Bolshoi Ballet beams classics and modern dance live to Hong Kong cinemas
New season of live broadcasts from Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre features three Tchaikovsky gems, two highly accessible Shostakovich ballets, a modern dance triple bill and 2015’s A Hero Of Our Time
The Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema programme returns to Hong Kong’s Broadway cinemas this autumn with something for everyone.
As well as the traditional delights of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty, the 2016/17 programme of live broadcasts from Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre features three full-length modern ballets new to Hong Kong and a triple bill that gives the chance to see how the Russian troupe’s classical dancers fare in more modern work.
There’s a feast for music lovers too, with the magnificent Bolshoi Orchestra performing not only the three Tchaikovsky ballets, but also two superb scores by Shostakovich, The Golden Age and The Bright Stream.
Shostakovich composed three original ballet scores (the third is The Bolt) between 1929 and 1935, a period when the newly created Soviet Union was bursting with experimentation and creativity in the arts.
Both The Golden Age and The Bright Stream are works whose lively, accessible music and light-hearted plots reflect the energy and optimism of this era. Sadly, this heady time was short-lived as the dead hand of Stalinist ideology clamped down; by 1936 all Shostakovich’s ballets had been banned and the composer and his collaborators disgraced.
The original choreography of both works has been lost and the versions danced by the Bolshoi were created by two former artistic directors of the company, Yuri Grigorovich and Alexei Ratmansky. Diametric opposites as artists and personalities, each has had a profound influence on the Bolshoi’s artistic development and these two ballets typify the style and strengths of their creators.
