Le Corsaire

LE CORSAIRE
From the Bolshoi Ballet
LIVE from the Bolshoi on March 11, 2012 at 11am EDT
Libretto by Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Joseph Mazilier
edited by Marius Petipa
Estimated running time: 215 minutes including 2 intermissions

In the Bolshoi Ballet’s new staging of Le Corsaire, Petipa’s original choreography is revived and refreshed by Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka to breathe new life into this production. The ballet follows Medora, a young Greek girl, and Conrad, a dashing pirate, as they journey through a tapestry of dramatic events, culminating in a shipwreck considered to be one of ballet’s most dazzling spectacles.

Choreography: Marius Petipa
Revival: Alexei Ratmansky, Yuri Burlaka
New Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky
Designer: Boris Kaminsky
Costume Designer: Yelena Zaitseva
Music Director: Pavel Klinichev
Lighting Designer: Damir Ismagilov
Music by Leo Delibes, Cesare Pugni, Pyotr von Oldenburg, Riccardo Drigo, Albert Zabel,
Julius Gerber
Music dramaturgy conception – Yuri Burlaka
Score restored by Alexander Troitsky

The original score by Adolphe Adam/Leo Delibes for Le Corsaire has been made available by L'Opera national de Paris from the archives of La Bibliotheque nationale de France.

The choreographic notation has been made available by the Harvard University Theatre Collection.

Evgeny Ponomaryov's costume sketches (1899) used in the production have been made available by the St. Petersburg State Theatre Library.

Starring Svetlana Lunkina and Ruslan Skvortsov.

Praise: “The final scene has one scenic masterstroke after another. Moonlight upon the Mediterranean, then the corsairs' ship…filling most of the stage with characters on board, trumped by thunder, lightning, storm, rising waves, and the boat splitting before our eyes: the kind of special effect that in recent decades has belonged to film alone.” –The New York Times

“…fairly bursts with dazzling ingredients...the final ocean scene is Kaminsky's crowning glory.” –Washington Post