BALLET lovers are in for a treat next month when ten of Russia’s star dancers present a spectacular performance in tribute to Bolshoi Ballet prima ballerina, Natalia Bessmertnova. The tribute concert, featuring stars of the Bolshoi Ballet and Ballet Moscow, comes to Durban as part of its South African Tour on September 29 and 30 at The Playhouse Opera Theatre at 7.30pm.
The programme promises to be a real crowd pleaser, featuring scenes and extracts from ‘Spartacus’, ‘Don Quixote’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Raymonda’ and ‘The Nutcracker’.
The wife and muse of acclaimed choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich, Bessmertnova joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1961 and was their prima ballerina until her retirement in 1995. She shot to international fame with her performances in the Paris Opera products of two Sergei Prokofiev ballets, ‘Ivan the Terrible’ (1976) and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1978). But it was in the role of Giselle that Bessmertnova entranced the world with her innate lyricism.
Internationally-renowned Mikhail Baryshnikov danced the role of Albrecht in ‘Giselle’ with her twice, with the second time being his last performance in Russia before he defected to Canada. “I was lucky enough to dance with Bessmertnova at the Kirov Theatre,” he wrote. “This, my last performance in Leningrad, April 30, 1974, is firmly associated in my mind with memories of a unique ballerina, Natalia Bessmertnova.”
In her 35-year career, she gave 3 000 stage performances and received many top Russian honours, including a People’s Artist of the USSR award in 1976 and a Lenin Prize in 1986.
She died on February 19, 2008 in a Moscow clinic and was laid to rest in the city of her birth. Celebrating her remarkable career, the dancers in the South African tour will be under the expert guidance of Mikhail Bessmertnov, who joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1991.
He has toured the USA, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and England with the Bolshoi Ballet, dancing leading roles in ‘Don Quixote’, ‘Raymonda’, ‘Coppelia’ and ‘Corsair’. In 1996 he joined the State Academic Theatre of Classical Ballet, toured with Grigorovich Ballet and joined the Russian National Ballet in 2001.
The company will perform at The Playhouse Opera on September 29 and 30 at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced from R150 to R300, are available now through Computicket. Early booking is advised.
