The Kirov Ballet
THE KIROV BALLET PERFORM AT THE LOWRY
Tues 13 - Sat 17 May 2008
A feast of dance with Balanchine’s shimmering Jewels,
a Gala Evening of balletic fireworks and
hot Spanish passion in Don Quixote
Press nights Tues 13 May 7.30pm Jewels NW Premiere
Thurs 15 May 7.30pm Gala Programme
Fri 16 May 7.30pm Don Quixote
The Kirov Ballet from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, one of the World’s great ballet companies, return to The Lowry, Salford from Tuesday 13 May to Saturday 17 May.
The 200-year-old Russian company, under the Artistic Direction of Valery Gergiev and Ballet Director Makhar Vaziev, will perform two full-length ballets - Balanchine’s shimmering Jewels and Don Quixote, one of the highlights of the classical canon, as well as a Gala Evening of balletic fireworks.
The company is led by the exquisite Uliana Lopatkina. She is joined by principal dancers Viktoria Tereshkina, Anton Korsakov, Andrian Fadeyev, Sofia Gumerova, Alina Somova, Igor Kolb, Anton Korsakov and Leonid Sarafanov and the company’s ravishing corps de ballet. The company’s visit is in association with Victor Hochhauser.
As well as nationally known for its dance and drama on stage, The Lowry houses gallery spaces, making it an ideal setting for an exhibition of drawings and paintings of life on and off the stage by leading British Impressionist Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970). Laura Knight at the Theatre: Paintings and drawings of the ballet and the stage (now showing at The Lowry until 6 July) shows how one art form can inspire another, bringing together visual art and the theatrical experience which inspired it.
George Balanchine’s Jewels
George Balanchine is justly regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century choreographers. Trained in St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet – much later to become the Kirov - he settled in the United States where he reinvented the language of ballet for the new century.
His sublime three-act ballet Jewels, which opens the Kirov’s Birmingham season is a heavenly succession of stylistically diverse classical divertissements which take their tone from the jewels they are named after. Elegant and romantic for Emeralds (set to Fauré), hot and jazzy for Rubies (set to Stravinsky) and glittering and aristocratic for Diamonds (set to Tchaikovsky).
Balanchine created Jewels for his own New York City Ballet, but the Kirov was the first company in Europe to stage all three acts in the same evening. The Kirov production recreates Peter Harvey’s original décor – a shimmering cascade of jewels suspended in mid air – and the dancers wear magnificently bejewelled costumes based on the originals by fashionable New York designer Karinska.
First seen in London in 2000, this Kirov production of Jewels left critics and audiences literally reeling with delight.
Gala Programme
The Kirov’s Gala Programme promises a box of delights for ballet lovers, including Fokine’s romantic one-act ballet, Chopiniana (sometimes known as Les Sylphides) and the sublime Kingdom of the Shades from Act III of La Bayadère which shows the Kirov’s legendary corps de ballet off to perfection. The middle course of this splendid feast includes Fokine’s dreamy Le Spectre de la Rose and a dazzling sequence of balletic set pieces.
Don Quixote
Don Quixote is one of the sunniest ballet’s in the Kirov’s rich classical repertoire. Created by classical ballet’s greatest choreographer, Marius Petipa, it tells the story of the rocky romance between Kitri, the playful daughter of a social-climbing innkeeper, and her lover Basilio, a barber who is handsome – but broke.
Based on Alexander Gorsky’s 1900 production, this colourful Kirov production bristles with authentic Spanish dances, bullfighters and gypsies – all portrayed with an exquisite blend of wit and bravura. Its vivid Spanish settings have also been faithfully reproduced from the legendary turn-of-the-century production.
Posted on Thursday, 10 April 2008 under Press Theatre Press