Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
On 7 and 8 October a new production of Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam will premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus. This is the third production of the famous ballet for the theatre. The creative team includes, among others, musical director, Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus, recipient of the Francysk Skaryna Medal Nikolai Koliadko, and set designer, People's Artist of Russia, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus Vyacheslav Okunev.
The choreographer of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Vyacheslav Khomyakov, who is staging the ballet, says that today there are two versions of Le Corsaire in the Russian school of ballet: one by Konstantin Sergeyev, which is more archaic, but the closest to the original version by Marius Petipa, and the other by Pyotr Gusev, more dynamic, modern, but with fewer dances. The Minsk production of the ballet will present a synthesis of the two versions.
The production will also present additional choreography by Vyacheslav Khomyakov, of course, in the style of this ballet and Marius Petipa. ‘Obviously, no way do I consider myself equal to this genius of dance, but an attempt to prepare and stage variations, an adagio in the style of the Master has been made. The production will show if this has worked out,’ the choreographer emphasizes.
Le Corsaire was first shown in 1856 at the Opéra de Paris and since then it has been in the repertoire of many theaters worldwide and, along with another famous masterpiece of the composer, Giselle, constitutes the Golden Fund of world ballet repertoire. The libretto of the ballet was created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Joseph Mazilier based on the poem by George Gordon Byron. However, the libretto differed from the poetic original: it was rather an account of events that had occurred before the beginning of the story narrated by Byron. An intricate plot with adventures, rebellions, battles, abductions and escapes, unfolded against the background of the sea, in the turmoil of the bazaar and the sultan's harem.
In 1858 Le Corsaire moved to St. Petersburg: French ballet master Jules Perrot showed his version at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre. The role of Conrad was performed by Marius Petipa, and for the next decade this role became his signature. In that production, Petipa acted also as a choreographer, composing Pas d'esclave to the specially written music by the Prince of Oldenburg. The artist dabbled long as a choreographer and in 1863 he staged Le Corsaire at the Mariinsky Theatre. Since then, choreographers have added various numbers to the original choreographic text, which has never doomed to become canonical, and the score of the ballet has enriched with a few more names of the composers: three permanent ones, Peter of Oldenburg, Léo Delibes, and Riccardo Drigo, and besides, Cesare Pugni, Anton Rubinstein, Karl Goldmark, Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvořák, even Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Frédéric Chopin. However, despite the fact that the choreography varied and musical numbers were added, the plot has remained the same since 1856.
