Russia
Bolshoi leader quits in porn scandalWednesday, 16 March 2011
The Bolshoi Ballet's company manager, Gennady Yanin, has resigned after pornographic pictures appeared on the internet that were linked to him, just as he was being considered to take on the job of artistic director, which became vacant that day... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Moscow: Isaac Levitan at the Tretyakov GallerySunday, 06 March 2011
The Tretyakov Gallery is currently housing a landmark exhibition to mark the 150th anniversary of Isaac Levitan. His glorious “mood landscapes” catch the understated beauty of provincial Russia, with an often gloomy philosophical perspective behind... Read more... |
Bolshoi prima and violinist Repin have babyFriday, 18 February 2011
The Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova gave birth in Moscow yesterday to a baby girl, the child of the celebrated violinist Vadim Repin. Weighing 3.1 kilograms, the baby is named Anna.Zakharova, 31, a former star at the Mariinsky... Read more... |
The Portrait, Opera NorthWednesday, 02 February 2011
Based on a short story by Gogol, Alexander Medvedev’s libretto for Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Portrait was originally conceived for Shostakovich. It was subsequently passed to Weinberg, who finished his opera in 1980. It’s a bleak, Faustian tale... Read more... |
The Cherry Orchard, Sovremennik, Noël Coward TheatreFriday, 28 January 2011
Plays these days come not in single spies but in battalions of two, whether you're talking The Master Builder, King Lear or The Cherry Orchard, the last of which closes the visiting Sovremennik Russian theatre troupe's three-play season only to... Read more... |
Three Sisters, Sovremennik, Noël Coward TheatreTuesday, 25 January 2011
Anyone who's imbibed the common wisdom that Russians play Chekhov for the comedy - one eye wet, the other dry and smiling - might have been alarmed to find the Moscow Sovremennik Theatre's second London offering so doomy and subdued. And the more... Read more... |
Classical CDs Round-Up 15Friday, 21 January 2011
This month’s carefully sifted new releases include some quirky Americana and a piano filled with ping-pong balls. A Baroque specialist plays some ripe orchestral transcriptions and a neglected cello concerto gets a new ending. Six Danish symphonies... Read more... |
Into the Whirlwind, Sovremennik, Noël Coward TheatreFriday, 21 January 2011
Tradition has often bedded down very comfortably in the Russian performing arts, which ought to be an asset in the current vortex but brings mixed blessings. Detailed ensemble work, the Moscow Sovremennik Theatre's strongest asset, takes time to... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Moscow: The Sovremennik Theatre Visits LondonSunday, 16 January 2011
Twenty-odd years ago, on the eve of the break-up of the Soviet Union, the country’s cultural world was anticipating cardinal changes – anything from a series of closures to a radical alteration in which the way art would be produced under new... Read more... |
Napoleon's revenge: a Russian orchestra in ParisThursday, 23 December 2010
Ninety-five per cent of Napoleon's army was wiped out on the freezing retreat from Moscow in 1812. The statistics weren't nearly as impressive nor, thankfully, so mortal for the Russian National Orchestra's concert in Paris's Salle Pleyel last... Read more... |
Anna Karenina still leads Mariinsky Ballet's tourTuesday, 14 December 2010
True to form the Mariinsky Ballet has already made programme changes for its Covent Garden visit next summer, not a fortnight after announcing its tour on 3 December. But we're used to it and it's all to the good. Substituting Don Quixote for the... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Pianist Elisabeth LeonskajaSaturday, 04 December 2010
Born in 1945 to Russian parents in Tbilisi, Georgia, Elisabeth Leonskaja gave her first major recital at the age of 11 and went on to study at the Moscow Conservatory, emigrating from the Soviet Union to Vienna in 1978 and making a sensational... Read more... |
