fell from the moon

Today at the Bolshoi Theater is the premiere of “Cinderella”

For the first time, the old fairy tale was retold in a major ballet by Rostislav Zakharov - it was in 1945, and incredible hopes for a better future, circling over the country in a victorious year, animated the creation of the tiresome founder of the drama ballet. In 1946, the performance appeared at the Mariinsky Theater, in a measured version by Konstantin Sergeev. And further in the Russian history of “Cinderella” in the twentieth century, every well-intentioned dance composer tried to make his mark in one way or another - one of those who did not explode tradition, did not invent their own language, but quietly knitted and wove something in their own corner: Oleg Vinogradov, Vladimir Vasiliev, Vyacheslav Gordeev. Meanwhile, no one abroad was in awe of this fairy tale and this score (complex, completely unchildish music, with desperately tragic parts) - and they remained in history as a mockingly aesthetic version of Frederick Ashton in Covent Garden, who depicted with relish with one from his friends, the sisters of the main character, and the revolutionary performance of Magi Maren. (In Lyon, she cut the music into fragments, supplemented it with baby babble recorded on the soundtrack and achieved fantastic plastic expressiveness from her actors, for whom she created inhuman working conditions: the ballet was performed in puppet masks, in which it was difficult to breathe, and in “fat shoes” giving the bodies of all the actors baby-like outlines). The new history of “Cinderella” in Russia began five years ago with Alexei Ratmansky’s performance at the Mariinsky Theater; Now another graduate of the Moscow school, who has made a career in the West, is staging a new play for the Bolshoi.

This is not the first time Yuri Posokhov has worked at the Bolshoi as a stage director: the season before last he brought the neoclassical, tender and slightly hysterical “Magrittomania” from San Francisco, where he dances and choreographs dances. But for the first time in his career he is composing such a large - three-act - performance. He does this work together with director Yuri Borisov, and this is the second production in the theater’s current repertoire made by the director-choreographer tandem (following “Romeo and Juliet” by Radu Poklitaru - Declan Donellan). Hans Dieter Schaal, mainly known for his work in German opera houses, was invited as the set designer. In the new version of the play, Cinderella first lives on the Moon, at the ball she happily slides down the railing, and when the Prince goes to look for her, Marlene Dietrich and Maria Callas are among those who try on the shoe. And the main roles today and on Sunday should be performed by Svetlana Zakharova and Sergei Filin; Tomorrow it will be the turn of Ekaterina Shipulina and Dmitry Belogolovtsev, and finally on Saturday - Anastasia Yatsenko and Dmitry Gudanov.

Anna GORDEEVA