A new take on an old ballet

This production of the Bolshoi Theater is for people who are still looking for miracles in the theater. If you feel the need to applaud the sun-drenched eastern market square that opens up to your gaze behind a parting curtain, if piles of fake peach pears delight your eyes and ask for your mouth, if you have a desire to delve into the essence of the touchingly naive pantomime through which these amusing slave pasha eunuchs in incredible, dazzlingly brilliant outfits, if the magic of a shipwreck on stage excites you more than the adventures of the real Titanic on the screen, do not hesitate, you are a potential grateful viewer of this Corsair.

And if you also love ballet the way Petipa loved it, who adorned the old Parisian original with magnificent choreographic paintings and numbers of his own composition, and the way Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka, the creators of the Bolshoi 2007 version of Le Corsaire, who tried to recreate it, love it, where - the creations of his famous predecessor, and where - just his handwriting, you will attend performances of this ballet with the same constancy as "La Bayadère" or "Swan Lake".

This is a real “grand ballet”, where there is enough dance for almost the entire troupe at once, while the prima ballerina proves her right to her superiority almost without rest. And although this "Le Corsaire" has gone far from its literary source (and this, gentlemen, was Byron's poem of the same name), its libretto is able to satisfy the craving for the pirate-romantic genre that has emerged in society.

A lot of work has been done to ensure that this "Corsair" set sail. The creators of the ballet studied the relevant archival materials in the Moscow Bakhrushin Museum and the St. not to sin against the spirit of that era when he loved, drowned and saved the last of Petipa's Corsairs - born in 1899. More than a hundred years later - this is how you can call this adventurous and absolutely serious romance between the Bolshoi Theater and the Bolshoi Ballet.

Libretto by Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Joseph Mazilier, revised by Marius Petipa

Choreography by Marius Petipa
Staging and new choreography - Alexei Ratmansky, Yuri Burlaka
Set Designer: Boris Kaminsky
Costume designer — Elena Zaitseva
Conductor - Pavel Klinichev
Lighting designer — Damir Ismagilov

Used music by Leo Delibes, Caesar Pugni, Peter of Oldenburg, Riccardo Drigo, Albert Zabel, Julius Gerber
The concept of musical dramaturgy - Yuri Burlaka
Score restored by Alexander Troitsky
Original score by Adam/Delibes, held in the archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, courtesy of the Paris National Opera
Choreographic notation courtesy of the Harvard Theater Collection
Costumes used by Evgeny Ponomarev (1899) - sketches provided by the St. Petersburg Theater Library

Libretto

Act I

Painting 1
The kidnapping of Medora

Corsairs appear on the square under the leadership of Conrad. He was attracted to the market, apparently, by a secret plan he had conceived to see a certain charming stranger.

Medora, a pupil of the owner of the market, Isaac Lanquedem, appears on the balcony of her teacher's house. When she sees Konrad, she quickly makes a village * from the flowers she has at hand and throws it to Konrad. He, having read the villages, is convinced with delight that the beautiful Medora loves him.

Isaac and Medora appear in the square. While Isaac is examining the slaves, Medora and Conrad exchange passionate and meaningful glances.

A wealthy buyer, Seyid Pasha, appears on the square with his retinue. Merchants surround him, showing various slaves, but none of them pleases the pasha. Seid Pasha notices Medora. He decides to buy her at all costs, but Isaac refuses to sell his pupil to him, obsequiously explaining to the pasha that she is not for sale, and offering a couple of other slaves in return.

Pasha still insists on buying Medora. His offers are so profitable and tempting that Isaac, tempted, agrees to the deal. Pasha gives the order to deliver the new slave he bought to the harem and leaves, threatening Isaac with punishment if Medora is not immediately delivered to his harem. Conrad calms Medora by promising that the corsairs will kidnap her.

At a sign from Conrad, the corsairs begin a merry dance with the slave girls, in which Medora takes an active part, much to the delight of all those present. But suddenly, at the signal given by Konrad, the corsairs kidnap the slaves dancing with them along with Medora. Isaac runs after Medora and wants to take her away from the corsairs; then Konrad orders them to take with them a very frightened Isaac.

Picture 2

conspirators

The home of the corsairs. Corsairs with rich booty and captured slaves return to their shelter, and Isaac, trembling with fear, is brought there. Medora, saddened by the fate of her companions, asks Konrad to release them, and he relents. Birbanto and the other pirates protest, claiming they too have a right to women, and rebel against their leader. Konrad, reflecting the blow directed at him, makes Birbanto bow before him; then he calms the frightened Medora, and, carefully guarding her, goes with her into the tent.

Isaac, taking advantage of the general turmoil, decides to quietly run away. However, Birbanto and the remaining corsairs, noticing this, taunt him, and, having taken all the money from him, offer to participate in a conspiracy to take Medora back. Taking a flower from a bouquet, Birbanto sprays it with sleeping pills from a vial, then gives it to Isaac and orders him to bring it to Conrad.

Conrad appears and gives the order to serve supper. While the corsairs are having dinner, Medora is dancing for Konrad, who swears eternal love to her.

Gradually, the corsairs disperse, only Birbanto and a few of his supporters are watching Conrad and Medora. At this time, Isaac appears with a young slave; pointing to Medora, orders to give her a flower. Medora presses the flower to her chest and hands it to Conrad, adding that the flowers will explain all her love for him. Conrad lovingly presses the flower to his lips, but the intoxicating smell instantly plunges him into a deep sleep and, despite his incredible efforts to free himself from the effects of the drug, he falls asleep. Birbanto gives the sign to the conspirators to take action.

Medora is startled by Conrad's sudden sleep. Appeared corsairs surround her with threats. Trying to defend herself, Medora wounds Birbanto's hand and tries to run, but, having lost consciousness, falls into the hands of her captors.

Having sent the conspirators away, Birbanto is ready to deal with Conrad, but at that moment he wakes up. Upon learning that Medora has been kidnapped, Conrad and the corsairs set off in pursuit.

Act II

Scene 3

Captivity of a corsair

Palace of Seid Pasha. Bored odalisques start different games. Zulma demands that the odalisques be respectful to her, but Gulnara and her friends mock the haughty sultana.

Is Seid Pasha. Odalisques must bow before their master, but the recalcitrant Gulnara taunts him too. Seid Pasha, carried away by her youth and beauty, throws her a handkerchief, but Gulnara throws the handkerchief to her friends, finally the handkerchief, passing from hand to hand, reaches the old black woman, who, taking it, begins to pursue the pasha with her caresses. Pasha can hardly contain his anger.

To please the pasha, the caretaker of the harem brings forward three odalisques.
Zulma tries to attract the pasha's attention, but at that moment he is informed of the arrival of the slave seller.

Seeing Isaac, who brought Medora, the pasha becomes delighted. Medora begs the pasha to give her freedom, but seeing that he remains inexorable, she complains about the cruel treatment of her by her tutor; Seid orders the eunuch to escort the Jew out of the palace. Gulnara approaches Medora and expresses her sympathy, taking an ardent part in her. Pasha offers Medora various jewels, but she resolutely refuses them, much to Gulnara's joy and Pasha's displeasure.

