Moscow and St. Petersburg's top opera and ballet companies will compete for the support of British audiences later this month, when both the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky theaters go on tour in London.
In an unusual scheduling situation that has sparked talk of rivalry, the Bolshoi's opera and ballet troupes are to perform in the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden from July 25 to Aug. 19, while the Mariinsky is to present a series of performances called "Shostakovich on Stage" at the Coliseum, home of the English National Opera, from July 20 to 29.
The Bolshoi performances are set for particular attention after an article in The Guardian last month quoted an anonymous source as saying that "the Bolshoi is already dead" and expressed doubts that the theater would be able to complete the renovation of its main stage by 2008 as planned.
Bolshoi general director Anatoly Iksanov hit back with a statement published in the newspaper saying that "spectators who visit our performances at Covent Garden will be able to see that the Bolshoi today is a theater in development, alive as never before," while Izvestia responded with the combative headline "The Bolshoi Is Alive!"
While the Bolshoi is performing a program of classics such as "Swan Lake" and recent premieres including the Sergei Prokofiev opera "The Fiery Angel," the Mariinsky is concentrating on the works of Dmitry Shostakovich to mark this year's centennial of the composer's birth.
In its 10-day "Shostakovich on Stage" festival, the Mariinsky ballet troupe will present "Leningrad Symphony," set to the first movement of the composer's Seventh Symphony; "The Bedbug," choreographed to music composed for Vladimir Mayakovsky's play; and a new production of Shostakovich's first ballet, "The Golden Age."
Meanwhile, the theater's opera company is bringing productions of the composer's first opera, "The Nose," based on Nikolai Gogol's short story, and his musical comedy about Khrushchev-era housing problems, "Moscow-Cheryomushki."
Unusually, the Mariinsky is also presenting "Katerina Izmailova," a revised version of Shostakovich's best-known opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District." The composer created the new, softened version more than two decades after the premiere of the original opera, which was taken off the stage in 1936 following a critical editorial in Pravda. Titled "Chaos Instead of Music," the editorial was rumored to have been written by Josef Stalin himself.
The Bolshoi program includes a Shostakovich ballet, "The Bright Stream," which was also banned in 1936 and only revived by the Bolshoi in 2003. The ballet, set on a collective farm, has never been performed in Britain before.
This summer's London performances mark 50 years since the Bolshoi ballet company first performed in Britain, prompting rave reviews. It also toured in various British cities in March and April, performing such ballets as "Swan Lake" and "Spartacus."
The theater's opera troupe plays a lesser role in the upcoming tour, performing only two shows: "The Fiery Angel," which premiered in 2004 in a production directed by Francesca Zambello, and a well-worn production of the historical drama "Boris Godunov," which dates back to 1948.
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