Bolshoi’s The Golden Age Brings Rare Treats

Saturday, November 5, 6:30 p.m., Orcas Center

— from Susannah Weaver —

The Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema opens the 2016-2017 season with a revival of The Golden Age which takes viewers on a satirical journey to a seaside town in Soviet Russia in the roaring ‘20s, with a jazzy, music-hall soundtrack that’s rare to find on the Bolshoi stage. Come and see for yourself in an evocative night of dance streaming live at Orcas Center Saturday, November 5, 6:30 pm.

In a seaside town where business and the Mafia are flourishing, the Golden Age cabaret is the favorite nightly haunt of dancers, bandits and young revelers. The young fisherman Boris falls in love with Rita, a beautiful dancer, but she is also the friend of a local gangster. The Golden Age makes for an original, colorful and dazzling ballet – it has everything: mad rhythms, vigorous chase scenes and decadent cabaret numbers. With this passionate love story featuring beautiful duets between Boris and Rita, the Bolshoi dancers plunge magnificently into every stylized step and gesture. The cast features the Bolshoi principals, soloists and corps de ballet. Ballet dancer Ekaterina Krysanova says that “the role of Rita is not a simple role, I would even venture to say she’s very complex.” Huffington Post’s, Pricilla Frank notes that “complex women characters on stages of any kind are still resoundingly and disappointingly rare. A ballet that features a woman using her smarts at the expense of two drunk dudes is something we can get behind.”  Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema’s production of The Golden Age, choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich and conducted by Pavel Klinichev, with music by Dmitri Shostakovich, also features a stunning stage backdrop, designed by Simon Virsaladze, whose geometric shapes pay homage to Russia’s abstract painters, Soviet posters and Constructivism.

For the 7th consecutive year, the Bolshoi Ballet opens its doors to global audiences only in cinemas for a 2016-2017 season boasting impeccable classicism and daring performances. With timeless classics (The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake), productions signature to the Bolshoi (The Golden Age, The Bright Stream, A Hero Of Our Time) and an evening dedicated to modern choreography (A Contemporary Evening): the Bolshoi proves once again that it is one of the world’s foremost ballet companies.

Tickets for the Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema’s The Golden Age are $20, $15 for students, $2 off for Orcas Center members, and may be purchased at www.orcascenter.org or by calling 376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 12 – 2 pm. $5 subsidized tickets are available at the Box Office. For more information about Orcas Center’s 2016-2017 season visit www.orcascenter.org.