Exhibition "Sergei Prokofiev. Anthem of Love"

This year, the world celebrates the 125th birthday of the brilliant Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, whose contribution to the treasury of ballet music is priceless and undeniable. In memory of the musical genius of the 20th century, the international ballet festival DANCE OPEN, as part of the off-program of the 15th anniversary season, is dedicated to the exhibition “Sergei Prokofiev. Anthem of Love. "

The exhibition will open on April 15 at 17. 00 in the lobby of the New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater.

The central plot of the exposition is Prokofiev’s main ballet “Romeo and Juliet”, the history of its creation and truly dramatic fate. Documentary evidence of its turn - from the stigma of "non-dance", which the skeptics tried to put to the music of the master, to the triumphal procession of ballet in the best stages of the world - today are of undeniable value and are carefully stored in the funds of the State Central Theater Museum named after A.A. Bakhrushin.

A unique exposition of artifacts of history will be complemented by the Opera and Ballet Theater of the Perm Academic Theater provided by the costume shop. P.I. Tchaikovsky live non-museum costumes are luxurious Renaissance clothes in which today and again they plunge into the ocean of love and die on the stage of Romeo and Juliet.

The history of music for Romeo and Juliet from the very beginning was surrounded by incomprehensible and mysterious plots. Few people know that the creation of a puzzling musical construction of Prokofiev was inspired by the game of chess. A summer-long game that was played on 12 boards pushed to each other could enter world chess history. But she didn’t enter, because there was no one to fix the precious moves. The composer played with himself, and the music born during the game was his most eloquent, most unconditional victory. In September 1935, the work was completed.

It is worth mentioning that the shocking dominant of the original version of the ballet was the happy ending of Shakespeare’s story, proposed by Sergey Sergeyevich in collaboration with the Soviet director and Shakespeare specialist S.E. Radlov. Prokofiev himself wrote in his autobiography: “The reasons that prompted us to this barbarism were purely choreographic: living people can dance, dying people will not dance while lying… It affected me, however, something else. Someone said: “Essentially, in your music, real joy in the end failed,” and that was true. ” A little later, after a series of consultations with choreographers, a ballet outlet was found, and the music was rewritten for a tragic ending.

And still, from the point of view of contemporaries, she was too unusual. The first Soviet performance of the ballet, supplemented at the insistence of the choreographer L. M. Lavrovsky with a number of new dances and dramatic episodes, took place only on January 11, 1940 at the State Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov in Leningrad.

It was an option in three acts and thirteen films, with a prologue and epilogue, which subsequently gained worldwide fame and was embodied by a variety of choreographers in the best theater stages around the world. That is why among the exhibits of the “Anthem of Love” there are so many posters and posters of plays.

Shakespearean drama, dressed in innovative musical form, has allowed many stars to sparkle brighter, to reveal their talent, acting personality in a new way. The exhibition presents a whole gallery of portraits of the legendary Romeo and Juliet of different years in different choreographic interpretations: Mikhail Gabovich and Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, Nikolai Fadeechev and Maya Plisetskaya.

Particularly inspired by the world famous love story and stage designers. At the exposition you can see sketches of sets and costumes created by V. Ya. Leventhal and S. B. Virsaladze, and imagine the performances of the past.

Special attention is paid to rare personal photographs of the composer himself at work in his office, at rehearsals of the orchestra, at the conductor’s desk.

In addition to archival historical materials presented by the museum to them. Bakhrushin, the attention of the audience will no doubt be attracted by modern exhibits - stage costumes created for the troupe of the Perm Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. P.I. Tchaikovsky. It was in this theater, under the direction of Alexei Miroshnichenko, that in 2013 for the first time the large-format ballet Romeo and Juliet was transferred to the Russian stage in the choreography of the legend of London Covent Garden, Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

Hand-made stage dresses made of brocade, velvet and satin, taking into account all the cultural and historical canons of the Renaissance, amaze with their authenticity. Heavy fabrics, bizarre shapes, vibrant colors - all this easily transfers the audience’s imagination to Shakespeare’s Verona.

Costume designers were Italian masters who had previously collaborated with the Macmillan Foundation - in particular, they created costumes for Romeo and Juliet at the La Scala Theater in 2010. However, for the production of the Perm Theater, Italian artists decided not to repeat themselves and came up with a unique set design and a collection of costumes. At the invitation of Alexei Miroshnichenko, St. Petersburg technologist Tatyana Noginova worked with this team, who adapted the outfits for the dance, making them as convenient as possible.

In total, more than 200 costumes were created. Only a part will be presented in the foyer of the New Stage of Aleksandrinka, but this will be enough to impress the viewer. Visitors will see the costumes of the main characters - a delicate Juliet dress from the first ball, the nifty outfit of Tybalt, pompous, deliberately rich costumes of Signor Montecchi and Capulet, the elegant outfit of Paris. By the way, a curious detail: many people think that the luxurious clothes that absorbed the riot of colors and the scent of Italy reminiscent of the poetry of chess pieces with their inner rigor and geometry of lines… Each visitor to the exhibition will make his own conclusion.

By the way, Petersburgers and guests of the city will be able to see Kenneth Macmillan’s Romeo and Juliet performed by the Perm Ballet troupe and the Royal Ballet soloists on April 18 and 19 on the Main Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater as part of the 15th anniversary season of the International Dance Festival DANCE OPEN.

Exhibition work period: April 15 - April 22, 2016

Exhibition working hours: from 11.00 to 20.00

Attendance: free (on days of performances entry after 18.30 on tickets for performances)