Whatever one may say, one cannot ignore the famous masterpiece of the Russian composer in four acts, thanks to which the German legend of the beautiful swan girl is immortalized in the eyes of art connoisseurs. According to the plot, the prince, in love with the swan queen, betrays her, but even the realization of the mistake does not save him or his beloved from the raging elements.

The image of the main character - Odette - complements the gallery of female symbols created by the composer during his life. It is noteworthy that the author of the ballet plot is still unknown, and the names of the librettists have never appeared on any poster. The ballet was first presented back in 1877 on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, but the first version was considered unsuccessful. The most famous production is Petipa-Ivanov, which became the standard for all subsequent performances.

The best ballets in the world: Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

Popular on New Year's Eve, the ballet for children The Nutcracker was first presented to the public in 1892 on the stage of the famous Mariinsky Theatre. Its plot is based on Hoffmann's fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". The struggle of generations, the confrontation between good and evil, the wisdom behind the mask - the deep philosophical meaning of the tale is clothed in vivid musical images that are understandable to the youngest viewers.

The action takes place in winter, on Christmas Eve, when all wishes can come true - and this gives an additional charm to the magical story. Everything is possible in this fairy tale: cherished desires will come true, masks of hypocrisy will fall off, and injustice will be definitely defeated.

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The best ballets in the world: Giselle by Adam

“Love that is stronger than death” is perhaps the most accurate description of the famous ballet in four acts of Giselle. The story of a girl dying from passionate love, who gave her heart to a noble young man betrothed to another bride, is so vividly conveyed in the graceful pas of slender wilis - brides who died before the wedding.

The ballet was a huge success from the first production in 1841, and over the course of 18 years, 150 theatrical performances of the work of the famous French composer were given on the stage of the Paris Opera. This story won the hearts of art connoisseurs so much that an asteroid discovered at the end of the 19th century was even named after the main character of the story. And today, our contemporaries have already taken care of preserving one of the greatest pearls of the classical work in film versions of the classical production.

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The best ballets in the world: Don Quixote by Minkus

The era of great knights has long passed, but this does not prevent modern young ladies from dreaming of meeting Don Quixote of the 21st century. The ballet accurately conveys all the details of the folklore of the inhabitants of Spain; and many masters tried to stage the plot of noble chivalry in a modern interpretation, but it is the classical production that has been decorating the Russian stage for one hundred and thirty years.

The choreographer Marius Petipa was able to skillfully embody the whole flavor of Spanish culture in the dance thanks to the use of elements of national dances, and some gestures and postures directly indicate the place where the plot unfolds. History has not lost its significance today: even in the 21st century, Don Quixote skillfully inspires young people with warm hearts, capable of desperate deeds in the name of goodness and justice.

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The best ballets in the world: Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev

The immortal story of two loving hearts, united only after death forever, is embodied on stage thanks to Prokofiev's music. The production took place shortly before the Second World War, and we must pay tribute to the dedicated masters who resisted the orders that were customary at that time, which also reigned in the creative sphere of the Stalinist country: the composer retained the traditional tragic ending of the plot.

After the first grandiose success, which awarded the performance with the Stalin Prize, there were many versions, but literally in 2008, the traditional production of 1935 in New York took place with a happy ending to the famous story unknown to the public until that moment.

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Happy viewing!

Ballet is a form of performing art; it is an emotion embodied in musical and choreographic images.

Ballet, the highest stage of choreography, in which dance art rises to the level of a musical stage performance, arose as an aristocratic court art much later than dance, in the 15th-16th centuries.

The term "ballet" appeared in Renaissance Italy in the 16th century and meant not a performance, but a dance episode. Ballet is an art in which dance, the main expressive means of ballet, is closely connected with music, with a dramatic basis - a libretto, with scenography, with the work of a costume designer, lighting designer, etc.

The ballet is diverse: plot - classical narrative multi-act ballet, dramatic ballet; plotless - ballet-symphony, ballet-mood, miniature.

