Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Ana Karenina, ballet

St Petersburg Boris Eifman State Ballet Theatre

Festival Ljubljana 2010

Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: David Levi
Choreography: Boris Eifman
Set Designer: Zinovy Margolin
Costume Designer: Slava Okunev
Lighting Designer: Gleb Filshtinsky

Lead Roles:
Ana: Nina Zmievec / Natalija Povoroznjuk / Anastazia Sitnikova
Vronski: Oleg Gabišev / Jevgenij Derjabin / Ivan Zajcev
Karenin: Oleg Markov / Sergej Volobujev / Aleksej Turko / Dmitrij Fišer

Duration of the performance is approx. 1.5 hours, with one interval.

Eifman’s ballet ‘Anna Karenina’ is loaded with inner psychological energy; it is extremely precise in its emotional impact. Having omitted the counterplot lines of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, the choreographer focuses on the Anna-Karenin-Vronsky love triangle. The drama of the reborn woman is expressed by means of the body’s plasticity. In Eifman’s opinion, it is the passion, ‘the basic instinct’ that causes the crime against social norms, destroys mother love, and breaks Anna Karenina’s connection with her own soul. A woman absorbed and destroyed by passion is ready to sacrifice everything. The choreographer says that this ballet is about the present, not the past; about present day emotions, and the clear parallels with contemporary reality cannot leave the contemporary audience unmoved. The psychological twists and turns of Tolstoy’s novel are rendered with the highest level of technique together with Boris Eifman’s choreography.

Boris Eifman

Boris Eifman is one of the few, if not the only Russian choreographer, who continued his active creative work for decades. Perhaps none of his contemporaries can take pride in such achievements. There are more than forty performances on the director’s account. He was the Laureate of the theatrical award of Saint-Petersburg “Golden Soffitto” five times, received the independent prize “Triumph”, the State Prize of Russia “For contribution in the development of modern arts”, the higher spiritual award of Russian children – the Order “Peace and Harmony”, the Order “Arts Cavalier of France”, the People’s Artist of Russia title and many other prizes and titles.

The 61-year old choreographer was born in Siberia, finished a ballet college and the department of choreography of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Conservatoire. In 1977 he organized Leningrad New Ballet (today called “Saint-Petersburg State Academic Ballet House”), the only individually managed theatre in Russia, developing the art of modern choreography. He did not only create an original style, which absorbed the achievements of new time art and which is based on the classical school, but also brought up a team of kindred spirit, for whom no unsolvable tasks exist.

The diversity of genres in his repertoire is truly impressive: chamber ballets (Autographs, Metamorphoses), ballets bouffe (The Mad March Day or the Marriage of Figaro, The Twelfth Night, Love Plots), ballets-parables (Legend), fairytale ballets (Firebird, Pinocchio). His theatre also focuses on productions based on the classical works of the world literature. Eifman was the first who used Dostoevsky’s novels in ballet. His Idiot has become one of the highlights of the cultural life. It was followed by the Duel (adaptation of Kuprin’s novel), Master and Margarita (based on Bulgakov) and Teresa Raquin (based on Zola). Among his most recent works that have been already recognized worldwide are Requiem, Tchaikovsky, Don Quixote or Fantasies of a Madman, The Karamazovs, Red Giselle, My Jerusalem, The Russian Hamlet, Don Juan or Passions for Molière, WHO is WHO, Musagetè, Anna Karenina and The Seagull.

Boris Eifman is a choreographer-philosopher and thinker. He is concerned by the problems of the modern world. He is thrilled by the secrets of creativity and the magic of geniuses, which uncover themselves in his interpretation of the fates of Tchaikovsky, Spesivtseva and Moliere. He makes experiments with such dark and fearful sphere as human psyche (“Idiot”, “Murderers”, “Don Quixote or Fantasies of a Madman”, “Russian Hamlet” and “Anna Karenina”), creating the images of stage psychoanalysis. He strives for showing extreme states of human mind, regarding his heroes` madness not as an illness but as their ability to penetrate into another worlds. The choreographer pulls apart the limits of his imagination with the help of his heroes` fantasies, deepening in the questions of spiritual and philosophic life of humankind, which interest him most. The ballets “Russian Hamlet”, “Don Juan and Moliere” and “Anna Karenina” are the examples of it.

Creating his own style Eifman worked at various dancing systems. The theatre became a kind of laboratory for him. The choreographer did not limit himself with the frames of a purely ballet performance, since the most important thing for him is theatricality. His plays are synthetic shows, revealing new forms and new principles of dancing action. Boris Eifman has created his theatre – a theatre of unconcealed emotional feelings.

The venerable tradition of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra reaches back to the musical institutions Academia philharmonicorum (1701), the Philharmonic Society (1794) and the first Slovenian Philharmonic (1908-1913). Among the renowned members of the Slovenian Philharmonic and its predecessors were Josef Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Nicolò Paganini, Johannes Brahms and Carlos Kleiber. Since the orchestra was reestablished in 1947, it has been lead by renowned Slovenian conductors such as Bogo Leskovic, Samo Hubad, Lovro Matačić, Oskar Danon, Anton Kolar, Uroš Lajovic, Milan Horvat and Marko Letonja. From 2005 to 2008, George Pehlivanian was the orchestra’s first foreign chief conduictor, and in autumn 2005 its leadership was assumed by Emmanuel Villaume. The orchestra lives up to its reputation with numerous guest appearances in Europe, the United States of America and Japan, as well as with performances at important international festivals. Among its guests are the world’s most renowned names – conductors Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Dmitri Kitayenko, Leopold Hager, Serge Baudo, as well as great Slovenian and foreign soloists – Marjana Lipovšek, Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, Irena Grafenauer, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oystrah, Mstislav Rostropovich, A. Benedetti Michelangeli, Sviatoslav Richter, Gidon Kremer, Luciano Pavarotti, Sarah Chan, etc. The concert conducted by Carlos Kleiber in 1997 was an unforgettable experience. The orchestra has for several seasons given 36 subscription concerts in the Gallus Hall of the Cankarjev dom, as well as many occasional concerts and music matinees for younger listeners. The concert activities of the orchestra are recorded on more than 40 CDs.