Hurry there are only a few tickets left for the Bolsoi Ballet’s “Swan Lake” performance at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.   

The 9^th season of Glorya Kaufman presents Dance at the Music Center season will conclude with Bolshoi Ballet’s “Swan Lake” staged by Yuri Grigorovich after Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Alexander Gorsky, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with live orchestra for five performances only June 7-10, 2012. Sergei Filin is the Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet.

The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Western European romantic novellas. It tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse.  The ballet received its premiere in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as “The Lake of the Swans.” Although “Swan Lake” is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on January 15, 1895 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia has always been, and remains, one of the main symbols of Russia’s state and its culture. It is Russia’s main national theatre, a bearer of the traditions of Russian music culture and a center of world music culture, the spearhead of the development of the country’s performing arts.

Under the leadership of general director Mr. Anatoly Iksanov, the Bolshoi theater managed not only to fulfill the reconstruction of its historical house but also to enlarge its repertoire and to invite numerous outstanding artists to the theater, such as Aleksei Ratmansky, who was the artistic director of Bolshoi ballet and staged numerous original works for the company.

The Bolshoi has also been in constant collaboration with such world famous theater directors as Dmitri Tcherniakov who staged for Bolshoi among others “Eugene Onegin,” “Wozzeck,” and “Ruslan and Liudmila.” Noted conductors have worked in the company as well; most recently Yuri Temirkanov, Theodor Curentsis, and Vladimir Jurowski were conducting the Bolshoi orchestra. From September 2010, Maestro Vassily Sinaisky is working as musical director of the Bolshoi.

The Bolshoi presents to its public the Russian classics; the 20^th century included, western classics, likewise inclusive of recognized 20^th century masterpieces, and specially commissioned works. In recent Bolshoi history, there are several examples of the latter: namely, Leonid Desyatnikov’s opera “The Children of Rosenthal,” Philip Fenelon’s opera “The Cherry Orchard,” the ballets – Sergei Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” produced by Yuri Possokhov, “Misericordes” to music by Arvo Pärt produced by Christopher Wheeldon, Leonid Desyatnikov’s “Lost Illusions” produced by Alexey Ratmansky, Laurent Garnier’s dance piece “And Then One Thousand Years of Peace” produced by Angelin Preljocaj with the participation of the latter’s Company.

The Theatre tries to ensure continuity between generations by promoting the artistic development of young people with talent (thus the Youth Opera Programme has been set up to foster and perfect the skills of opera stars of the future). Another important direction of the Theatre’s work is to introduce the Russian public to the achievements of the world’s great opera and ballet theatres, as well as to invite guest artists to participate in its own creative endeavors.

The Theatre carries out an educative function by performing works rarely found in the repertories of Russian theatres and by inviting cooperation from outstanding soloists, directors and choreographers. To date, the following directors have worked at the Bolshoi: Peter Ustinov, Francesca Zambello, Eiumantas Necrosius, Declan Donnellan, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Robert Strurua, Peter Konwitschny, Temur Chkheidze, Robert Wilson, Graham Vick, David Pountney, Alexander Sokurov; and the choreographers Pierre Lacotte, Roland Petit, John Neumeier, Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon, Twyla Tharp, Flemming Flindt, Angelin Preljocaj, William Forsythe and Wayne McGregor.  The Bolshoi also has ballets by Frederick Ashton and Jiri Kylián in its repertoire.

An inherent part of the Theatre’s activities is the presentation of concerts of symphony and chamber works, and of operas in concert performance, thus acquainting the public with works of all music genres.

Now that the Bolshoi Theatre has two stages at its disposal, one of them its legendary historic Main Stage which is at last back in action again, it hopes to fulfill its mission with an even greater degree of success, steadily extending the sphere of its influence at home and throughout the world.

 Bolshoi Ballet

Swan Lake

Music Center Dance Information Line (213) 972-0711

http://musiccenter.org/events/dance.1112.bolshoi.html