World scenes have seen many ballet performances based on masterpieces of literature to the music of brilliant composers. That is why the British Internet resource Listverse decided to make its own rating of the best ballet productions in history.

"Swan Lake"
Composer: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

The first, Moscow production of Swan Lake was not successful - its glorious history began almost twenty years later in St. Petersburg. But it was the Bolshoi Theater that contributed to the fact that the world was gifted with this masterpiece. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote his first ballet commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre.
A happy stage life was given to Swan Lake by the famous Marius Petipa and his assistant Lev Ivanov, who went down in history primarily thanks to the staging of standard "swan" scenes.

The Petipa-Ivanov version has become a classic. It underlies most subsequent productions of Swan Lake, except for the extremely modernist ones.

The prototype for the swan lake was the lake in the Davydov Lebedeva economy (now Cherkasy region, Ukraine), which Tchaikovsky visited shortly before writing the ballet. Resting there, the author spent more than one day on its shore, watching snow-white birds.
The plot is based on many folklore motifs, including an old German legend about the beautiful princess Odette, who was turned into a swan by the curse of the evil sorcerer, the knight Rothbart.

"Romeo and Juliet"

Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev is one of the most popular ballets of the twentieth century. The premiere of the ballet took place in 1938 in Brno (Czechoslovakia). Widely known, however, was the edition of the ballet, which was presented at the Kirov Theater in Leningrad in 1940.

Romeo and Juliet is a ballet in 3 acts 13 scenes with a prologue and an epilogue based on the tragedy of the same name by William Shakespeare. This ballet is a masterpiece of world art, embodied through music and amazing choreography. The performance itself is so impressive that it is worth watching at least once in a lifetime.

"Giselle"
Composer: Adolf Adam

Giselle is a "fantastic ballet" in two acts by the French composer Adolphe Adam to a libretto by Henri de Saint-Georges, Theophile Gauthier and Jean Coralli, based on a legend retold by Heinrich Heine. In his book “On Germany”, Heine writes about the vilis - girls who died from unhappy love, who, having turned into magical creatures, dance to death the young people they meet at night, taking revenge on them for their ruined life.

The premiere of the ballet took place on June 28, 1841 at the Grand Opera, choreographed by J. Coralli and J. Perrault. The production was a huge success, there were good reviews in the press. Writer Jules Janin wrote: “There is nothing in this work. And fiction, and poetry, and music, and the composition of new pas, and beautiful dancers, and harmony, full of life, grace, energy. That's what is called ballet."

"Nutcracker"
Composer: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

The history of stage productions of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, based on Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, knows many author's editions. The ballet premiered at the Mariinsky Theater on December 6, 1892.
The premiere of the ballet was a great success. The ballet The Nutcracker continues and completes the series of ballets by P. I. Tchaikovsky that have become classics, in which the theme of the struggle between good and evil, begun in Swan Lake and continued in Sleeping Beauty, sounds.

A Christmas tale about a noble and beautiful enchanted prince turned into a Nutcracker doll, about a kind and selfless girl and their evil opponent the Mouse King, has always been loved by adults and children. Despite the fairy-tale plot, this is a work of real ballet mastery with elements of mysticism and philosophy.

"La Bayadère"
Composer: Ludwig Minkus

La Bayadère is a ballet in four acts and seven scenes with an apotheosis by choreographer Marius Petipa to music by Ludwig Fedorovich Minkus.
The literary source of the ballet "La Bayadère" is the drama of the Indian classic Kalidasa "Shakuntala" and the ballad of W. Goethe "God and the Bayadère". The plot is based on a romantic oriental legend about the unhappy love of a bayadère and a brave warrior. "La Bayadère" is an exemplary work of one of the stylistic trends of the 19th century - eclecticism. There is both mysticism and symbolism in "La Bayadère": the feeling that from the first scene a "sword punishing from heaven" is raised above the heroes.

