Ballet "Gayane": content, video, interesting facts, history

A. Khachaturian ballet "Gayane"

The ballet "Gayane" stands apart not only in the musical heritage of A.I. Khachaturian, but also in the history of ballet theater. This is a prime example of a work of art created by a political order. "Gayane" belongs to the undisputed palm in the number of productions. In addition, each subsequent librettist changed the plot of the play to suit the historical moment, and the composer, in turn, reshaped the score to match the new drama. But, no matter how the images of the main characters are interpreted, the plot concept would change in what direction, this ballet was accepted by the audience enthusiastically in all stages of the world, where it was performed, thanks to the originality of music, harmoniously combining classical principles and a distinct national character.

The summary of Khachaturian’s ballet "Gayane" and many interesting facts about this work are on our page.

Summary

The plot unfolds in the 30s of XX century in Armenia, near the border. A dark night near the mountain village appears Unknown, which plans diversion. In the morning, the villagers go to work in the garden. Among them, the brigadier of the maiden collective farm brigade, beauty Gayane, in which two young people are in love - Giko and Armen. Giko tries to tell the girl about her feelings, but she rejects his claims.

Geologists headed by the head of the group, Kazakov, come to the village, among them the figure of the Unknown flashes. Armen shows Kazakov and his comrades pieces of ore that he accidentally found in the foothills, and escorts the group to this place. It turns out that he was able to detect deposits of rare metal. When the Unknown finds out about this, he penetrates into the house of Hovhannes, where geologists have stopped, wanting to steal documents and ore samples. Gayane finds him at the crime scene. To cover the tracks, Unknown sets fire to the house where the girl is. But Giko rescues Gayane and exposes the stranger who is picked up by the border guards who came to the rescue. The apotheosis of the ballet becomes a common holiday, on which all the characters glorify the friendship of peoples and the motherland.

In the modern version of the ballet, only the love triangle Gayane, Armen and Giko remained from the original idea. The events take place in the Armenian village. Its inhabitants include young beauty Gayane, in which Armen is in love. Their love wants to beat the unfortunate rival Armen Giko. He is trying with all his might to win the favor of the girl. This he fails, and he decides on revenge. Giko is satisfied with the abduction of the beauty, but the rumor of the atrocity quickly spreads throughout the village. Outraged people help Armen find and free Gayane, and Giko is forced to flee from contempt of fellow villagers. The ballet ends with a fun wedding where everyone dances and has fun.

A photo:

Interesting Facts:

• The author admitted that "Gayane" occupies a special place in his heart and work, since it is "the only ballet on a Soviet theme that has not left the stage for 25 years."
• Dance divertissement, which includes "Dance with Sabers", "Lezginka", "Lullaby" and other numbers from the ballet, almost 50 years remained an indispensable part of the performances of graduates of the Academy of Russian Ballet. Vaganova.
• The saber dance most popular all over the world was not originally in the score of Gayane. But shortly before the premiere, the director of the theater asked Khachaturian to add a dance number to the final act. The composer at first flatly refused, but then changed his mind and in just 11 hours he was able to create a real masterpiece. Giving the choreographer the score of this number, he wrote in the hearts on the title page: "Damn it, for the sake of ballet!"
• Contemporaries argued that even Stalin made the fiery "Dance with sabers" every time to stamp on the beat to the rhythm - therefore the piece sounded on the radio almost every day.
• The music for the ballet "Gayane" brought her author Aram Khachaturian a high award - the Stalin Prize of I degree.
• Three symphonic suites brought Khachaturian "carved" from a ballet score brought world renown to the music of "Gayane".
• The Saber Dance became the most recognizable music from the ballet Gayane. In the USA, Khachaturian began to be called "Mr. Sabrendance" ("Mr. Dance with sabers"). His motive can be heard in films, cartoons, programs of figure skaters. Since 1948, he sounded in American jukeboxes and became the first recording of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
• The two main creators of the first version of the ballet "Gayane" librettist Konstantin Derzhavin and choreographer Nina Anisimova were not just a creative tandem, but were a married couple.
• In 1938, in the life of the future director "Gayane" Nina Anisimova came the black stripe. She, a world-renowned dancer, was accused of participating in theater banquets, which were often attended by representatives of foreign delegations, and was sentenced to 5 years with serving a sentence in the Karaganda labor camp. Her husband saved her - librettist Konstantin Derzhavin, who was not afraid to intercede for a dancer.
• In the 40-70s of the last century, the ballet "Gayane" could be seen on foreign theater stages. During this period, the performance was repeatedly staged in the GDR, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland.
• The motif of "Dance with Sabers" can be heard in the animated series "The Simpsons", in the animated film "Madagascar 3", the sixth release of the cartoon "Well, wait a minute!" Stupid Defense, Simple Desire, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Twilight Zone and others.

Popular numbers:

Saber Dance - Listen

Lezginka - listen

Waltz - listen

Lullaby - listen

History of creation

Aram Khachaturian first became interested in the ballet theme in 1939. The reason for this was a friendly conversation between the composer and the Soviet party leader Anastas Mikoyan, who, on the eve of the decade of Armenian art, suggested the need for the emergence of a national Armenian ballet. Khachaturian enthusiastically plunged into the workflow.

