MIKHAILOVSKY BALLET AND ORCHESTRA ST. PETERSBURG, …...The ballet loosely based on Lord Byron’s poem is an orientalist tale of pirates and beauties, set to music by Adolphe Adam,

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SEGERSTROM HALLNovember 18 – 20, 2016

Friday at 7:30 p.m.Saturday at 2 & 7:30 p.m.

Sunday at 1 p.m.

Preview talks one hour before performance

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The Center applauds:

Support for the Center’s International Dance Series provided by:

Audrey Steele Burnand Endowed Fund for International Dance

The Segerstrom Foundation Endowmentfor Great Performances

Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents

With special underwriting from:George and Terry Schreyer

MIKHAILOVSKY BALLET AND ORCHESTRA

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

U.S. TOUR 2016

PRINCIPAL DANCERS

Ekaterina Borchenko, Victor Lebedev, Anastasia Soboleva, Ivan Vasiliev, Angelina Vorontsova, Ivan Zaytsev

SOLOISTS

Svetlana Bednenko, Veronika Ignatyeva, Andrey Kasyanenko, Irina Kosheleva, Anna Kuligina, Julian MacKay, Alexey Malakhov, Denis Morozov, Alexander Omar,

Sergey Strelkov, Vladimir Tsal, Valeria Zapasnikova

CORYPHÉS AND CORYPHÉES

Yulia Kamilova, Alexey Kuznetsov, Andrea Laššáková, Kristina Makhviladze, Andrey Masloboyev, Miho Naotsuka, Elena Nikiforova, Anna Novosyolova, Roman Petukhov, Maxim Podosyonov,

Denis Tolmachyov, Mariam Ugrekhelidze, Irina Zhalovskaya

CORPS DE BALLET

Olympiada Saurat Alfa N’Gobi, Yulia Arkhiptsova, Yulia Balagurova, Ekaterina Belovodskaya, Tatiana Bolshakova, Deborah Davis, Maria Dmitriyenko,

Veronika Ignatyeva, Ekaterina Khomenko, Evgenia Kiselyova, Nailya Latypova, Yulia Lukyanenko, Zvezdana Martina, Alla Matveyeva, Anna Meyluk, Ekaterina Odarenko, Ksenia Osintseva,

Nina Osmanova, Ella Persson, Anastasia Romanova, Olga Rudnitskaya, Ksenia Rusina, Elena Silyakova, Anastasia Sinitsyna, Elena Sukhikh, Anastasia Tolstaya, Elena Trushina,

Maria Veshkurtseva, Victoria Zaripova

Anton Apashkin, Nikolay Arzyayev, Anton Bykov, Alexander Gavrish, Ivan Grebenshchikov, Konstantin Kilinchuk, Stanislav Kultin, Nikita Kuligin, Victor Knyazev, Dmitry Kurenkov, Andrey Lapshanov, Artyom Markov, Pavel Maslennikov, Adrian Mitchell, Nikita Nazarov,

Andrey Nemich, Ivan Tint, Konstantin Tkachuk, Pavel Vinogradov, Roman Volkov, Dmitry Yarmiychuk

Company Manager: Andrey KuliginCoordinator: Rashid Mamin

Stage Manager: Sasha KononenkoCoach: Evgeny Popov

VLADIMIR KEKHMAN, MIKHAIL MESSERER,ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE THEATRE BALLET MASTER IN CHIEF

“Le Corsaire is in vogue again, and that makes perfect sense…”

The ballet loosely based on Lord Byron’s poem is an orientalist tale of pirates and beauties, set to music by Adolphe Adam, Riccardo Drigo, and others. It unfolds against a backdrop of the southern seas, mysterious grottoes, hustle and bustle of the bazaar, and the lavish seraglio. Le Corsaire is an eye-pleaser both for children and for adults: It has blockbuster fights and kidnappings that make your heart sink, but the most important thing about this ballet is the sophisticated choreography of Marius Petipa and his predecessors—Joseph Mazilier, Jules-Joseph Perrot, and Arthur Saint-Leon—brilliantly rendered by Konstantin Sergeyev. Our Corsaire is rooted in Sergeyev’s version staged in 1970s for the Kirov Ballet. It was Sergeyev who revived a number of classical ballets in the Soviet times, and these productions are still popular with the public today. I believe that a ballet should be revisited in order to live: Many productions have not survived as they never were edited. We can enjoy Giselle because Marius Petipa created his version of it, while, for example, La Bayadère stayed in the repertoire thanks to Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomaryov editing it. Admittedly, Sergeyev’s elegant version of Le Corsaire was for years abandoned in St. Petersburg. I was fortunate to know Konstantin Sergeyev in person, and it is a special pleasure for me to invite our patrons to see the production based on his work.

