UNITED KINGDOM: KIROV BALLET RECREATE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTY FOR THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

Record ID: 389512

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: KIROV BALLET RECREATE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTY FOR THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE
  • Date: 12th June 2000
  • Summary: LONDON, UK (JUNE 12, 2000) (REUTERS) VARIOUS SHOTS OF KIROV BALLET DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVACXEHRCDRE8KNFSO86BQ76PYUX
  • Story Text: The distinctively flamboyant style of Russian Ballet is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and now London audiences have the chance to see one of its greatest exponents. The Kirov Ballet opened their London season at the recently refurbished Royal opera House with a sumptuous production of The Sleeping Beauty, an authentic reconstruction of the original work choreographed by Marius Petipa which was first performed over a hundred years ago.
    St. Petersburg's Kirov Ballet company (known in Russia by it's pre-revolution name of Mariinsky Ballet) is considered one of the finest in the world.
    Its dancers have a reputation for breathtaking physicality, and it's productions are never less than spectacular.
    The company's London season is always a highlight of the theatre calendar, and this year the ballet company's run will be followed by a string of performances by the equally well respected Kirov Opera.
    But it is the opening ballet, The Sleeping Beauty that is attracting even more attention than usual, for the Kirov have recreated the original production, which is over a century old.
    As Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev explains, the production is a vital part of their heritage: "I think to stress that we are linked to our great traditions, and Petipa, a great name for world culture who was so much lets say linked to such a degree to the Kirov, Mariinsky history that we find him nearly as important as Tchaikovsky for us, so we try to create his production of 1890 and a lot of effort was made so we hope that people will find it beautiful interesting and very good strong experience."
    Although The Sleeping Beauty is a part of Russia's artistic history, the reconstruction was instigated on the other side of the Atlantic by American academic Tim Scholl. He was aware of the manuscripts detailing the staging of the original production: "The process was really one of telling the Mariinsky about the manuscripts because these things had left Russia in 1918 and most people in Russia weren't really sure where they had gone so when I actually told the director of the troupe and Sergei Vikharev who actually staged the ballet that these things did exist and were in rather good shape in the Harvard Archives people were very happy to learn that they could be used" (question - and the Kirov weren't aware that that's where these manuscripts were held? " No, and that's normal actually because during the Cold War we weren't accustomed to working in each others archives, so it was not the kind of situation where to company would have gone around looking an American archives for old manuscripts."
    The documents were taken out of Russia by a Mariinsky Theatre ballet master at the end of the revolution, and used as the basis for productions in Paris and London, when he died he left them to a friend who sold them at auction to the Harvard Archive.
    The company painstaking interpreted the notation to revive Petipa's original staging, and turned to their own archives in St. Petersburg to find costume and set designs.
    The process involved over 200 dressmakers, and every available set builder in town - the whole production took over 18 months and was a highly involved process, and balletmaster Sergei Vikharev explains: "It was very difficult work and you can imagine that it wasn't just a matter of reviving some steps, there were a whole lot of things that went into this whole complex of problems, and it meant talking to people who had danced in previous versions, comparing all kinds of things from the archives, not just these notations, but of course for the Mariinsky Theatre, The Sleeping Beauty is really considered the visiting card of the company, it's the company's most important ballet, and it's necessary to have it in the right shape."
    True to form, the Kirov's production is nothing short of spectacular, and the performances of Diana Vishneva and Igor Zelensky were rapturously received.
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