O'er the Misty Park of Haga

Меня и английский устроил бы, интересно, конечно.

Али4е, ок, выложу, как приеду в Москву. Почему-то не подумал взять его с собой

но почему Miku?

Клевер, долго объяснять. Это, кароч, производная от моей настоящей фамилии, я этим псевдонимом подписываюсь часто.

В общем, текст на английском. Прошу прощения, если кое-где в названиях слетел курсив.

This premiere should have taken place in July but was suddenly cancelled. Unexampled incident raised a lot of rumors. No one seemed to believe the official explanation made by the Bolshoi management: there hadn’t been enough rehearsals and the cast wasn’t ready to perform. Everyone talked about “adult content”, photos of naked Rudolf Nureyev which were to be displayed during the performance and gay scenes – all that is impossible in more and more prudish and hypocritical Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But a few days later Kirill Serebrennikov, the director, the librettist and the author of the whole conception of Nureyev, was put under arrest. The charges against him are not convincing in the eyes of many in Russia and abroad (www.change.org/p/freiheit-f%C3%BCr-kirill-sereb...). It is more likely that Serebrennikov is persecuted for political reasons. So his enemies simply were determined not to let him enjoy his triumph on the Russia’s most prominent stage while they were trying to show him as a decadent and pro-Western “traitor” whose art is not interesting to millions of “normal” Russians.
But the Bolshoi didn’t give up and Nureyev eventually was held. After the dramatic events associated with Serebrennikov public’s interest increased to the highest level and ballet fans were waiting all night long near the box offices fearing to miss tickets. The Bolshoi’s chief Vladimir Urin made a special statement asking critics and audience to forget politics and regard Nureyev as a piece of art.
But It is still hard to criticize Nureyev, because of inner sense that each unfavorable word about it unites you with the powers that persecute Kirill Serebrennikov and all the free and daring art in Russia. Fortunately, this performance is outstanding even apart from politics although choreography itself is the last thing that should be praised. It would be honest to regard Nureyev not as ballet but as a kind of dance/musical show.
Nureyev is created by the same team that staged highly successful A Hero of our Time (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDrj58CnJCM). But this time the role of Serebrennikov seems to be dominating.
Yuri Possokhov’s choreography sometimes lacks inspiration and variety despite multiplicity of genres and styles. Classical ballet pieces are combined with modern dance and even cabaret, but that doesn’t help and the same wavy movements of arms and corpus, series of fast and loose arabesques, jumping and falling to the floor and lying poses soon begin to tire.
Ilya Demutsky’s music becomes really interesting only when he cites Tchaikovsky, List, Mahler and other classics or stylizes his own music so that it pretends to be a horrorful Soviet patriotic song or simple chords for ballet class.
Nureyev is performed by the first-rated dancers of the Bolshoi but no one of them managed to impersonate the legend that he or she was entitled to dance - Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn or Margot Fonteyn. Maybe “managed” is not the right word because it is doubtful that they had ever tried to do it. It seems that they gave up right from the start and decided not to act and just to remain themselves. The only exception is Artyom Ovcharenko, Nureyev of the second cast, who showed real actor’s work. Vladislav Lantratov, Nureyev of the first cast, is light, noble and handsome, but there’s no trace of real Rudolf Nureyev in him.
Nevertheless Nureyev captures your attention and you can’t stop thinking of it even after the curtains fall. And it is Kirill Serebrennikov’s victory. It was he who created the storyline, set design and the whole shape which is still impressive even if ingredients that fill it are not always satisfying.
Nureyev starts with auction scene during which various items that had once belonged to Rudolf Nureyev (who is already dead) are presented to rich and aged purchasers. Auction goes on during the whole performance. Auctioneer (his role is played by dramatic actor) describes one item after another and accordingly various episodes from protagonist’s biography come to life on stage.
First it’s Vaganova ballet school where Rudolf Nureyev shows lack of discipline and is rude to his partner but is admired by everyone. The stage is lighted brightly, golden empire decor and large mirrors of the ballet class - all shine. The pupils and Nureyev among them dance a class concert. It looks fine and optimistic but instead of habitual barre they use iron bars. Nureyev consists of such small and subtle details which are sometimes hard to notice because the stage is so crowded and there is so much action.