The leader of the dervishes appears and asks for lodging for the night. Pasha allows the caravan to take up residence in the garden. Having fun with the embarrassment of the dervishes at the sight of young seductive slaves, he promises to acquaint them with all the delights of the harem and orders them to start dancing.
Among the dancing beauties, Konrad (he is disguised as the leader of the dervishes) recognizes his beloved.

At the end of the festival, Seid orders to take Medora to the inner chambers of the palace. The corsairs, throwing off the clothes of dervishes, threaten the pasha with daggers; Conrad hugs Medora again.

The corsairs are carried away by the plundering of the pasha's palace. Gulnara runs in, pursued by Birbanto, she rushes to Medora and asks for her protection. Konrad intercedes for Gulnara, while Medora, peering at Birbanto, recognizes him as her kidnapper and informs Konrad of his treacherous act. Birbanto laughingly refutes her accusations; in support of her words, Medora points out to Konrad the wound on Birbanto's arm inflicted by her. Konrad is ready to shoot the traitor, but Medora and Gulnara hold him back, and Birbanto runs away with threats.

Tired Medora is ready to faint from weakness and unrest, but with the help of Gulnara and Konrad she comes to her senses and, at their request, wants to follow them, when suddenly the Pasha's guard bursts into the hall. The corsairs are defeated, Konrad is disarmed and sentenced to death. Pasha is jubilant.

Act III

Scene 4

Pasha's wedding

Chambers in the palace. Pasha orders to prepare for the celebration of his marriage with Medora. Medora indignantly rejects his proposal. The chained Conrad is led to his execution. Medora, seeing the terrible situation her lover is in, begs Seid to spare him. Pasha promises to pardon Konrad on the condition that she voluntarily agree to belong to him, Pasha. Medora does not know what to decide on, and in desperation accepts the pasha's condition.

Left alone with Medora, Konrad rushes to her, and she announces to him on what conditions Seyid Pasha agreed to pardon him. Corsair rejects this shameful condition, and they decide to die together. Gulnara, who has been watching them, proposes her plan to them; the lovers agree to it and thank her heartily.

Pasha returns. Medora announces that she agrees to do his will. Pasha is delighted - he gives the order to immediately release Conrad and prepare everything for the wedding ceremony.

The wedding procession is approaching, the bride is covered with a veil. Upon completion of the marriage ceremony, the Pasha gives his hand to the odalisque and puts a wedding ring on her finger. Dancing odalisques crown the wedding celebration.

Left alone with the pasha, Medora tries to seduce him with her dances, but everything shows that she is looking forward to the desired hour of release. She expresses horror at the sight of the gun in Seid's belt and asks to put it away as soon as possible. Pasha takes out a pistol and hands it to Medora. But her fear only grows at the sight of the dagger in the Pasha's belt; in order to finally calm her down, Seyid takes out a dagger and gives it to her, then wants to gently hug her, but she eludes him. Seyid falls at her feet, begs her to love him and gives her a handkerchief. She, as if jokingly, ties his hands with them, and he, pleased, laughs at her prank. Midnight strikes, Conrad appears. Pasha is horrified to see how Medora gives the dagger to Konrad. He wants to call for help, but Medora aims her gun at him and threatens to kill him at the slightest cry. Seid, in horror, does not dare to utter a word, and Medora, together with Konrad, quickly disappear.

Pasha is trying to free himself. Gulnara runs in and, in feigned horror, unties his hands. Pasha convenes the guard and orders to pursue the fugitives. Three cannon shots herald the departure of the corsair ship. Seyid is furious: his beloved wife has been kidnapped. “I am your wife,” says Gulnara, “here is your ring!”
Seid is in a daze.

Scene 5

Storm and shipwreck

Sea. Clear and quiet night on the deck of a ship. Corsairs celebrate liberation. One unfortunate Birbanto, chained, does not take part in the fun. Medora sees his miserable situation and asks Conrad to forgive Birbanto, who joins her in her pleas. After some hesitation, Konrad forgives Birbanto and he joyfully asks for permission to bring a barrel of wine and treat his comrades.

The weather changes quickly, a storm begins. Taking advantage of the turmoil on the ship, Birbanto again outrages the corsairs, but Conrad throws him overboard. The storm intensifies: thunder rumbles, lightning flashes, the sea rages. There is a crash, the ship crashes against a rock.

The wind gradually subsides, and the turbulent sea calms down again. The moon appears and with its silvery light illuminates two figures: these are Medora and Conrad, who miraculously escaped death. They reach the rock, climb it, and thank God for their salvation.

Selam*- a bouquet in which each flower has a special meaning. The language of flowers and communication using the "flower cipher" was very popular in Europe at the end of the 18th and in the 19th century.

The action of the ballet begins at the slave market in Andropolis. The leader of the corsairs, Konrad, is trying to secretly meet with the pupil of the owner of the market, Medora, who is also looking forward to meeting him. While Isaac Lankedem, the foster father of a young Greek woman, was walking around the market, examining the slaves, Conrad appears on the square with his team and manages to meet the girl. At this time, in misfortune, Medora is noticed by Seid, a rich resident of the Bosporus, who falls in love with a girl and negotiates with the greedy Isaac about buying her. Conrad promises the girl to save her from captivity.

At night, a brave corsair, together with his team, kidnaps a girl, Isaac himself and his slaves. At the request of Medora, the slave girls are released by Konrad. But the envy and greed of Conrad Barbanto's friend pushes him to betrayal. Having agreed with Isaac, they put Konrad to sleep and kidnap the girl. The happiness of the lovers was short. Medora gets into the harem to Seid. Conrad and the corsairs try to save the girl, disguised as pilgrims, and sneak into Seid's palace, but they are disarmed and captured by the Pasha's guards. The girl agrees to marriage with Seid on the condition that he releases the corsair.

The pardoned corsair, having learned the conditions of his freedom, decides to die with his beloved. But one of the Pasha's slaves decides to help the lovers by exchanging clothes with Medora.

The corsairs, along with Konrad and Medora, celebrate their newfound freedom, sailing away on a ship from the shores of the Bosphorus. And here again the insidious friend tries to kill Konrad, threatening with a gun. An unsuccessful assassination attempt ends with the traitor being thrown overboard. But a sudden storm breaks the ship on the reefs. Miraculously surviving, Konrad and Medora get to the shore on the wreckage of the ship.

This ballet teaches to be courageous, self-confident, to believe in devoted friendship and boundless love.

Picture or drawing Ballet Corsair

Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary

• Summary of Golden Goose Grimm

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  Russian writer Vasily Belov was born in a small village in the north of our country. The boy's father did not return from the war, and Vasily remained the eldest in the family. In addition to him, the mother had four more children.

A corsair ship is wrecked in a raging sea.

