BOLSHOI THEATER UNVEILS ITS
PLANS
CIRCUS LIGHTS
RUSSIAN MOVIE PREMIERES IN 2005
The head of the Russian
Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematograph Alexander Golutva presented
Russian movie premieres at a news conference in January. In his opinion,
an Alexander Sokurov film "The Sun" about the Japanese Emperor
Hirohito and an Alexei Uchitel film "Kosmos kak predchuvstvie"
(Space as a Presentiment) will top the list of 2005 movie hits. Both are
historic pictures. "The Sun" continuing Sokurov's "tyrant"
series is devoted to a tragic page in the history of mankind - World War
II, Japan's capitulation and supposed execution of Emperor Hirohito. Its
premiere is timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of World War II
Victory to be celebrated in spring.
"The Sun" will screen in the competition program of the prestigious
Berlin international film festival. "Space As a Presentiment"
brings us back to the 1950s. Its characters are ordinary young people from
a provincial Russian town. One of them, Yuri Gagarin, becomes the world's
first cosmonaut. Other 2005 premieres mentioned by Golutva are an Andrei
Kravchuk film "Italian" - a social melodrama about an orphaned
boy longing for a family, a Fedor Bondarchuk film "The 9th Company"
about the Afghan war, a Philippe Yankovsky film "State Counselor"
based on a detective novel by Boris Akunin, and an Alexei Sidorov blockbuster
"A Combat with a Shadow". "Nearly every fourth movie to
be premiered in 2005 is a debut work," Golutva said. "Quite a
number of studios and producers are specializing on debut films.
These include the St. Petersburg-based Barmalei studio (producer Sergei
Snezhkin). It will soon release two new films: "Lopukhi" (Softie-Softies)
co-directed by Andrei Korshunov and Mikhail Ivushkin - an eccentric comedy
drawing on Leonid Gaidai's famous Soviet-era comedies; and "All Dance!"
directed by Pavel Parkhomenko - a romantic drama with elements of a musical."
"The film distribution system is changing. In 2005, or 2006, the distribution
scheme will be as follows: 4 films that will yield about 10 million dollars
a year, a dozen films that will yield 2 million dollars, and another 20
films yielding about half a million dollars each. Distribution revenue
will enable our agency to do what it is supposed to do, namely to coordinate
filmmaking processes. Our main task is to preserve and develop cinematograph
as an art and not just entertainment industry."
BOLSHOI THEATER UNVEILS ITS PLANS
General Director of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater Anatoly Iskakov, in an
interview for the Voice of Russia, outlined Bolshoi's plans in 2005. "This
season we have 7 premieres. The first one was Shostakovich's opera "Lady
Macbeth of Mtsensk" staged by the Georgian director Teimur Chkheidze
in cooperation with the German conductor Zoltan Peshko.
Also, we invited Giorgio Streller to put on Verdi's Falstaff, a La
Scala production, on Bolshoi's stage." Bolshoi's ballet premieres
include "The Midsummer Night's Dream" with John Neumeier as chief
choreographer, ballets choreographed by Leonid Myasin from Sergei Dyagilev's
famous "Russian Seasons" troupe. The New Stage will premiere
the St. Petersburg composer Leonid Desyatnikov's opera "Rozental's
Children".
The season will close down with the premiere of Puccini's masterpiece
"Madam Butterlfly". "This is a very complicated production
from the point of view of technical performance and sceneries," Iskakov
said. "In May there will be a traditional ballet party devoted to
the legendary ballerina Galina Ulanova with the Ulanova Fund headed by
her disciple, outstanding ballet dancer and choreographer Vladimir Vasiliev
as a co-producer." Finally, in late May, the New Stage will host a
regular international ballet competition conducted by Bolshoi's former
chief choreographer and chairman of the jury Yuri Grigorovich. "The
main stage will be closed for reconstruction and the troupe will move into
a new building," said Bolshoi's general director. "Much work
is being done to adapt our repertory to the New Stage. We hope that the
reconstruction won't last long and we will soon be able to invite our guests
to the renovated main building."
Last year the Russian Circus Company celebrated
its 85th anniversary. In 1919 the Soviet government issued a decree declaring
all Russian circuses a state property. But the Russian circus has much
a longer history going back to medieval times when roaming buffoons known
as "skomorokhi" entertained people with acrobatic numbers. In
the 18th century circus shows became an ordinary event, and in the 19th
century every large city had its stationary circus, let alone numerous
traveling troupes.
The head of the Russian Circus Company Mstislav Zapashny recalls: "Back
then, circus performers employed by traveling troupes, most of then too
poor to pay for their children's education, could not imagine that a state-owned
circus network, the only one in the world, would be created and where new
circus stars would be born. The history of the Russian circus is full of
glorious names - the Durov animal training dynasy, all-genre man Boris
Eder, illusionists Kio, tiger trainer Irina Bugrimova, clowns Pencil (Mikhail
Rumyantsev), Oleg Popov, Yuri Nukulin, Leonid Yengibarov, and finally,
we, the Zapashny dynasty. Today several private troupes have emerged, but
the state circus company remains the largest one, it unites more than 40
circus collectives in various Russian cities. News circus premises are
being built, including a new 1,500-seat circus hall in Moscow.
The Russian circus has always been a multi-ethnic circus reflecting
the multi-ethnic structure of our country. Often we invite foreign artists:
Chinese, Koreans, Frenchmen and Englishmen. Yet, in my opinion, Russian
circus performers are the best in the world. The following figures speak
for themselves: Russians account for 62% of the actor's staff in the famous
Canadian circus and for 87% of in the three-stage American circus. Young
Russian circus artists win top awards at prestigious circus festivals in
Warsaw, Paris, Monte Carlo… At present we are preparing many new programs
that we are planning to show abroad. In short, the circus is, has been
and will remain one of the best-favored arts in Russia."
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