Maya Plisetskaya. A Portrait of an Era

PERFORMERS:
Viktoria Tereshkina
Renata Shakirova
Nadezhda Batoeva
Oxana Skorik
Ekaterina Kondaurova
Maria Iliushkina
Yana Peneva
Elena Yevseyeva
Daria Kulikova
Valeria Kuznetsova
Anastasia Yaromenko

Timur Askerov
Nikita Korneyev
Roman Belyakov
Alexander Sergeev
Konstantin Zverev
Yevgeny Konovalov
Even Capitaine
Nail Yenikeyev
Yuri Smekalov
Yegor Rachin
Artem Kellerman
Andrei Solovyov
Yaroslav Pushkov

Kristina Gontsa (soprano)

Trofim Konvisarov (piano)
Elena Plotnikova (harp)
Sergei Buranov (percussion)
Vladislav Ivanov (percussion)

The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Arseny Shuplyakov

PART I
Divertissement

PART II
Carmen Suite
one act ballet
Music by Georges Bizet – Rodion Shchedrin
Choreography by Alberto Alonso
Production Choreographer: Viktor Barykin
Production Designer: Boris Messerer
Lighting Designer: Vladimir Lukasevich

Premiere: 20 April 1967, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 19 April 2010
Running time: 45 minutes

Concert Director: Yuri Smekalov
Stage design: Andrei Sevbo
Video Designer: Arseny Nikolaev
Lighting Designer: Yegor Kartashov

Audiences across the world applauded Maya Plisetskaya – a ballerina of extraordinary talent, expressiveness, and charisma. The mastery of her dancing and acting made spectators empathize deeply with her heroines, follow each soaring leap with rapture, and watch every movement of her arms with unbroken attention. Those who witnessed her triumphant performances long remembered the “fire on stage” she created with her temperament.
Her performing career spanned more than half a century and embraced both the classics and the works of contemporaries – not only her compatriots Leonid Jacobson, Leonid Lavrovsky, Vakhtang Chabukiani, and Yuri Grigorovich, but also international choreographers such as Maurice Béjart, Roland Petit, Serge Lifar, and José Granero. The repertoire of Maya Plisetskaya represents a cross-section of twentieth-century ballet, within which her figure stands as truly epochal.
In the Soviet Union the ballerina achieved what had seemed impossible – the creation of Carmen Suite, choreographed by the Cuban Alberto Alonso, and she dared to dance it without restraint, unafraid of “turned-in” positions or the provocative freedom of her heroine. Performed on hundreds of stages, the ballet became a symbol of Plisetskaya’s artistic individuality.
For many years Maya Mikhailovna was a close friend of the Mariinsky Theatre, an honoured guest at its festivals and premières. The theatre always found in her a wise adviser and ally. Inspired by her and brought to the stage with her personal involvement, the works of Rodion Shchedrin now hold a distinguished place in the Mariinsky repertoire.