Act one

Scene 1: "Shore"

Only three survived - the leader of the corsairs Konrad and his faithful friends, Ali and Birbanto.
Young Greek women dance and play on the coast of the island. Among them are two friends - Medora and Turkish Gulnara. The girls notice the corsairs thrown out by the sea and hide them from the ferocious Turkish soldiers, who have been given the right to execute the corsairs without trial. But the cunning Isaac Lankedem, who brought the soldiers here, prefers the capture of girls. They are a commodity for him, and the slave trader, hoping to profit, sends them to the city bazaar along with languid Palestinian women and wild Algerian youths.
However, in the hope of saving Medora from slavery, who attracted him at first sight, Conrad disguises himself as a merchant and rushes to her aid.

Picture two: "Market"

The life of the oriental bazaar is seething. Among the slaves are Lankedem and Gulnara, who is bought for his harem by the ruler of the island, Seid Pasha. The same fate awaits Medora.
In the midst of the auction, strangers appear who want to take part in them. But no one can match the wealth of Seyid Pasha. Unexpectedly, strangers drop burnouses - these are corsairs.
Conrad captivates Medora. Ali captures Lanquedem. Birbanto and the others go into hiding, taking with them gold, textiles, weapons, and slaves. Seyid Pasha is at a loss.

Scene 3: Grotto

Enamored Konrad shows Medora his possessions. With him are corsairs with booty and now free slaves. Wild Algerians are accepted into the pirate brotherhood. Conrad's loyal friend Ali looks after the captured Lanquedem.
At the request of Medora, Konrad sets the captive girls free. However, Birbanto protests: jewelry and women rightfully belong to him. Konrad is surprised by the rebelliousness of his friend. The power of the leader of the corsairs still prevails, but Birbanto harbors a grudge.
The cunning Lanquedem, taking the opportunity, incites Birbanto to take revenge on Conrad. He proposes to put the leader of the corsairs to sleep and return Medora to Seid Pasha. Meanwhile, Konrad is completely absorbed by the charming Medora. Unnoticed by the lovers, Lankedem pours a sleeping potion into their wine. Suspecting nothing, Medora gives her lover a glass. Conrad falls. The girl calls for help, but falls into the hands of the insidious Birbanto, who orders the beauty to be sent to the harem.
Conrad wakes up with difficulty. Realizing that Medora has been kidnapped, he turns to Birbanto for clarification. Birbanto is cunning, convincing his friend of his loyalty. Conrad again rushes to save his beloved.

Action two

Scene 4: The Palace

Seid Pasha is touched by Gulnara's pranks. However, flirting, the Turkish woman is not going to bestow her caresses on the old man.
Lanquedem appears with the kidnapped Medora. Gulnara takes her friend to her chambers.
Eunuchs announce the approach of pilgrims. After the prayer retribution, the pilgrims accept the invitation of Seyid Pasha to admire the dances of the inhabitants of the harem, the decoration of which was Medora and Gulnara - they are like roses in a luxurious garden.
Meanwhile, Birbanto and Lanquedem expose the pilgrims. These are corsairs in disguise!
Conrad and Ali pounce on the traitor Birbanto and Lanquedem. A fight ensues, during which Seyid Pasha hides shamefully. The insidious Birbanto and Lanquedem are defeated.

Epilogue

Gulnara thanks Ali for saving her, entrusting her fate to his reliable hands. Reunited Conrad and Medora are ready to start a new happy life.

Corsair, Bolshoi Theatre. Press about the play

Kommersant, June 23, 2007

Licensed pirated copy

"Corsair" was staged at the Bolshoi

On the New Stage, the Bolshoi presented the premiere of the three-act ballet Le Corsaire. According to TATYANA KUZNETSOVA, this is the most serious and large-scale work of the theater in the 21st century.

The ballet Le Corsaire has been a reliable box office hit for a century and a half. Staged in 1856 by the choreographer Joseph Mazilier based on Byron's poem for the Paris Opera, it was transferred to Russia two years later. Five years later, Marius Petipa, who perfected the ballet throughout his long life, took it up. As a result, "Corsair" turned out to be a spectacle for all tastes, combining the imperial luxury of staging, a dynamic plot and magnificent various dances.

The Corsair survived the October Revolution successfully: the story of how the pirate Konrad and his comrades kidnapped his beloved, the Greek Medora, either from the slave market or from the Pasha's harem, could easily be passed off as a struggle between freedom-loving Greek pirates and Turkish oppressors. But the attractions have dwindled. The first casualty was the final shipwreck as too costly an undertaking. Petipa was also reduced, throwing out both pantomime and "excess" dances as remnants of the old era. But still, "Corsair" remained a favorite of the public.

The current artistic director of the Bolshoi, Alexei Ratmansky, turned to The Corsair not at all for the box office. Together with a classmate and the main Moscow ballet connoisseur Yuri Burlaka, he decided on an ambitious project: to restore everything that was preserved from the old ballet, filling in the gaps with his own direction and choreography. The original score by Adolf Adam was found in Paris, St. Petersburg provided sketches of pre-revolutionary costumes by Yevgeny Ponomarev, Harvard University shared pre-revolutionary ballet recordings, and the artist Boris Kaminsky created the scenery in the style of academicism and returned the grandiose final scene in the spirit of Aivazovsky's The Ninth Wave - an enchanting storm with splitting in half nine meter ship.

The final turned out to be really hurricane, neither the Soviet nor the new Russian scene knew this. But the three-hour spectacle that preceded it turned out to be dynamic and entertaining. Aleksey Ratmansky, not stinting on crowded extras, sacrificed pantomime scenes: he shortened all the explanations of the characters just enough to make it possible to understand the plot without resorting to a program. It must be admitted that the director was right: talking with his hands would have dragged out an already massive performance, and the current dancers have a poor command of the art of pantomime. The best actor was Gennady Yanin in the role of the Jewish slave trader Lankedem. Louis de Funes could play such a hilarious, greedy old man - this tiny work is not inferior to the roles of the great comedian.

The main content of each act was actually dancing. And if the pearls of the first - pas des esclaves and pas de deux of Medora and Konrad - are familiar by heart, as an indispensable accessory of any "Le Corsaire" and any ballet competition, then the culmination of the second act - the scene "The Lively Garden" - is a real revelation. First reconstructed by Yuri Burlaka, it presents the choreography of Marius Petipa in all its splendor and stunning simplicity. Using just seven basic movements, the French genius built a colossal 20-minute composition for 68 artists (including young children and a prima ballerina) whose architectural perfection is easily likened to the gardens of Versailles. Blocking the stage with artificial flower beds, flower arches, as well as alleys and semicircles of a constantly moving corps de ballet, the legendary choreographer made the prima dance in the narrow language of the proscenium, jump playful garguiat (an archaic jump that almost disappeared in the 20th century) from flower bed to flower bed and bloom like arabesques among the bushes of greenery . This sophisticated composition, full of French charm and Russian majesty, has nothing in common with the average-linear abstractions that are usually passed off as Petipa's choreography.

It was all the more difficult for Alexei Ratmansky: in the third act he was forced to compose his own choreography to replace the lost one. His Grand pas des eventailles, where six luminaries armed with fans, a prima with a cavalier and the first soloist, perform a composition looped according to all the canons, was adequately withstood the neighborhood with the masterpiece of Marius Petipa. The neophyte eye will not even notice the gap between the old choreography and this tactful stylization. And only the repetitions of one movement by all the dancers, beloved by Mr. Ratmansky, betray his authorship.

This whole grandiose performance rests on the prima ballerina: she literally does not leave the stage, participating in all stage vicissitudes. Svetlana Zakharova turned out to be created for this ballet, the role of Medora sits on her like a glove. The acting potential of the ballerina is just enough to portray the feelings necessary for the plot without pressure; tutus embroidered with jewels look perfect on her impeccable figure; her lovely feet are very comfortable with both large pas adagios and picturesque small details. Svetlana Zakharova danced flawlessly, you can find fault with the details, but amazingly beautiful. Moreover, from act to act, everything is more beautiful, noticeably calming down, ceasing to tear movements and prove their superiority. She really had no equal. And the rather dry Ekaterina Shipulina, who performed the second most important part of Gulnara with simulated liveliness, and the puppet Nina Kaptsova, who danced the pas des esclaves as sweetly unpretentiously as her crown part of Cupid in Don Quixote, and even more so the three odalisque soloists, with schoolchildren's uncertainty, their variations slipped through, could not only outshine, but even compete with the uninhibitedly jubilant prima.

However, Svetlana Zakharova had a worthy partner: Denis Matvienko, engaged by the Bolshoi ex-Kiev, played a love corsair quite naturally (even dressed in a Greek white skirt), and danced even more freely: his frisky big pirouette, dashing spins and excellent jete circles instantly raised the degree in the auditorium from full-hearted to recklessly excited. The Belarusian teenager Ivan Vasilyev successfully danced in the pas des esclaves, the second acquisition of the Bolshoi: the costume hid the flaws in physique and training, and he famously performed his tricks. The handsome Artem Shpilevsky, the theater's third trophy, looked excellent next to Svetlana Zakharova in the adagio of the third act, but it would be better if he did not dance at all - the poor young man cannot do two rounds without blots. In a word, the large Bolshoi Theater troupe still has work to do in this ballet: there are clearly more roles than worthy performers.

The new "Corsair" of the Bolshoi is a symmetrical answer to the Mariinsky Theater with its grandiose restoration experiments. However, Muscovites who do not present their product as an authentic production look somehow more honest. The experiment on the compatibility of remake and antiquity can be considered a success: without sacrificing scientific integrity, Bolshoi produced an excellent box office hit. There is only one noticeable drawback: this "Le Corsaire", with its massive scenery, grandiose choreographic ensembles and the scope of the dance of the soloists, is clearly small for the New Stage of the Bolshoi. In the gilded frame of the historical hall, it will look even more impressive. It remains to resurrect the old theater with the same quality as the ballet "Corsair".

Newstime, June 25, 2007

Anna Gordeeva

The triumph of the romantics

Marius Petipa's ballet Le Corsaire has been restored at the Bolshoi Theater

On the market square are carefully painted and built houses, fruit stalls, carpets and fabrics. In the pirate cave - overhanging mighty rocks, in the pasha's palace - painted walls stretching into the sky. Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka, who composed a new version of the ballet Le Corsaire at the Bolshoi Theater, invited St. Petersburg theater artists to the production - the scenery was created by Boris Kaminsky, who had already become famous on the restoration of La Bayadère and The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theater, costumes - Elena Zaitseva ( also worked on Sleeper). It is not surprising that they had to look for suitable people on the banks of the Neva - a performance of such a staged scale has not appeared in the Bolshoi for, perhaps, sixty years, since Romeo and Juliet.

The Corsair has never disappeared from the repertoires of Russian theaters for a long time - this is not The Pharaoh's Daughter, which in the twenties of the last century they decided to forget for good and succeeded in this decision. Georges Mazilier's ballet, remade in the middle of the 19th century by Marius Petipa, was not radically destroyed, but was edited by numerous directors so that little was left of it. Many dances have evaporated; the plot lost its coherence - the performance turned almost into a concert, where it doesn’t matter at all who loves whom and who hates whom, and where none of the spectators wonder why the pirate’s slave participates in the love duet of a pirate and a runaway odalisque. Ratmansky and Burlaka did a gigantic job. Burlaka deciphered the archival records of the performance (of the version that was on stage in 1899) and restored the amazing beauty of the dances in the film "A Lively Garden"; the same dances that were irretrievably lost were recomposed by the choreographers, stylized in the style of Marius Petipa.

Previously it was thought that The Lively Garden is the best-preserved part of the Corsair; but in the booklet published for the premiere, several pages of Petipa's manuscripts are reproduced especially for non-believers - with the layouts of the artists, with French phrases describing the movements of the ballerina. (It should be noted that this book is an example of research and publishing work.) And now ballet lovers can, like those music lovers who come to a concert with a score, by opening the booklet on the corresponding page, see if it goes like this in the "Live Garden" ballerina diagonal, whether everything is restored correctly.

"The Lively Garden" (dancing of odalisques in the pasha's palace, who presents his slaves as houris of paradise) is one of the culminations of the performance. There are four “shock moments” in total: the pas de deux of Medora and Conrad (the main characters are a young Greek woman, whom the guardian, who was seduced by big money, decided to sell to a harem, and a pirate who fell in love with her, saving the girl from this fate), “A Lively Garden” , in which a corps de ballet in snow-white tutus shines between green flower beds, and a ballerina jumps over these flower beds, a dance with fans (another picture from harem life, not preserved in the records, but sensitively and exquisitely stylized by the directors) and, finally, the famous final shipwreck, striking the audience of the century before last with special effects. Thus, it is clear that the performance, guided by the ideal of the “staged ballet of the 19th century”, in which the dancers mainly supported the ballerinas and sometimes carried them, hopes to impress first of all with fantastic beauty by the design, then by the most complex geometry of the corps de ballet rearrangements, after that - the work of a prima ballerina and, last but not least, the dancing of men.

At the premiere and on the day of the second performance, everything went as planned: the audience invariably gasped at every change of scenery (direct overseas guests pointed at the prescribed ships and domes with their fingers); the corps de ballet, realizing its mission, was strict and majestic at the right moments, and crafty at the right times (in the harem, odalisques almost cancan dance, giggle like schoolgirls, and throw each other a handkerchief presented by the patron like a volleyball), and ballerinas - Svetlana Zakharova and Svetlana Lunkina - clearly played the role of "decorations". Theater decorations, harem decorations - no excessive passions, only a carefully executed text. Their partners - Denis Matvienko and Yuri Klevtsov - also worked conscientiously and clearly; but there were only high-quality artists on the stage - and nothing more.

Everything changed on the third day, when Maria Alexandrova and Nikolai Tsiskaridze took the stage.

From the ballet of the end of the 19th century (I remind you that the recorded version is 1899), the ballet that was already rather tired (soon, soon the Diaghilev revolution), the ballet, accustomed to the fate of rich entertainment, Alexandrov and Tsiskaridze, against the will of the directors, created a romantic ballet.

