On 7 May a new series of guest performances by the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia will open at the Mariinsky Theatre. This time, the Moscow company will present two ballets in St Petersburg – Spartacus by Khachaturian, staged by Yuri Grigorovich, and Jewels set to music by Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, staged by George Balanchine. The previous exchange ballet tours between the theaters took place more than twenty years ago, in March 2003.
The first to be presented to the St Petersburg audience will be Khachaturian's Spartacus in a staging by Yuri Grigorovich with set design by Simon Virsaladze – performances will take place on 7, 8, and 9 May at the Mariinsky II. The ballet, which has become a calling card of the Bolshoi Theatre, has toured the best stages of the world – with triumphant success, it was shown in Paris, London, Milan, and Madrid. The St Petersburg stage last saw this Spartacus only in 1998.
The premiere of the ballet Spartacus, in which Grigorovich also acted as the choreographer and librettist (using a scenario by Nikolai Volkov), took place on 9 April, 1968, at the Bolshoi Theatre stage. Yuri Grigorovich focused the audience's attention on the fates and emotions of the main characters, and centered the production around male images – thus, the choreography for Spartacus and his antagonist Crassus, built on the basis of modernized classics, set new standards for heroic male dance. The set designer Simon Virsaladze used the rough texture of stone, stripping the ballet's Rome of its gleaming capital aura.
At the premiere, the four main roles were performed by Vladimir Vasiliev (Spartacus), Maris Liepa (Crassus), Ekaterina Maximova (Phrygia), Nina Timofeeva (Aegina). Other casts included Natalia Bessmertnova, Lyudmila Semenyaka, Maya Plisetskaya, Mikhail Lavrovsky, Alexander Godunov, Irek Mukhamedov, Boris Akimov.
Over the years, a new generation of stars from the Bolshoi Theatre's ballet company has taken over from the legendary first performers. During the tour in St Petersburg, the central roles will be performed on 7 May by Igor Tsvirko, Artemy Belyakov, Elizaveta Kokoreva, Yulia Stepanova; on 8 May by Denis Rodkin, Egor Gerashchenko, Maria Vinogradova, Alena Kovaleva; on 9 May by Alexey Putintsev, Vladislav Lantratov, Evgenia Obraztsova, Ekaterina Krysanova.
Another gem of the tour's program is one of the ballets beloved by the St Petersburg audience in a staging by George Balanchine – Jewels set to music by Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. A total of five performances of the Bolshoi Theatre's production will take place: on 10 and 11 May (at 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM), and 12 May (at 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM).
Three ballet schools – those of Russia, France, and America – three priceless experiences from the St Petersburg ballet school, Diaghilev's Russian Seasons, and the new school in New York, formed Balanchine's latest style of classical choreography, which found its perfect expression in the triptych-masterpiece Jewels, entered into history as the first "full-length" abstract ballet.
Created by Balanchine for the New York City Ballet in 1967 this performance under the name Precious Stones was shown in the Soviet Union during the New York City Ballet's tour in Moscow, at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses stage in 1972.
At the Bolshoi Theatre, Jewels was first staged in 2012. (Before that, the theater's repertoire only included the ballet Rubies, premiered in December 2010.) The stage design for the production was created by set designer Aliona Pikalova and costume designer Elena Zaitseva.
In the upcoming performances at the Mariinsky, artists from both companies will participate. The artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre's ballet company is Makhar Vaziev.
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