THE BOLSHOI BALLET
Artistic Director: Alexei Ratmansky

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, LONDON WC2

July 31 - August 19, 2006

50th Anniversary of the Bolshoi Ballet's first visit to
Covent Garden

New production of The Bright Stream celebrates
Shostakovich centenary

Russia's great Bolshoi Ballet company comes to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for a wide-ranging, three-week season presented by Victor Hochhauser (July 31 - August 19, 2006).

It is just fifty years since the fabulous Bolshoi Ballet first enthralled audiences at the Royal Opera House in London - a love affair which has lasted for half a century.

Now there is another chance to see this bravura company in ballets old and new, performing to music by Russia's greatest composers.

Highlights of the season include an acclaimed new Cinderella by Yuri Possokhov set to Prokofiev's magical score, and a joyous tribute to Shostakovich in the composer's centenary year with the first British performances his ballet The Bright Stream, recreated with consummate style and wit by the Bolshoi Ballet's Artistic Director, Alexei Ratmansky.

The undisputed highlight of the Bolshoi Ballet's last visit to London, Pierre Lacotte's ravishing reconstruction of Petipa's The Pharaoh's Daughter, is back by popular demand. It opens the ballet season and comes complete with bravura displays of dancing, pyramids, mummies, armies of extras and a spectacular underwater ballet.

Two quintessential classics of the ballet repertoire - Swan Lake and Don Quixote - round off a thrilling three-week season. Further details will be announced.

The full complement of the Bolshoi's leading dancers - including Svetlana Zakharova,
Svetlana Lunkina, Maria Alexandrova, Maria Allash, Ekaterina Shipulina,
Anastasia Yatsenko, Natalia Osipova, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Sergei Film, Andrei
Uvarov, Dmitri Belogolovtsev, Dmitri Gudanov, Yuri Klevtsov, Denis Matvienko
and Ruslan Skvortsov - will dance in London.

In total the company will bring a complement of over 200 artists, including the full Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre.

The Bolshoi Ballet season at the Royal Opera House is preceded by a week of performances by the Bolshoi Opera (July 25 - 29, 2006). The repertoire includes Prokofiev's powerful and passionate opera The Fiery Angel and the company's sumptuous production of Musorgsky's Boris Godunov.

Public booking for both companies opens on Thursday, May 11, 2006.

So, who was Ratmansky's created for, then?

Ratmansky’s “Cinderella” is performed by the Mariinsky with Vishneva and Sologub in the title role.

That they'll bring Ratmansky's much-acclaimed Bright Streams to London for the first time is great news, also the recently premiered Cinderella, choreographed by Yuri Possokhov (of San Francisco Ballet). According to what I read in a Japanese ballet forum, at home in Moscow this new version of Cinderella was alternately danced by: Zakharova/Filin (first cast), Anastasia Yatsenko/Dmitry Gudanov, Ekaterina Shipulina/Dmitry Belogolovtsev. This production seems to have a pretty 'modern' taste to it - though how modern it could be I really don't know yet....

Hugest of thanks in anticipation.

Roland Petit’s theatrical Pique Dame, (The Queen of Spades) specially created for the Bolshoi stars Ilse Liepa and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, and Ratmansky’s Go for Broke, set to Stravinsky’s jazzy and vivacious ballet score Jeu de Cartes receive their British premiere performances in a triple-bill with Balanchine’s brilliantly virtuosic Symphony in C.

Listings Details:

Monday 	31 July	evening	THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER
Tuesday 	1 August 	evening	THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER
Wednesday 	2 August	matinee	THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER
		evening	THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER	 
Thursday 	3 August	evening	SWAN LAKE
Friday 	4 August	evening	SWAN LAKE
Saturday 	5 August	matinee	SWAN LAKE
		evening	SWAN LAKE

Monday 	7 August	evening	CINDERELLA
Tuesday 	8 August 	evening	CINDERELLA
Wednesday 	9 August	matinee	CINDERELLA
		evening	CINDERELLA
Thursday	10 August	evening	THE BRIGHT STREAM 
Friday 	11 August	evening	THE BRIGHT STREAM
Saturday 	12 August	matinee	THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER
		evening	THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER

Monday	14 August	evening	GO FOR BROKE, PIQUE DAME,               
			SYMPHONY IN C
Tuesday	15 August	evening	GO FOR BROKE, PIQUE DAME,
			SYMPHONY IN C
Wednesday	16 August	matinee	SWAN LAKE
		evening	SWAN LAKE
Thursday	17 August	evening	DON QUIXOTE
Friday	18 August	evening	DON QUIXOTE
Saturday	19 august	matinee	DON QUIXOTE
		evening	DON QUIXOTE

As usual readers should note that all things can change.

If your friend bought it from a website, could you please ask her the address?

Thanks.

I smiled when I saw that yesterday, normally they would not advertise until o