Political and personal freedom, relations between a man and a state are the themes which interest Serebrennikov most of all and Soviet episodes and Nureyev’s jump to freedom are very impressive. Serebrennikov doesn’t believe in attraction and sinister charms of totalitarianism. He deprives the Soviet state system of any signs of grandeur, mightiness or at least aesthetics. In Nureyev it is depicted as ugly, tasteless and ridiculous. A monstrous choir of women in heavy velvet dresses sings a hymn to Motherland while Komsomol boys and girls are marching and the Auctioneer turns into a KGB agent (The Grey Man, as he is called according to the libretto) and is reading loudly with metallic voice: “I therefore inform you on the acts of disgraceful behavior conducted by the ballet dancer of the Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Sergey Mironovich Kirov, Nureyev Rudolf Khamitovich…”
Lights on stage become shady and grey, but Nureyev jumps over the bars, and large windows open letting sunshine and wind in. Parisians, happy, free and brightly dressed, are dancing around him frivolous waltz. All this may seem quite forthright but there’s a certain charm and honesty in this plainness of metaphors.
The duration of Nureyev is about 2 hours. This timing includes all the main aspects of Rudolf Nureyev mythology. He is posing naked and dancing on a table during a high class party, surrounded by paparazzi and rich ladies. He is in love with Erik Bruhn (their single duet is rather chaste). He is in partnership with Margot Fonteyn. He dances all over the world in various ballets, on various stages and is a terrible tyrant to his fellow dancers. He rushes backstage, is massaged, changes his costume in a hurry and continues to dance. He collects baroque paintings and eventually appears on stage as the Sun King in purple and gold surrounded by choir in baroque dresses and castrato singer (countertenor) and army of half naked boys. These episodes change very fast, there are crowds of people on stage, and it’s almost impossible to follow this fanciful line. Nureyev is a costly and magnificent show and is proudly kitschy. It looks like a box of modest size into which someone put as much as possible items – dance, songs, poetry, paintings and drama. It is crazy – and it is splenidid.
Nureyev even comes close to a documentary. Photos and original document play a large part in it. Some of them are created exclusively for this performance. Auctioneer once again changes his role and becomes a reciter. He reads original letters written to and about Rudolf Nureyev by his protégées and pupils Charles Jude, Manuel Legris and Laurent Hilaire and by famous ballerinas of his time Natalia Makarova and Alla Osipenko. Unfortunately these letters sound rather formal and not so sincere. They consist of commonplace epithets: hard working, passionate, genial and so on. Reading is followed by dancing and the cast of the performers shows that episode with letters was important to Serebrennikov and Possokhov. On the first night the Pupils’ letter was danced by principal Vyacheslav Lopatin and the Divas’ letter - by the Bolshoi’s main prima Svetlana Zakharova (it is a pity that broken movements choreographed by Possokhov show very little of her divine lines).
While Rudolf Nureyev enjoys his triumphs and is praised by ballet stars the sense of anxiety appears and grows stronger. The lights once again become gloomy and smoky, decor disappears little by little, the walls, once shining with gold, now are dirty and covered with graffiti. The stage used to be auctions sale-room, a ballet studio, street of Paris, the Sun King’s palace full of paintings and Persian carpets… Now set design reminds of public WC in some unsafe district where the guys in black leather used to gather. The half naked boys continue to dance around Nureyev, but their bodies are marked with strange patterns - tattoos or Kaposi's sarcomas? A small aged lady in black is sitting in a corner, almost hidden, with bouquet of white lilies. Is she Nureyev’s devoted admirer or a Death herself? Anyway she is staring attentively and waiting.
And so starts the most tragic and the most beautiful part of the ballet. It begins with the Shadows scene from La Bayadere (danced not only by female but also by male corps de ballet). Nureyev, exhausted and weary, makes his way between the dancers’ lines to the orchestra pit. The dancers continue their mechanical and monotonous, somewhat ghostly movements while he is slowly stumbling by. He goes down to the orchestra pit and starts conducting. The Shadows’ dance goes on. The small black lady raises from her chair and walks off stage throwing away her flowers one by one. The sound of music is getting lower and lower until it stops completely but that doesn’t matter to Rudolf Nureyev and he continues conducting.

Commissar Paul, спасибо, просветилась
финал действительно сильный, даже в пересказе производит впечатление

Commissar Paul, спасибо большое

Али4е, финал невероятно трагический и красивый, я даже приблизительно не смог описать.

tatit, не за что