“Brahms Party”
Ural Opera Ballet
Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
Ekaterinburg, Russia
April 2021 (video)
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2021 by Ilona Landgraf
Last season, two of the Ural Opera Ballet’s programs were nominated for Golden Mask awards in several categories: “Walpurgisnacht” by George Balanchine (which was shown in a double bill with “Brahms Party” by Anton Pimonov) and “The Order of the King”, a full-evening piece by the company’s artistic director Vyacheslav Samodurov. Though the pandemic halted the festival the first time around, the company brought both productions to the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre as part of this season’s festival in mid-April.
I was able to get access to a recording of “Brahms Party” (filmed on April 7th, 2021 and performed on the company’s home stage in Ekaterinburg), but missed “Walpurgisnacht” due to the Balanchine Foundation’s regulations for videotaping. A report on “The Order of the King” will most likely follow soon.
Continue reading “Let’s Party!”