Bolshoi Theatre Research Articles

Memoirs of a Ballerina of the St Petersburg Bolshoi Theatre: Part 2

During my time in the Ballet School and on the stage, from the end of the 1850s to the beginning of the 1880s, I naturally saw all the ballerinas who appeared in the Bolshoi Theatre. My earliest memories are connected mainly with the foreign ballerinas, for in the '60s the theatre direction followed the old custom of always having a foreigner at the head of the ballet company. For some reason they had no confidence in the talents of 'home grown' ballerinas, in spite of the fact that we often had a considerable number of excellent dancers who, if given the chance, could equal and probably even surpass artists from abroad.

Memoirs of a Ballerina of the St Petersburg Bolshoi Theatre: Part 1

Memoirs of a Ballerina of the St Petersburg Bolshoi Theatre: Part 1

A Tribute to Gregor Piatigorsky

Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976) was born in Russia and began playing cello at age seven. Two years later he was admitted to the Moscow Conservatory as a scholarship student. In 1919, Piatigorsky was invited to join the prestigious Lenin String Quartet and was appointed principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. He left Soviet Russia in 1921 and played throughout Poland and Germany. In 1928 he relinquished his post as principal cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic to begin a triumphant international career as a cello soloist. He made his American debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1929. Piatigorsky is particularly noted for his collaborations with his eminent colleagues, and the Heifetz-Piatigorsky Chamber Music Series of the sixties has become legendary. From 1962 until his death, Piatigorsky taught cello at the University of Southern California. His classes became world renowned, and in 1975 the Piatigorsky Chair of Music was established to honor his virtuosity as an artist and teacher.

"Pushkin is Broad and Generous": Sergei Iursky

These are days when one wants to talk about Pushkin - it is early June, the eve of his birthday. … But what should one talk about: Pushkin's poetry or the poet himself? And with whom? Of course, with someone who brings that poetry to life - with a concert reader. For there are readers in whose performances the poet himself comes through with particular clarity. One such is Sergei Iur'evich Iursky of Leningrad, Merited Actor of the RSFSR, member of the company of the Gorky Bolshoi Theater of Drama, who often presents programs of Pushkin.

The Bolshoi Theater and Opera

up visions of floating, pirouetting and leaping ballet dancers -visions of Ulanova and Pilsetskaya, Fadeyechev and Vasiliev. Most Russians, however, make a dual association of opera and ballet substantiated by almost two hundred years of history. In 1703 Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg on several small islands in the mouth of the Neva River. By making it the capital of the Russian empire and abandoning Moscow, the traditional royal residence and seat of rule, he aspired to more fully Europeanize the country. Peter's immediate successors, especially his daughter Elizabeth and the energetic Catherine II, pursued his design of implanting the benefits of European civilization but widened the scope of cultural contacts. To the beautiful eighteenth-century city that rose on the shores of the Gulf of Finland they invited distinguished foreigners including the architect Carlo Rossi and the philosopher Denis Diderot, whose advice on purchasing French paintings accounts for many canvases that adorn the superb Hermitage collection today. In the vanguard of culture-bearers Italians held an honored place, and far into the next century their influence was strongly felt in the arts, particularly in opera. Indeed in 1731 they performed the first opera at the Russian court and five years later the first opera seria, Francesco Araia's La Forza dell'Amore e dell'Odio. Among the composers who journeyed to St. Petersburg for lengthy stays were Araia, Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisello (and a century later Verdi, for the first performance of La Forza del Destino, commissioned for the Imperial

Theatrical Moscow

Moscow's Present THEATRICAL SEASON is distinguished not only by a whole crop of new premieres; a considerable place in it is held as well by guest performances of theaters from other Soviet cities and countries abroad. The two new theater buildings in the Kremlin offer their stages for this purpose. The first—the Kremlin Theatre regularly features performances by the provincial Soviet theaters. Last year it held a contest for their best productions. Some, like Rasul Gamzatov's romantic Goryanka (Daghestan Theatre), or Yuli Chepurin's publicistic Masters of Life (Yaroslavl Drama Theatre), could easily have graced the stage of any Moscow playhouse. The second theater is the new Kremlin Palace of Congresses with its vast auditorium and stage. The Palace was built not only for congregations of state, but also for the presentation of concerts, operas, and ballets of the Bolshoi Theatre. The Bolshoi's productions of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and Borodin's "Prince Igor" were revised to suit the larger dimensions of the Palace's stage.

Theatrical Moscow

Moscow's Present THEATRICAL SEASON is distinguished not only by a whole crop of new premieres; a considerable place in it is held as well by guest performances of theaters from other Soviet cities and countries abroad. The two new theater buildings in the Kremlin offer their stages for this purpose. The first—the Kremlin Theatre regularly features performances by the provincial Soviet theaters. Last year it held a contest for their best productions. Some, like Rasul Gamzatov's romantic Goryanka (Daghestan Theatre), or Yuli Chepurin's publicistic Masters of Life (Yaroslavl Drama Theatre), could easily have graced the stage of any Moscow playhouse. The second theater is the new Kremlin Palace of Congresses with its vast auditorium and stage. The Palace was built not only for congregations of state, but also for the presentation of concerts, operas, and ballets of the Bolshoi Theatre. The Bolshoi's productions of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and Borodin's "Prince Igor" were revised to suit the larger dimensions of the Palace's stage.

The Impact of Tolstoy

An analysis by a ranking Soviet writer was presented at a meeting at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, November 19, 1960, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy's death. This is a critical appraisal of Tolstoy, of his contribution to the mainstream of Russian and world literature and of his significance as a social thinker. ("Leo Tolstoy," Pravda, November 20, 1960—abridged.)

English and Russian Ballet: Echoes of a Controversy

A pair of broadcasts on the Bolshoi Ballet given at the end of last year by James Monahan and Arnold Haskell served to crystallise much that has been said by many enthusiasts about the relative modernity of the Russian and British ballet companies. The controversy flared up on the first night of Romeo and Juliet and has not died yet. Its lines are now familiar: some blamed the Russians for presenting poster art; others praised them for doing just that, and thereby entertaining the simple-minded but enthusiastic hordes of people who nightly come to see them at the Bolshoi theatre. On the English side some have rejoiced in our greater complexity of idea, subtlety of approach, and dedication to pure dancing, whilst others have been moved to attack our ballet as being over sophisticated—the just deserts of an essentially inbred and decadent public.