La Bayadere

La Bayadère is Nacho Duato's first production back in St Petersburg. The Spanish choreographer has already worked on several Russian golden ballet classics for the Mikhailovsky Theatre: his original versions of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, both of which received great critical acclaim all over the world – from Milan and Berlin to Novosibirsk. The exquisite simplicity of the classics blends with the exotic opulence of the Maharajas in this ballet, which boasts a history of over a hundred and fifty years. Nacho Duato has created a production that harks back to Marius Petipa’s original, preserving the customary order of the scenes and the libretto’s climaxes, and leaving intact valuable pieces of the canonical choreography. At the same time, the ballet has freed itself of anachronisms and static pantomime episodes, replacing them with lavish, sculptural decor. In this story, Ancient India becomes a brilliant backdrop for the love of a temple dancer and a fine warrior who is fated to remain apart in both the real world and the astral one.