Mikhail Messerer

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Mikhail MessererBallet Master in Chief of the Mikhailovsky Theatre

Mikhail Messerer was born into a great dancing family, in 1948, in Moscow, where he had his training, first as a dancer (Bolshoi Ballet School, 1969) and then as a ballet teacher (State College of Performing Arts, 1978). From 1980 he has lived and worked in the West. As an international guest teacher, Mr. Messerer is invited by ballet companies around the world, and he has given master classes to American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Kirov–Mariinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Ballet of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet,

Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Australian Ballet, Monte Carlo Ballet, to name but a few. For more than 25 years Mr. Messerer worked as the Company guest teacher with the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. Since 2009, Mr Messerer has been ballet mas-ter in chief of the Mikhailovsky Theatre. His productions at the Mikhailovsky include Swan Lake (2009), Laurencia (2010), La Bayadère (2012), Don Quixote (2012), The Flames of Paris (2013). In 2014, Mikhail Messerer revived Asaf Messerer’s Class Concert and together with Michael O’Hare staged Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée. In 2015, he revived Le Corsaire by Konstantin Sergeyev.

About the Ballet Master in Chief

Marius Petipa Marius Petipa (choreographer, 1818–1910) was born in Marseilles. Taught by his father, ballet dancer Jean-Antoine Petipa, he also took lessons from the famous French dancer Auguste Vestris. In 1838–1846, he performed as a dancer and ballet master in theatres in Bordeaux, Nantes, New York, and Madrid. Starting from 1847, Petipa’s life was connected with Russia, where he started his career as a mime dancer. He went on to teach at the St. Petersburg Theatre School, and later became the principal ballet master of the Mariinsky Theatre (1869–1903), where he staged more than 60 ballets. Many of his ballets are preserved in the modern repertoire as outstanding examples of the choreographic heritage of the 19th century – Raymonda, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and La Bayadère.

Konstantin Sergeyev Konstantin Sergeyev (choreographer, 1910–1992) was a Russian ballet dancer, ballet master, ballet coach. Born in St. Petersburg, he started his training at the Leningrad Ballet School. In 1928–1929, he performed in Joseph Kschessinski’s travelling company, which toured all over the country. Following Konstantin Sergeyev’s graduation from the School (1930), he joined the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre (now Mariinsky Theatre), where he danced until 1961. Starting from 1946, Sergeyev was a ballet master, and in 1951–1955 and 1961–1970, he was the ballet master in chief of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he staged Cinderella (1946), The Path of Thunder (1958), Far-Off Planet (1963), Hamlet (1970), The Left-Handed Person (1976). He also created his own versions of the classical ballets Raymonda (1948), Swan Lake (1950), The Sleeping Beauty (1952), Le Corsaire (1973). In 1973–1991, he was the artistic director of the Leningrad Ballet School (now the Vaganova Ballet Academy), in 1992 he became its president.

Le Corsaire Ballet in three acts

Music by Adolphe Adam, Cesare Pugni, Léo Delibes, Ludwig Minkus, Riccardo Drigo, Pyotr Oldenburgsky, Nikita Trubetskoy, Antoine Simon Libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint- Georges revised by Mikhail MessererChoreography by Marius Petipa and Konstantin Sergeyev revised by Mikhail Messerer with additional choreography by Joseph Mazilier, Jules Perrot, Pyotr GusevStaging: Mikhail Messerer Musical Director and Conductor: Pavel Klinichev Musical Director’s Assistant: Valentin BogdanovSketches of the Sets: Vyacheslav OkunevCostume Designer: Tatiana YastrebovaLighting Designer: Alexander KibitkinBallet Master’s Assistant: Anna Razenko

