Tag Archive: Evgeny Zhukov

How to Warm an Audience

February 20, 2024

“Don Quixote”
Ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre
Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre
Moscow, Russia
February 15, 2024

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

1. A.Limenko (Kitri) and ensemble, “Don Quixote” by R.Nureyev, Stanislavsky Ballet 2024 © K.Zhitkova Moscow’s ballet audience is well-versed and demanding. The crowd that filled the Stanislavsky Theatre last Thursday to watch Don Quixote gave the quirky Don Quixote (Nikita Kirillov) and his gluttonous squire, Sancho Panza (Konstantin Semenov), a friendly but reserved welcome. The company’s former artistic director, Laurent Hilaire, added the production to the repertoire in 2019, and Hilaire’s successor, Maxim Sevagin, has kept it since 2022. As a former etoile of the Paris Opera Ballet who danced under Rudolf Nureyev’s directorate, Hilaire chose to introduce the Russian audience to Nureyev’s version of Don Quixote. Its set and costume design replicates Nicholas Georgiadis’s originals for the Paris Opera premiere.

Back at the bustling market square, the exuberance of the Spanish youth gradually spread through the rows. The legs of the toreadors sliced the air like knife edges; their leader, Espada (Evgeny Zhukov), missed no chance to parade his oomph; the sultry show of Olga Sizykh’s street dancer heated the air so much that the men began to brawl over the women – but the arrival of Don Quixote (on top of his armored old nag Rocinante) chilled passions. (more…)

The Very Essence

June 11, 2023

“Swan Lake”
Ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre
Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre
Moscow, Russia
June 05, 2023

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

1. M.Drodzdova (Odile) and V.Tedeev (Prince Siegfried), “Swan Lake” by V.Burmeister and L.Ivanov, Ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre 1974 © Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre 2. M.Drodzdova (Odette), “Swan Lake” by V.Burmeister and L.Ivanov, Ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre © Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre 3. O.Kardash, K.Ryzhkova, M.Drodzdova, and K.Shevtsova; “Swan Lake” by V.Burmeister and L.Ivanov, Ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre 2023 © Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre When I arrived at the Stanislavsky Theatre’s royal blue auditorium for Vladimir Burmeister’s 1953 version of “Swan Lake” I had no clue what was awaiting me. No one had told me that this performance wasn’t a regular one, but dedicated to Margarita Drodzdova, People’s Artist of the USSR, who spent almost her entire career at the Stanislavsky Ballet. A leading ballerina, many roles were tailored especially to her. After her farewell from the stage in 1987, Drodzdova continued to work as a teacher, passing her knowledge to future generations of dancers.

On the occasion of Drodzdova’s 75th birthday on May 7th, the Stanislavsky Ballet honored her with a special “Swan Lake” that featured three of her coachees in the roles of Odette and Odile. (more…)