Their characters did not indicate a cultivated interest in each other, as the rules of etiquette might have required. Tsiskaridze so rushed to his girlfriend, so he drowned his face in her palms, hugged him so much that it immediately became clear: no one would stand between them - he would kill. And in the only pas de deux given to him by the directors, he did not politely measure out tricks - he was carried around the stage by the same wild wind as his Solor and his Albert; that real flurry that turns all concepts upside down and only justifies the existence of an artificial ballet theater through and through.

The same impulse, the same strength was in Alexandrova, but sprinkled with a slight coquetry, which is obligatory for this role. A girl sold to a harem, but freed before being sent to her destination, again kidnapped and nevertheless delivered to the pasha, dangerously fools her master in order to save her captive lover - this girl needs the ability to flirt with an elderly master, but in the case of Alexandrova, the pasha looks the most perfect fool. It is impossible not to understand that this particular girl - smiling almost arrogantly, amused almost mockingly - will never agree to any agreements, it is impossible. The best moment of the role of Alexandrova is "Little Corsair", a variation in a male costume, which she dances in a cave of pirates. It is easy to believe that such a one will easily lead the robbers to storm; and in the finale of the dance, her cry “Board!”, from which the audience, accustomed to the fact that ballet is a wordless art, shudders, sounds quite convincing.

As it should be for romantic artists since the Mochalovsky times, Tsiskaridze and Aleksandrova believe in all the plot overflows so much that even in the most vapid situations, logic and meaning arise. Here in the cave of pirates, bad robbers poisoned the good robber with sleeping pills, and the main character, unexpectedly for his beloved, falls asleep. Those bad ones creep up to kidnap the girl. Both Svetlana Zakharova and Svetlana Lunkina rushed to the sleeping hero, pulled a dagger from his scabbard and hit the leader of the conspirators ... and then carefully put the weapon back into the hero's sheath. Well, apparently, the directors told them so. (It doesn’t matter that the wounded villain grabbed his hand, but everyone else hasn’t gone anywhere and now they will obviously twist the girl; no, the heroines are diligently looking for the scabbard and adjusting the knife in them.) Aleksandrova immediately put down the weapon and began to shake the hero: wake up ! Just a little faith in the situation and common sense - and a completely different picture is obtained.

Of all the other characters in the populous ballet, only Andrei Merkuriev as Birbanto (an excellent, vicious, angry and slightly miserable conspirator villain; when, after losing the first clash with the main character, one of the pirates puts his hand on his shoulder , to console him, he shudders with his whole body so violently that from this spasm the waves seem to go all over the stage) and Gennady Yanin in the role of the guardian - the seller of the heroine (the dancer is not even forty; the hero must be seventy - and so it is written - all the plastic is drawn, which seems as if we hear all the grunts, both natural and ostentatious). Of the performers of the role of the slave in the first act, Andrei Bolotin was perhaps the best: in this pas de deux, where nothing needs to be played (in fact, the slave introduces the girl offered for sale to the buyers, but the “characteristic” of the slave is not spelled out, he - pure function), his hero was the embodiment of a neat and light dance, that dance, the idea of ​​which already exists somewhere in the depths of the old ballet and will soon allow Nijinsky to fly up (by the way, Bolotin looks quite good in Nijinsky's repertoire - he is an excellent Blue Bird in Sleeping beauty").

The ship, heading towards the final shipwreck, is too rumbling as it enters the stage, and it is too obvious that the video projection of the storm waves is going to the inflated rag. There is still work to be done on the catastrophe, although even now it certainly makes an impression, especially when the sails are torn to shreds and the ship is falling apart. In the last bars, the main characters climb onto the coastal stones, and the pose reproduced from an old photograph slightly grins at the directors: Marius Petipa knew that after any ballet and any special effects, the audience still remembers the ballerina and the premiere. Over a hundred years later, the situation has not changed.

Vedomosti, June 25, 2007

Anna Galayda

For a feast for the eyes

"Corsair" of the Bolshoi Theater pleased everyone

Both the troupe (there is a place to show off their skills) and the public like this performance (it embodies balletomaniac dreams of the luxury of the imperial ballet). Aleksey Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka preserved the masterpieces of their predecessors in their edition and created their own.

To master the "Corsair", the Bolshoi took several seasons. Reconstruction of an old ballet requires colossal efforts to find documents, create text and design, and financially support the community. A century and a half ago, it seemed self-evident that such a luxury as ballet eats up a colossal part of the funds of the imperial court. One basket, on which a prima ballerina is hoisted for a fraction of a second at the end of The Lively Garden, is capable of absorbing the annual budget of a modern theater theatre. The performance lasts three and a half hours, and when in the finale a huge ship breaks and sinks to the bottom of the sea, it causes such applause that there is no doubt that it is worth it.

The wonders of machinery are one of the main lures that ensured the happy life of the Corsair during the time of Petipa. He staged his ballet based on Byron's poem at a time when the public had forgotten about this once popular masterpiece of romanticism. Petipa began to adapt the box office successful ballet to new trends - in the understanding of the audience, he was no less brilliant than in composing variations for his ballerinas. The choreographer made a bet on the performers. Petipa remade Corsair five times and gave each of the dancers a corporate number. Over time, the performance retained little in common with Byron's poem - the heap of misfortunes of the slave Medora and the leader of the corsairs Conrad, who was in love with her, became more and more unthinkable.

Probably, it was precisely because of the irresistible looseness of the libretto that after the death of Petipa, Le Corsaire lost its hold on the hearts of the public. However, the unthinkable concentration of choreographic masterpieces for one performance (this is no longer the case in any of Petipa's ballets) did not allow him to perish completely. "Corsair" almost did not disappear from the stage and continued to acquire improvements of new directors. However, nowhere and never even came close to the success that accompanies Petipa's other ballets: La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda.

In the production of The Corsair at the Bolshoi, Ratmansky and Burlaka adopted the Petipa method and tried to take into account the tastes of the modern public. But the main task was to return to the "Corsair" of the late XIX century. Fate itself met them: by chance they discovered an almost complete set of scenery by Evgeny Ponomarev of the last edition of Petipa in 1899, 50 sketches of costumes were found. After the restoration of the Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theater in the design of Ivan Vsevolozhsky of the 1890 model, it is already difficult for the eyes to go blind from luxury, but the modern stage designer Boris Kaminsky managed to evoke applause, the sky of the oriental bazaar is so impressive, the fountains in the pasha's harem are so dazzling.

Ratmansky and Burlaka, even having discovered a lot of archival materials, refuse to call their performance authentic, if only because the surviving system for recording the ballet choreography is very imperfect, it fixes only the reference points of the dance and is designed for those who need not to learn, but to remember the text. Nowadays, the very ideas about the technique of dance have changed, and such an important component of the old performance as pantomime is completely close to disappearing. Along with the proportions of the human figure, the fabrics from which the costumes are sewn also changed, therefore, unlike the scenery, it is impossible to reproduce them “literally” even according to the surviving sketches.

