Musical director: recipient of the Francysk Skaryna Medal Andrei Galanov
Choreography and staging: winner of international competitions Olga Kostel
Set designer: recipient of the Francysk Skaryna Medal, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Kostiuchenko
Costume designer: Nina Gurlo
Lighting designer: Irina Vtornikova
Assistant ballet masters:  People’s Artist of Belarus Kanstantsin Kuzniatsou, People’s Artist of Belarus Igor Artamonov, recipient of the Francysk Skaryna Medal Anna Fokina
Conductors:  Alexey Verhoven, Yuri Karavaev, Vladimir Ovodok
Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes with one interval
Premiere: 14 November 2019

 

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ACT I

SCENE I

GENERAL CONFUSION

 

 

 

Relationships between family members are built for years, but everything can collapse in a moment. One careless movement becomes a cause of pain and a source of chaos. Stiva Oblonsky’s hookup with the governess gives him a luster and attractiveness in his own eyes, and the power with which Dolly deprives him of comfort and tranquility was almost unexpected for him. The situation needs to be saved.

 

 

Happiness and unhappiness always coexist in the world. While Dolly Oblonskaya rubs through the collapse of her house, her sister Kitty with acute fascination watches the air castle being built in her life, promising a fabulous future. She is expecting Vronsky to propose marriage and give her his heart. Dreams and enthusiastic crush on Vronsky fill Kitty so much that she does not see anything around, and especially aspiring to her Konstantin Lyovin. She not only does not see him,but doesn’t want to see him. The lack of her attention throws Lyovin to the movement of suffering people, the movement of people uprooted from their one's comfort zones; he becomes part of the force, where everyone seeks to find balance.

 

 

Railway station is a place where destinies meet and break up. Will the meeting of people and destinies pass fleeting or will it change the trajectories of lives forever? We don’t know, but feeling will surely tell you what kind of meeting will be fatal. Anna Karenina arrives in Moscow to visit her brother’s (Stiva) family. Alexei Vronsky meets his mother. However, everything fades into the background when Anna and Alexei see each other. Every step, every movement has only one purpose: it must be seen by the person who will be the only one henceforth. 

 

 

The uniqueness of one hero for another becoming clear during the ball. Anna and Vronsky think they're alone in the world! Kitty sees her castles crumble. The shame and pain take their place. You can leave the ball, as Anna does, but you can’t step beyond the bounds of your own passion. It might be possible to leave, if Vronsky had not been so persistent and hadn’t followed hard after Anna.

 

 

 

SCENE II

ATTRACTION AND REPULSION

 

 

 

Anna's world is increasingly losing its former outline: she is busy with other thoughts, and even her husband's ears have become quite different, unpleasant.

 

 

Step by step all things, which a long time occurred in the thoughts, started coming true and therefore became inevitable. Excited to see Vronsky, Anna can’t find her lost balance. Her husband, Alexei Karenin, doesn’t have the strength to balance her awakened sensuality. Meeting  with her dearly beloved son Seryozha returns Anna to her normal routine and eclipses Vronsky for a while, but as soon as she is alone, thoughts about Vronsky return.

 

 

 

SCENE III

RACES OF DESIRES

 

 

 

A social salon, a men's club, a charity council, a circle of officials, receptions: people hitch on together and go their separate ways in pursuit of their desires. Society seethes, providing with the attention those, who managed to grip this attention. Anna and Vronsky are socialites, they cannot tear themselves away from their usual circles, they follow the general aspirations, but continue seeing each other. The pursuit of pleasure and recognition turns into a real race. Vronsky is desperate to catch up with Anna and stops the pursuit.

 

 

 

SCENE IV

DANCE ON THE RAZOR'S EDGE

 

 

 

When Vronsky loses hope and pulls away, Anna realizes that the opportunity to “live on her own” is about to slip away from her, and chooses a forbidden love-a dance on the razor's edge.

 

 

These bounds are not big enough for this love- it breaks out into new spaces, unstable, filled with risks. Karenin, seeing that the armor of an important statesman is powerless before love and the fear of loneliness, behaves contrary to all the expectations of the world: he is kind to Anna, he allows Vronsky to enter their house. When it becomes clear that the good that Karenin does for Anna has no effect, Karenin allows Vronsky to take Anna away, but keeps Seryozha, who yearns for his mother. The situation would seem to be clarified, but the knots are tightened. 

 

 

 

ACT II

SCENE I

OBLIVION AND AWAKENING

 

 

 

Europe of the late 19th century, Carnival. Anna and Vronsky plunge into the carnival. Seryozha Karenin, left in the care of his father, suffers from the fact that his mother is not around. Anna really forgets about her son for a while, enjoying the love that came true and turned the whole European trip into a real holiday.

 

 

However, life, with all its contradictions and cracks, breaks even through the loud sounds and bright colors of the holiday. Anna’s missing her son, Vronsky is burdened by Anna. It's hard for both of them to admit it, because all life went on the path paved by their passion. It is scary to see that none of them knows the destination station.

 

 

 

SCENE II

MATERIALIZED AND INNERMOST

 

 

 

In the village Dolly re-builds a house – a place that unites people. It turns out that dreams of a home come true for those, who got his feet on the ground, having rubbed through the collapse of illusions. Kitty, ruthlessly deprived of the air castle, also got her feet on the ground and from that perspective sees the world in a whole new way: now she notices Konstantin Lyovin, sees him as support and allows him to rely on her. Under the cover of materialized love, the most innermost desires come true.

 

 

 

SCENE III

FUNERAL OF HOPES AND DREAMS

 

 

 

Fleeing from the void, Anna and Vronsky return to Russia. They rush between city and village, between Vozdvizhenskoe and St Petersburg, Vozdvizhenskoe and Moscow, finally losing the understanding of each other. Reflections in mirrors of society separate them.

 

 

Anna has no one to cuddle with. And Vronsky in the eyes of the society is still a sprightly hero; a slight touch of forbidden love makes his reflection only more attractive. Vronsky's in plain sight and he really enjoys it. And he is willing to pay for it by the fact that Anna feels pain and disappointment, tormented by void. Anna is no longer received in society, after all her reflection is not so brilliant.  She is the fallen woman, hardly anybody sees the real Anna behind this image. Anna is faced with a void that she is trying to fill with shards of past love. 

 

 

 

SCENE IV

ABYSS

 

 

 

An unanswered cuddle throws Anna back to herself. She faces a cold reality that seems unbearable. Love, which once opened new spaces, now closes all doors for her. Son Seryozha, the only one who can stand her and imbue, can’t be with Anna now. 

 

 

Tormented by the seclusion in her own being, Anna sees only one way out ‒the way into the abyss. She can’t bear this void and chooses death. Life goes on.

In 2021, the production was awarded the National Theatre Prize in the nomination "Best Ballet Production"