The Bolshoi Ballet Storms Into The London Coliseum

Taking its cue from the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Russia’s renowned Bolshoi Ballet brings its own pirates to the stage – this time on pointe – in a swashbuckling new production of the classic ballet Le Corsaire – complete with a spectacular shipwreck that calls on every technical resource at the Bolshoi’s command.

The ballet opens the company’s prestigious three-week season (July 30-August 18) at The London Coliseum on Monday, July 30, presented by Victor Hochhauser. Le Corsaire is the first of six programmes given by the World’s grandest company.

The production, by the Bolshoi’s Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky, boasts lavish sets based on the original nineteenth century designs and over 500 costumes

Add to this a cast headed by the Bolshoi’s supremely elegant prima ballerina, Svetlana Zakharova, partnered by fiery Ukranian Denis Matvienko, joined by ranks of assorted pirates, slave girls and small children, and you have what The Moscow Times hailed as ‘the company’s biggest hit in many a season’.

Other season highlights include:

- international superstar Carlos Acosta dancing the title role in Yuri Grigorovich’s Soviet-era ballet Spartacus - a work which has become synonymous with the Bolshoi name.

- the British Premiere of Elsinore, a new one-act ballet by hotly-tipped British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, in a triple bill with Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, and Asaf Messerer’s Class Concert, revived by his nephew, UK based ballet master Mikhail Messerer.

- the return, by popular demand, of Alexei Ratmansky’s rollicking full-length comedy ballet, The Bright Stream – life, love and mistaken identity down on the collective farm - hailed as ‘the best new ballet to come out of Russia in years’.

- Don Quixote with two remarkable newcomers: 21 year-old Natalia Osipova. Unforgettable last year in the leading role of Kitri, she dances opposite prodigiously gifted 18 year-old Ivan Vasiliev, who joined the company only last year – and is widely being compared to the young Baryshnikov.

THE BOLSHOI BALLET AT THE LONDON COLISEUM

July 30 – August 18, 2007
Online booking: Eno.org/bolshoi

Monday, July 30 - 7.30pm, Le Corsaire
Tuesday, July 31 - 7.30pm, Le Corsaire
Wednesday, August 1 - 7.30pm, Le Corsaire
Thursday, August 2 - 7.30pm, La Bayadère
Friday, August 3 - 7.30pm, La Bayadère
Saturday, August 4 - 2pm, La Bayadère
Saturday, August 4 - 7.30pm, La Bayadère
Monday, August 6 - 7.30pm, Spartacus
Tuesday, August 7 - 7.30pm, Spartacus
Wednesday, August 8 - 7.30pm, Spartacus
Thursday, August 9 - 7.30pm, Don Quixote
Friday, August 10 - 7.30pm, Don Quixote
Saturday, August 11 - 2pm, Don Quixote
Saturday, August 11 - 7.30pm, Don Quixote
Monday, August 13 - 7.30pm, Triple Bill, including new Wheeldon ballet
Tuesday, August 14 - 7.30pm, Triple Bill, including new Wheeldon ballet
Wednesday, August 15 - 2pm, Le Corsaire
Wednesday, August 15 -7.30pm, Le Corsaire
Thursday, August 16 - 7.30pm, The Bright Stream
Friday, August 17 - 7.30pm, The Bright Stream
Saturday, August 18 - 2pm, The Bright Stream
Saturday, August 18 - 7.30pm, The Bright Stream