Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas.
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it came to international prominence as Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. The Bolshoi has been recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in the world. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Ballet Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is currently general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. He was formerly chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Munich Philharmonic.
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic opera house in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th-century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre. Today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanov's retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the theatre's general director.
Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE was a Soviet and Russian conductor, pianist, composer and pedagogue.
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. First composed in 1935, it was substantially revised for its Soviet premiere in early 1940. Prokofiev made from the ballet three orchestral suites and a suite for solo piano.
Ekaterina Sergeyevna Maximova was a Soviet and Russian ballerina of the second part of the 20th century who was internationally recognised. She was a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre for 30 years, a ballet pedagogue, winner of international ballet competitions, Laureate of many prestigious International and Russian awards, a professor in GITIS, Honorary professor at the Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, and an Executive Committee member of the Russian Center of Counseil International De La Danse, UNESCO.
Adrian Ivanovich Piotrovsky was a Russian Soviet dramaturge, responsible for creating the synopsis for Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet. He was the "acknowledged godfather" of the Workers' Youth Theatre.
Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky is a Russian-Ukrainian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet. He left Russia in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed the artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre, and as artist in residence at the New York City Ballet from August 2023.
Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov was a Russian conductor. He held major posts with the Bolshoi Theatre the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Danish Opera, and the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
Dmitri Tcherniakov is a Russian theatre director, and winner of numerous national Golden Mask theatre awards, who works with many European opera houses.
Ekaterina Valerievna Krysanova is a Russian principal dancer of Bolshoi Ballet.
Yuri Fyodorovich Fayer, was a Soviet conductor specializing in ballet. He was the chief ballet conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1923 to 1963.
Nina Aleksandrovna Kaptsova is a Russian prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Boris Yevseyevich Gusman (1892–1944) was a Soviet author, screenplay writer, theater director, and columnist for Pravda. As deputy director for the Bolshoi Theatre and later director of the Soviet Radio Committee Arts Division, Gusman played an important role in promoting Sergei Prokofiev's music in the USSR and internationally. Gusman was arrested during the Great Purges of the late 1930s, and died in a labor camp in 1944. His son Israel Borisovich Gusman would later become a prominent musical conductor.
Lina Ivanovna Prokofieva, born Carolina Codina Nemísskaia, was a Spanish singer and the first wife of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. They married in 1923. Despite misgivings about her husband's decision to move to the Soviet Union, she settled there with him in 1936. They separated in 1941. In 1948, their marriage was ruled null and void, a verdict that was upheld in 1958 by the Supreme Court of the USSR. Her stage name was Lina Llubera.
Valentin Nikolayevich Elizariev is a Belarusian Soviet balletmaster, choreographer, and pedagogue. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1985.
Leonid Mikhailovich Lavrovsky was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, most famous for choreographing the first full version of Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.
Larisa Ivanovna Avdeyeva or Avdeeva was a Soviet and Russian mezzo-soprano, who starred with the Bolshoi Opera for thirty years. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1964).
Lyudmila Iosifovna Vlasova is a Russian ballet dancer. She was a soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre (1961–1982), an actress, and at the present time is a choreographer of dance on ice.
