Gayane is a four-act ballet with music by Aram Khachaturian. Originally composed in or before 1939, when it was first produced as Happiness. Revised in 1941–42 to a libretto by Konstantin Derzhavin and with choreography by Nina Aleksandrovna Anisimova, the score was revised in 1952 and in 1957, with a new plot. The stage design was by Nathan Altman (scenery) and Tatyana Bruni (costumes).
Giselle, originally titled Giselle, ou les Wilis, is a romantic ballet in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 28 June 1841, with Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle. It was an unqualified triumph. It became hugely popular and was staged at once across Europe, Russia, and the United States.
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet 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.
Gara Abulfaz oghlu Garayev, also spelled as Qara Qarayev or Kara Karayev, was a prominent Soviet Azerbaijani composer. Garayev wrote nearly 110 musical pieces, including ballets, operas, symphonic and chamber pieces, solos for piano, cantatas, songs, and marches, and rose to prominence not only in Azerbaijan SSR, but also in the rest of the Soviet Union and worldwide.
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 reused music from the ballet in three suites for orchestra and a solo piano work.
Spartacus is a ballet by Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978). The work follows the exploits of Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the Third Servile War, although the ballet's storyline takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Khachaturian composed Spartacus in 1954, and was awarded a Lenin Prize for the composition that same year. It was first staged in Leningrad on 27 December 1956, as choreographed by Leonid Yakobson, for the Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet, where it stayed in repertory for many years, but only with qualified success since Yakobson abandoned conventional pointe in his choreography. Yakobson restaged his version for the Bolshoi in 1962 and it was part of the Bolshoi's 1962 tour to New York. The ballet received its first staging at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in 1958, choreographed by Igor Moiseyev; however it was the 1968 production, choreographed by Yury Grigorovich, which achieved the greatest acclaim for the ballet.
Sylvia, originally Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane, is a full-length ballet in two or three acts, first choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. Sylvia is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features that make it unique. The work is notable for its mythological Arcadian setting, creative choreographies, expansive sets and, above all, its remarkable score.
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam and other composers, it was first presented by the ballet of the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra in Paris on 23 January 1856. All modern productions of Le Corsaire are derived from the revivals staged by the Ballet Master Marius Petipa for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg throughout the mid to late 19th century.
This version of the Cinderella ballet, using Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella music and re-choreographed by Frederick Ashton, is a comic ballet.
La Esmeralda is a ballet in three acts and five scenes, inspired by the 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot to music by Cesare Pugni, with sets by William Grieve and costumes by Mme. Copère.
Rubaba Khalil qizi Muradova, born Rubaba Ishragi, was an Iranian and Azerbaijani opera (mezzo-soprano) and folk singer. She graduated from the Zeynalli College of Music in Baku and worked at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre, where she started in 1954. In 1971, Rubaba Muradova became the People's Artist of Azerbaijan.
The Bolt, Op. 27, is a ballet music score written by Dmitri Shostakovich between 1930 and 1931 to a libretto by Victor Smirnov. The humorous and satirical full-length ballet in three acts and seven scenes was choreographed by Fyodor Lopukhov and premiered on 8 April 1931 at the State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad. It was not performed again until 2005, when a two-act choreography by Alexei Ratmansky was performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
Valery Matveevich Panov is a Belarusian-Israeli dancer and choreographer. Born and raised in the Soviet Union, he trained in Leningrad and performed with the Kirov from 1964 to 1972. He and his second wife Galina, who was a ballerina at the Kirov, came to international attention in 1972 when they applied for exit visas to emigrate to Israel, which they were given in 1974. Panov worked with the Berlin Opera Ballet, as well as companies in other western European and North American countries, during the late 1970s and 1980s. He formed the Ashdod Art Centre in Israel, in 1993, and five years later founded the Panov Ballet Theatre, also in Ashdod.
Seven Beauties is an Azerbaijani ballet composed by Gara Garayev in 1947–48 to mark the 800th anniversary of classical Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. The libretto by I. Hidayetzade, Yuri Slonimsky and Sabit Rahman is based on motifs from Ganjavi’s Seven beauties poem, written in 1197.
Opera in Azerbaijan has a history dating back to the 19th century Russian Empire.
Leonid Veniaminovich Yakobson, whose last name is sometimes spelled Jacobson, was a Jewish ballet choreographer from Russia. He was the founder of the Yacobson Ballet.
Igor Dmitrievich Belsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. After 20 years of solo work (1942–62) he became a chief choreographer of Maly Theatre (1962–73), artistic director of Kirov Ballet (1973–77), artistic director of Cairo Ballet (1977–78), chief ballet master at the Leningrad Music Hall (1979–92), and artistic director of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.
Azerbaijani ballet is the training methods and aesthetic qualities seen in classical ballet in Azerbaijan.
Fyodor Vasilievich Lopukhov was a choreographer in Soviet Russia.
Nazim Asadulla oghlu Rzayev was an Azerbaijani conductor, head of the chamber orchestra of the Azerbaijani television and radio, People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, laureate of the USSR and Azerbaijan State Prizes, professor.
