Scheherazade / Carmen Suite: Two One-Act Ballets
Scheherazade / Carmen Suite, Two One-Act Ballets by Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
The scores of Scheherazade and Carmen Suite are among the most perfect in music history. They are delicate, with excellent part leading and unforgettable style, and thus pair perfectly as two one-act ballets.
Monday 17 October 2022, 7:00 PM
SCHEHERAZADE
Libretto: Michel Fokine, Leon Bakst
Choreography: Michel Fokine
Staging: People’s Artist of Russia, Andris Liepa
Musical director: Honoured Artist of Ukraine, Viktor Ploskina
Sets and costumes: Leon Bakst
Reconstruction of sets and costumes: Anna and Anatoly Nezhny
Artistic heads: People’s Artist of Russia Andrey Petrov, People’s Artist of Russia, Andris Liepa
Scheherazade, named after the main character of the One Thousand and One Nights, is renowned composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular work. The dramatic tragedy of the sultan and his wife was a triumph from its original debut in Paris more than a century ago.
CARMEN SUITE
Libretto: People’s Artist of the USSR and Belarus, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus Valentin Elizariev based on Alexander Blok’s cycle of poems Carmen
Choreography and staging: People’s Artist of the USSR and Belarus, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus, Valentin Elizariev
Musical director: People’s Artist of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus, Yaroslav Voshchak
Musical director of the revival: People’s Artist of Belarus, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Anissimov
Designer: People’s Artist of Ukraine, laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine, Eugene Lysik
Lighting designer: Nina Ivankina
Carmen Suite was first staged in 1974 with original libretto and choreography by Valentin Elizariev. This revival thrusts Carmen more prominently into the spotlight as she dances with her two lovers and fate itself en route to ultimate tragedy. Neither a vamp, nor a femme fatale, we are attracted by her solid and uncompromising nature and her inner beauty.
