Astana Opera to tour south of Kazakhstan
These cities are considered the cradle of the Turkic world, the spiritual and historical center of the country, where all the nuances of high art are understood and appreciated. Therefore, the artistic director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company Altynai Asylmuratova has prepared a special program, the Astana Opera press office reports.
At the Turkestan Music and Drama Theatre, the team will present the 20th century masterpiece – the ballet Schéhérazade by the brilliant choreographer Michel Fokine to the music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The set and costume design for the production is by Léon Bakst, one of the brightest theatre designers of all time. He worked extensively in St. Petersburg and Paris and was a trendsetter in European fashion for Exoticism and Orientalism at the beginning of the last century. There is a lot of amusing pantomime in this fairytale, acting transformations that will create an opportunity for the corps de ballet and soloists to immerse themselves in the acting element, and also allow both guests and performers to plunge into the mysterious atmosphere of the East.
Michel Fokine’s romantic ballet masterpiece Chopiniana to Frédéric Chopin’s music will be featured for the audience of Shymkent at the concert hall «Turkestan». The performance is filled with exciting waltzes and mazurkas. The viewers will enjoy the soaring dance that spreads like a weightless haze, recreating the magical world of dreams, with enchanting beauty reigning in it.
Along with one-act ballets, the company will also perform bright concert numbers from the gala program. Its backbone is classical and modern heritage, including numbers on a national theme.
«A rich Gala program will change slightly every day of the tour. We have an extensive repertoire and we strive to show that the company works in different genres: from classical to neoclassical and modern,» said Altynai Asylmuratova, People’s Artist of Russia, artistic director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company.
The highlight of the evening will be fragments from the ballet The Call of the Steppe by Patrick de Bana. The program also includes another new number Qily Zaman staged by this wonderful choreographer to the music of the folklore and ethnographic ensemble Turan, performed by Sultanbek Gumar. The mysterious, interesting national number was highly appreciated in Almaty and Nur-Sultan.
Another premiere of the concert will be the humorous number An Old Photograph to Dmitri Shostakovich’s music, performed by young dancers Nurai Nursafina and Alexander Kornilov.
No one will be indifferent to a bright mass fragment from Boris Asafiev’s ballet The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, as it always delights the audience with its power, as well as the dancers’ technical and acting skills.
In addition to young dancers who are very enthusiastic about performing in new concert projects of the artistic director of the ballet company, the viewers of Turkestan and Shymkent will have an opportunity to appreciate the performing arts of experienced principal dancers, masters and stars of the ballet arts – Bakhtiyar Adamzhan, Madina Basbayeva, Aigerim Beketayeva, Anel Rustemova, Yerkin Rakhmatullayev, Olzhas Tarlanov, Serik Nakyspekov and many others.
The dancers are excited in anticipation of the performance, diligently working every day on the subtle nuances of the tour program with the teachers in the rehearsal studios. Therefore, success is inevitable!