Le Corsaire
State Kremlin Palace
The Kremlin, The State Kremlin Palace
Moscow,
103132
RU
74956207846
Ballet, three acts with prologue and epilogue
Adolphe Adam
Lobretto by A.Saint-George and J.Mazilier as adapted by Yuri Grigorovich inspired by the poem by G.Byron
Choreographer-director of the new adaption on the basis of M.Petipa’s composition is Yuri Grigorovich, Hero of Socialist Labour, People’s Artist of the USSR, laureate of Lenin and the State Awards of the USSR, professor
Designer - Nikolai Sharonov
The performance employs music by composers C.Pugni, R.Drigo and others, as well as dancing episodes by J.Perro, K.Sergeev, V.Chabukiani and others.
“Le Corsaire” is one of the classical heritage ballets and it has remained in repertory of many theatres for more than 150 years. For the first time it was performed on the stage of Paris Grand Opera in 1856. The ballet authors are as follows: libretto – A.Saint-George and J.Mazilier, ballet master – J.Mazilier. Two years later “Le Corsaire” was performed in the Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg. There it was staged by a famous choreographer J.Perro and later it was revived by M.Petipa. At the Russian stage the ballet saw numerous alterations and revivals, but it was M.Petipa’s version that remained. “Le Corsaire” turned out to be amazingly durable. The music and the plot were employed by many choreographers giving new adaption of the previous choreography or creating some peculiar directions. Artists and spectators were unchangeably attracted by the freedom-loving spirit of Byron’s poem, which served as a basis for the libretto, human passion and romantic excitement of the theme.
For the first time Yuri Grigorovich turned to “Le Corsaire” in 1994 and his staging in the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia also contained choreographical episodes of his predecessors above all made by Petipa. In 2005 he directed a new version of the performance in Krasnodar Ballet Theatre. The current turning to “Le Corsaire” is the third one for choreographer Yuri Grigorovich and the first for the “Kremlin Ballet’s” company led by Andrei Petrov. The cooperation between Grigorovich and this company started back in 1999 with “Romeo and Juliet” and continued in 2001 with “Ivan the Terrible” ballet, both to the music by Sergei Prokofiev.
This staging of “Le Corsaire” retains the most spectacular dancing scenes and items familiar to the wide audience such as “Lively garden”, odalisque maiden dances, love duet in grotto and other choreographic elements. The performance revealing lyrical and emotional richness of the score employs music composed by C.Pugni, L.Delibes, R.Drigo and others. The performance also employs lead soloists of the Kremlin Ballet Theatre as well as students of Moscow state academy of choreography.
The performance is accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra Radio Orpheus (Artistic managing director and Principal conductor - Sergey Kondrashov)
