Contrary to a rumour that's been circulating about the Bolshoi dancing both at Covent Garden and at the Coliseum next summer, I have been told by a member of the Bolshoi staff that they will be appearing at the Coliseum only next July.

Far too early to say what ballets they are likely to bring, but La Bayadere and The Bright Stream look very likely to be included in the rep.

More information about the forthcoming London season at the Coliseum.

Dates 31st July - 18th August

The likely repertoire is:-

La Bayadere
The Bright Stream
Le Corsaire
Don Quixote
Spartacus

Also expect to see a Triple Bill, rumoured to be The new Wheeldon Ballet. Massine's Les Presages (believe it when I see it) + Symphony in C (possibly)

Everything is of course subject to change.

The official dates and programming for the Bolshoi in London this summer has now become available:

http://www.victorhochhauser.co.uk/bolshoi_ballet/bolshoi_ballet_coliseum2007/bb_c2007_index.htm

It's pretty much as I was told back in October with Le Corsaire in a new version by Ratmansky being the main attraction this time around.

Other highlights will be Carlos Acosta appearing as Spartacus and Christopher Wheeldon's first work for the company.

I must admit to some disappointment that Massine's Les Presage has been dropped in favour of In the Upper Room, a work of very negligible merit in my opinion.

The new Bolshoi wonder boy, Ivan Vasiliev, isn't listed as appearing, which I sincerely hope is an oversight on someone's part. Galina Stepanenko's name is missing too. She was considered the definitive Medora by her peers in the company when she appeared in the wonderful but short-lived production of Le Corsaire by Konstantine Sergeyev and I can confirm that she was magnificent in the role. Surely she must be cast in the part in Moscow? How very sad that she is consistently overlooked.

Casting details are not yet available, but I'm pretty sure they will appear before public booking opens on the 26th of this month.

You were right, Cassandra. The casting details did appear on the Hochhauser's website and even have been changed twice in two days. This is the latest version:

http://www.victorhochhauser.co.uk/bolsh ... rycast.htm

Judging by our experience more changes yet to come.

Many thanks for posting the casting, Coda. I didn't think It would go up so soon.

I'm delighted that Stepanenko is dancing Kitri and that Ivan Vasiliev will be appearing opposite Osipova. Good news too that Uvarov is back as we all missed him last year.

Those tba Corsaires are intriguing, hopefully we'll have the casting before booking opens. I'd like to go to just about everything of course, but financial considerations mean I probably won't.

(Memo to self: remember to buy a lottery ticket on Friday)

With the big day drawing ever closer, I thought I would bump up the thread with this link to the Bolshoi's own site with information about the London season:

http://bolshoi.ru/en/season/press-offic ... p?id26=621

Note that casting is given for the ballet "Class Concert" that isn't currently availble on the official Hochhauser site.

Here is the latest casting for London, supplied by the Bolshoi's UK Press Officer.

Note that Sergei Filin replaces Yuri Klevtsov in Le Corsaire on 1st August. Sadly Mr Klevtsov is injured.

Le Corsaire
July 30

Medora - Svetlana Zakharova

Conrad - Denis Matvienko

Gulnara - Ekaterina Shipulina

Birbanto - Andrei Merkuriev

July 31

Medora - Maria Alexandrova

Conrad - Nikolai Tsiskaridze

Gulnara - Anastasia Yatsenko

Birbanto - Vitaly Biktimirov

August 1

Medora - Svetlana Lunkina
Conrad - Sergei Filin

Gulnara - Yekaterina Krysanova
Birbanto - Andrei Merkuriev


La Bayadere
August 2
Nikia - Svetlana Zakharova
Solor - Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Gamzatti - Maria Alexandrova

August 3
Nikia - Svetlana Lunkina
Solor - Denis Matvienko
Gamzatti - Natalia Osipova

August 4, 2 pm
Nikia - Anna Antonicheva
Solor - Vladimir Neporozhny
Gamzatti - Yekaterina Shipulina

August 4, 7.30 pm
Nikia - Maria Allash
Solor - Nikolai Tsiskaridze
Gamzatti - Maria Alexandrova

Spartacus
August 6
Spartacus - Carlos Acosta
Crasus - Alexander Volchkov
Aegina - Maria Allash
Phrigia - Anna Antonicheva

August 7
Spartacus - Denis Matvienko
Crasus - Vladimir Neporozhny
Aegina - Galina Stepanenko
Phrigia - Svetlana Lunkina

August 8
Spartacus - Carlos Acosta
Crasus - Alexander Volchkov
Aegina - tba

Phrigia - Anna Antonicheva

Don Quixote
August 9
Kitri - Natalia Osipova
Basilio - Ivan Vasiliev
A street dancer - Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads - Yekaterina Shipulina

August 10
Kitri - Maria Alexandrova
Basilio - Sergei Filin
A street dancer - Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads - Maria Allash

August 11, 2 pm
Kitri - Galina Stepanenko
Basilio - tba
A street dancer - Anastasia Yatsenko
The Queen of the Dryads - Ekaterina Shipulina

August 11, 7.30 pm
Kitri - Svetlana Zakharova
Basilio - Denis Matvienko
A street dancer - Maria Allash
The Queen of the Dryads - Anna Antonicheva