And yet the new Le Corsaire is clearly the closest known relative to Petipa's old ballet. Any neophyte in this production is able to appreciate the enchanting beauty of the “Live Garden” restored by Burlaka, in which 68 children, adult dancers and dancers in black wigs and snow-white costumes form groups that refer to the Versailles ensembles. And professionals are driven to catharsis by the realization that this grandiose composition rests on various combinations of only seven pas. Another surprise is the “small” ensemble pas des eventailles set in a mirror, a virtuoso stylization by Ratmansky, for whom Le Corsaire became his debut in editing the classics.

It is incredibly difficult to reproduce the phenomenal simplicity of Petipa's ballet. And not the entire troupe coped with the task perfectly at the premiere. But in this performance there are exceptionally many successful performances: from the luminaries Chinara Alizade and Anna Tikhomirova in The Lively Garden, from the unsurpassed performer of mimic parts Gennady Yanin, who replenished his colorful collection with the “slave trader” Lankedem, from Anna Antropova, who brilliantly continues the tradition of characteristic Moscow ballerinas in Forbane to Ekaterina Shipulina and Andrey Merkuriev, who brought to the fore their secondary characters Gulnara and Birbanto.

But still, as it should be with Petipa, Le Corsaire is a ballerina's ballet. And in the new Moscow production, this is Svetlana Zakharova. It is in the role of Medora, which requires conditional acting experiences and endless ballet virtuosity, that Zakharova has no equal. She intrepidly takes all the choreographic peaks that Petipa composed for her favorite ballerinas for half a century. He turned his "Corsair" into the standard of the performing style of the late 19th century. Zakharova danced it as a standard of the 21st century.

Izvestia, June 26, 2007

Svetlana Naborshchikova

Pirates of the nineteenth century

The Bolshoi Theater resurrected an old story about sea robbers

In 1856, the work of the composer Adolphe Adam and choreographer Georges Mazilier was seen by the public of the Paris Grand Opera. Two years later, "Corsair" appeared in St. Petersburg. Since then, the incendiary tale of sea pirates and beautiful slave girls has not left the scenes of Russia and the world, and this year can rightly be called "corsair-bearing". The Frenchman Jean-Guillaume Bart staged this performance in Yekaterinburg, the Czech Ivan Lischka in the Bavarian Ballet, and now, at the end of the season, the Moscow achievement was made public.

Corsair at the Bolshoi is a joint production of choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka, artists Boris Kaminsky (scenography), Elena Zaitseva (costumes), Damir Ismagilov (lighting) and conductor Pavel Klinichev. The St. Petersburg edition of Marius Petipa, dated 1899, is based on, but this does not mean that we saw the version that our great-grandfathers admired. The stage directors reproduced the descriptions and oral traditions that have come down to us, but the rest was composed anew, "antique". The resulting mix is ​​the author's know-how. Not the perfume of the era, as the famous "authenticist" Pierre Lacotte characterizes his compositions, but a blend of old and new fragrances. Filled in an old bottle - the shape of a "big" ballet - the product looks very attractive and, no doubt, will be in demand. Dances, pantomime and their hybrid (what was called scene dansante in old performances) are already very harmoniously combined.

Among the dances - good and different - "The Lively Garden" excels, shown for the first time since 1917 as Petipa conceived it. The maestro, inspired by the parks of Versailles, military parades on the Champ de Mars and the most delicate music of Leo Delibes, built a 20-minute composition of seven movements and many movements. It turned out to be an airy spectacle, like a marshmallow, where among the wreaths and flower beds the girls of the harem flutter. For a balletomaniac accustomed to the minimalist Soviet "Gardens", this "Paradise of Mohammed" (as the scene in the violin tutor was called) makes a stunning impression. Similar feelings should be experienced by the inhabitant of the Khrushchev, who got into the royal chambers.

Our contemporary is puzzled by the abundance of long-vanished "semaphore" pantomime. For a detailed acquaintance with it, it would be nice to put a leaflet in the programs with an explanation of the most common gestures. Moreover, among the "conversations" there are curious ones. Here, for example, is an example of an old ballet erotica.

Pirate Konrad points towards the couch, then extends his hand to the beautiful Medora, hugs his shoulders and, at the end of the combination, runs the edge of his hand across the throat. All this means: "If you do not love me, I will kill myself." In response, the flirtatious girl spreads her arms ("Here, now?"), shakes her head ("I doubt it ..."), after which she begins enticing steps. The exhausted Konrad drags the charmer to the bed, but Medora is in no hurry to hug her beloved and, standing on the couch, raises her leg into an arabesque pose. A disciplined hero holds her by the handle and walks around like a cat near a water bottle.

The proud slave nevertheless falls into the arms of Konrad, but later - in the scene of a shipwreck, which thrilled the audience of the century before last. Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky admitted that "the raging sea of ​​painted canvas, a sinking fake ship, dozens of large and small fountains of living water, fish swimming along the bottom of the sea and a huge whale" made him "blush, turn pale, shed sweat or tears."

From the list that struck the founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, the canvas with the ship remained in the new version. The maximum you can respond to them is polite applause. It's a pity. A bright spectacle requires an enchanting conclusion, especially since modern stage technologies allow this to be done.

In three premiere performances, three casts appeared, and the ladies, according to an old tradition, danced tirelessly. The most beautiful Medora was Svetlana Zakharova, who showed impeccable lines. The most touching is Svetlana Lunkina, who softened the ballerina's aplomb with girlish shyness. The most enduring is Maria Alexandrova, who has overcome almost all technical reefs. The share of their Konrads - respectively Denis Matvienko, Yuri Klevtsov and Nikolai Tsiskaridze - got one pas de deux. The rest of the time, according to Petipa's will, the men mimicked and posed.

Marius Ivanovich himself, according to his memoirs, in pantomime was "completely unforgettable and radiated magnetic currents." Our heroes have not yet matured to such a state, but they have someone to learn from. Lessons of acting magnetism can be given by Gennady Yanin. The best comedian of the Bolshoi Theater appeared in a small part of an elderly merchant and clearly proved that there are no small roles for great actors.

Newspaper, June 26, 2007

Yaroslav Sedov

Pirate snapped up

Premiere of the ballet "Corsair" at the Bolshoi Theater

The Bolshoi Theater of Russia ended the season with a new staging of the old ballet Le Corsaire, which was literally in great demand this season. In January, a similar reconstruction of this performance attracted the attention of the Bavarian Opera. A couple of months ago, Le Corsaire was staged with great pomp in Yekaterinburg by the premiere of the Paris Opera, Jean-Guillaume Bar. And by the beginning of the next season, the Kremlin Ballet will show an updated version of Yuri Grigorovich.

Perhaps the reason for the interest in Le Corsaire was Pirates of the Caribbean, which reminded the ballet world that for more than 100 years it has had its own pirate no worse. Or maybe the upcoming exchange Year of Russian Culture in France and Year of French Culture in Russia. The revival of Le Corsaire, the last work of the composer Adolphe Adam, the author of Giselle, which became not only the pinnacle of ballet romanticism, but also a symbol of the interaction of Russian and French cultures, could not be more appropriately timed to coincide with this event.

