CHOPINIANA

Ballet in 1 Act

to piano music by Frédéric Chopin

(suite from pieces for piano, orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov and Maurice Keller)

choreography by Mikhail Fokine

production of the KNOBT after Abay in a new choreographic edition by

People's Artist of Kazakhstan - Gulzhan Tutkibayeva

  

 

Characters:

The young man

Seventh Waltz

Prelude

Mazurka

Eleventh Waltz

Deuce

 

Production Team:

Stage Choreographer - Gulzhan Tutkibayeva, People’s Artist of Kazakhstan

Stage Conductor - Yerbolat Akhmedyarov, Honored Figure of Kazakhstan

Stage Designer - Vyacheslav Okunev, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, winner of the State Prizes of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan

History

 The premiere of the performance at the Abay SATOB took place on 27, 28 of April 2019, in one evening with two more premiers of "Rediscovering Bach" and "Bolero" ballets 

 

      

"Chopiniana" are the ballet suite on Fryderyk Chopin's music. A plotless performance – ‘homage’ to a romanticism era with its eternal conflict between a dream and reality, elusiveness of the escaping ideal. Choreography of the ballet is made by so-called air dances in style of the romantic ballet of 30 — 40 years of the 19th century which it is accepted to call ballet blanc (the white ballet) by definition of the French poet of romantic school of Théophile Gautier.

 

The ballet master, by the language of plastic images expressed the mood characteristic to Chopin's music. In "Les Sylphides" everything is subordinated to a musical thought. The dance differing in noble simplicity and grace, following music from romantic pensiveness and melancholic grief to light, radiant pleasure, enters the viewer into the poetic dreamland of the composer.

In a final version the ballet consists of eight compositions by Chopin. As the introduction to the ballet serves solemn polonaise A-dur. Then it includes nocturne As-dur, the waltz of Ges-dur, two mazourkas (G-dur and D-dur), prelude A-dur, the waltz of cis-moll. The ballet comes to the end with the general waltz of B-dur.

 

The polonaise serving as the introduction, the waltz of cis-moll are orchestrated by A. Glazunov, other compositions by Chopin which entered "Les Sylphides" — were orchestrated by M. Keller.

The ballet "Les Sylphides" many times changed the name. Initially the author named it "Romantic Dreams", then in posters the performance was called as "The ballet to the sound of music by Chopin" or "Gran as a pas on Chopin's music" and " Les Sylphides ". Under this name the ballet was included into the repertoire of foreign ballet troupes.

 

The premiere of "Chopiniana" was held on February 10, 1907 at the St. Petersburg Maryinsky Theater within the charitable performance. On March 11, 1908 on the stage of the Maryinsky Theater, the second edition of the ballet which became classical, repeatedly reproduced throughout the 20th century in many theaters of the world was shown.

For the first time "Chopiniana" were delivered to Almaty in 1938 by Alexander Seleznyov and Leonid Molodyashin for pupils of the Almaty choreographic school. The premiere of the ballet was held on June 13, 1938 at the first reporting and indicative concert of school.

In KSATOB of Abay "Chopiniana" were made in 1962 by Zaurbek Raybayev. Sara Kusherbayeva, Anuarbek Jalilov, Galina Gorskaya, Natalya Gudochkina-Kanshina were the first performers. V. Semizorov acted as the artist.

The value of "Chopiniana" in the history of world choreography is high. The performance is a standard of romantic style in the ballet, one of world masterpieces so far.

Despite the seeming simplicity of choreographic language, "Chopiniana" very difficult performance also demand from actors not only sure execution, but first of all sense of style, musicality, extreme ease of dance.