Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet

Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and Opera Theatre. Click to enlarge The Mariinsky Ballet Company is closely linked with the entire history of the development of Russian choreographic art which has begun some 250 years ago. Since 1783 the company performed at the stage of the St Petersburg Bolshoy (Stone) Theatre and from 1885 onwards the ballet productions have been staged at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and Opera Theatre. Click to enlarge The leading role in the establishment and evolution of the Russian ballet belonged to foreign masters. At the end of the 18th century active in st Petersburg were Franz Gilferding, Gasparo Angiolini, Giuseppe Canziani and Charles le Picqu. But already in the 1790s the first Russian ballet teacher, Ivan Valberkh, became prominent. The main sphere of his activities was a small mime ballet company. He sought to make his productions rich in subject matter and to create recognizable lifelike images. A special place in his work was occupied by ballet divertissements which reflected his responses to the events of the War against Napoleon. The history of the St Petersburg ballet in the 19th century was associated with the activities of Charles Didelot, Jules Perrot, and Arthur Saint-Lion. In 1869 the position of the principal ballet master was entrusted to Marius Petipa who markedly raised the professional standards of the company. The peak accomplishment of this famous master became ballets staged in the period of his collaboration with the composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Alexander GlazunovThe Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Raymonda. The talents of many generations of ballerinas have been revealed in them – from Yekaterina Vyazem, Marina Semenova and Galina Ulanova to younger dancers who are just fledging on the Mariinsky stage.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century the Mariinsky Ballet Company yielded to the world of ballet such great dancers as Anna Pavlova, Mathilde Kschessinska, Tamara Karsavina, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Olga Spesivtseva, Vaslav Nijinsky, Nikolai and Sergei Legat. Many of them glorified the Russian ballet during the legendary Saisons Russes in Paris which familiarized Europe with pioneering works by Michele Fokine. The years after the revolution were a difficult period for the Mariinsky Theatre. Almost all its leading artists abandoned the company. Nevertheless during these years the classical repertory was retained. And in 1922 when at the head of the company was put Fyodor Lopukhov, a daring innovator and a brilliant connoisseur of the past, its repertory was enriched with new productions, in particular ballets dealing with contemporary life. It was during those years that Galina Ulanova, Alexei Yermolayev, Marina Semenova, Vakhtang Chibukiani, Alla Shelest and many other future celebrities of the St Petersburg ballet came to the company

Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and Opera Theatre. Click to enlarge The 1960s saw the staging of Spartacus and Choreographic Miniatures by Leonid Lavrovsky, the productions of The Stone Flower and The Legend of Love by Yury Grigorovich as well as The Coast of Hope and The Leningrad Symphony by Igor Belsky – the ballets which revived the traditions of symphonic dances. The success of these productions would obviously be impossible without superb performers. During the period of the 1950s – 1970s among the dancers of the company were Irina Kolpakova, Natalia Makarova, Alla Osipenko, Irina Gensler, Alla Sizova, Rydolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Valery Panov, Yury Solovyev and Anatoly Sapogov.

Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and Opera Theatre. Click to enlarge Towards the end of the 1970s in the repertory of the company appeared Le Sylfide and Naples by Auguste Bournonville, fragments of ancient choreography by Perrot, Saint-Lion and Coralli. Roland Petit and Maurice Bjart came to work for some time with the company. The Tudor Foundation gave rights for the ballets Lilac Garden and Leaves Are Fading. Jerome Robbins staged in the Mariinsky the ballet In the Night.

It was in 1989 that the Mariinsky Theatre first staged ballets by outstanding choreographer George Balanchine, who began his career in Petersburg. The next decade saw the theatre’s repertoire enriched with productions of the leading choreographers of the mid 20th century to the early 21st century: Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and John Neumeier’s Now and Then and Spring and Fall. Specially for the Mariinsky Theatre Neumeier staged Sounds of Empty Pages to music by Alfred Schnittke.

These years also saw intense work to restore Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayad`re, both highly acclaimed in the international press.

Petersburg premieres also include Etudes (choreography by Harald Lander), two ballets by Stravinsky – Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces and Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps – and ballets by William Forsythe.

The number of world premieres has grown too, with Alexei Ratmansky’s staging of Cinderella and The Nutcracker and The Magic Nut (music by Sergei Slonimsky, libretto, sets, costumes and production design by Mihail Chemiakin and choreography by Donvena Pandoursky), the latter two together comprising "Chemiakin’s Hoffman".

Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet schedule



Igor Stravinsky
Aria Suspended
ballet in one act


Ludwig Minkus
La Bayadere
ballet in three acts


Ludwig Minkus
La Bayadere
ballet in four acts and seven scenes with an apotheosis


Richard Strauss
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme
ballet in one act


Sergey Prokofiev
Cinderella
ballet in three acts


Vladimir Martynov (1988)
Come in!
ballet in one act


Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Leo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo and Pavel Oldenburgsky
Le Corsaire
ballet in three acts with a prologue and epilogue


Leonid Desyatnikov
Du Cote de chez Swan
ballet in one act


Ludwig Minkus
Don Quixote
ballet in four acts (seven scenes) with a prologue


Karl Czerny
Etudes
ballet in one act


Boris Asafiev
The Fountain of Bakhchisarai
choreographic poem in four scenes with prologue and epilogue


Adolphe Adam
Giselle
fantasy ballet in two acts


Arif Melikov
The Legend of Love
ballet in three acts


Sergey Prokofiev, Sergey Rakhmaninov, Igor Stravinsky
Metaphysics. The Meek One. Le Sacre du Printemps.
one act ballets


Yury Khanon
Middle Duet
one act ballet


Scene plan, music and text: Igor Stravinsky (1923)
Les Noces
russian choreographic scenes with singing and music to folk text from the Kireyevsky Collection


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker
ballet in three acts with an epilogue


Cesare Pugni
Ondine
ballet in two acts and six scenes


Ludwig Minkus
"Paquita" Grand pas



Alexander Glazunov
Raymonda
ballet in three acts (six scenes)


Riccardo Drigo (1894)
Le Reveil de Flore
anacreontic ballet in one act


Gavin Bryars
Reverence
ballet in one act


2H Company
The Ring
ballet in one act


Sergey Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet
ballet in three acts (thirteen scenes)


Igor Stravinsky (1913)
Le Sacre du printemps
scenes from pagan Russia in two parts


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
The Sleeping Beauty
ballet-feerie in three acts with a prologue and an apotheosis
Choreography: Marius Petipa (1890)


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
The Sleeping Beauty
ballet-feerie in three acts with a prologue and apotheosis
Choreography: Marius Petipa
revised version: Konstantin Sergeev (1952)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake
fantasy ballet in three acts (four scenes)
Choreography: Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (1895)
revised choreography and stage direction: Konstantin Sergeyev (1950)


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake
fantasy ballet in three acts (four scenes)
Choreography: Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (1895)
revised choreography and stage direction: Konstantin Sergeyev (1950)


Herman von Lovenskjold
La Sylphide
ballet in two acts


Leonid Desyatnikov
Wie der Alte Leiermann...
ballet in one acts


Three Ballets of John Neumeier



Forsythe at the Mariinsky
one act ballets


 
The Ballets of Michel Fokine


Robert Schumann
Carnaval
pantomime ballet in one act


Frederic Chopin
Chopiniana
choreographic composition in one act


Igor Stravinsky
The Firebird
russian fairytale in two scenes


Igor Stravinsky
Petrouchka
burlesque in four scenes


Alexander Borodin
Polovtsian Dances
ballet in one act


Dmitry Shostakovich
Scheherazade
Ballet in two acts


Carl Maria von Weber
Le Spectre de la Rose
choreographic tableau


Camille Saint-Saens
The Swan
choreographic composition


The Ballets of George Balanchine


Igor Stravinsky
Apollo
ballet in two scenes


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Ballet Imperial



Paul Hindemith (1940)
The Four Temperaments



Gabriel Faure, Igor Stravinsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Jewels
ballet in three parts


Sergey Prokofiev (1929)
Prodigal Son
ballet in three scenes


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Serenade
classical ballet in four movements


Georges Bizet
Symphony in C
ballet in four movements


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky Pas de deux



Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1884)
Theme and Variations
a classical ballet


Maurice Ravel
La Valse



The Ballets to the music of Dmitry Shostakovich


Dmitry Shostakovich
The Bedbug
Ballet in one act


Dmitry Shostakovich
The Golden Age
Ballet in three acts


Dmitry Shostakovich
Leningrad Symphony



Dmitry Shostakovich
Overcoat after Gogol
ballet in one act


Dmitry Shostakovich
The Young Lady and the Hooligan



 
Chemiakin's Hoffmann


Sergei Slonimsky
The Magic Nut
Ballet in two acts


Pyotr Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker
Ballet in two acts


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