"Sacred spring"
Composer: Igor Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring is a ballet by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, which premiered on May 29, 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris.

The concept of The Rite of Spring was based on Stravinsky's dream, in which he saw an ancient ritual - a young girl, surrounded by elders, dances to exhaustion to awaken spring, and dies. Stravinsky worked on music at the same time as Roerich, who wrote sketches for scenery and costumes.

There is no plot as such in the ballet. The content of The Rite of Spring is described by the composer as follows: “The bright Resurrection of nature, which is reborn to a new life, a complete resurrection, a spontaneous resurrection of the conception of the world”

"Sleeping Beauty"
Composer: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

The ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" by P.I. Tchaikovsky - Marius Petipa is called "an encyclopedia of classical dance". The carefully constructed ballet amazes with the splendor of various choreographic colors. But, as always, at the center of every Petipa performance is a ballerina. In the first act, Aurora is a young girl who perceives the world around her lightly and naively; in the second, she is an alluring ghost, summoned from a long-term dream by the Lilac fairy; in the finale, she is a happy princess who has found her betrothed.

The inventive genius of Petipa dazzles the audience with a bizarre pattern of diverse dances, the top of which is the solemn pas de deux of lovers, Princess Aurora and Prince Desire. Thanks to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky, the children's fairy tale became a poem about the struggle between good (the Lilac fairy) and evil (the Carabosse fairy). The Sleeping Beauty is a genuine musical and choreographic symphony in which music and dance are merged into one.

"Don Quixote"
Composer: Ludwig Minkus

Don Quixote is one of the most life-affirming, bright and festive works of the ballet theatre. It is interesting that, despite its name, this brilliant ballet is by no means a staging of the famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes, but an independent choreographic work by Marius Petipa based on Don Quixote.

In Cervantes' novel, the image of the sad knight Don Quixote, ready for any exploits and noble deeds, is the basis of the plot. In Petipa's ballet to music by Ludwig Minkus, which premiered at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater in 1869, Don Quixote is a minor character and the plot focuses on the love story of Kitri and Basil.

"Cinderella"
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev

Cinderella is a ballet in three acts by Sergei Prokofiev based on the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault.
The music for the ballet was written between 1940 and 1944. For the first time, Cinderella to the music of Prokofiev was staged on November 21, 1945 at the Bolshoi Theater. Its director was Rostislav Zakharov.
Here is how Prokofiev wrote about the ballet Cinderella: “I created Cinderella in the best traditions of classical ballet,” which makes the viewer empathize and not remain indifferent to the joys and troubles of the Prince and Cinderella.

Publications section Theaters

Famous Russian ballets. Top 5

Classical ballet is an amazing art form that was born in Italy during the mature Renaissance, "moved" to France, where the merit of its development, including the founding of the Academy of Dance and the codification of many movements, belonged to King Louis XIV. France exported the art of theatrical dance to all European countries, including Russia. In the middle of the 19th century, the capital of European ballet was no longer Paris, which gave the world the masterpieces of romanticism La Sylphide and Giselle, but Petersburg. It was in the Northern capital that the great choreographer Marius Petipa worked for almost 60 years, the creator of the system of classical dance and the author of masterpieces that still do not leave the stage. After the October Revolution, they wanted to throw the ballet off the ship of modernity, but they managed to defend it. Soviet times were marked by the creation of a considerable number of masterpieces. We present five domestic top ballets - in chronological order.

"Don Quixote"

Scene from the ballet Don Quixote. One of the first productions by Marius Petipa

Premiere of the ballet by L.F. Minkus "Don Quixote" at the Bolshoi Theatre. 1869 From the album of the architect Albert Kavos

Scenes from the ballet Don Quixote. Kitri - Lyubov Roslavleva (center). Staging by A.A. Gorsky. Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre. 1900

Music by L. Minkus, libretto by M. Petipa. First production: Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, 1869, choreography by M. Petipa. Subsequent productions: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, 1871, choreography by M. Petipa; Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, 1900, St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, 1902, Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, 1906, all - choreography by A. Gorsky.

