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The Bolshoi Theater of Russia has announced the program for its next, 244th season. The upcoming premieres, concerts, and special projects were told about at the theater’s press conference. The general director of the Bolshoi Theater, Vladimir Urin, chief conductor Tugan Sokhiev and the head of the ballet troupe Makhar Vaziev reported the plans.
Operas at the Bolshoi Theater
This year marks the 175th anniversary since the birth of the world famous Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The Bolshoi Theater is going to celebrate this date with the premiere of The Tale of Tsar Saltan opera staged by Alexei Frandetti. It will take place on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theater on September 26, 2019. The musical director is Tugan Sokhiev.
Another opera by Rimsky-Korsakov, namely Sadko, will premiere in February 2020. It will be staged by Dmitry Chernyakov.
In the new season, the Bolshoi Theater will continue the tradition of the concert performance of operas.
The International Women's Day on March 8, 2020, will see Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Mazepa, a tragic love story opera, performed as a concert at the Bolshoi Theater. Anna Bolein by Gaetano Donizetti will sound there on May 24, 2020.
The tradition of performing baroque music will be kept up with Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. The opera Altsina set to Handel's music was released at the Bolshoi Theater last season and won the Golden Mask Award. Dido and Aeneas is a co-production of the Bolshoi Theater and the Aix-en-Provence International Opera Festival, conducted by Christopher Moulds and directed by Vincent Huguet. The premiere will be held on the New Stage on December 5.
The journey across Mozart’s operas (The Marriage of Figaro and All Women Do That) goes on at the Bolshoi Theater with Don Juan staged by director Semen Spivak, the head of the Fontanka Youth Theater.
In the new season, three new performances will take the Chamber Stage. These are Caravansary staged by Vasily Pashkevich, one of the first Russian baroque operas, created by a court composer of Catherine the Great; Benjamin Britten’s children's opera The Little Chimney-Sweeper and Georges Bizet’s Pearl Seekers. For the first time, drama stage directors Gleb Cherepanov, Oleg Dolin and Vladislav Nastavshev will act as opera directors.
The Bolshoi Theater Orchestra will perform in other venues as well, including the new Zaryadye Concert Hall, where musicians will perform Sergei Prokofiev's oratorio Ivan the Terrible, accompanied by shots from the famous same-name film by Sergei Eisenstein.
Ballets at the Bolshoi Theater
According to the head of the Bolshoi Ballet, Makhar Vaziyev, the next season will be tremendously difficult for the ballet troupe: there are five ballet premieres ahead.
“Of course, the Russian rental system of music, opera and ballet theater is the best, but it has its own limitations. We have two stages and play more than two hundred performances a year; thus it is very difficult to stage new ballets in the framework of this system. But, despite the fact, we are releasing five new ballets,” - Makhar Vaziev explained.
Immediately after the opening of the season, Alexei Ratmansky will start working on the ballet Giselle. Presently this classical ballet runs in the version of Yuri Grigorovich. The theater hopes that the new version will stir great interest, to a great extent thanks to its stage design after the sketches by Alexander Benois.
The next premiere is three one-act ballets that are united in one set. These are DanceMania in the choreography of Vyacheslav Samodurov set to the music by Yuri Krasavin, The Seasons staged by Artemy Belyakov to the music by Glazunov and Made in the Bolshoi with choreography by Anton Pimonov and music by Anatoly Korolev.
The program ends with Master and Margarita ballet in two acts set to the music by Schnittke and Shostakovich. It will be staged by the Slovenian choreographer Edward Klug known to the Moscow public thanks to the ballet Petrouchka at the Bolshoi Theater.
Ballets of “Dance Inversion” Festival
In the new season, ballet lovers will also see the performances of the International Contemporary Dance Festival “Dance Inversion”, which is going to celebrate its twentieth anniversary this year. The festival will kick off on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater on September 10 and 11, 2019. It will be the Chinese troupe’s version of Sacred Spring as interpreted by legendary dancer Yang Liping.
The Bolshoi Theater
Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theater (MAMT)
"Moscow Operetta" Musical Theatre
"New Opera" Theatre in Moscow
Author: Vera Ivanova
