This season, the Bolshoi Ballet can again be seen in cinemas across Britain. Although the first of seven Sunday broadcasts from Moscow has already gone, there are six more opportunities to see the company in HD.
Next up on November 6 is The Bright Stream. Not particularly well-known in Britain, the ballet is set during harvest festival at a collective farm where a visiting dance troupe reunites a ballerina with her childhood friend Zina. In order to teach her unfaithful husband a lesson, Zina, the ballerina and the ballerina’s husband decide to swap roles for the evening. Cue fun and many false identities including principal dancer Ruslan Skvortsov dressed as a Sylph! American Ballet Theatre artistic director Alexei Ratmansky invokes the genius of Shostakovich’s music alongside the laugh-out-loud comedy. The cast includes Svetlana Lunkina (Zina), Mikhail Lobukhin (Pyotr) and Maria Alexandrova (the Ballerina).
Photo Damir Yusupov
Three iconic ballets with music by Tchaikovsky will then be celebrated. Just a week before Christmas on December 18 comes that perennial seasonal favourite, The Nutcracker, in the Bolshoi’s unique version. That’s followed on January 22 by The Sleeping Beauty; and on February 5 by Swan Lake, in which Svetlana Zakharova takes the stage in her acclaimed interpretation of the dual-swan role Odette/Odile.
Two new productions end the season. On March 19, the Bolshoi presents an evening of more modern works in A Contemporary Evening that comprises comprising Jerome Robbins’s The Cage, Harald Lander’s Études and Ratmansky’s Russian Seasons. Lastly, on April 9 the Bolshoi will present its latest creation A Hero of Our Time, a tragic poetic journey inspired by Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov’s masterpiece, with choreography by Yuri Possokhov set to young composer Ilya Demutsky’s score.
All screenings start at 3pm except A Hero of Our Time, which starts at 4pm.
For more details and to find your nearest cinema, visit www.bolshoiballetcinema.co.uk.