Bolshoi revives Shostakovich's The Limpid Stream

(September 2006)

Of the stageworks of Dmitri Shostakovich surveyed by the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi in London this summer, the major rediscovery was the composer’s score for The Limpid Stream.

The new Bolshoi choreography drew plaudits from press and public alike. The Times described it as “a cracking new staging that deserves to be that ballet rarity - an instant classic… All in all, the best new ballet to come out of Russia in years.”

“The Limpid Stream was the work that ended Shostakovich’s career as a ballet composer, such was the official disapproval heaped upon it after its premiere in St Petersburg in 1935. Alexei Ratmansky, who completely rechoreographed it for the Bolshoi in 2003, didn’t have to worry about toeing the party line and was free to do whatever he wanted with Shostakovich’s jolly music and Piotrovsky and Lopukhov’s lighthearted libretto. His new production honours them both with wit and compassion, and a stream of wonderful - and very funny - choreography.”
Sunday Times

“Light, funny, filled with the hoariest of conventions and broad as a babushka’s hips, The Limpid Stream is one of ballet’s guilty pleasures.”
The Independent

> Further information on Work: The Limpid Stream

Photo: Bolshoi Ballet/Damir Yusopov

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