The new season of Boldino Autumn is a source of joy and inspiration for new generations

NIZHNY NOVGOROD. The XXXI festival of opera and ballet art “Boldinsky Autumn” has opened.

The ancestors of Alexander Sergeyevich settled in the village of Bolshoy Boldino, Nizhny Novgorod Region in the 16th century. The pioneer was Evstafy Mikhailovich Pushkin, Viceroy of Elatom, Voivode of Tobolsk. The diplomat whose signature is under the Tyavzinsky peace treaty with Sweden and in the cathedral resolution on the accession of Boris Godunov to the throne. Evstafy Mikhailovich received more than fifty hectares as a gift for valiant labor in the diplomatic field from Ivan the Terrible himself. The estate passed from one ancestor to another, from the poet’s grandfather to his father, Sergei Lvovich. For Alexander Sergeyevich, his stay in Boldino turned out to be a period of unprecedented creative take-off, as a result of which several dozen masterpieces were created: poems, fairy tales, poems, and prose works. Here were completed "Eugene Onegin", "Little Tragedies", "Belkin’s Tale".

The idea of holding a festival of opera and ballet art with a symbolic name for poetry lovers called “Boldinskaya Autumn” was dictated by the amazing history of these places and the need to erect a miraculous monument to the great poet. His works formed the basis of the libretto of two dozen operas, inspired the creation of wonderful ballets. The authors of the music for them were Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Cui, Headmaster. Alexander Sergeevich himself was an ardent admirer of Terpsichore and Euterpa. Everyone remembers the lines from "Eugene Onegin" dedicated to the brilliant ballerina of the Imperial Theater of Evdokia Istomina. Her jump, which hit Pushkin during the play "Acis and Galatea", was honored with a comparison with the flight of fluff from the mouth of Aeolus.

In the works of the poet the surname of the famous dancer and choreographer-innovator Didlo is repeatedly found. He made a real revolution in the teaching of choreographic disciplines, paid great attention to acting lessons, the musical education of ballet dancers, and introduced dance group flights. Among Didlo’s productions, which are based on Pushkin’s plots, are The Prisoner of the Caucasus, dance scenes in A. Shakhovsky’s play Ruslan and Lyudmila. In the latest work, according to critics, a sincere enthusiasm for ballet, an understanding of its style, which are clearly reflected in the images of the main characters and secondary characters, can be clearly traced.

In a letter to his brother about a trip to Odessa, Pushkin writes about the healingness of the Italian opera, reminding him of antiquity and renewing his soul. Among the poet’s favorite composers was Mozart, with “The Magic Flute”, “Don Juan”, “The Marriage of Figaro” which he met in childhood. Therefore, the choice of the one-act opera Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov for the opening of the festival on November 16 seems very symbolic. The second work chosen for this evening was Aleko by Sergei Rachmaninov.

Before the end of Boldino Autumn on November 26, festival guests will be able to see Swan Lake performed by artists of the Samara Opera and Ballet Theater, the Nutcracker, Bakhchisarai Fountain, the opera The Queen of Spades, Mazepa, and Eugene Onegin. Actors of the troupe of the Mari Theater named after Eric Sapaev will present E. Lazarev’s choreographic fantasy “The Master and Margarita”.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru