Tolstoy
Anna Karenina, Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg, London ColiseumWednesday, 04 April 2012An apocryphal story tells of an awful theatrical adaptation of the story of Anne Frank. When the Nazis arrive to search the house where the family are in hiding, an enraged theatre-goer shouts, “She’s in the attic!” Well, I didn’t quite point Anna... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Russian Choreographer Boris EifmanSaturday, 17 March 2012No choreographer so divides American and British critics as Russia's only international dancemaker, Boris Eifman. He's "an amazing magician of the theatre", according to the late, great US critic Clive Barnes. He "flaunts all the worst clichés of... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Moscow: Nikolai Ge at the Tretyakov GallerySunday, 06 November 2011The Nikolai Ge retrospective at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery marks the 180th anniversary of the artist’s birth – not the kind of round centenary or bicentenary landmark that often brings such projects to fruition. But the show is literally a... Read more... |
Anna Karenina, Mariinsky Ballet, Royal Opera HouseWednesday, 10 August 2011It is claimed that the philosopher GE Moore had a fantasy. After many years’ work, Tolstoy had finally finished War and Peace. Sonya had copied it out for the umpteenth time. The thing goes off to the printer. Peace reigns. And then, in... Read more... |
50 years since Nureyev defected and Kirov Ballet debuted in LondonFriday, 15 July 2011It's 50 years since the mighty Kirov Ballet made their debut London tour - reeling from Nureyev's defection days before at the Paris airport. The tour was promoted by the unique impresarios of Soviet culture, Victor and Lilian Hochhauser. Half a... Read more... |
War and Peace at the Circus, Giffords CircusMonday, 04 July 2011A village green, a little big top - and War and Peace. Sometimes large ambitions come in the smallest packages, and one can only take one’s hat off to the ambitious, pocket-sized Giffords Circus for setting out to squish Tolstoy’s four-volume epic... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Kabul: Talking Books in Dari and PashtoSaturday, 30 April 2011One Friday afternoon this spring, a friend led me to a low, dusty room in an education institute in the Afghan capital, Kabul. A few dozen men sat in neat rows. Most were young and wearing leather jackets, a few were older and in tweed jackets or... Read more... |
Imagine: The Trouble with Tolstoy, BBC OneMonday, 04 April 2011Trouble? What trouble? There may be the odd reader who doesn't get past the Austerlitz sequence of War and Peace, and many who don't brave the master's last big novel questioning church and state, Resurrection, but that's their problem, not Tolstoy'... Read more... |
Anna Karenina, Arcola TheatreMonday, 21 March 2011Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Great Expectations: it’s getting harder and harder to name a classic novel that hasn’t found itself covered in greasepaint and pushed out onto the stage. With adaptations... Read more... |
Anna Karenina still leads Mariinsky Ballet's tourTuesday, 14 December 2010True 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 in Yasnaya Polyana: The Lost Centenary of Tolstoy's DeathSunday, 14 November 2010Russia marks the centenary of the death of Leo Tolstoy on 20 November – but the level of local tribute to one of the country’s greatest writers seems markedly muted for a figure two of whose novels, Anna Karenina and War and Peace, are regularly... Read more... |
The Kreutzer SonataTuesday, 09 March 2010For scalpel-sharp dissection of the most vapid parts of Hollywood/LA life, told with low-budget digital flexibility that itself critiques studio indulgences, British director Bernard Rose is your man. He hit the note most viscerally in Ivansxtc a... Read more... |