Scheherazade to the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Chopiniana to the music of Frédéric Chopin from the cycle The Silver Age Ballets

 

2020 / 2021                 Main Hall                    the 8th Season

13-14 April * Tuesday / Wednesday * 7.00 pm

Dear guests!

 

We remind you that people over 65 years old are temporarily restricted to visit the theatre.

(In accordance with the Decree “On restrictive and quarantine measures in the city of Nur-Sultan” dated 02.02.2021 No. 5, clause 1.5. signed by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor Beisenova S.S.)

 

We also ask you to maintain social distancing and wear masks during the interval.

 

Mikhail Fokine’s Ballets

 

Chopiniana to the music of Frédéric Chopin,

Scheherazade to the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

from the cycle The Silver Age Ballets

Mikhail Fokine’s Ballets

 

Chopiniana to the music of Frédéric Chopin,

Scheherazade to the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

from the cycle The Silver Age Ballets

 

 

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the talented choreographer Mikhail Fokine was a person who expressed new trends and new ideas in the Russian ballet. He greatly contributed to the Russian ballet art, expanded the circle of ideas and images, and enriched it with new forms and styles.

 

 

Chopiniana

(one-act ballet to the music of Frédéric Chopin)

 

Choreography by Mikhail Fokine

Revised version by Agrippina Vaganova (1931)

Set and costume design based on original sketches by Alexandre Benois and Orest Allegri

 

Ballet Master – Producer: Altynai Asylmuratova, People’s Artist of Russia

Conductor: Arman Urazgaliyev

Assistant Ballet Masters – Producers: Konstantin Zaklinsky, Honoured Artist of Russia / Elena Sherstneva

Set Design: Victor Carare

Costume Designer: Arassel Dosmuratova

Lighting Designer: Vincenzo Raponi

 

 

In 1908, Mikhail Fokine composed a non-narrative ballet sketch. As the choreographer wrote, it was “in the style of that long-forgotten time, when ballet was governed by poetry, when a dancer rose en pointe not to demonstrate the steel-like arch of her foot, but in order to create the impression of lightness, barely touching the ground, something ethereal and fantastical… I have tried not to surprise people with the novelty, but rather to restore the conventional ballet dancing to the point of its greatest advances. I don’t know how our ballet predecessors danced. And no one else knows that. But in my dreams this is precisely how they did dance.”

The entire suite, woven by the choreographer of fleeting visions consonant with Chopin’s music, captivate the audience by its pensive beauty.

 

 

LEAD ROLES AND PERFORMERS

Young Man:          Yerkin RAKHMATULLAYEV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan /

                              Zhananur ZHANABEKOV

 

Seventh Waltz:      Aigerim BEKETAYEVA, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan /

                                      Shugyla ADEPKHAN

 

Eleventh Waltz:     Moldir SHAKIMOVA /

                              Adelina TULEPOVA

 

Prelude:                 Mariko KITAMURA /

                              Anastasia ZAKLISKAYA

 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

 

 

Scheherazade

(one-act choreographic drama to the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)

 

Scenario by Mikhail Fokine after the Arabian Nights fairytales

Choreography by Mikhail Fokine (1910). Reconstruction by Andris Liepa

Sets and costumes after original sketches by Léon Bakst

 

 

Choreographer                      Andris Liepa, People’s Artist of Russia

Assistant Choreographer      Svetlana Romanova

Conductor                             Arman Urazgaliyev

Set Designer                          Anatoly Nezhny

Costume Designer                 Elena Netsvetaeva-Dolgaleva

Lighting Designer                  Vitaly Davydkin

Artistic Director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company – Altynai Asylmuratova, People’s Artist of Russia

 

 

The bored Sultan Shahryar is being entertained by odalisques and his beloved wife Zobeide. The Sultan’s younger brother Shakhezman is also here, he lost faith in women after his beloved wife betrayed him. He does not believe his brother’s wives either and offers his brother to test their loyalty. Both Sultans go hunting, while their wives touchingly bid farewell to them. Almost as soon as the Sultans are gone, the wives bribe the Chief Eunuch who opens the door of the harem. Black slaves burst in, and shameless depravity begins. Zobeide reigns here, having fun with her beloved Slave. In the midst of such “merrymaking”, the brothers return. Shakhezman triumphs, Shahryar is enraged and orders to execute everyone on the spot. Sultan’s servants kill the odalisques, eunuchs and black slaves. Sultana Zobeide, whom her spouse Shahryar believed more than himself, relies on her power over him and tries to appease him. The Sultan is unable to give the order to execute her. However, his cunning brother contemptuously points at Zobeide’s hacked to death lover. Shahryar gives a sign to the executioners, but his wife manages to grab a dagger from him and takes her own life. Shahryar cries over the dead body of his unfaithful, but beloved woman.

 

 

LEAD ROLES AND PERFORMERS

Shahryar:               Zhanibek IMANKULOV /

                              Rakhmetulla NAUANOV

 

Shakhezman:         Ildar SHAKIRZYANOV /

                              Yerlan ZHAMBULAYEV

 

Zobeide:                 Anastasia ZAKLINSKAYA /

                              Anel RUSTEMOVA, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

 

The Golden Slave: Bakhtiyar ADAMZHAN, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan /

                              Serik NAKYSPEKOV

 

Chief Eunuch:        Olzhas MAKHANBETALIYEV /

                              Zhanadil BEISSEMBIYEV

 

 

 

BALLET DANCERS, SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF THE ASTANA OPERA HOUSE

 

 

Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes, including one interval