Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world, the arts and culture scene had been hit hard with live performances getting cancelled left and right, ongoing seasons getting cut short, and upcoming ones becoming uncertain.
As a response, many companies from all over the world uploaded some of their taped performances to be shown online with majority only available to view for a limited time. These offerings have become so numerous that it became a chore trying to weed out those that I really need to watch from those that I unfortunately have to miss.
Anything with the music of Dmitri Shostakovich is definitely a can't miss for me. So when the Bolshoi announced that the The Bright Stream ballet was to be uploaded, I made sure that nothing else got in my way of it even if it was another streaming online performance happening at the same time.
What was streamed is the 2003 revival by Alexei Ratmansky of the ballet by choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov that premiered in 1935. Shortly after its debut, the ballet, along with Shostakovich, Lopukhov, and co-librettist Adrian Piotrovsky, fell out of favor with the Soviet regime following a scathing editorial published at Pravda.
The ballet was then banned, Shostakovich denounced yet again, Lopukhov stripped of his position as artistic director of the Bolshoi dance company, and poor Piotrovsky was sent to the gulag where he very likely met his end.
All this misfortune is hard to digest after seeing the actual ballet itself that basically revolves around a practical joke played by conspirators made up of some members of a visiting performing troupe and the younger members of the collective farm. The music is one of Shostakovich's most lighthearted and most accessible. And the main conflict is that of a husband falling for the visiting ballerina much to the jealousy of his wife.S uch paper thin plot could not have displeased Stalin that much had Shostakovich not been a repeat offender.
But times have changed and the revival has not only been performed numerous times at the Bolshoi Theatre but has also been performed at the Met, the Royal Opera House, and at the Kennedy Center. And because of the Bolshoi's efforts to make the lockdown more bearable, I was able to see Shostakovich's music brought to life through dance.
All this misfortune is hard to digest after seeing the actual ballet itself that basically revolves around a practical joke played by conspirators made up of some members of a visiting performing troupe and the younger members of the collective farm. The music is one of Shostakovich's most lighthearted and most accessible. And the main conflict is that of a husband falling for the visiting ballerina much to the jealousy of his wife.S uch paper thin plot could not have displeased Stalin that much had Shostakovich not been a repeat offender.
But times have changed and the revival has not only been performed numerous times at the Bolshoi Theatre but has also been performed at the Met, the Royal Opera House, and at the Kennedy Center. And because of the Bolshoi's efforts to make the lockdown more bearable, I was able to see Shostakovich's music brought to life through dance.
RAd's Playlist | Shostakovich: The Limpid Stream, Premier Recording
After seeing the ballet, it was expected that I put into spin the recording that prompted Ratmansky to revive it. Released in 1995 by Chandos, the full score of Shostakovich's The Limpid Stream, Op. 39 was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