Première at the Mikhailovsky Theatre: September 8, 2015

Synopsis Act IOriental bazaar. The merchants are examining exotic goods. Beautiful slave girls are here for sale, too. A group of corsairs led by Conrad appears in the bazaar square. Medora, the ward of slave trader Lanquedem, comes to the balcony. Seeing Conrad, she quickly makes a selam—a bouquet in which each flower has a special meaning—and throws it to Conrad. Medora leaves the balcony and appears in the square accompanied by Lanquedem. Seyd-Pasha is brought in his palanquin to the bazaar: He wants to buy new slave girls for his seraglio. The girls demonstrate their art of dancing. Medora arrests Pasha’s eye and he decides to buy her at any cost. Medora is hor-rified by the bargaining between Lanquedem and Pasha. Conrad assures Medora that he will not let anyone hurt her. On Conrad’s signal, the corsairs abduct the slave girls and Medora. Conrad orders to kid-nap Lanquedem, too.

— I N T E R M I S S I O N —

Act IIConrad brings Medora to his seaside grotto. The couple is happy. Conrad’s friend, Birbanto, brings in Lanquedem, who is shivering with fear, and the slave girls, who beg Conrad to let them go. Medora implores Conrad to set the girls free, and he gives them freedom. Birbanto and his associates are displeased with Conrad’s decision: They claim the slave girls. Furious Conrad affirms his decision. Birbanto threatens Conrad, but the pirate is adamant, and the slave girls hasten to escape. Infuriated Birbanto attempts to stub the leader of the corsairs. A fight ensues in which Conrad brings Birbanto to his knees and takes the frightened Medora away. Lanquedem appears. Birbanto offers him freedom in return for a reasonable amount of money. The slave trader swears that he is poor and cannot pay for his freedom. The corsairs snatch off his hat, frock and belt, dis-covering hidden diamonds, pearls and gold. The frightened Lanquedem comes up with the idea to give a sleeping potion to Conrad, and Birbanto orders him to do it. Lanquedem sends Conrad poisoned wine. He drinks it and immediately falls asleep. Medora in vain tries to wake him up. A stranger appears, who Medora rec-ognizes as Birbanto. She tries to escape him but is surrounded by the conspirators. Trying to defend herself, Medora stabs Birbanto in the wrist with Conrad’s dag-ger but is abducted by Lanquedem. Conrad wakes up. He is distraught.

— I N T E R M I S S I O N —

Act IIISeyd-Pasha’s palace on the coast of the Bosporus. Pasha’s odalisques entertain them-selves with dances. Eunuchs bring a tray with exotic fruits, and the women quarrel over who gets what. Pasha orders odalisques to stop their dis-putes. Carried away by the youth and beauty of his favourite odalisque Gulnare, Seyd-Pasha presents her with his handkerchief, but she throws it on to her friends; eventually the handkerchief, passing from hand to hand, reaches an old odalisque who smothers Seyd-Pasha with her caresses. The slave trader’s arrival is announced to Pasha. It is Lanquedem, who is bringing Medora wrapped in a shawl. Pasha is thrilled to see her. Gulnare welcomes the new girl.A servant tells Pasha that a caravan of pilgrims on their way to Mecca are asking for shelter. Pasha welcomes them in. During the evening prayer, the mock dervish secretly removes his false beard, and Medora recognizes Conrad. Pasha orders his odalisques to entertain the guests with dancing. Conrad and his friends throw off all dis-guise, threatening Pasha with weapons. Pasha runs from the palace. The corsairs win the battle against the palace guards. Gulnare is asking for Conrad’s help to get away from Birbanto, who has been chasing her. Conrad, moved by her tears, protects her. Birbanto retreats. Seeing him, Medora tells Conrad about Birbanto’s betrayal. Birbanto swears that he has never betrayed Conrad but Medora points at his wounded wrist. Birbanto suddenly attacks Conrad, attempting to kill him but is shot by him.

Sea bay. Conrad and Medora get aboard the ship waiting for them and sail off to new adventures.

