“Where there is poetry there is ballet”
The new ballet score, based on motifs from the Lermontov novel A Hero of Our Time, was commissioned from the union of Petersburg composer Ilya Demutsky , avant-garde theatre director, Kirill Serebrennikov and the esteemed choreographer in residence to San Francisco Ballet Yuri Possokhov.
Three of the five novellas which make up the novel, have been chosen for the ballet — Bela, Taman, Princess Mary. And in each one of these three parts in the ballet, Pechorin is quite different. He is changed by circumstance, age, the way in which he is presented — in Bela he is seen through the eyes of another character, while in Taman and Princess Mary, he “speaks” for himself, via the chapters of his diary. Each Pechorin has his own character, as revealed in his opening monologue, his own musical characterization, as conveyed to the audience by a particular musical instrument, positioned directly on stage.
The Theatre dedicated the production to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Lermontov, the great Russian poet, which was celebrated at the end of 2014.