Ballet premiere at the Bolshoi Theater! Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" will be brought to life on stage in accordance with the plans of the famous choreographer Jean-Christophe-Maillot. The play will be staged especially for the famous Russian troupe. Tickets for The Taming of the Shrew will give the public the opportunity to attend another high-profile premiere. As for the composer of the future production, Mayo replied that he wanted to take the music of Alfred Schnittke.
Jean-Christophe-Maillot is a notable and significant figure in the ballet world. His performances arouse great interest among the audience. The work of the artistic director of the Monte Carlo Ballet has received many high awards. At the same time, the ballet “The Taming of the Shrew” in Moscow is not the first experience of the famous choreographer working outside the walls of his theater.
The Taming of the Shrew, a sold-out ballet, will showcase the work of many talented young dancers to the public. This performance has enormous potential - an interesting plot, which will be taken on by a talented director, excellent music and brilliant performers. Everyone who manages to buy tickets to the ballet “The Taming of the Shrew” will receive an amazing reward in the form of unforgettable impressions and emotions.
The ballet “The Taming of the Shrew” was staged especially for the Bolshoi Theater. The world premiere took place on July 4, 2014. The ballet was staged by the Frenchman Jean-Christophe Maillot (b. 1960, Tours, France), choreographer of the Monte Carlo Ballet.
photo by Mikhail Logvinov
Jean-Christophe had a surprisingly successful creative career. Having all the qualities of a classical dancer, but not having completed his professional education, he was accepted into the troupe of John Neumeier. After an injury that was incompatible with a career as a ballet dancer, he returned to Tours, where he assembled a troupe of those who loved dance, but did not particularly study it. His first small performances began to gain popularity. A few years later he headed the Ballet du Grand Th??tre in Tours, and subsequently the National Center of Choreography. In 1987, for the Monte Carlo Ballet, he created the play “The Marvelous Mandarin,” which was a huge success. And a year later, Caroline, Princess of Monaco, invites him to lead the troupe as director-choreographer. He brings his entire team there, and a life full of creativity begins. Everything is going fantastically well: our own theater, financing, implementation of all creative projects. Thanks to Mayo's creativity, the Monte Carlo Ballet has a unique repertoire. Wherever the choreographer was invited, leaving Monte Carlo was never part of his plans: he understood perfectly well that he could not get such fabulous conditions anywhere. Mayo produces one-piece goods and works on them in a special way too. He can spend hours perfecting the same movement, forcing the performer to repeat it dozens of times, bringing it to perfection, rehearsing as much as the artist needs to feel the essence of the image. Therefore, it is not acceptable for him to move or stage his performances on other stages, since by definition there will not be enough time there to achieve the quality he requires.
Photo by Elena Fetisova
It was a stroke of luck to agree with Mayo to stage a full-fledged ballet for the Bolshoi Theater (and this is due to Sergei Filin). The choreographer came to the production with his team: a stenographer, a costume designer (and at the same time his son, making his debut in this ballet) and, of course, with Bernice Coppieters - muse, wife, permanent prima of all his ballets, and now assistant choreographer. “The Taming of the Shrew” for Mayo is a love story between two personalities, translated into body language, which, at one time, he wanted Bernice to “tell”.
When choosing music for the ballet, the choreographer settled on the work of his beloved Dmitry Shostakovich: works written for films turned out to be the most suitable for the choreographer. Successfully composed of various excerpts, including those taken from symphonic works, the musical score, imbued with creative freedom, irony and grotesqueness, set the mood for the entire performance. The selection of music took a long time, complicated by difficult negotiations with the composer’s heirs: the maestro chose - the Bolshoi Theater agreed, Mayo chose again - the Bolshoi again agreed. And so on several times. The stenographer and costume designer decided not to be tied to medieval Italy and gave modern accents to the timeless sets and costumes. The minimalist stage design successfully emphasized the style and dramaturgy of the production, adding relevance to the events of today.
Working with the artists of the Bolshoi Theater for Mayo unexpectedly turned out to be not only successful, but also imbued with mutual sympathy. Unexpectedly - because he had a lot of fears associated with staging a ballet for someone else's troupe, and the theater itself evoked complex feelings - it was very big, in every sense. The skill and professional training of the artists inspired the choreographer to include as many performers in the performance as possible. It even went so far as to introduce fictional characters - as long as everyone got roles. This is how the governess, Katarina’s young father, and suitors appeared. As a result, more than 20 people were involved in the performance - all the best ballerinas and dancers of the theater: Ekaterina Krysanova, Olga Smirnova, Vladislav Lantratov, Semyon Chudin, Igor Tsvirko and many others, each of whom created their own vivid image of the hero in this enchanting performance. Although both casts of performers are equally good and each deserves separate words, I would like to say about Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantratov. Jean-Christophe Maillot actually rediscovered these artists: having felt the style of the choreographer, Krysanova seemed to be just waiting for an opportunity to demonstrate greater freedom of plasticity, adding eroticism to the movements, so successfully incorporating it into the character of her heroine and the Lantrats - the unbridled freedom of masculinity.