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About the Program

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The History of Le Corsaire Lord Byron’s poem, The Corsair, published in 1814, never ceased to inspire musicians and artists. Its history on stage started as early as 1826: The five-act ballet Le Corsaire by choreographer Giovanni Galzerano premiered in Milan to stay in the repertoire for more than 20 years (it was shown more than a hundred times). Probably, Galzerano’s ballet inspired Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi to create his opera Le Corsaire in 1848. In 1837, François-Ferdinand Decombe, an outstanding French dancer and ballet master, known under the stage name of Albert, presented in London his own three-act version of the ballet to music by Nicolas Bochsa. The Paris version of Le Corsaire, staged in 1856 by Joseph Mazilier to music by Adolphe Adam, unlike its Italian and English counterparts, deviated from Byron’s plot rather dramatically. Actually, the choreographer and the librettist only borrowed the pirate romance and the names of characters from the source. The staging could not be called a lucky one. On Napoleon III’s whim, the whole performance turned into a mess just 10 days before the opening night. The composer claimed that he could not recognize his own creation in the hastily produced, nearly improvised score. Unfortunately, Adam’s intention to remake his work failed: The composer died several months after Le Corsaire’s first night. In 1858, the Paris performance moved to Russia: Jules Perrot, using Mazilier’s choreography, staged the ballet in St. Petersburg with Marius Petipa starring as Conrad. In 1863, on the basis of Perrot’s production, Marius Petipa created his own version of Le Corsaire at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. In 1867, the unfortunate Mazilier’s ballet was revived in Paris with an addition that later became an integral part of nearly all subsequent productions—pas des fleurs set to music by Léo Delibes. In his later version of Le Corsaire, Marius Petipa turned this pas des fleurs into the famous scene of Le Jardin animé, a choreographic masterpiece. On the whole, in the late 19th century “the ballet became both more choreographic and livelier, but it considerably lost Byron’s infernality. The adventure plot was broken by the ‘sleep’ scene, Jardin animé сomposition in which brilliant female corps de ballet finally took the laurels

from the male ensemble scenes. Petipa’s ‘garden’ is an isle of harmony in the middle of storms and catastrophes, a choreographic vision of Paradise. And all that symphony of colours, lines and pas (one of the first if not the first Petipa’s choreographic symphony) was crowned by ballerinas’ variations (Medora’s and Gulnare’s) demonstrating their divine dancing talent and a taste for the delightful enjoyments of life.” Le Corsaire was always unbelievably successful in St. Petersburg: From 1859 to 1881, the ballet was shown 83 times, from 1899 to 1931—118 times. In 1931, famous Russian ballerina Agrippina Vaganova created her own version. But still the main adaptations for the stage, influencing the existence of the performance in the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century, were productions by Pyotr Gusev (Maly, now Mikhailovsky Theatre, 1955 and 1968) and Konstantin Sergeyev (Kirov, now Mariinsky Theatre, 1973). By the time of Gusev’s staging at the Maly Theatre, the music for the St. Petersburg Le Corsaire included inserts by 10 composers: Cesare Pugni, Ludwig Minkus, Léo Delibes, Riccardo Drigo, Mikhail Ivanov, Ivan Chekrygin, Frederic Chopin, Antonin

Dvořák, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Peter of Oldenburg. Gusev’s version of Le Corsaire was meant to become a classical one for a long time; in 1987, it was transferred by Oleg Vinogradov to the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre (Mariinsky Theatre), where it has been performed ever since. In 1973, Konstantin Sergeyev turned his attention to Le Corsaire and tried to scrub the ballet from the latest additions. In 1992, Sergeyev’s Le Corsaire was transferred to the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. And it was exactly in this version that Le Corsaire returned to the West: Anna Marie Holmes transferred this performance first to Boston (Boston Ballet, 1997), and then to New York (American Ballet Theatre, 1998). In 2014, Sergeyev’s version of Le Corsaire was selected by the English National Ballet company for the first night in the UK. In 2015, Le Corsaire returned to the Mikhailovsky Theatre—in Konstantin Sergeyev’s version and edited by the Ballet Master in Chief Mikhail Messerer.

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Pierina Legnani as Medora, Olga Preobrazhenskaya as Gulnare, Pavel Gerdt as Conrad and

Josef Kschessinski as Birbanto in Le Corsaire. St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, 1890s.

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Above left: Maria Petipa as Medora, Alexey Bulgakov as Birbanto and Sergey Legat as Conrad in Le Corsaire. St. Petersburg, Mariinsky

Theatre, 1890s. At right: Irina Perren as Medora and Alexander Omar as Birbanto in Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Le Corsaire, photo by Sergei Tiagin.

