Bolshoi casting updated 9th May 2006

General booking opens on 10th May.

WEEK 1
Monday 31 July 7.30pm THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER Aspicia: Svetlana Zakharova
Lord Wilson/Taor: Sergei Filin
Ramze: Maria Alexandrova

Tuesday 1 August 7.30pm THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER Aspicia: Svetlana Lunkina
Lord Wilson/Taor: Dmitri Gudanov
Ramze: Anastasia Yatsenko

Wednesday 2 August 2.00pm THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER Aspicia: Natalia Osipova
Lord Wilson/Taor: Ruslan Skvortsov
Ramze: Elena Andrienko

7.30pm THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER Aspicia: Maria Alexandrova
Lord Wilson/Taor: Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Ramze: Anastasia Yatsenko

Thursday 3 August 7.30pm SWAN LAKE Odette/Odile: Svetlana Lunkina
Prince Siegfried: Dmitri Gudanov
The Evil Genius: Nikolai Tsiskaridze

Friday 4 August 7.30pm SWAN LAKE Odette/Odile: Svetlana Zakharova
Prince Siegfried: Ruslan Skvortsov
The Evil Genius: Dmitri Belogolovtsev

Saturday 5 August 2.00pm SWAN LAKE Odette/Odile: Maria Allash
Prince Siegfried: Alexander Volchkov
The Evil Genius: Nikolai Tsiskaridze

7.30pm SWAN LAKE Odette/Odile: Maria Alexandrova
Prince Siegfried: Sergei Filin
The Evil Genius: Dmitri Belogolovtsev



WEEK 2
Monday 7 August 7.30pm CINDERELLA Cinderella: Svetlana Zakharova
The Prince: Sergei Filin

Tuesday 8 August 7.30pm CINDERELLA Cinderella: Ekaterina Shipulina
The Prince: Dmitri Belogolovtsev

Wednesday 9 August 2.00pm CINDERELLA Cinderella: Ekaterina Krysanova
The Prince: Dmitri Gudanov

7.30pm CINDERELLA Cinderella: Svetlana Zakharova
The Prince: Sergei Filin

Thursday 10 August 7.30pm THE BRIGHT STREAM Zina: Svetlana Lunkina
Pyotr: Yuri Klevtsov
Ballerina: Maria Alexandrova
Dancer: Yan Godovsky

Friday 11 August 7.30pm THE BRIGHT STREAM Zina: Anastasia Yatsenko
Pyotr: Denis Matvienko
Ballerina: Ekaterina Shipulina
Dancer: Ruslan Skvortsov

Saturday 12 August 2.00pm THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER Aspicia: Svetlana Lunkina
Lord Wilson/Taor: Dmitri Gudanov
Ramze: Elena Andrienko

7.30pm THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER Aspicia: Svetlana Zakharova
Lord Wilson/Taor: Sergei Filin
Ramze: Natalia Osipova



WEEK 3
Monday 14 August 7.30pm GO FOR BROKE Maria Alexandrova, Svetlana Lunkina, Ekaterina Shipulina,
Anastasia Yatsenko, Natalia Osipova, Ekaterina Krysanova,
Anastasia Kurkova, Yan Godovsky, Denis Medvedev, Morihiro Ivata, Viacheslav Lopatin, Denis Savin,
Anton Savichev, Egor Khromushin, Evgeny Golovin

PIQUE DAME Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Ilze Liepa, Svetlana Lunkina

SYMPHONY IN C Anastasia Yatsenko, Dmitri Gudanov
Svetlana Zakharova, Alexander Volchkov
Maria Alexandrova, Denis Matvienko
Ekaterina Shipulina, Dmitri Belogolovtsev


Tuesday 15 August 7.30pm GO FOR BROKE Maria Alexandrova, Svetlana Lunkina, Ekaterina Shipulina,
Anastasia Yatsenko, Natalia Osipova, Ekaterina Krysanova,
Anastasia Kurkova, Yan Godovsky, Denis Medvedev, Morihiro Ivata, Viacheslav Lopatin, Denis Savin,
Anton Savichev, Egor Khromushin, Evgeny Golovin

PIQUE DAME Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Ilze Liepa, Svetlana Lunkina

SYMPHONY IN C Anastasia Yatsenko, Dmitri Gudanov
Svetlana Zakharova, Alexander Volchkov
Maria Alexandrova, Denis Matvienko
Ekaterina Shipulina, Dmitri Belogolovtsev


Wednesday 16 August 2.00pm SWAN LAKE Odette/Odile: Maria Allash
Prince Siegfried: Alexander Volchkov
The Evil Genius: Yuri Klevtsov

7.30pm SWAN LAKE Odette/Odile: Svetlana Zakharova
Prince Siegfried: Ruslan Skvortsov
The Evil Genius: Nikolai Tsiskaridze

Thursday 17 August 7.30pm DON QUIXOTE Kitri: Natalia Osipova
Basil: Denis Matvienko

Friday 18 August 7.30pm DON QUIXOTE Kitri: Maria Alexandrova
Basil: Sergei Filin

Saturday 19 august 2.00pm DON QUIXOTE Kitri: Ekaterina Shipulina
Basil: Dmitri Belogolovtsev

7.30pm DON QUIXOTE Kitri: Svetlana Zakharova
Basil: Denis Matvienko

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL CASTING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Just in time for the opening of general booking tomorrow, a revised list of casting has appeared; very frustrating for those of us who booked on the earlier 'friends' booking date.