The ballet turned out to be spectacular, beautiful, full of energy and humor. Recommended for everyone to watch!
Musical Seasons
Premiere ballet
The New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater hosted the world premiere of the ballet “The Taming of the Shrew,” staged by Jean-Christophe Maillot to a mixed composition of music by Dmitri Shostakovich. After watching two premieres with two different casts, TATYANA KUZNETSOVA experienced a bout of euphoria.
This two-act play was born not because of, but in spite of. Firstly, Jean-Christophe Maillot, today the best choreographer in France, has not staged original ballets on foreign soil for 20 years (not excluding the Paris Opera) - since he became head of the Monte Carlo Ballet. Secondly, mountains of obstacles were piled up along the way, starting with the assassination attempt on Sergei Filin, the initiator of the project, and ending with the tight deadlines for the production. A separate story was made up of difficult negotiations with the heirs of Shostakovich, from whose film music the score of the new ballet was woven. “The Taming of the Shrew” is a plot that has long been matured and felt, Mayo wanted to set it specifically to Shostakovich, believing that his favorite composer had similarities with the heroine of the play: both of them are not at all the same as those around them see them. But all of Shostakovich’s ballets were already in the Bolshoi repertoire; then the choreographer turned to cinema and discovered that “this is unique music, all of him (Shostakovich) is manifested in it. "Ъ") a grotesque, satirical essence, as if it were free breathing, which he could not allow himself in symphonies." Fragments were added to the mix of music for "Gadfly", "Alone", "Oncoming", "Moscow-Cheryomushki" and other films " Chamber Symphony"; and under the baton of conductor Igor Dronov, this vinaigrette sounded like a solid score with associations that were quite unexpected for the Russian ear.
Sound parallels often aggravated the comedy of stage situations by dashingly hitting the bull's eye. To the famous “The morning greets us with coolness,” the ballet heroes celebrated the dawn of a new life, joyfully dancing in honor of the engagement of Katarina, who had shaken off her hands. Petruchio, drunk as he was, appeared at his own wedding to the drums of “My entryway, entryway.” The theme of the revolutionary song “We fell victim in the fatal struggle,” quoted by Shostakovich, colored with additional irony the difficult path of the exhausted heroine through the winter forest to Petruchio’s house. But there were also categorical discrepancies: the tragic breakdown of the “Chamber Symphony” seemed disproportionate and did not correspond to the static “bed” adagio - the last struggle of the protagonists’ egos on the path to harmonious sex.
The French team also treated Shakespeare without undue reverence, interpreting the plot of his play as the eternal search for “one’s soul mate.” Shakespeare's Renaissance Italy was not in the scenography of Ernest Pignon-Ernest, who built a movable snow-white gable staircase and six triangular columns capable of turning the stage into a palazzo hall, a forest, or an intimate bedroom; nor from costume designer Augustin Dol Maillot, who presented a stylish black and white collection interspersed with pure colors and a slight hint of historicism in the form of full skirts or elements of camisoles; and especially not from the choreographer himself, who endowed the characters with modern vocabulary and almost everyday reactions, which caused a lot of difficulties for the classical dancers, who were accustomed to exaggerating the feelings of the characters and did not even know how to walk across the stage without unnecessary pathos.
However, the Bolshoi virtuosos also worked on the choreographer, provoking a number of spectator joys unusual for him, such as a large pirouette, double assemblies and double revolts. The mutual admiration of the director and the actors overwhelms this ensemble ballet, foaming with plastic piquancy and intertwined with a web of details - psychologically accurate and homerically funny. The two casts of performers (the director did not have time to really work with the second, which, however, did not affect the brightness of the work) formed a gallery of unique types, each of which deserves a separate paragraph, and not a pathetic phrase. Amazing actor and omnipotent plastic Vyacheslav Lopatin (Gremio). Igor Tsvirko, who turned his Hortensio into an amusingly warlike alpha male. The Bolshoi's patented lyricist Semyon Chudin, who created a parody of himself in the role of Lucentio. Another Lucentio is the handsome Artem Ovcharenko, who portrayed an uptight “nerd” from an intelligent family. Two Biancas - the lively Anastasia Stashkevich, who already in the first blissful adagio makes it clear that in her “quiet pool” there are despicable devils, and the touchy aristocrat Olga Smirnova, whose bitchiness is fully revealed only in the last scene. Strong, self-confident Katarina Maria Alexandrova, not tamed, but independently curbing her temper. Petruchio by Denis Savin, ironic and kind, feigning ferocious unbridledness only for the sake of love.
