Classical Ballet Evening (KATMK)

1st part
П. Tchaikovsky «Swan Lake» Act II
Choreography: L. Ivanova, M. Petipa

2nd part
Sh. F. Gounod «Walpurgis Night»
Choreography: Galiya Buribayeva

1st part

«Swan Lake» (Act 2)

The genius Russian composer P.I. Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 in Votkinsk. Tchaikovsky entered the history of ballet theatre as a reformer, composer-dramatist and founder of Russian choreographic drama. The meaning of his reform was to fundamentally change the quality of ballet music and its role in the dramaturgy of the performance. «A ballet is the same as a symphony», he said. He wrote 3 ballets: «Swan Lake» (1876), «Sleeping Beauty» (1889), «The Nutcracker» (1891), in each of which Tchaikovsky consciously used all the richness of traditional ballet forms and genres, but filled them with deep psychological content and truly symphonic development.

«Swan Lake». White swans are beautiful girls bewitched by the evil wizard Rothbard. Only at night their human form returns to them. On the shore of the lake Siegfried meets Odette, the swan queen. Her beauty enchants the Prince and he swears eternal love to her. Only a sincere and unchanging feeling can save the girls from the charms of the evil wizard. The dawn comes. The girls must once again turn into swans. Siegfried is sure of the strength of his feeling and will free Odette from the wizard's power. Tchaikovsky's music itself, unforgettable for everyone, unusually beautiful, creates an atmosphere of some mystery.

2 part

«Walpurgis Night»

Sh. F. Gounod was born in Paris in 1818.After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, he received the Prix de Rome.
In 1851 Gounod wrote his first opera, Sappho. The heyday of the composer's opera work falls on the 50 60s. «Faust» (1859) is the composer's best opera, which gained worldwide recognition. «Walpurgis Night» is a dance suite from the opera «Faust». It was completed later for the Grand Opera's production of the opera (1869), at which time, significantly revised, the opera was universally acclaimed.

«Walpurgis Night». According to medieval Germanic folk belief, on Walpurgis Night the witches gather on Brocken in the Harz Mountains for their annual devil's coven. In the ballet suite, the witches are replaced by nymphs, dryads and satyrs led by Bacchus and Pan. The suite consists of 7 musical numbers, where Gounod's melodic gift is vividly expressed. Thanks to this and the «magical» plot, Walpurgis Night is often staged as an independent one-act ballet.