Svetlana Bednenko and Ivan Zaytsev in Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Le Corsaire. Photo by Katia Kravtsova

About the artistsSvetlana Bednenko Born in Donetsk, she graduated from Vadim Pisarev Ballet School in 2007 and the same year joined the Donetsk State Opera and Ballet Theatre as a soloist. In 2011, she joined the St. Petersburg Boris Eifman State Ballet Theatre, where her repertoire included the roles of Kitri (I, Don Quixote), Catherine II (Russian Hamlet), Tchaikovsky’s Wife (Tchaikovsky), Olga Spesivtseva (Red Giselle), Olga (Onegin), and Kitty (Anna Karenina). In 2013, she joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where her repertoire includes principal and solo roles in Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Cipollino, The Flames of Paris, and produc-tions by Nacho Duato The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Prelude, and Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness. She has been recognized for her artistic excellence at the international ballet competitions in St. Petersburg, Perm, Sochi, Donetsk, Berlin, and Rome.

Ekaterina Borchenko Born in Leningrad, she graduated from the St. Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2000. In 2000–2003, she was a prin-cipal dancer with the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2003–2007, she was a principal dancer with the Belarus Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2008, she joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where has danced principal roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, La Bayadère, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, La Sylphide, Laurencia, The Flames of Paris and the productions by Nacho Duato – The Sleeping Beauty, Prelude, Na Floresta, and Without Words. She created the principal role in Duato’s Nunc Dimittis. She has been recognized

for her artistic excellence at the interna-tional ballet competitions in Nagoya and Varna. In 2014, she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Russia.

Veronika Ignatyeva Born in Leningrad, she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2010. In 2011, she received a prize at the Rieti Ballet Competition. In 2012, she went on to join the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where her repertoire includes roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, La Bayadère, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire, Laurencia, The Flames of Paris, Cipollino, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Prelude.

Miho Naotsuka Born in Japan, she graduated from the Ballet Academy in Japan in 2012. In 2012–2013, she was trained at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg. In 2014–2016, she was a soloist with the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre. In 2016, she joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where her repertoire includes roles in Giselle, Le Corsaire, La Bayadère, and Don Quixote. She has been recognized for her artistic excellence at the international ballet competitions in New York (Youth American Grand Prix), Kobe, and Tokyo.

Anastasia Soboleva Born in Nikolayev, in 2001–2003 she stud-ied at the Kiev State Ballet School. In 2010, she graduated from the Moscow State Ballet Academy and joined the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2013, she joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet as a soloist, where she has danced principal and solo roles in Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, La Bayadère, Giselle, Don Quixote, Laurencia, La fille mal gardée, The Flames of Paris, Class Concert, Cipollino, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker.

Angelina Vorontsova Born in Voronezh, she studied at the Voronezh State Ballet School in 2003–2008. In 2008, she entered the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow and on graduating in 2009, she joined the Bolshoi Ballet. She rehearsed with Nikolay Tsiskaridze, who also was her first partner in the performances at the Bolshoi Theatre. She made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in the première of the ballet The Curse of the House of Usher choreographed by Vladimir Vasiliev in the framework of the Russian National Orchestra Festival under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev. She has been recognized for her artistic excellence at the international ballet competitions in Moscow, Perm, and Kharkov. In 2013, she joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where her repertoire includes principal roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Le Corsaire, Laurencia, The Flames of Paris, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Prelude, La Fille mal gardée, White Darkness, Le Halte de cavalerie, and Class Concert.

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Valeria Zapasnikova Born in Perm, she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2010 and the same year joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet Company, where her repertoire includes principal and solo roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Giselle, ou Les Wilis, Le Corsaire, The Sleeping Beauty, Cipollino, Laurencia, Class Concert, The Nutcracker, The Flames of Paris, Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness, Romeo and Juliet, one-act ballets by Nacho Duato and Ivan Vasiliev.

Irina Zhalovskaya Born in Simferopol, she graduated from the Kiev State Ballet School in 2010 and went on to join the Yakobson Ballet Theatre. In 2011, she joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where her repertoire includes roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Le Corsaire, Laurencia, The Flames of Paris, Class Concert, La Fille mal gardée, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Prelude.