"Corsair" can also serve as an example of such interaction. Appearing at the Paris Opera in 1856, he went through many transformations. The best of them were made by the French dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa, who worked in St. Petersburg for half a century and created Russian classical ballet. The role of Conrad in Le Corsaire was the best in Petipa's repertoire. In 1858, it was in this role that he met on the St. Petersburg stage with Jules Perrot, the creator of Adam's Giselle dances. Perrault revived Le Corsaire for his benefit performance and performed Seid Pasha himself. In the role of Conrad, Marius Petipa said goodbye to the stage as a dancer, and subsequently composed brilliant classical ensembles in his St. Petersburg productions of Le Corsaire.

These episodes, which were preserved in one way or another in all subsequent versions of The Corsair, became the reference points of the performance of the Bolshoi Theater. Stage directors Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka (an artist of the Russian Ballet troupe Vyacheslav Gordeeva, who has long been fond of studying ancient choreography) studied Petipa's archive and recordings of his choreography made during the life of the choreographer. Petersburg theater archives provided sketches of scenery and costumes restored under the direction of Boris Kaminsky and Elena Zaitseva. The directors composed the missing scenes themselves, trying to adhere to the style of Petipa.

The party of the main character Medora, around whom a motley dancing sea laps, turned out to be much more extensive and exhausting in the current Le Corsaire than in all versions known so far. However, the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Svetlana Zakharova copes with virtuoso dance passages as easily and artistically as extra-class musicians - with polkas and waltzes by Johann Strauss at the famous New Year's concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Zakharov-Medora attracts his beloved corsair Konrad in the dashing performance of the virtuoso Denis Matvienko not so much with conventional mimic coquetry as with the artistry of the dance. Her bewitching plastic lines in slow adagios and small fast movements sparkling with filigree decoration are this time filled with festive energy and crafty charm that shines with every movement of the ballerina.

The main character on the stage is framed by a grandiose parade of classical dances, picturesque characteristic dances, game scenes and spectacular effects like the famous final shipwreck. Unfortunately, Marius Petipa's large-scale composition The Lively Garden, where the corps de ballet groups dance between fake lawns that form a garden labyrinth, is still constrained by the size of the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater. And the virtuoso solos of the famous classical Trio of Odalisques turned out to be inaccessible to the artists chosen for these parts. But in the duet of a slave and a slave, the charming Nina Kaptsova and the temperamental Ivan Vasilyev are not lost. And in the role of Gulnara, who helps the main characters escape from the captivity of Seyid Pasha, Ekaterina Shipulina attracts with liveliness, humor, exciting female charms and dance virtuosity.

Culture, June 28, 2007

Elena Fedorenko

Solo for filibuster: all boarding!

New old "Corsair" at the Bolshoi Theater

The artistic dispute between the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters has been fixed for centuries. There is not a single event in history that, having taken place on St. Petersburg territory, would not have provoked a response to Moscow. A few years ago, the Mariinsky Theater became interested in restoring masterpieces, responding to fashionable authenticity, and released Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadère. Moscow withstood a pause and issued "Corsair" to the music of Adolf Adam. With one significant difference, she did not call the ballet a reconstruction, but chose a more precise definition - stylization. Thus, protecting yourself from possible attacks.

The huge three-act ballet was shown in several rehearsals, which were watched by all the ballet people, who issued a verdict: "Impressive, but boring and drawn out." The premiere, on the contrary, turned out to be fascinating, and, contrary to forecasts, it was impossible not to succumb to the charms of this well-tailored ballet. The ballet is beautiful, with many different dances, captivating with its exquisite simplicity of composition, rich in dramaturgy, and, moreover, certainly contrasting. It struck me that much of the "stylization" does not look naive. For example, in "The Corsair" there is an image of heaven - the scene "The Lively Garden" and hell - "The Storm and the Shipwreck". But it is not perceived as "white" and "black". Inside paradise, there are difficult relationships (ladies are intrigued and jealous: the sultana Zulma brings up odalisques, the slave Gulnara is naughty, and the Greek woman Medora resists the claims of the pasha). And hell is not "hopeless" - after all, the heroes are saved. As they fled in the middle of the 19th century, at the Paris premiere of Le Corsaire, composed by Joseph Mazilier based on the popular poem by Lord Byron.

In fact, "Corsair" is an ideal adventurous series (love and kidnapping, the struggle for freedom and poisoning - a real pirate story, albeit not of the Caribbean), which was composed throughout its existence. Russia picked up the French premiere, and Petipa spent his whole life finishing Le Corsaire as a book of his ballet life. From Le Corsaire one can judge how the ballet history of this Frenchman developed, which became the history of Russian ballet. Petipa, far from the first time, but through many alterations, put together a fateful puzzle - the imperial grand style of a ballet performance. And then with the "Corsair" happened approximately the same as with the life of, for example, domestic intellectuals, relocated from the quiet of comfortable offices to murderous communal equality. The plot became more and more primitive; the luxury of costumes and scenography became paler, the machinery gradually decayed, and the bottomless and generous imperial treasury no longer existed; pantomime was reduced to the minimum so as not to become an enemy to the dance, until it was declared archaic at all (and without it, Corsair is simply nowhere!). But the ballet about filibusters was destined to survive: they were saved by dances that stagger any wildest imagination. They always attracted everyone, but in the 20th century they no longer formed a harmonious whole. Since everyone who had the right to influence the repertoire understood that the ballet did not succumb to its predecessor, and offered its own version. What happened to the "Corsair" throughout the last century can be described in a separate treatise. The cornerstones - dances - were taken apart by competitions and galas, however, thanks to them, they were preserved. But in a completely meaningless way. A few years ago, missing the pas de deux from Le Corsaire at the competition, I decided to diversify my impressions and find out what the young artists are dancing in history. Few could answer.

All the surviving rarities, artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka, who have been noticed more than once in their careful attention to the classics (only neophytes can talk about literal accuracy after so many years), decided to put them together, if possible, clear them of layers and show them to the ballet world tired of minimalism a rarity of luxurious imperial style, as it appears to educated people. So the wonderful stylist Burlak restored the lost connections, and the clever choreographer Ratmansky, without seams and folds, "under Petipa", composed new steps.

Boiled work bore fruit: the score was found in Paris, costume designs - in St. Petersburg, the recording of choreography, carried out by the director of the Mariinsky Theater Nikolai Sergeev (although the notation allows for discrepancies) - at Harvard, and Moscow confirmed a lot of photo archives of the Bakhrushin Museum.

It is easy to read the action of the resulting "Corsair" without looking into the program. Well, indeed, who does not understand that Isaac Lankedem trades in live goods. Gennady Yanin expressively conveys all the torments of greed: how one does not want to sell the beauty Medora - the main diamond of her collection, but the treasures offered by Seyid Pasha (Aleksey Loparevich) attract so much! All the "pantomime" characters are picturesque, but so far the make-up that changes beyond recognition and wonderful costumes (restored not only by research skills, but thought out by the imagination of Elena Zaitseva) are "saving": the liveliness of the acting is a matter of future efforts.

