Tchaikovsky to Enthral Beijing

If you are a fan of Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-93) and his ballet, you will be thrilled.

The NovoSibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre from Russia will bring Beijing a week of performances of Tchaikovsky's best-known three ballet works, "Swan Lake," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Nutcracker."

Acclaimed as the best group in Siberia and the Russian Far East, Novosibirsk is proud to be among the leading Russian theatres since it was founded in 1945.

The three Tchaikovsky's ballets are among the theatre's permanent repertoire of 15 ballets.

The theatre is well known both in its own country and abroad. Since 1957, it has toured many countries including China, Japan, France, Australia, Germany, and Egypt.

The Tchaikovsky Ballet Week, from June 22 to 28, is expected to impress Beijing audiences.

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky is indisputably one of the world's most popular classical composers. A superb craftsman of detail with his strong, evocative and melodic lines and theatrical sense, he is considered one of the finest ballet composers of all time.

His swings from elation to depression are reflected in his music, with its mournful, introspective, and often intensely emotional qualities.

Tchaikovsky ballet fans know that the master was one of the pioneers in making musical scores an integral part of ballet productions.

For 100 years before Tchaikovsky wrote his first major ballet "Swan Lake" in 1871, composing ballet music was a pastime for musical hacks. In the early 19th century, ballet music was merely decorative.

At that time, ballet's emphasis was primarily on the dance and secondarily on the decor. Music was only as important as the footlights and as long as it was there, the audience did not pay any attention to it.

It was the work of insipid composers whose main duty was to maintain a good, clear, danceable beat.

In fact, through the 18th and early 19th centuries, most ballet scores were simply cobbled together from popular tunes of the time.

In 1841, a French composer named Adolphe Adam wrote the score for "Giselle," the earliest full-length ballet still in the international repertoire.

Tchaikovsky began to compose "Swan Lake" around 1871 and five years later he expanded the score for a four-act ballet, first performed in Moscow in 1877.

Perhaps for the first time in dance history, here was a ballet with music far stronger than its choreography.

The nearly three-hour score is not all tragedy. There are graceful waltzes, a famous bumptious scene for a group of cygnets, and passionately lyrical passages danced by Odette and the prince who loves her.

Because dance is the focus of the pas de deux, the accompanying music can be utilitarian, as sometimes even Tchaikovsky's was.

But Tchaikovsky was not completely satisfied with this function. In his view, music variations for some solos were not seamlessly integrated with dancing scenes.

Tchaikovsky improved in this aspect in his second and third ballets, "The Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker."

"The Sleeping Beauty" of 1890 is Tchaikovsky's most highly regarded ballet score, with its complex use of leitmotifs and smooth integration of character dances.

It holds a notable place in the history of ballet, not just as a great work in its own right, but also as the first successful ballet composed by Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky's third ballet "The Nutcracker," first performed in 1892, is certainly his most popular.

The famous story is told in the first act, and the second is devoted almost entirely to sparkling character dances.

If you love Tchaikovsky's ballet, you had better not miss this ballet gala at the theatre in the Beijing Exhibition Hall from June 22 to 28.

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