Igor Stravinsky’s masterpieces come back

On June 20 the ballets Petrushka and Firebird will adorn the playbill of the National Opera House of Ukraine. It will be recalled that these one-act ballets premiered 11 year ago. The productions were staged specially for the German tour, therefore they were shown on the Kyiv stage only several times.

“I have watched thoroughly all the versions, from Maurice Bejart’s to Serge Golovine’s,” said choreographer Viktor YAREMENKO, “I decided that choreography will dominate on Kyiv stage rather than pantomime. Several years ago Russian choreographer Yury Grigorovich saw the ballet at the Serge Lifar Competition. He admitted, ‘Probably that was what Stravinsky dreamt about. More dancing scenes, more life.’”

In the new “life” of Petrushka, which the ballet will get in the end of the 145th theater season, the emphasis will change: scenes will be additionally set up, and the parts of soloists will be changed and complicated. All colors of a fair will play on the stage. The spirit of Pancake Week festivities will be reproduced by the Chief Artist of the National Opera of Ukraine Maria Levytska. And the story of love triangle (a story about puppets, which is so much like human tragedy) will be performed by dancers of new generation.

The ballet Firebird is an original version authored by Viktor LYTVYNOV: “The leading hero in my production is Koshchei the Immortal. I took the liberty of doing some tricks, I’ve ‘played’ with the characters. This is a fairytale, albeit an ironic one. It is really hard to realize in dancing the extraordinary music created by Stravinsky. It is elite and unique; it seems to live a life of its own.”

“Revival of both ballets does not mean that they will be shown very often on the stage of our theater. This is Stravinsky, not Tchaikovsky: Petrushka and Firebird are quite different from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. The audience must be prepared to watch these plays,” considers Aniko REKHVIASHVILI, Artistic Director of the Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine.

The rehearsals are in full swing. It has not been announced yet who will perform the leading parts, but it is already known that the prima ballerina of the Kyiv stage Tetiana Lozova will play the Firebird at the premiere.