By the way, the dancing soloists also confirmed that pantomime dialogues are a lost art. In the dances they were much more organic, fortunately, there are many dances in the Corsair. In dancing luxury, the Ballerina rules. Svetlana Zakharova, who recently became a laureate of the State Prize, and the role of Medora found each other. Zakharova led the premiere with an awareness of the solemnity of the historical moment, managed to avoid both dramatic anemia and exaggerated acting - two extremes that are characteristic of many previous images of this incredibly beautiful ballerina with an impeccable figure. She miraculously dances the "Little Corsair", disguised in the grotto of pirates in a man's outfit, significantly and widely plays the entire role. Medora - an exhausting part, passes in a complex plastic development through the entire ballet, the ballerina dances in every action, barely having time to change costumes - Zakharova undoubtedly submitted.

But dancing for Konrad ends already in the first act - after the pas de deux with Medora, he has the opportunity to "break away" in acting excitement. What Denis Matvienko, who has danced with dignity many performances of the Bolshoi, does with pleasure, offering another image in the popular pirate theme. The dancer perfectly imagines and perfectly conveys the spirit of the noble robber freemen of blockbusters.

The culmination of each action Petipa made detailed dance compositions, the creators of the new performance did not argue. Pas de de Medora and Konrad Zakharov and Matvienko danced, though not flawlessly, but served as an exquisite decoration of the architectural ensemble. The dance of the slaves (pas des esclaves) was performed by Nina Kaptsova - in the best traditions of travesty, and the flying virtuoso Ivan Vasiliev, who was hard to recognize - so changed his make-up and costume.

The already named "Live Garden" is the center of the second act. It is difficult for those who have not seen to imagine 68 dancing artists and children on the stage, decorated with fountains, flower beds, shrubs, garlands. In order to realize this outlandish Versailles geometry, old Petipa had to draw the rearrangements of the mise-en-scènes, with a ruler in his hands, calculate the possibilities of the dancer to move from pose to pose on a narrow path between the flower beds or jump from the center of one ornament (garlands laid out on the stage) to another. Sheets with these formulas-hieroglyphs of Petipa were one of the archival documents. The tightness (on the new stage, the artists cannot turn around) and, probably, other reasons gave rise to negligence, especially among the luminaries (in the variations at the premiere, the odalisques of Anna Leonova and Chinara Alizade, favorably distinguished by the clarity of the dance, were remembered in variations). The crafty Gulnara of Ekaterina Shipulina, against this decorative background, is desperately fighting for her future in a modern way: further from traditions, but closer to the changed styles, the ballerina builds the party on Balanchine accents.

In the third act, the trick is the Dance "with fans" (Grand pas des eventailles), based on the choreography of Mazilier, whom Petipa's younger compatriot revered. True, only crumbs remained of it, the rest was completed by Ratmansky, and he did it perfectly: it is impossible to distinguish the original source from the stylization. By the duet - the crown of this composition - Zakharova got a second wind, and for her spectacular cavalier Artem Shpilevsky, the day of the premiere turned out to be clearly unsuccessful.

With the scene of the shipwreck in the epilogue, when the hull of the ship splits and the sails are torn apart by a hurricane wind, the artist Boris Kaminsky could easily withstand the tender with the classical marine painters, and at the same time with the authors of the film "Titanic". Escape from this nightmare seems impossible, but, as in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", a miracle happens: Conrad and Medora are washed ashore by fate itself. Their happiness ends the ballet, which will soon go on tour to London. You don't have to be Cassandra to foresee the awe of the stiff English.

Adan. Ballet "Corsair." Starring Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Maria Alexandrova

Corsair was based on a poem by George Gordon Byron, which he wrote in 1814. The world premiere of the ballet Le Corsaire, choreographed by Joseph Mazilier, took place more than a century ago at the Paris Opera in January 1856. Since then, box office receipts for this ballet have always been quite high. The ballet set off on a journey around the world. Two years later, he is transferred to Russia and shown in St. Petersburg, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. First, Jules Perrot takes over the ballet, and later Marius Petipa begins to work on the Corsair. Work on improving the ballet continued by the choreographer until the end of his life. In the end, the ballet became even more spectacular, appealing to people with different tastes and combining a wide variety of beautiful dances, an interesting plot and a great staging.
Adolphe Adam - the famous French composer is the founder of this ballet, who wrote the music. In 1858, when the ballet ended up in Russia, Caesar Pugni made additions to the musical accompaniment, and it was shown in an updated version on the St. Petersburg stage.
Of course, over such a long period, the ballet has undergone many changes, but it has remained a favorite for millions of spectators and occupies a worthy place in the repertoire of many theaters.
Le Corsaire is truly an old ballet; Yuri Burlaka and Alexei Ratmansky also took it up, skillfully updating the production and choreography. Lost over time, dances, pantomime and other details were completed and updated. Subtle and elegant work has been done on the modern Corsair, this is a whole study. A huge amount of material was collected. The theater library provided sketches of outfits, thanks to the archives of the Paris Opera, the score was taken. Experts worked with the information that Petipa left, at Harvard University they obtained information about the choreography. Many publications from old newspapers and photographs were collected.

Summary of the ballet.

The heroes of the ballet show a wonderful story of love and travel. Three pirates, by the will of fate, fall into a shipwreck and after it find themselves on an island, where they are rescued by beautiful Greek women. The pirate Condor falls in love with the lovely Medora. Then a detachment of Turkish soldiers appears on their way, the girls hide the corsairs, and they themselves are captured. One slave trader Lankedem decides to sell the girls. Further, the plot of the ballet unfolds in the eastern market, where an elderly pasha is going to buy several young women for his harem. He has a wonderful dream in which the girls appear as heavenly beauties, they are all good (this story, where ballerinas dance in colored ballet tutus, is called "The Lively Garden"). The merchant Lenkedem takes the girls to the show, Pasha likes the first girl Gulnara, he buys her, but when Medora appears, Seid Pasha loses his head and wants to get the beauty into his harem at any cost. Further, corsairs disguised as rich merchants appear in the bazaar and begin to bargain. Then they undress from rich clothes and appear in the form of armed pirates. A riot begins, the pirates save Medora and the rest of the slaves, and also take the slave trader with them. The Turkish soldiers are powerless, and the pasha is furious.

The fugitives hide from their pursuers and a dispute arises between them, whether to leave the girls on the island or leave with them. The slave trader tricks the Condor into sleeping with a bouquet of flowers sprinkled with a potion, and once again Medora and the girls end up in the market to be sold. The pirates decide to make a second attempt at liberation and, disguised as pilgrims, go to the palace. Having chosen the right moment, the saviors free the slaves and run away. Medora, Konrad, together with their comrades, go on a ship across the seething sea to meet happiness.