Soviet Union
Russian Ballet Icons Gala: Celebrating Galina Ulanova, ColiseumSunday, 15 May 2011
Ballet galas are a curious institution. They mimic the form of “Greatest Hits” recordings, but what you get are rarely greatest hits, because they can’t be. Dance develops in its own time, its unfolding being an essential part of the magic. Rip a... Read more... |
FarewellTuesday, 26 April 2011
Midway through Farewell, a civilian who is aiding a KGB spy is told by his nervous wife, “I married an engineer. Not James Bond.” In other films, this might be a cheap line, a postmodern quip; here it is spoken in earnest, and reflects the many... Read more... |
The Battleship Potemkin Comes Out of the ClosetSaturday, 23 April 2011
When Sergei Eisenstein's film The Battleship Potemkin was first shown in Moscow in December 1925, just in time to commemorate the 1905 Revolution, the film played to half-empty theatres, because audiences, then as now, preferred the products from... Read more... |
Little Eagles, Hampstead TheatreThursday, 21 April 2011
Space is a great subject for theatre. I’m not sure why but it might be something to do with the contrast between the irreducible groundedness of live performance and the imaginary flights of fancy that the audience yearns to take. Whatever the... Read more... |
Rona Munro on writing Little EaglesWednesday, 13 April 2011
My latest play, Little Eagles, marks the 50th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s first orbit around the Earth. Gagarin’s place in history is, quite rightly, assured but little is known about Sergei Korolyov, a brilliant engineer and the chief... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, SackbutsSaturday, 02 April 2011This week, we’ve a Russian flavour – historic, idiomatic performances of Tchaikovsky symphonies, and exciting readings of Shostakovich piano concertos. And there’s a sackbut recital…Shostakovich, Piano Concertos, Piano Quintet, Martin Helmchen (... Read more... |
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, TouringFriday, 25 March 2011
Les Grands Ballets Classiques de Stoke Poges are a company waiting to happen for most of us, but for Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo a bitter rivalry must be endured - one of their ballerinas didn’t show up last night in High Wycombe, due... Read more... |
Remembrance Day, Royal Court TheatreWednesday, 23 March 2011
The political background is vital to the play, so pay attention: during the Second World War, the small Baltic state of Latvia was threatened by its two big neighbours, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. In fact, when these countries signed the Molotov... Read more... |
DVD: Arsenal & ZvenigoraSaturday, 19 February 2011
What a time of ferment of artistic revolution the 1920s were in the Soviet Union. Pioneering arts techniques overlapped for an all-too-brief period with the progressive ideology of communism. Alexander Dovzhenko’s Arsenal and Zvenigora were at the... 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... |
The Way BackFriday, 24 December 2010
Whatever else one thinks of Hollywood, one can hardly accuse Tinseltown of overdosing audiences on good cheer this holiday season. Filmgoers States-side can at the moment choose between James Franco hacking at his flesh, Mark Wahlberg landing a... Read more... |