The ballet "Don Quixote" is a theatrical performance full of life and jubilation, an eternal celebration of dance, which never tires adults and to which parents take their children with pleasure. Although it is called the name of the hero of the famous novel Cervantes, it is based on one of its episodes, “The Wedding of Quiteria and Basilio”, and tells about the adventures of young heroes, whose love eventually wins, despite the opposition of the heroine’s stubborn father, who wanted to marry her to rich Gamache.

So Don Quixote has almost nothing to do with it. Throughout the performance, a tall, thin artist, accompanied by a short, pot-bellied colleague portraying Sancho Panza, paces around the stage, sometimes making it difficult to watch the beautiful dances composed by Petipa and Gorsky. Ballet, in essence, is a concert in costumes, a celebration of classical and characteristic dance, where all the artists of any ballet troupe have something to do.

The first production of the ballet took place in Moscow, where Petipa traveled from time to time to raise the level of the local troupe, which could not be compared with the brilliant troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. But in Moscow it was easier to breathe, so the choreographer, in essence, staged a ballet reminiscence of the wonderful years of youth spent in a sunny country.

The ballet was a success, and two years later Petipa moved it to St. Petersburg, which necessitated reworking. There, characteristic dances were much less interested than pure classics. Petipa expanded "Don Quixote" to five acts, composed a "white act", the so-called "Dream of Don Quixote", a real paradise for lovers of ballerinas in tutus, owners of pretty legs. The number of cupids in the "Dream" reached fifty-two...

Don Quixote came to us in a reworking by the Moscow choreographer Alexander Gorsky, who was fond of the ideas of Konstantin Stanislavsky and wanted to make the old ballet more logical and dramatically convincing. Gorsky destroyed Petipa's symmetrical compositions, canceled the tutus in the "Dream" scene, and insisted on the use of swarthy make-up for the Spanish dancers. Petipa called him a "pig", but already in the first alteration of Gorsky, the ballet was performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater 225 times.

"Swan Lake"

Scenery for the first performance. Big theater. Moscow. 1877

Scene from the ballet "Swan Lake" by P.I. Tchaikovsky (choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov). 1895

Music by P. Tchaikovsky, libretto by V. Begichev and V. Geltser. First production: Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, 1877, choreography by V. Reisinger. Subsequent production: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, 1895, choreography by M. Petipa, L. Ivanov.

Everyone's favorite ballet, the classical version of which was staged in 1895, was actually born eighteen years earlier at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. The score of Tchaikovsky, whose world fame was yet to come, was a kind of collection of "songs without words" and seemed too complicated for that time. The ballet took place about 40 times and sunk into oblivion.

After Tchaikovsky's death, Swan Lake was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre, and all subsequent productions of the ballet were based on this version, which became a classic. The action was given great clarity and logic: the ballet told about the fate of the beautiful Princess Odette, who was turned into a swan by the will of the evil genius Rothbart, about how Rothbart deceived Prince Siegfried, who fell in love with her, resorting to the charms of his daughter Odile, and about the death of the heroes. Tchaikovsky's score was reduced by about a third by the conductor Ricardo Drigo and reorchestrated. Petipa created the choreography for the first and third acts, Lev Ivanov for the second and fourth. This separation ideally corresponded to the vocation of both brilliant choreographers, the second of whom had to live and die in the shadow of the first. Petipa is the father of classical ballet, the creator of impeccably harmonious compositions and the singer of a woman-fairy, a woman-toy. Ivanov is an innovative choreographer with an unusually sensitive feel for music. The role of Odette-Odile was played by Pierina Legnani, “Queen of Milanese ballerinas”, she is also the first Raymonda and the inventor of 32 fouettes, the most difficult type of rotation on pointe shoes.