The composer had a difficult task - to write music that would become a fertile basis for the choreographic production and at the same time has a well-recognized national identity. So the ballet "Happiness". The libretto was written to him by Gevork Hovhannisyan. Deep immersion into the world of national musical culture, rhythms and melodies of the Armenian people, along with the original talent of the composer, did their job: the performance staged at the Armenian Opera and Ballet Theater was brought to Moscow, where it was a great success. However, critics did not fail to point out the drawbacks of "Happiness", in the first place - the dramaturgy, which turned out to be much weaker than music. The composer himself was best aware of this.

In 1941, he, at the suggestion of the leadership of the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet. Kirov, began working on an updated version of the ballet with another libretto, written by a well-known literary critic and theater critic Konstantin Derzhavin. He left many fragments of the score intact, retaining all the most interesting finds that distinguished the first edition. The new ballet was named “Gayane” - in honor of the main character, and it was this performance that took over the “Happiness” baton in preserving the traditions of Armenian national music and culture on the ballet scene. Work on Gayane began in Leningrad, and continued in Perm, where the composer was sent to the evacuation with the start of the war, as was the theater troupe of the Kirov Theater. The conditions in which Khachaturian's new musical brainchild was born corresponded to the harsh wartime. The composer worked in a cold hotel room, where the furnishings contained only a bed, a table, a stool, and a piano. In 1942, 700 pages of ballet score were ready.

Productions

The premiere of "Gayane" fell on December 9, 1942. These days a heroic battle unfolded at the front for Stalingrad. But the hall of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater was full. The action unfolding on the stage to the music of Khachaturian’s life-affirming music strengthened the belief in victory in the hearts of the audience. Nina Anisimova debuted as a director of the four-act performance - one of the brightest dancers of the characteristic plan of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theater, who studied with Agrippina Vaganova herself. A brilliant school, a deep understanding of the nature of national dance and an impeccable sense of style allowed Nina Alexandrovna to create a play that was entrenched in the theater's repertoire for many years. From the very beginning of work on ballet, Anisimova had a dream to "create her own Armenia." For this purpose, she invited an Armenian dancer, who showed her elements of Armenian folk dance.

The performance of the premiere performance was truly stellar. Natalya Dudinskaya, the theater prima and audience favorite, appeared on the stage as Gayane, her partners were Konstantin Sergeyev, Nikolai Zubkovsky, Tatyana Vecheslova, Boris Shavrov. The success of the premiere was due not only to the talent of the artists, but also to the drama of the play, the leitmotif of which was to protect the native land from enemies.

After returning to Leningrad in 1945, the Kirov Theater showed Gayane on its own stage, but with some plot changes and updated set design created by the artist Vadim Ryndin. In 1952, the play was once again reworked.

May 22, 1957 the premiere of the ballet "Gayane" was held at the Bolshoi Theater. Director Vasily Vaynonen, based on the proposed libretto by Boris Pletnev, made a ballet consisting of a prologue, 3 acts and 7 paintings from the original four-act version. For this version of the ballet Khachaturian reworked almost a third of the music written before this one. The parties Gayane and Armen brilliantly performed by the soloists of the Big Raisa Struchkova and Yuri Kondratov. In total on the stage of the Bolshoi Ballet "Gayane" experienced three editions. The last of them saw the light in 1984.

Until the beginning of the 1980s, the ballet with unchanged success was on the stages of domestic and foreign theaters. One of the most interesting artistic decisions was proposed by Boris Eifman, who staged Gayane as his graduation performance in 1972 on the stage of the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theater. The choreographer focused on social drama. The historical background for the plot was the period of the formation of the Soviet order in Armenia. Giko in this version turned into a husband Gayane. Being the son of Matsak's fist, he cannot deny his father. His wife Gayane comes from a poor family, and she has to choose between loving her husband and her convictions. The main character makes a choice in favor of the new government, which Armen represents in the ballet. The performance in the artistic interpretation of Eifman has 173 shows.

In the XXI century, the ballet "Gayane" actually disappeared from the scene. The main reason for this was the scenario that has lost social relevance. But "Gayane" is still one of the main cultural symbols of Armenia. The repertoire of the Armenian Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Spendiarov Khachaturian ballet takes pride of place. The performance, staged by the national artist of Armenia Vilen Galstyan, was a huge success not only in Russia, but also abroad - in Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates. In 2014, the ballet "Gayane", almost after a half-century break, was shown at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where, more than 50 years ago, the performance began on theatrical stages of the world. Galstyan, speaking in this case also in the role of screenwriter, removed from the libretto all the plot lines associated with political motives. From the original ballet, only Aram Khachaturian’s heart-moving love story and its enchanting energy were left.

Separate dance performances written by the composer for Gayane, such as Lezginka, Waltz, Lullaby and, of course, the unsurpassed Dance with Swords, have long ago crossed the frame of the ballet and gained an independent life. They are an adornment of many concerts, they are danced on all stages of the world, and their popularity is only growing over the years. In their original music and choreography there is depth, sincerity, passion, love - everything that is close and understandable to every human heart.

We are pleased to offer ballet dancers and a symphony orchestra for the performance of numbers and excerpts from the ballet "Gayane" at your event.