There will be opera for you, there will be ballet too

The Bolshoi Theater spoke about the new season

The country's main theater completed its 2005/06 season yesterday, and now the holidays begin - so early because the next season will open at the end of June. The usual schedule of existence (with a summer holiday) has been changed due to the July-August London tour.

The first premiere - September 1 - will be “Eugene Onegin”. The performance is staged by the country's most brilliant opera director, Dmitry Chernyakov. Another fresh look at Russian classics is promised on April 24, 2007 - then “Boris Godunov” will be released, directed by Alexander Sokurov. Alexander Vedernikov himself will conduct both performances. The previously promised La Traviata, directed by Achim Freier, moves to “after reconstruction of the main stage.” A season later, “The Queen of Spades” is expected under the musical direction of Mikhail Pletnev.

There are also two ballet premieres in the coming season - more than four new performances per season. The new stage cannot stand it (there is not enough space for rehearsals). On February 14, 2007, an evening of American choreography will take place. Its program includes Balanchine’s “Serenade,” “In the Room Upstairs” by Twyla Tharp to the music of Philip Glass (ballet lovers will remember the solo she choreographed for Baryshnikov on Vysotsky’s song “Fasicky Horses” in the film “White Nights”) and a one-act specially created for the Bolshoi "America's main choreographic hope" Christopher Wheeldon - he will stage something to Britten's music, the title has not yet been announced. And on June 27, 2007, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet Alexei Ratmansky and specialist in the reconstruction of ancient choreography Yuri Burlaka will release a new-old version of “The Corsair”. At the same time, the Bolshoi does not tire of looking for new talents (three evenings of the Workshop of New Choreography will be held again in November), is going to celebrate the anniversaries (of Olga Lepeshinskaya and Yuri Grigorovich) and is negotiating about working with already established stars (the arrival of Berlin premier Artem Shpilevsky is expected to join the troupe, the transfer Denis Matvienko, who lasted this season as a “guest star” on a permanent contract and the forays of Diana Vishneva, although she was not promised the status of a “permanent guest star”).

At the press conference, Alexander Vedernikov was glad that “Gennady Rozhdestvensky is restoring his creative contacts with the Bolshoi Theater” (on September 25, at the opening of the festival “Dedicated to Shostakovich,” he will conduct “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”), and said that “new forms are expected creative cooperation between the theater and the school of Galina Vishnevskaya” (without specifying which ones). The general director had to answer questions about ticket prices (there are no plans to reduce them, but for students there are always discounted prices of 20 rubles before the start) and the quality of seats in the hall (they will still print warnings on tickets if the seats are “inconvenient”; and most importantly, they will try to improve these most “inconvenient” places). Anatoly Iksanov was also asked whether he was going to renew Alexei Ratmansky’s contract (the term expires in a year; the question clearly arose because the ballet’s artistic director did not get along with several ballerinas and premieres; they, according to rumors, complained about him to the general director). Iksanov confidently replied that he was going to. Ratmansky himself said that whether he wants to renew his contract will depend on how the new season goes.

Anna GORDEEVA