You may not know anything about ballet, but Swan Lake is known to everyone. In the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union, when aged leaders replaced one another quite often, the heartfelt melody of the “white” duet of the main characters of the ballet and bursts of wing-arms from the TV screen heralded a sad event. The Japanese love Swan Lake so much that they are ready to watch it in the morning and in the evening, performed by any troupe. Not a single touring troupe, of which there are many in Russia, and especially in Moscow, can do without Lebedinoy.

"Nutcracker"

Scene from the ballet The Nutcracker. First staging. Marianna - Lydia Rubtsova, Clara - Stanislava Belinskaya, Fritz - Vasily Stukolkin. Mariinskii Opera House. 1892

Scene from the ballet The Nutcracker. First staging. Mariinskii Opera House. 1892

Music by P. Tchaikovsky, libretto by M. Petipa. First production: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, 1892, choreography by L. Ivanov.

From books and websites, erroneous information still roams that The Nutcracker was staged by the father of classical ballet Marius Petipa. In fact, Petipa wrote only the script, and the first production of the ballet was carried out by his subordinate, Lev Ivanov. An overwhelming task fell to Ivanov’s lot: the script, created in the style of the then fashionable ballet extravaganza with the indispensable participation of an Italian guest performer, was in obvious contradiction with Tchaikovsky’s music, which, although written in strict accordance with Petipa’s instructions, was distinguished by great feeling, dramatic richness and complex symphonic development. In addition, the heroine of the ballet was a teenage girl, and the ballerina-star was prepared only for the final pas de deux (a duet with a partner, consisting of an adagio - a slow part, variations - solo dances and a coda (virtuoso finale)). The first production of The Nutcracker, where the first - mostly pantomime act, differed sharply from the second - divertissement, was not very successful, critics noted only the Waltz of the Snowflakes (64 dancers participated in it) and the Pas de deux of the Dragee Fairy and Prince Whooping Cough , which was inspired by Ivanov's Adagio with a Rose from Sleeping Beauty, where Aurora dances with four gentlemen.

But in the 20th century, which was able to penetrate into the depths of Tchaikovsky's music, The Nutcracker was destined for a truly fantastic future. There are countless ballet performances in the Soviet Union, European countries and the USA. In Russia, the productions of Vasily Vainonen at the Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (now the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg) and Yuri Grigorovich at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater are especially popular.

"Romeo and Juliet"

Ballet Romeo and Juliet. Juliet - Galina Ulanova, Romeo - Konstantin Sergeev. 1939

Mrs. Patrick Campbeple as Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 1895

Finale of Romeo and Juliet. 1940

Music by S. Prokofiev, libretto by S. Radlov, A. Piotrovsky, L. Lavrovsky. First production: Brno, Opera and Ballet Theatre, 1938, choreography by V. Psota. Subsequent production: Leningrad, State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. S. Kirov, 1940, choreography by L. Lavrovsky.

If Shakespeare's phrase in a well-known Russian translation reads "There is no sadder story in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet", then they said about the ballet of the great Sergei Prokofiev written on this plot: "There is no sadder story in the world than Prokofiev's music in ballet". Truly amazing in beauty, richness of colors and expressiveness, the score of "Romeo and Juliet" at the time of its appearance seemed too complicated and unsuitable for ballet. Ballet dancers simply refused to dance to her.

Prokofiev wrote the score in 1934, and originally it was intended not for the theater, but for the famous Leningrad Academic Choreographic School to celebrate its 200th anniversary. The project was not implemented due to the murder of Sergei Kirov in Leningrad in 1934, and changes broke out in the leading musical theater of the second capital. Nor did the plan to stage Romeo and Juliet at the Moscow Bolshoi come to fruition. In 1938, the premiere was shown by a theater in Brno, and only two years later, Prokofiev's ballet was finally staged in the author's homeland, at the then Kirov Theater.

Choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky, within the framework of the “drambalet” genre (a form of choreographic drama characteristic of the ballet of the 1930-50s), highly welcomed by the Soviet authorities, created an impressive, exciting spectacle with carefully sculpted mass scenes and finely defined psychological characteristics of the characters. At his disposal was Galina Ulanova, the most refined ballerina-actress, who remained unsurpassed in the role of Juliet.

Prokofiev's score was quickly appreciated by Western choreographers. The first versions of the ballet appeared already in the 1940s. Their creators were Birgit Kuhlberg (Stockholm, 1944) and Margarita Froman (Zagreb, 1949). Famous productions of "Romeo and Juliet" belong to Frederick Ashton (Copenhagen, 1955), John Cranko (Milan, 1958), Kenneth MacMillan (London, 1965), John Neumeier (Frankfurt, 1971, Hamburg, 1973).I. Moiseev, 1958, choreography by Y. Grigorovich, 1968.

Without "Spartacus" the concept of "Soviet ballet" is unthinkable. This is a real hit, a symbol of the era. The Soviet period developed other themes and images, deeply different from the traditional classical ballet inherited from Marius Petipa and the Imperial Theaters of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Fairy tales with happy endings were archived and replaced by heroic stories.

Already in 1941, one of the leading Soviet composers, Aram Khachaturian, spoke of his intention to write music for a monumental, heroic performance to be staged at the Bolshoi Theatre. The theme for it was an episode from ancient Roman history, an uprising of slaves led by Spartacus. Khachaturian created a colorful score using Armenian, Georgian, Russian motifs and full of beautiful melodies and fiery rhythms. The production was to be staged by Igor Moiseev.

It took many years for his work to come out to the audience, and it appeared not at the Bolshoi Theater, but at the Theater. Kirov. Choreographer Leonid Yakobson created a stunning and innovative performance, abandoning the traditional trappings of classical ballet, including pointe dancing, using loose plastique and ballerinas wearing sandals.

But the ballet "Spartacus" became a hit and a symbol of the era in the hands of choreographer Yuri Grigorovich in 1968. Grigorovich impressed the viewer with a completely built dramaturgy, subtle portrayal of the characters of the main characters, skillful staging of crowd scenes, purity and beauty of lyrical adagios. He called his work "a performance for four soloists with a corps de ballet" (corps de ballet - artists involved in mass dance episodes). Vladimir Vasiliev played the role of Spartacus, Crassus - Maris Liepa, Phrygia - Ekaterina Maksimova and Aegina - Nina Timofeeva. Card de ballet was predominantly male, which makes the ballet "Spartacus" one of a kind.

In addition to the well-known readings of Spartacus by Yakobson and Grigorovich, there are about 20 more productions of the ballet. Among them are the version by Jiri Blazek for the Prague Ballet, Laszlo Serega for the Budapest Ballet (1968), Jüri Vamos for the Arena di Verona (1999), Renato Zanella for the Vienna State Opera Ballet (2002), Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasiliev for the State Academic Theater they direct. classical ballet in Moscow (2002).

Originating as an imitation of Western models, Russian opera has made a valuable contribution to the treasury of the entire world culture.

Having appeared in the era of the classical heyday of French, German and Italian operas, Russian opera in the 19th century not only caught up with the classical national opera schools, but also outstripped them. It is interesting that Russian composers traditionally chose subjects of a purely folk character for their works.

"Life for the Tsar" Glinka

The opera "A Life for the Tsar" or "Ivan Susanin" tells about the events of 1612 - the Polish campaign of the gentry against Moscow. Baron Yegor Rozen became the author of the libretto, however, in Soviet times, for ideological reasons, the editing of the libretto was entrusted to Sergei Gorodetsky. The premiere of the opera took place at the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg in 1836. For a long time the part of Susanin was performed by Fyodor Chaliapin. After the revolution, Life for the Tsar left the Soviet scene. There were attempts to adapt the plot to the requirements of the new time: this is how Susanin was accepted into the Komsomol, and the final lines sounded like "Glory, glory, Soviet system." Thanks to Gorodetsky, when the opera was staged at the Bolshoi Theater in 1939, the "Soviet system" was replaced by the "Russian people." Since 1945, the Bolshoi Theater has traditionally opened the season with various productions of Ivan Susanin by Glinka. The most large-scale production of the opera abroad was realized, perhaps, in Milan's La Scala.

"Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky

The opera, in which the tsar and the people are chosen as two characters, was begun by Mussorgsky in October 1868. To write the libretto, the composer used the text of Pushkin's tragedy of the same name and materials from Karamzin's History of the Russian State. The theme of the opera was the reign of Boris Godunov just before the Time of Troubles. Mussorgsky completed the first edition of the opera Boris Godunov in 1869, which was presented to the theatrical committee of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters. However, the reviewers rejected the opera, refusing to stage it due to the lack of a bright female role. Mussorgsky introduced the "Polish" act of the love line of Marina Mniszek and False Dmitry into the opera. He also added a monumental scene of a popular uprising, which made the finale more spectacular. Despite all the adjustments, the opera was again rejected. It was staged only 2 years later, in 1874, on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. Abroad, the premiere of the opera took place at the Bolshoi Theater in the Paris Grand Opera on May 19, 1908.

The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky

The opera was completed by Tchaikovsky in the early spring of 1890 in Florence, and the first production took place in December of the same year at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The opera was written by the composer on the order of the Imperial Theatre, and for the first time Tchaikovsky refused to take the order, arguing his refusal by the lack of "proper stage presence" in the plot. It is interesting that in Pushkin's story the protagonist has the surname Hermann (with two "n" at the end), and in the opera the main character is a man named Herman - this is not a mistake, but a deliberate change by the author. In 1892, the opera was staged for the first time outside of Russia in Prague. Then - the first production in New York in 1910 and the premiere in London in 1915.

"Prince Igor" Borodin

The basis for the libretto was the monument of ancient Russian literature "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". The idea of ​​the plot was suggested to Borodin by the critic Vladimir Stasov at one of the musical evenings at Shostakovich's. The opera was created over 18 years, but was never completed by the composer. After the death of Borodin, work on the work was completed by Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov. There is an opinion that Glazunov was able to restore from memory the author's performance of the opera overture he once heard, however, Glazunov himself refuted this opinion. Despite the fact that Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov did most of the work, they insisted that Prince Igor was entirely an opera by Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin. The premiere of the opera took place at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 1890, after 9 years it was seen by a foreign audience in Prague.

"The Golden Cockerel" by Rimsky-Korsakov

The opera The Golden Cockerel was written in 1908 based on Pushkin's fairy tale of the same name. This opera was the last work of Rimsky-Korsakov. Imperial theaters refused to stage the opera. But as soon as the audience saw it for the first time in 1909 at the Moscow Opera House of Sergei Zimin, the opera was staged at the Bolshoi Theater a month later, and then it began its triumphal procession around the world: London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Wroclaw.

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" by Shostakovich

The idea of ​​the opera came from Alexander Dargomyzhsky in 1863. However, the composer doubted its success and considered the work as a creative "reconnaissance", "fun over Pushkin's Don Giovanni". He wrote music to Pushkin's text of The Stone Guest without changing a single word in it. However, heart problems did not allow the composer to finish the work. He died, asking in his will his friends Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov to complete the work. The opera was first presented to the audience in 1872 on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The foreign premiere took place only in 1928 in Salzburg. This opera has become one of the “founding stones”, without knowing it it is impossible to understand not only Russian classical music, but also the general culture of our country.

Tchaikovsky's music exists outside of time

May 7, 1840 was born one of the greatest composers in the history of music - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

During the 53 years allotted to him, the composer wrote more than 80 works, including 10 operas and three ballets - real treasures of world culture and art.

