The Bolshoi Theatre Concludes Its 249th Season

The 249th pre-anniversary season of the Bolshoi Theatre has come to a close. What musical events made it remarkable? At the beginning of the season, opera festivals dedicated to 19th-century Russian classical composers were presented. The first one honored the works of Modest Mussorgsky and was titled "Our Mussorgsky. From the Depths…" The program featured two of the composer's masterpieces—the historical folk dramas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina"—as well as two comic operas based on Nikolai Gogol’s works, "Sorochintsy Fair" and "The Marriage," along with the unfinished dramatic opera "Salammbô," which was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre for the first time.

The next festival was called "Tchaikovsky. A Collection." Its program included both operas and ballets. Among them were the audience’s favorite operas based on Alexander Pushkin’s works—"The Queen of Spades," "Eugene Onegin," and "Mazeppa"—as well as "The Enchantress," "Iolanta," and the spring fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" by playwright Alexander Ostrovsky, with enchanting music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The composer’s three ballets—"Swan Lake," "The Sleeping Beauty," and "The Nutcracker"—which are permanent fixtures in the Bolshoi’s repertoire, were also performed. Magnificent booklets were released for each of these festivals. (photo).

The third festival, held on the Bolshoi Theatre’s stage, was dedicated to the Russian composer and 20th-century classic Sergei Prokofiev. It was titled "Prokofiev. A Collection." As is well known, the composer gifted the Bolshoi Theatre many pages of exquisite ballet and opera music. The festival program included the unparalleled ballet "Romeo and Juliet," the historical production "Ivan the Terrible," the operas "The Love for Three Oranges" and "Maddalena," as well as two famous children’s performances—"Peter and the Wolf" and "The Ugly Duckling."

The final premiere of the Bolshoi Theatre’s 249th season was Sergei Prokofiev’s opera "Semyon Kotko," composed in 1939. The author meticulously chose the opera’s theme. The libretto is based on Valentin Katayev’s famous novella "I, Son of the Working People," which depicts the events of the 1918 Civil War in Ukraine. The new version of the opera, presented as an instructive historical parable, was brought to life by music director Valery Gergiev and stage director Sergei Novikov. The protagonist’s final line—"A soldier came from the front and arrived at the front"—becomes the semantic tuning fork of this large-scale production. The expressiveness of Prokofiev’s score is vast and multifaceted, filled with profound beauty, tension, and "prophecies." However, the Bolshoi Theatre’s archives record only one previous staging of this work: in 1970, the great Boris Pokrovsky directed it with sets by Valery Levental. The cast was "golden": Semyon Kotko—Vladimir Atlantov, alongside Elena Obraztsova, Galina Vishnevskaya, and Tamara Milashkina. Four years later, this very production was performed during the Bolshoi’s tour at Milan’s La Scala. The interest was immense, but it did not pave the way for the opera to other major stages. Now, however, the opera has gained not only didactic relevance but also a brilliant cast of performers—current Bolshoi stars such as Igor Morozov, Ekaterina Morozova, Svetlana Lachina, and Alina Chertash.

It is also worth noting that the premiere of Sergei Prokofiev’s opera "Semyon Kotko" was broadcast on a giant screen on the Bolshoi Theatre’s building in Moscow. "Prokofiev’s dream of becoming the first composer of musical theater has come true. He correctly guessed his place in the history of the Russian stage. Without Prokofiev’s music, neither the theatrical 20th century nor the Bolshoi Theatre of our time is conceivable," wrote musicologist Irina Kotkina.