But the main characters of the premiere and Mayo’s true pupils were Vladislav Lantratov and Ekaterina Krysanova, the first Petruchio and Katarina, who showed in their roles what no one expected from these prosperous premiers with stable habits and certain roles. The audience gasped as a hurricane in a black cloud of a cloak of feathers rushed through the air from the upper curtain to the lower one; no one recognized the polished prime minister, known for his self-control even in the role of the depraved Crassus, in this crazy Rogozhin with his pulled down suspenders and the habits of an incensed bandit. And no one had seen the ballerina Krysanova before so tenderly erotic, so free plastically and open as an actor. The episode when her heroine, having emerged from the imperious hands of Petruchio, who sealed her mouth with a kiss, suddenly realizes her feminine nature, literally “floating” with her entire relaxed body from an unknown caress, will top the list of her achievements - all the fouettés for which this technical school is famous pale in comparison ballerina.
Jean-Christophe Maillot's The Taming of the Shrew had the same effect as Shostakovich's other ballet comedy, Bright Stream, Alexei Ratmansky's first full-length ballet, staged at the Bolshoi 11 years ago: an explosion of stunning performances and a premonition of new life. Perhaps this is self-deception, and the euphoria of a successful premiere will dissolve in the academic everyday life of the theater, as has happened more than once with productions by modern Western authors. However, General Director Urin swore that he would not hide the play in storage. And, therefore, the unbridled optimism experienced at the premiere can be fueled for more than one season.
“The Taming of the Shrew” at the Bolshoi Theater. Katarina - Ekaterina Krysanova, Petruchio - Vladislav Lantratov. Photo – Elena Fetisova
On July 4, the ballet premiere of “The Taming of the Shrew” by Jean-Christophe Maillot took place at the Bolshoi Theater. For the first time in 20 years, the French choreographer directed something other than his own company. And I never regretted it. He compiled a score from excerpts from the works of Dmitry Shostakovich, including fragments of music written for films.
Despite all the conceptual complexity, Mayo has created a Shakespearean comedy in which complex things are told easily.
“The Taming of the Shrew” is the last premiere of the season and the first work in the Big Jean-Christophe Maillot. The choreographer never choreographs for other people's troupes. Having become Shakespeare's co-author, Mayo ironically and erotically told this complex love story - with the eternal confrontation and unity of the masculine and feminine principles.
For eight weeks he literally lived at the Bolshoi. Now Mayo knows all the artists by name. He worked on the production together with his wife and muse - Bernice Coppieters and his son Auguste, the latter a costume designer. Before the premiere, Mayo sets everyone up, encourages, and is not very worried... He jokes: “I tamed the Big One - the Big One tamed me.”
“I’m glad that I’m tamed not only by the dancers, but also by the entire Bolshoi team, maybe that’s why I’m not worried, because I know that everything is done and the artists will give their all,”
– says choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot. Many Bolshoi stars came to see this “Taming of the Shrew”. After all, Mayo did not transfer the ballet, as invited choreographers usually do, he staged it from scratch.
Never before in the Bolshoi has dance been so sensual and passions so fierce. In this battle of love, Ekaterina Krysanova challenged Vladislav Lantratov and it was not easy to tame her.
But at first, Mayo didn’t really believe that the ballerina would be suitable for the role of Katarina. I had to show my character not only on stage, but also in life.
“I tried to find something, embellish it, but returned to my behavior. Nevertheless, it was necessary to go through this path,”
– prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Ekaterina Krysanova is convinced. Olga Smirnova in the role of Bianca did not fade into the shadows, did not get lost. Although her heroine is not as bright and eccentric as Katarina, she is in a quiet pool, as you know..., so it was not easy for Semyon Chudin to take revenge in this confrontation. The ballerina herself believes that personal traits always appear in the part, especially when they specifically target the ballerina.
“You can’t look up to anyone, only your character,”
– says Bolshoi Theater ballerina Olga Smirnova. The curtain had not yet closed, and the audience was already applauding, greeting each character with applause. The audience roared when Mayo himself took the stage. Today he is the main tamer at the Bolshoi.
After The Taming of the Shrew, Jean-Christophe Maillot will probably return to this stage more than once. He still has something to say. And the artists are already waiting for him.