1. "Slavic March" (1876)

The march was written by Tchaikovsky at the request of the directorate of the Russian Musical Society and was dedicated to the struggle of the Slavic peoples of the Balkans against the Ottoman yoke in connection with the events of the Russian-Turkish war. The author himself called it the "Serbo-Russian march" for a long time. The march featured musical themes characteristic of Serb folk music, as well as excerpts from "God Save the Tsar!".

In 1985, the German heavy metal band Accept used the main theme from the march as the intro to the title track of their album "Metal Heart".

2. "Swan Lake" (1877)

Maya Plisetskaya and Valery Kovtun. Scene from P. I. Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake"

The plot was based on folklore motifs, including an old German legend about the beautiful princess Odette, who was turned into a white swan by the evil sorcerer Rothbart. It is widely believed that Tchaikovsky wrote the music for the ballet after visiting a lake located in the foothills of the Alps in the vicinity of the city of Füssen.

Since 1877, the score and libretto of the performance have undergone a number of changes. To date, of all the existing editions of Swan Lake, there are hardly at least two that have completely identical scores.

For our contemporaries, the ballet evokes a strong association with the August putsch - "Swan Lake" was shown on Soviet television on August 19, 1991, canceling all scheduled programs.

3. "Children's Album" (1878)

Cartoon to music from "Children's Album" by P. Tchaikovsky (1976). Director - Inessa Kovalevskaya

According to Polina Vaidman, a well-known specialist in Tchaikovsky's work, "Children's Album", along with the well-known works by Schumann, Grieg, Debussy, Ravel and Bartok, entered the golden fund of world musical literature for children and gave impetus to the creation of a number of piano pieces close in character and theme opuses.

In 1976, the Soyuzmultfilm studio shot an animated picture to the music from the album, and 20 years later the ballet was staged, which became a laureate of the 1999 International Festival in Yugoslavia.

4. "Eugene Onegin" (1877)

"Onegin's Arioso" from the opera "Eugene Onegin". Fragment of the film "Muslim Magomayev Sings". Azerbaijanfilm, 1971. Script and staging - T. Ismailov, I. Bogdanov

In May 1877, the singer Elizaveta Lavrovskaya suggested that Tchaikovsky write an opera based on the plot of Pushkin's novel in verse. The composer was so fired up with this proposal that he spent the whole night without sleep, working on the script. By morning he began to write music. In a letter to the composer Sergei Taneyev, Tchaikovsky wrote: "I am looking for an intimate but powerful drama based on a conflict of positions that I have experienced or seen, which can touch me to the quick."

In July, the composer impulsively married a former conservatory student, Antonina Milyukova, who was 8 years his junior. The marriage ended after a few weeks, which critics say had a strong impact on the work.

5. Sleeping Beauty (1889)

Waltz from P. I. Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Sleeping Beauty"

Before Tchaikovsky, the French composer Ferdinand Herold, who composed a ballet with the same name, turned to the plot of Charles Perrault, but already in the year of the premiere, the version by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa was recognized as outstanding and took pride of place among the world's masterpieces of ballet art.

In our time, almost every choreographer who makes a new version of The Sleeping Beauty also creates a new version of its score.

6. The Queen of Spades (1890)

Overture from the opera "The Queen of Spades" by P. I. Tchaikovsky staged by the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona (2010)

In 1887, the administration of the Imperial Theater suggested that Tchaikovsky write an opera based on a plot created by Ivan Vsevolozhsky based on Pushkin's story. The composer refused due to the lack of "proper theatrics" in the plot, but two years later he nevertheless accepted the order and plunged headlong into work.

Soon after the Russian premiere, the opera "migrated" to the repertoire of many theaters in Europe and America, where it was performed in Russian, Czech and German.

7. The Nutcracker (1892)

"Waltz of the Flowers" from P. I. Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker"

The innovative ballet based on the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by Ernst Theodor Hoffmann occupies a special place among the late works of Tchaikovsky and ballet art in general.

With the outbreak of the First World War and the growth of patriotic sentiments, the plot of the ballet was Russified, and the main character Marie began to be called Masha. Fritz was not renamed at the same time.