Andrey Kasyanenko Born in Saratov, he graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2004 and went on to join the Boris Eifman Ballet Theatre. In 2004–2008, his repertoire at the Eifman Theatre included roles in the ballets Russian Hamlet (Paul), Anna Karenina (Vronsky), Mousagete (Lover), Requiem (Man). In 2008, he joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre, where his

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repertoire includes principal and solo roles in Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, Giselle, La Bayadère, as well as ballets The Flames of Paris, Laurencia, The Bronze Idol, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness, and one-act ballets by Nacho Duato.

Victor Lebedev Born in St. Petersburg, he graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2010 and the same year joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet. As a student, he was a recipient of the scholarship from the Farukh Ruzimatov Foundation. He has been recognized for his artistic excellence at the international ballet competitions in Krasnoyarsk and St. Petersburg. At the Mikhailovsky Theatre his repertoire includes principal roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, La Fille mal gardée, La Sylphide, La Bayadère, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, Cipollino, The Flames of Paris, Class Concert and the productions by Nacho Duato The Sleeping Beauty, Without Words, Duende, Prelude, The Nutcracker, and Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness.

Julian MacKay Born in Montana, USA, he trained at the Moscow State Ballet Academy for 6 years. In 2015, he graduated top of his class earning a full Russian diploma. In his graduating year, he performed Siegfried in the full-length Swan Lake with Russian State Ballet on tour in Germany. He won the Prix de Lausanne 2015 and became a Royal Ballet apprentice (2015–2016). He took part in international galas “Stars of the 21st Century,” Youth America Grand Prix “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow” and the Marika Besobrasova Gala. In 2016, he joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where his repertoire includes solo

roles in Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, La Bayadère, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, and Cipollino.

Alexander Omar Born in the town of Frunze, he gradu-ated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2004 and the same year joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet. His reper-toire included solo roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Laurencia, The Flames of Paris, Cipollino, and The Bronze Idol.

Ivan Vasiliev Born in Vladivostok, he studied at the Dnepropetrovsk Ballet School in Ukraine and later at the Belarus State Ballet School in Minsk, graduating in 2006. While still a student, Vasiliev danced Basilio in Don Quixote and Ali in Le Corsaire with the Belarus National Ballet. In 2006, he was invited to join the Bolshoi Ballet as a soloist, making his debut with the company, at the age of 17, as Basilio in Don Quixote. He was promoted to principal dancer in 2010. In 2011, he joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet as a Principal Dancer. In 2011, he also appeared as a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre and in 2012 he was named a principal dancer with the Company. Vasiliev’s repertoire with the Mikhailovsky includes principal roles in Don Quixote, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, La Bayadère, Laurencia, La Sylphide, The Flames of Paris, Le Halte de cavalerie, and Class Concert. His awards include medals at the international ballet com-petitions in Varna, Moscow, and Perm. He is also the winner of the Triumph Youth Prize, British Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards in the category Spotlight and as Best Male Dancer, and the Benois de la Danse Award for his performance in Le Corsaire and The Flames of Paris (2009). In 2011, he received Grand

Prix at the International Dance Open Festival. In 2014, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Russia.

Ivan Zaytsev Born in Krasnodar, he entered the Krasnodar Ballet School and while studying he underwent traineeship at the Yury Grigorovich Ballet Theatre, where he per-formed roles in the ballets Spartacus, Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, The Golden Age, The Nutcracker, and Cipollino. In 2002, he gradu-ated from the Krasnodar Ballet School and entered the Department of Choreography at the St. Petersburg State University for Culture and Arts. On graduating from the University in 2007, he joined the St. Petersburg Leonid Jacobson Ballet Theatre, where he performed the roles of Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Jose (Passion for Carmen), Siegfried (Swan Lake), Prince (The Nutcracker), Albrecht (Giselle), and Rodin (The Kiss). After participation in the 11th Moscow International Ballet Competition in 2009, he was invited to join the Boris Eifman Ballet Theatre. In 2011, he joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet, where his rep-ertoire includes solo and principal roles in La Sylphide, Le Corsaire, Cipollino, Don Quixote, Laurencia, The Flames of Paris, La Fille mal gardée, and Class Concert as well as Nacho Duato’s productions The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness, Prelude, Invisible, and White Darkness.