Triple Bill
August 13, August 14

Class Concert
Svetlana Zakharova, Maria Alexandrova, Svetlana Lunkina, Maria Allash, Natalia Osipova, Artem Shpilevsky, Sergei Filin, Galina Stepanenko, Anna Antonicheva, Marianna Ryzhkina, Yekaterina Shipulina, Denis Matvienko, Vladimir Neporozhny, Andrey Merkuriev, Ivan Vasiliev and others

Elsinore
Alexander Volchkov, Svetlana Lunkina, Ruslan Skvortsov, Anastasia Yatsenko, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Anna Rebetskaya, Yan Godovsky, Maria Alexandrova, Yegor Khromushin

In the Upper Room
Marianna Ryzhkina, Yekaterina Shipulina, Yekaterina Krysanova, Natalia Osipova, Anna Nikulina, Nuria Nagimova, Andrei Merkuriev, Yan Godovsky, Denis Medvedev, Denis Savin, Anton Savichev, Alexander Smoliyanivov

August 15, 2 pm

Medora - Svetlana Lunkina
Conrad - tba

Gulnara - Marianna Ryzhkina

Birbanto - Andrei Merkuriev

August 15, 7.30 pm

Medora - Svetlana Zakharova

Conrad - Denis Matvienko

Gulnara - Ekaterina Shipulina

Birbanto - Vitaly Biktimirov

The Bright Stream
August 16
Zina - Yekaterina Krysanova
Pyotr - Andrei Merkuriev
Balerina - Natalia Osipova
Ballet Dancer - Sergei Filin

August 17
Zina - Anastasia Yatsenko
Pyotr - tba
Balerina - Yekaterina Shipulina
Ballet Dancer - Ruslan Skvortsov

August 18, 2 pm
Zina - Nina Kaptsova
Pyotr - Andrei Merkuriev
Balerina - Natalia Osipova
Ballet Dancer - Yan Godovsky

August 18, 7.30 pm
Zina - Svetlana Lunkina
Pyotr - Vladimir Neporozhny
Balerina - Maria Alexandrova
Ballet Dancer - Sergei Filin

Just a word of warning for those of you intending to see the Bolshoi at the Coliseum this summer.

The Duke of York's Theatre, almost opposite the Coli, is currently previewing a production of David Storey's 'In Celebration' The play opens on the 15th and is booking through to September, the star of the show is Orlando Bloom and on Friday night around 10pm he halted the traffic in St Martin's Lane, when hordes of screaming woman blocked the road. Despite frantic motorists sounding their horns, the ladies didn't budge. It was bedlam. Hopefully the respective performances will empty out at different times and perhaps as the run of the show progresses there will be fewer fans waiting, then again maybe not.

If the fans comtinue to show up in similar numbers, patrons leaving the coliseum would do well to leave by the May Court Exit and avoid St Martin's Lane. I wonder how well the coliseum is sound-proofed?

This interview with Alexei Ratmansky in today's Times comes with a couple of nice pics of the new Le Corsaire, but as is often the case they are not printed on line.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 073183.ece

Sorry to hear the production will be shortened for the London season.

As it might help with travel planning, here are the estimated running times for the various Bolshoi programmes:

Le Corsaire: 3h 10m

La Bayadere: 3h

Spartacus: 3h 15m (Act I - 43 min, Act II - 40 min; Act III - 45 min)

Don Quixote: 2h 45m (Act I - 40 min; Act II - 45 min; Act III - 30 min)

The Bright Stream: 2h (Act I - 45 min; Act II - 45 min)

Triple Bill: to be confirmed.

As the mathematicians will have worked out, most intervals are 30 minutes.

In the run up to the Bolshoi's London season that is now just a week away, The Telegraph has an excellent Bolshoi article primarily about Christopher Wheeldon' experiences of working in Moscow.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... let123.xml

The colour picture is a bonus (it's in black & white in the paper), though in the printed version you also get a picture of the incomparable Maria Alexandrova.

The article ends with the following comment:



I wouldn't argue with that.

Everyone please post your observations after you see the company perform. We rarely get to see the Bolshoi in California and I'd love to hear people's impressions.

According to this morning's Metro there are tickets for the Bolshoi to be won if you buy tonight's Standard. Can't find any mention of this in the on-line edition though.

The Bolshoi opened in London last night with the new production of Le Corsaire. Speaking to other ballet goers, their reactions were mixed and I got the impression that many were surprised that it didn’t in any way resemble the Kirov Vinogradov version.

It was a premier attended by some famous faces and sitting near me in the stalls were Prince Michael of Kent, Raine Spencer and Margaret Thatcher, rather inexplicably the latter received a degree of applause from some members of the audience. As the chap sitting next to me commented “Why? She never did anything for the arts”. Quite. More distinguished audience members (in my view) included some Royal Ballet principals, the Kirov’s Leonid Sarafanov and the great Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus.

Rather muted applause for the first night with Osipova’s odalisque solo and the spectacular ship-wreck gaining the most applause. I shall be writing about the production in full when I’ve seen the other casts, Alexandrova and Tsiskaridze tonight and Lunkina and Filin tomorrow.