10 September 2016. Some of My Favourite Things… P G Lisitian Sings “Ya Vas Lyublyu” from “Pikovaya Dama”

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An aria from La Traviata… Joe Green in Russian!

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Here’s a patriotic song in a more popular vein… Moya rodina (My Motherland)

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P G Lisitian (Peoples Artist of the USSR) came from a humble working-class family… in the money-grubbing West, he would’ve got nowhere. In the USSR, he found an outlet for his talent. That’s something that the righties never talk about… how the Sovs sincerely sought out talent of all sorts (artistic, scientific, and athletic) amongst all classes and how they gave people a chance to develop their skills. Lisitian was a leading soloist at the Bolshoi (officially, the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (GABT Rossii)) from 1940 to 1966; he taught at conservatoire for many years afterward (he died in 2004, in his 93rd year). Ya vas lyublyu from Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades) has to the be the most famous aria in Russian opera… need I mention that Pavel Gerasimovich was a mentor of D A Khvorostovsky? Many believe his interpretation to be the best yet… I agree.

BMD

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Maestro Valery Gergiev Fetes His 60th Birthday with Carnegie Hall Concerts

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Entertainment media reported that maestro Valery Gergiev would celebrate his 60th birthday at Carnegie Hall in New York this October with three concerts featuring music of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff. Broadway World.com reported on Monday that Gergiev, who’s also marking his 25th year with the legendary Mariinsky Orchestra, will conduct an all-Stravinsky program on 10 October, featuring the composer’s famous ballet music from L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird), Pétrouchka, and Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). On 11 October, Gergiev will conduct a performance of a Shostakovich concerto and the composer’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor, opus 65, followed by the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, opus 45 and a piano concerto on 15 October. The Mariinsky is one of the oldest orchestras in Russia, having premièred works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, just to name a few. Gergiev first conducted the orchestra in 1978; since becoming Artistic and General Director in 1996, he’s toured with the ensemble to more than 45 countries. winning acclaim for widely expanding its repertoire.

27 August 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130827/182998034/Gergiev-Fetes-60th-Birthday-With-Carnegie-Concerts.html

25 December 2012. Some of My Favourite Things. Swan Lake (complete) as Danced in 1990 by the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad

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In this 1990 production of Swan Lake, Yuliya Makhalina danced the role of Odette/Odile whilst Igor Zelensky danced the part of Prince Siegfried. This Kirov production includes the familiar happy ending in the final act where Siegfried fights and ultimately defeats the evil magician von Rothbart and is reunited with Odette at dawn.

As everyone knows, Russia has led world ballet since the time of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in the late tsarist Silver Age. Russia has set the standard, and the Bolshoi and Mariinsky/Kirov have been the leading dance troupes in the world. This was so in the Empire, it was so in the USSR, it’s so now in the transitional period of the Russian Federation, and it shall remain so with the re-emergence of a reunited Eurasian state.

Russian Ballet lived, Russian Ballet lives, and Russian Ballet shall live!

BMD

 

9 June 2012. Some of My Favourite Things… “Sleeping Beauty” at the Bolshoi

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