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Ivan Vasiliev as Conrad and Alexander Omar as Birbanto in Mikhailovsky Ballet’s Le Corsaire.

Photo by Sergei Tiagin

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The Mikhailovsky Theatre opened in 1833, following an initiative by Grand Duke Michael, brother of Nicholas I of Russia. From the beginning, it was home to a French drama company, and later also to a German one. The Russian revolution in 1917 caused many foreign actors to leave the country, and the Mikhailovsky Theatre had to form its own company. In 1918, the theatre gained its own opera company and symphony orchestra, and it started the new season as Petrograd’s (formerly St. Petersburg’s) second State Opera House. In 1920, the theatre was renamed the State Academic Comic Opera Theatre, in 1921 it became the Maly Academic Theatre, and in 1926 the Leningrad Academic Maly Opera Theatre. It developed a repertoire based on opera classics and operettas, but the theatre’s mainstay has always been its interest in contemporary 20th-century music. In the 1930s, the theatre became known as the “laboratory of Soviet opera.” The Maly Theatre saw the first-ever productions of Dmitry Shostakovich’s operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Vsevolod Meyerhold’s innovative production of The Queen of Spades. The 1930s marked another important milestone, when the Maly gained its own ballet company. The theatre had always staged operas containing ballet pieces. At first, these were performed by the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, but by the late 1920s and early 1930s, an independent ballet company came into being. By 1930, the “ballet ensemble” numbered about 60 dancers. Until the early 1930s, they were featured only in operas and operettas. However, sometimes the bal-let pieces in the operas were little jewels of choreography: For instance, the dances in the production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel (1923) were created by the young Georgy Balanchivadze, later known as George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Many graduates of the Leningrad Ballet School and evening ballet classes—Vakhtang Chabukiani and Konstantin Sergeyev among them—practiced at the theatre. In the winter of 1930–31, the former director of the Kirov (Mariinsky) Ballet, Fyodor Lopukhov, was appointed artistic

director of the Maly (Mikhailovsky) Ballet. The official birthday of the Maly Ballet, however, was June 13, 1933, when the com-pany premièred his production of Riccardo Drigo’s ballet Harlequinade. Lopukhov was the company’s artistic director in 1933–35 and 1941–45, and his productions at the Maly (Mikhailovsky) Theatre included Léo Delibes’s Coppélia (1934) and Dmitry Shostakovich’s The Bright Stream (1935). Leonid Lavrovsky, artistic director of the ballet company in 1935–38, staged Fadette by Delibes (1936), Peter Ludwig Hertel’s La Fille mal gardée (1937), and Boris Asafiev’s A Prisoner in the Caucasus (1938). After Lavrovsky was appointed artistic direc-tor of the Kirov Ballet in 1939, Vladimir Ponomaryov became director of the Maly Ballet until 1941. The theatre’s creative activities were inter-rupted by World War II and the siege of Leningrad, but work continued in the city of Chkalov (now Orenburg), to which the theatre had been evacuated. Chkalov was one of the first cities in which Shostakovich’s Seventh Leningrad Symphony was per-formed; it was played by the Maly Theatre symphony orchestra. After the war, the Maly continued to work with contemporary composers, and staged the world première of Sergey Prokofiev’s War and Peace. In 1945, Fyodor Lopukhov’s student, Boris Fenster, was appointed artistic direc-tor of the Maly Ballet. In 1953, he also became principal ballet master, the post he held until 1956. He created a number of ballets, including Boris Asafiev’s Ashik Kerib (1940), Mikhail Chulaki’s The False Bridegroom (1946), and Igor Morozov’s Doctor Dolittle (1948). In 1952, choreog-rapher Leonid Jacobson was invited to the theatre, where he staged Capriccio espagnol, set to music by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and Solveig to Edvard Grieg’s music. In 1955, Pyotr Gusev (artistic direc-tor of the company in 1960–62) produced his version of Le Corsaire. In 1956, Boris Fenster left for the Kirov Theatre, and Konstantin Boyarsky took over his post at the Maly Theatre. It was under Boyarsky that the Maly ventured into classical bal-let: Swan Lake (1958) and the Grand Pas

