Part of Ballet in Cinema
Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 11am
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Music by Dmitry Shostakovich
“It’s good to see it once; it’s better—and funnier—to see it twice.” —The New York Times
A laugh-out-loud comical ballet in two acts, The Bright Stream celebrates the maddening, baffling disillusion of love with both hilarious deceptions and joyful resolutions. The libretto, by Adrian Piotrovsky and Fyodor Lopukhov, tells the story of the members of a Russian farm collective in the 1930s and their humorous interactions with a group of visiting performers during the harvest festival. Known for his precise characterization in movement, Ratmansky uses Shostakovich’s robust folk music to tell this zany tale.
The original production of The Bright Stream, with choreography by Lopukhov, premiered on April 4, 1935 by the Maly Opera and Ballet Theater at the Maly Theatre in Leningrad.
