to the lack of solos for the supporting dancers - presumably these were given earlier in the ballet, perhaps in the bits I was unable to view. Certainly, the only additional solo was for either Clémence or Henriette, which I thought was a bit odd - I did entertain the thought that one of the dancers might have injured herself and so her solo was simply omitted without comment. It has to be said that it looks a lot more expansive on the Bolshoi's far more spacious stage.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this news, in which case a moderator will move it, but I don't think anyone has listed the Bolshoi Live ballets to be seen next season. They will be: 2019 Raymonda, 27 October Corsaire, 17 November Nutcracker, 15 December 2020 Giselle, 26 January Swan Lake, 23 January Romeo and Juliet, 29 March Jewels, 19 April Apologies if someone has already posted.

This evening is the premiere of Ratmansky's new Giselle for the Bolshoi. This news video is in Russian so even though I can't understand it's still interesting to see the costumes and staging. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&sp=nmt4&u=https://tvrain.ru/teleshow/vechernee_shou/meldonij_dlja_balerin-497766/&xid=25657,15700023,15700186,15700190,15700256,15700259,15700262,15700265,15700271,15700283&usg=ALkJrhij0y84wnEnM-Z0c4iIy9RMP_FSFg

Pathé Live is showing the 2019-20 season of Bolshoi broadcasts, but for some reason only in French at the moment: https://www.pathelive.com/programme/ballet-du-bolchoi-19-20

You need to register http://media.bolshoi.ru/login enjoy!

Countess Sybil de Daurice Ekaterina Barykina Raymonda, сountess' niece Olga Smirnova Andrei II, the King of Hungary Alexander Fadeyechev Knight Jean de Brienne, Raymonda's fiance Artemy Belyakov Abderakhman, Saracen knight Igor Tsvirko Clemence and Henriette, Raymonda's girlfriends Anastasia Denisova Maria Vinogradova Bernard and Beranger, troubadours Klim Efimov Ivan Poddubnyak Seneshal Nikita Elikarov Two Knights Dmitry Efremov Egor Khromushin "Raymonda's daydreams" Bruna Cantanhede Gaglianone Alexandra Trikoz Ana Turazashvili Angelina Vlashinets Victoria Yakusheva Xenia Zhiganshina First Variation ("Raymonda's daydreams") Antonina Chapkina Second Variation ("Raymonda's daydreams") Eleonora Sevenard Saracenic Dance Nina Biryukova Evgeny Triposkiadis Spanish Dance Anastasia Ermolaeva Kristina Karasyova Mazurka Anna Balukova Anton Savichev Hungarian Dance Oxana Sharova Vitaly Biktimirov Grand Pas Olga Barichka Antonina Chapkina Olga Kishnyova Ekaterina Smurova Alexandra Trikoz Victoria Yakusheva Ekaterina Zavadina Xenia Zhiganshina Ivan Alexeyev Batyr Annadurdyev Anton Gaynutdinov Alexei Gaynutdinov Fuad Mamedov Artur Mkrtchyan David Motta Soares Maxim Surov Four Cavaliers' Variation Aleksei Khamzin Ivan Poddubnyak David Motta Soares Denis Zakharov Variation (Grand Pas) Elizaveta Kokoreva Conductor Pavel Klinichev

Well, I'm assuming that the run of the Bolshoi's Swan Lake starts at the Royal Opera House tonight, so here's your chance to discuss it in detail.

Due to my getting an upgrade, SCS D4 now available for Bolshoi Don Quixote matinee on Saturday August 17th. £15 Paper ticket. I will be attending so handover not a problem. Peter

So, a brief run of Ratmansky's The Bright Stream starts tonight. If you're lucky enough to have a ticket, do let us know how it goes!

It's far too late to be writing on the forum but I still haven't come down from seeing the first performance of Spartacus tonight (or rather, last night!) It was superb. It's a long while since I saw it (with Irek Mukhemadov in the nineties) and this production seemed very different. I was expecting to be dazzled by the quality of the dancing but was surprised at how moving it was. Denis Rodkin was not only bold, brave and athletic but also tragic and convincing in his love for Phrygia, played with vulnerability and passion by Anastasia Denisova (of whom I've not heard before). Belyakov enacted Crassus in an appropriately bombastic manner, and took full advantage of being able to snog Svetlana Zakharova at every opportunity Zakharova was just wonderful. I always think of her as rather sweet, dignified and virginal (as in her Aurora) but here she embodied a cruel and cunning courtesan with every well-honed muscle. She was probably the oldest dancer on stage but also the most lithe. Of course, this ballet is a typical Bolshoi warhorse and suits their style perfectly. The production is ageing well - I think Virsaladze's design still looks fresh (whereas his Swan Lake could do with an update maybe). The orchestra was seriously good. Every male dancer looked extraordinarily handsome - especially Denis Rodkin! And he seemed to enjoy his time on stage so much. He was captivating. The whole evening was beautiful and worth the ticket price (£180 something pounds!) as I will remember it for the rest of my life.

The casting for the Bolshoi’s summer season at the ROH is now posted on the ROH website. Some unexpected pleasures, and a few (not unexpected) disappointments.

Paris Opera Ballet: Thanks, Bruce! I'm not sure what the geographic spread of these outside France is, but thought we should record it anyway.

It was good to see the Bolshoi's La Sylphide- a ballet I haven't seen for years, with the most beautiful woodland set from Peter Farmer. We were told that Johann Kobborg was watching this, his production, from a cinema in London. Worth it anyway for Semyon Chudin with his lovely line, impeccable feet and that lopsided smile. Does anyone know what went wrong in the interviews? Anna Balukova (Madge) was being interviewed by Katie Novikova , but with her eyes constantly in the wings and a growing sense of unease, and then she cut the question short rather brusquely, it seemed, and dashed off. A bit disconcerting.

Dear Followers, Following an unanticipated cast change, we are delighted to announce that Principal Artists of the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet Igor Tsvirko and Kristina Kretova, who joined LRBS for 'A Sleeping Beauty Fairytale' last November, will once again perform alongside students of the school and the Young Lambeth Performers. 'La Bayadère meets La Fille Mal Gardée' With Kristina Kretova and Igor Tsvirko, Principal Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet and Students of London Russian Ballet School 7.30pm 26th April 2019, Cadogan Hall Book Tickets <- Kristina Kretova and Igor Tsvirko in Flames of Paris, Bolshoi Theatre 2018 An evening of Classical Ballet with contemporary asides LRBS Young Lambeth Performers will perform on stage with the Bolshoi Artists. Over 130 children from Lambeth will attend the performance for free. Join us and the Principal Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet in an evening of La Bayadére, La Fille mal Gardée and contemporary asides. Make an evening of ballet possible for one child by donating £20 Donate £30 or more to the cost of rehearsing the children for the performance or for general costs Donate Copyright © 2019 London Russian Ballet School and Kids Love Lambeth, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have attended London Russian Ballet School or you are an Ambassador of Kids Love Lambeth and we would like to invite you to our future performances. Our mailing address is: London Russian Ballet School and Kids Love Lambeth 42, Clapham Manor Street London, London SW4 6DZ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.