from Paquita became part of the company’s repertoire. In 1962, Igor Belsky took up the post of artistic director. He revived Mikhail Fokine’s ballets Eros (1959), Petrouchka (1961), and L’oiseau de feu (1962), and creat-ed a ballet that became a legend: The Young Lady and the Hooligan, to music by Dmitry Shostakovich (1963). Igor Belsky, who remained as artistic director until 1973, staged the renowned ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse to Rodion Shchedrin’s score (1963), and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (1969). The real stars in the latter were Nikita Dolgushin, principal dancer, who joined the company in 1968, and Nikolay Boyarchikov. In 1968, Alla Osipenko and John Markovsky performed with the company in the première of Antony and Cleopatra staged by Igor Chernyshov. Under the directorship of Oleg Vinogradov (1973–77), August Bournonville’s La Sylphide had its Russian première at the theatre (1975). Notable among Vinogradov’s produc-tions at the theatre were Romeo and Juliet, La Fille mal gardée, and Yaroslavna. In the late 1970s to early 1980s, Stanislav Gaudasinsky took over as director of the opera company and then of the theatre as a whole. The opera stage was dominated by the Russian classics: Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel and The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and Borodin’s Prince Igor. In 1989, the theatre was renamed in honour of composer Modest Mussorgsky; in 2001, the original name of Mikhailovsky Theatre was restored. In 1978–2007, Nikolay Boyarchikov, a prolific choreographer, held the position of artistic director of the company. He revised Swan Lake, Esmeralda, Fadette, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, and Don Quixote, and staged the ballets Boris the Tsar (1978), Macbeth (1984), and Faust (1999), among many others. In 2007–2009, the renowned dancer Farouk Ruzimatov was artistic direc-tor of the company. In 2011–14, the position was held by the famous Spanish choreogra-pher Nacho Duato. In 2009, Mikhail Messerer was appointed bal-let master in chief of the Mikhailovsky Theatre.

History of the Mikhailovsky Ballet

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The Mikhailovsky Orchestra

FIRST VIOLINS

Svetlana Bedran’Marina BegletsovaVladislav GluzMikhail KozerukovRimma KozlovaAlexandra PatrikeyevaAlina PedureTatiana PolezhayevaMaria PotapovaNatalia PozinaPyotr SobolevPolina Fomintseva

SECOND VIOLINS

Victoria BelyayevaAnna Galakhova-SergeyevaAlexander KhirnyOlga LvovaSuren MarkarianOlga MikhailovskayaVladislav NovikovAlexander ShestakovMaria ShestakovaMarina Zolotilina

VIOLAS

Alexander BurykinElena GlukhovaIgor MakarovArseny RuchkinElena TanaylovaStanislav ValutovMikhail Vasiruk

CELLOS

Ivan KorenevVictor NullerAndrey SmirnovElena SvyatlovskayaMikhail TroitskyEkaterina Yukhneva

DOUBLE-BASS

Anton AfanasenkoDmitry PerminovVladimir VulikhGerman Zhelezovsky

FLUTES

Maya DorofeyevaIrina LevchenkoIgor Rodionov

OBOES

Pyotr DanilovMikhail Nemchenko

CLARINETS

Alexey GrebnevVladimir Skrylev

BASSOONS

Konstantin AntonovGeorgy Radzevich

FRENCH HORNS

Andrey AfanasyevOleg KorenchukAlexander PetrovAlexander Rubnich

TRUMPETS

Mikhail KhasinDmitry MakarovAlexander Sergeyev

TROMBONES

Alexander BaratovAlexander KorolyovRostislav Petrov

TUBA

Sergey Kochkin

PERCUSSION

Alexey NoskovAlexey NesvitDmitry SmirnovDmitry SverbikhinAlexander Shalimov

HARP

Anastasia Lisitsyna

Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre: Mikhail TatarnikovDirector of the Orchestra: Natalia Makarova

Mikhailovsky Ballet & Orchestra appearance under management of Ardani Artists:

Sergei Danilian, President & CEOGaia Danilian, Vice-President

Michael Vool, Production DirectorAndrey Gonyaev, Tour Manager

Alexander Shargorodsky, Stage Interpretor

U.S. TOUR 2016