Some of the changes are a sort of re-shuffle, but I was more than sorry to discover that Yatsenko has been dropped completely from Cinderella. Andrei Uvarov is a no-show, possibly because of that serious injury which prevented him from dancing at the Plisetskaya gala earlier this year, as is the previously announced Artem Shpilevsky (not a Bolshoi dancer at all, by the way).

A number of people have expressed their disappointment to me that Nadezhda Gracheva won't be dancing this season and I have to say I'm not happy either as I would particularly have liked to have seen her in The Pharaoh's Daughter again. Galina Stepanenko is another dancer surprisingly excluded. Nor were these two seen on the provincial tour: a great shame.

I shall amend the cast lists later, in the mean time please refer to the casting on the Victor Hochhauser web site below.

http://www.victorhochhauser.co.uk/bolshoi_ballet/bolshoi_ballet_roh2006/bb_roh_2006_diary.htm

This is getting beyond a joke. Yet more cast changes for the London season.

My thanks to Coda who alerted me to the changes on the London section of the Bolshoi website. For those of you with Russian here is the link.

http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/season/press-service/news/index.php?id26=437

New casting as Follows:

1 Aug. – Ruslan Skvortsov replaces Dmitri Gudanov in The Pharaoh's Daughter

2 Aug. matinee – Dmitry Gudanov replaces Ruslan Skvortsov in The Pharaoh's Daughter

2 Aug. evening – Sergei Filin replaces Nikolai Tsiskaridze in The Pharaoh's Daughter

3 Aug. – Dmitry Belogolovtsev replaces Nikolai Tsiskaridze (as Rothbart) in Swan Lake

5 Aug. – Rothbart T.B.A.

10 Aug – Sergei Filin replaces Yan Godovsky in The Bright Stream

12 Aug. evening – Nikolai Tsiskaridze replaces Sergei Filin in The Pharoah's Daughter

15 Aug. – Nellie Kobakhidze replaces Svetlana Lunkina in Pique Dame and Artyom Shpilevsky replaces Alexander Volchkov in Symphony n C

Bolshoi Ballerina…Svetlana Lunkina
Interview by Zoë Anderson for Dancing Times

Britain will see plenty of the Bolshoi Ballet this year. A regional tour starts in March, visiting Birmingham, Salford, Nottingham and Southampton, followed by a summer season at Covent Garden. The regional tour also offers the chance to see the ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, who was on maternity leave during the last British visit in 2004.

Lunkina was acclaimed during the 1999 visit, most of all for her performances in Giselle. She first danced the role at the age of 18, when she had just graduated from the Vaganova Academy.

click for more

One expects usually that such a respectable ballet magazine as “Dancing Times” will be accurate with facts. However, the article about Svetlana Lunkina (see above) is riddled with errors. From the first glance I saw three.

“She first danced the role at the age of 18, when she had just graduated from the Vaganova Academy.”

Lunkina graduated from the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow.

“Lorca Massine, the choreographer’s son, has never trained as a dancer.”

Lorca Massine was trained as a dancer by his father Leonid and also by Victor Gzovsky.

“The Bolshoi’s current director, Alexei Ratmansky, has introduced plenty of new productions – new works, including his own version of Shostakovich’s Bright Stream, and ballets by Leonide Massine and Roland Petit.”

Ratmansky’s “Bright Stream” and Petit’s ballets were produced at the time when Boris Akimov was the Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet.

Thanks, as ever, coda, for these corrections - it's always good to hear from you.

Yes, thanks Coda, I've always considered your knowledge of the Bolshoi to be unparalleled.

Lorca Massine (together with his sister Tatiana) certainly did study ballet, though I've a feeling his dancing career was brief. He not only reproduces his father's work but is a noted choreographer in his own right and his danced version of Zorba the Greek is well known throughout most of Europe. The video version of Zorba with Vladimir Vasiliev in the title role often comes up on ebay and is well worth investing in if you don't already have a copy.

Although I think that the repertoire of the Bolshoi’s season at Covent Garden is pretty exciting, still I wouldn’t mind if they also brought the triple bill of Massine’s ballets, which I saw at a dress rehearsal at the Bolshoi: “Le Tricone”, “Les Presages” and “Gaite Parisienne”. This is such a various programme, with a great music by de Falla, Tchaikovsky and, well, Offenbach. See the description of these ballets here:

http://www.bolshoi.org/balet/myasin/libretto.htm

In the interest of fairness, here is the BBC's take on the companies 'rivalry' that I have also posted on the Kirov in London thread.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5173728.stm

By the way, I very much agree with Ratmansky's comments about Natalia Osipova; having seen her earlier this year when the Bolshoi toured the provinces, I have say she is exceptional.

In my view it's hard to agree with Mark Monahan's opinion of this dancer. Zakharova is a very controversial performer with a style that offends classical purists. Critical response to her has been 'mixed' to put it mildly. Even within the Bolshoi organization there isn't unanimous support for her contortionism.

What isn’t mentioned here is that fine dancers such as Alexandrova and Lunkina seem to be currently side lined in favour of Ms Z. as no fewer than three press nights are given over to Zakharova and she is also allowed to dance the last night in addition to the first. This is a very lop-sided arrangement that does nothing to acknowledge the great wealth of talent that currently exists at the Bolshoi.

Just look at this article about Zakharova in The Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... ewel15.xml

The photo there is not of Zakharova but of Svetlana Lunkina!