The Bolshoi Ballet returns with Le Corsaire and The Flames of Paris after six years

NCPA April/19/2018
From May 18th to 25th, the Bolshoi Ballet will visit the NCPA with the full-length Le Corsaire and The Flames of Paris to deliver a ballet feast for audiences with its all-star lineup.
The Bolshoi Ballet is dubbed as one of Russia's “National Art Theatres”

The Bolshoi Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and Eifman Ballet are dubbed as Russia’s “National Art Theatres”. At the beginning of China’s ballet development, the Soviet Union’s celebrated choreographer Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev and his Chinese students created China’s first original ballet drama The Beauty Mermaid. Today, Bolshoi Theatre’s great artistic creations have been much favoured by Chinese audiences, whose love for ballet derives from a large part from the Bolshoi Ballet.

Le Corsaire is hailed one of the symbolic Romantic ballets

Le Corsaire, to be staged on May 18th-20th, remains unparalleled for its rich plot-lines and long duration. Even if with the compressed first act, the duration of the revised version exceeds two and a half hours. Nonetheless, the sprightly and changeful structure of the play makes it so enjoyable for audiences; especially the section “Zakharova and Shipulina”, participated by more than 60 performers and lasting over 20 minutes, is rare in group ballet play for its large number of dancers, rich structure and varied formations. The group dance showcases the strength of the team and overall level of dancers.

The pas de deux of the second act, with its heart-stopping jumps and fascinating spinning, unfolds the dancers’ strength and beauty. The dancers break the limits of the human body and conveys a clear message of the pirate’s unruliness and courage with his vigorous body, making this piece of male dancer with variations a frequent selection in many competitions and galas.

The Flames of Paris draws a full play of the French Revolution in 1792

From May 22nd to 25th, the master work of the Soviet Union in early stage The Flames of Paris will appear on the NCPA’s stage. The legendary ballet about the French Revolution in 1792 was premiered by the Leningrad Academic Opera & Ballet Theatre in 1932 and deemed as one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet Union’s theatres.

In 2008, the Bolshoi Ballet rehearsed the play with many changes in the storyline and choreography. The play becomes more dense and intricate with a change to two acts from the previous four acts. The main characters, with a focus on portraying human nature, have changed to two couples instead of the peasant brother and sister in the original. The story ends with a new added role, Adeline, the daughter of a noble marquis family, who gets escorted to the guillotine, giving a new prudent attitude to the French Revolution and thus leaving the judge right to the audience. The new version not only tends to a modern ballet in expression and accords with the aesthetic habits of nowadays audience, but also unveils the formidable strength of the Bolshoi Ballet.

The Flames of Paris is full of power, courage and fearlessness

Different from elegant and delicate classical ballet plays, The Flames of Paris is full of power, courage and fearlessness. It displays adequately how people’s strong vitality yearning for freedom and justice. In the early days of the play, the audience was so encouraged that they often chanted the inspiring song for liberty La Marseillaise with the actors.

What’s worth expecting is that the epic comprises of more than 100 performers including ballet dancers, figurants, the orchestra and the chorus, etc. and is more like a mixed presentation of ballet and drama. The pas de deux celebrating victory of the revolution is deemed as one of the models of pas de deux and usually performed at competitions and galas.
RELATED PERFORMANCE

The Bolshoi Ballet Le Corsaire

The Bolshoi Ballet Le Corsaire

The Bolshoi Ballet The Flames of Paris

The Bolshoi Ballet The Flames of Paris

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