|
The Museum of Music in the Sheremetev Palace
August 1 – October 30, 2008
Exhibition "Two ballet stages of Russia" is a joint work of Bolshoi Theatre and Saint-Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music. The sponsors of the exhibition aimed to reveal the originality of two leading ballet troupes and for the first time show different objects from two collections.
It was an uneasy task to present the dynamism of ballet through the static objects of the exhibition. But visitors looking at different items of the dance art can compose a portrait of a performance and probably to know some features of its choreography. In fact, the exhibition tells about great masters of ballet of two capitals of Russia.
On 17 may 1896 in Moscow one act ballet "The Pearl" with the choreography by M. Petipa and music by Riccardo Drigo was created for the festivities held at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre in honor of Tsar Nicholas II's coronation. For the first and the last time the grand masters of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg ballet performed together.
More than 100 years have passed since that time and now there is the reunion but at this time in the halls of the exhibition. Heroes of this unusual and rare exhibition are ballets of the same name performed at different time on the stages of Saint Petersburg Mariinsky and Moscow Bolshoy theatres and played an integral part in the history of two main ballet stages of Russia and history of ballet art on the whole. The stage life and history of these performances could be the plot of a thrilling story but for the attentive visitor the displayed items of the exhibition, sketches, costumes, stage models, photos and sculpture portraits of the ballet dancers, stage properties tell their stories themselves. All displayed objects from the past and present create the full image of the ballet history in Russia and demonstrate all movements and changes of styles in ballet.
Splendid palaces, gothic, renaissance, oriental, "fantastic" interiors and exteriors were created according to the strict rules of perspective. Every architectural detail and every decoration were created with great accuracy. The thickets, rocks, mirror-like water in landscapes also were thoroughly made. The colorful bright well-decorated costumes ideally match the splendor of the . These are the features of the ballet of the second part of the 19 century, the epoch of the great choreographer Marius Petipa and the triumph of academism, the time of creation of magnificent theatre spectacles. Petipa was collaborating with Andrei Roller for about 60 years. "Magician" of the stage called by his contemporaries designed for hundred of ballets. Among them there is first of the great choreography Petipa's creations The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862) presented at the exhibition. Even today Roller's theatre sets impress spectators with its scale and perfection of details - the same qualitis of the Petipa's choreography works.
The changes from the academism started when in 20 century new wave of talented choreographers such as Alexander Gorsky and then, Michael Fokin and the easel painting artists Konstantin Korovin and Alexander Golovin appeared in the world of ballet. At the exhibition visitors can see different materials about new reductions of the ballets "The Swan Lake" (1901, 1912, 1920) and "Raymonda" (1908).
The breakthrough to individual and author's attitude and comprehension of music, view on performances and style preferences happened at the soviet time. The best example of that period is the ballet music by Dmitry Shostakovich and "Spartacus" by Aram Khachaturian in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. These completely different performances by their dramatic concept and by choreography nevertheless remain its composers styles - major breadth of Shostakovich and Khachaturian's heroic pathetic. The ideas of choreographers, their individual styles evoked a warm response from theatre set designers. Valentina Khodasevich who was working with Vasiliy Vaynonen and Leonid Jakobson, aimed to show the historic accuracy as in "Golden Age" as well as in the ancient "Spartacus", Simon Virsaladze - the true colleague of Yury Grigorovich emphasized on metaphoric convention of the production of the performances. Only looking at the costume design and owing some imagination ven if not have seen the choreography of the ballet it is possible to imagine the character of the personages and plastics they would perform.
Theatre amateurs and visitors of the exhibition have the opportunity to see how through the ballet art in cooperation with composers, choreographers, artists the various theatre world is created. Beautiful example of such work is " The Nutcracker" in production by Lev Ivanov (1892), Alexander Gorsky(1919), Fyodor Lopuhov (1929), Vasily Vaynonen(1934), Yuri Grigorovich (1966), Kirill Simonov - Michael Shemyakin (2002). What are the similarities between first and last production of the ballet on the stage of Mariinsky theatre? The contrast between Christmas story for children of the production by L. Ivanov and M. Petipa and terrifying hoffmanniana by M. Shemyakin is as obvious as the difference between the peaceful waltz of the snowflakes of the production 1892 year and the aggressive attack of the black "thorns" in 2002. Only the music is always unique and invariable.
Ballet critic Olga Rosanova
|
