“… all the dancers deliver their best. Dances of merchants, gypsies and fair visitors create the twists of the story… Everybody without exception is filled with happiness being part of the picturesque feast, feeling common sincerity. This overall bursting bliss is taken up by the orchestra and the audience whose voices get hoarse from ecstatic “bravos”.
Elena Fedorenko, "Kultura"
Composer Sergei Prokofiev
Libretto by Sergei Prokofiev and Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva
Ballet Master Yury Grigorovich
Designer Simon Virsaladze
Musical Director and Conductor Felix Korobov
Genre Ballet
Number of acts 2
Original name Каменный цветок
Premiere December 12, 2008
History of appearance
Sergei Prokofiev thought of the creation of the ballet was inspired by the choreographer Lavrovsky, who since 1922 himself danced at the Mariinsky Theater, and from 1935 to 1938 he was the head of the ballet troupe of the Maly Opera Theater. At that time, the composer and choreographer had a successful experience of working together: they worked together on the ballet "Romeo and Juliet", which was a resounding success not only at home, but also abroad.
He did not have to persuade the composer for long, because he himself had long considered the possibility of creating a ballet based on a national Russian plot, but he could not find the right material. Lavrovsky's proposal immediately pleased him, and he plunged headlong into the work, during which he carefully studied the Ural folklore.
After studying the material, Prokofiev set about composing music for the ballet, and his wife Mira Mendelssohn-Prokofiev and choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky were engaged in the libretto. This work began in 1948, a year later the clavier was completed, and work began on the score.
If the music was written at a fast enough pace, then the ballet was clearly delayed on the stage: there were opinions that music is hard to perceive, it is impossible to dance, and in general, the production does not correspond to Bazhov's original story. Prokofiev was seriously worried about criticism, it broke his health. The first rehearsals began on the stage two years after the creation of the music, but it was not to be seen at the stage of the great composer. On March 1, 1953, the composer died, just at the time of making further corrections to the score of the production.
The premiere of the ballet took place on April 12, 1954 in Moscow on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The producer of the play in two acts was Leonid Lavrovsky, who also embodied on the stage the images of Severyan and the Mistress of the Copper Mountain.
The theater public of the northern capital was able to enjoy the work of Prokofiev and Lavrovsky only three years after the Moscow premiere: on April 22, 1957, the three-act version of the play was staged by choreographer Grigorovich at the Mariinsky Theater (then called Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov).
Content
The action takes the viewer to the Urals at the beginning of the 19th century. During the presentation, the viewer faces the following actors:
Mistress of Copper Mountain,Katerina,Danila,old master Prokopyich,Fire-pokakushka,clerk Severyan.In addition, the production involves merchants, Gypsies girlfriends Katerina and friends Danila, shop assistants, oberezhnye and gems.
The master of stone carving Danila wants to realize the old dream - to make from malachite a unique bowl in which all the elegance and beauty of a living flower will be embodied. But it is not so easy to realize what was conceived: Danila does not succeed in finding a flower that would become a prototype in his work, and it is impossible to speed up the search for him because of Katerina, who loves him with all her heart.
Young people are determined to get married, the whole village is fun at their engagement. But with the advent of the clerk Severyan, the fun goes away quickly: he quarrels with the workers and immediately leaves the merriment. With his departure, the holiday flares up with a new force: the boys and girls laugh, spinning in a dance, but the clerk appears again and this time requires a stone flower from Danila. Realizing that the work of the master is not complete, he is in a frenzy leaving the event, and Danila plunges into hard thinking.
At this time, before the stone-cutter, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain appears, holding a flower in her hands, which the master has been looking for for a long time. Danila follows her, and the mistress of the copper mountain shows him her possessions, and most importantly - a stone flower of unprecedented beauty.
But then the clerk with the workers appears again, but the Mistress of the Copper Mountain warns Severnyan's avid salesman that the riches are fraught with great danger.
While Daniel is busy with his own affairs, Katerina is sad for him in Prokopyich's hut. Severyan enters the house and admits to her in sympathy. However, the girl rejects the courting of the clerk and continues searching for her lover. But the clerk does not back down and pursues the girl at the fair, but discovers that it's not Katerina, but Mistress of the Copper Mountain. Unable to cope with her spell, Severyan shoots at her, but then falls into the ground.
Katerina, near the fire, yearns for her beloved, and at that moment she comes out of the fire a bouncing-fire, which carries the girl into the possession of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, where she finds the petrified youth and immediately rushes to his neck. The hostess of the Copper Mountain, touched by such devotion, takes off the charm and finally dedicates the master to the secrets of cutting stone.
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