Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports that last night's première of The Sleeping Beauty at the Bolshoi, the first ballet on the renovated stage, was a great success.
The première was attended by Russian first couple Dmitry and Svetlana Medvedev.
The new production, which will be transmitted in cinemas around the world tomorrow, is by the Italians Franca Squarciapino and Enzo Frigerio. The couple, literally for they are life partners too, are well known for their collaboration in ballet with, above all, the Paris Opera and Rudolf Nureyev. They also had a legendary series of productions with one of the greatest stage directors of all time, Giorgio Strehler, and many operas at La Scala. Squarciapino won an Oscar for Best Costume Design when they collaborated on the French film Cyrano de Bergerac in 1991.
RIA Novosti reports that the production sets the theatre's unofficial record for the number of dancers wearing wigs.
The main roles of Aurora and Prince Desire were performed by Bolshoi prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer David Hallberg, making his début with the company. Both will be reprising their roles tomorrow.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
