The legendary novel by Mikhail Lermontov has inspired the same-name ballet staged by famous director Kirill Serebrennikov.
December 5 and 6, 2018, will see the ballet “A Hero of Our Time” performed at the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.
The famous novel by the great Russian classic, poet and playwright Mikhail Lermontov was repeatedly staged in theaters throughout this country. Stage directors shifted the action of the 19th century-novel to the present or left it in the past unchanged, and translated it into a drama or a rock opera. However, this is the first ever ballet based on Mikhail Lermontov’s novel. The innovator is avant-garde film and stage director Kirill Serebrennikov. He dared to bring the new and unusual into the habitual art. The year 2015 saw the premiere of the groundbreaking ballet “A Hero of Our Time”.
Kirill Serebrennikov became not only the author of the libretto and the stage director but also the costume designer, production designer and even the music customer of the ballet.
Choreographer Yury Posokhov took care of the dance implementation of the novel on stage.
Yuri Krasavin was initially appointed to be the composer. However, the stage director was not happy with his vision of the musical concept. Therefore, the ballet score based on the novel “A Hero of Our Time” was given to young composer Yuri Demutsky. He had the courage to experiment with the musical component of the ballet while remaining true to the classics of the genre.
“A Hero of Our Time” (1838–1840) by Mikhail Lermontov was the first lyrical-psychological novel in the Russian prose. It consists of several parts with deliberately mixed chronology.
The ballet “A Hero of Our Time” staged by Kirill Serebrenikov,
features only three out of the five short stories of the famous book: “Bela”, “Taman” and “Princess Mary”. In each of them, the hero, Pechorin, is different. There are three stories and three Pechorins. Because the hero cannot be one and the same. He is diverse and changeful.
The leading roles will be performed by prominent ballet dancers and stars: Vladislav Lantratov, Ekaterina Shipulina, Artem Ovcharenko, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Svetlana Zakharova, and Ruslan Skvortsov.
Kirill Serebrennikov’s staging work at the Bolshoi Theatre stirred a huge amount of rumors and gossips in the near-music community.
According to mass media, the ballet’schoreography is neoclassical, whereas the rendering and interpretation of the classic novel are utterly unconventional and unexpected. In general, this is what characterizes Kirill Serebrennikov as a director. By the way, it is not the first time he has been working on this story - in 2010 he staged a series of student performances after “A Hero of Our Time” at the Winzavod Centre.
Where: New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre at the address 4/2, Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street, next to metro stations Okhotny Ryad, Teatralnaya, and Chekhovskaya.
When: December 5 and 6, 2018.
Author:
Vera Ivanova
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