Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible - Vladimirov, Bessmertnova, Akimov (The Bolshoi Ballet 1976)

"Ivan the Terrible" is a classical ballet in 2 Acts. The world premiere of the ballet Ivan the Terrible took place at the Bolshoi Theater on 20th of February 1975. Yuri Vladimirov performed as the tsar, Natalia Bessmertnova as Anastasia, and Boris Akimov as Kurbsky. The second production, in 1977, was performed by Vladimir Vasiliev (Ivan IV), Lyudmila Semenyaka (Anastasia) and Boris Akimov ((Prince Kurbsky).

The premiere caused great resonance. That same summer the troupe toured in the USA, where „Ivan the Terrible” created a great sensation and collected innumerable comments from viewers and media. Next year the ballet was staged at the Paris Opera, where it met the same warm reception, and soon it was shown on the stage constructed specifically for this performance in Louvre during the summer season.

"Ivan the Terrible" is music by Sergei Prokofiev originally composed for the Sergei Eisenstein film about the sixteenth-century ruler. Prokofiev composed music to Part 1 in 1942-44, and to Part 2 in 1945; the score is cataloged as Op. 116. After the composer’s death, music for the film was arranged first into an oratorio (with speaker, soloists, chorus, and orchestra) by Alexander Stasevich (1961), who was the conductor of the film score, and later into a concert scenario by Christopher Palmer (1990).

It was Abraham Stassevitch, conductor for Sergei Prokofiev's score for director Sergei Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible - Part II" (1958), who proposed to Grigorovich that he transfigure IVAN, along with its music, into a full-length dramaturgic dance work. In 1973 the choreographer and theatre director of Bolshoi Yuri Grigorovich, commissioned the distinguished Soviet composer as well as professor of composition, Mikhail Chulaki, to create a balletic scoring based upon Eisenstein's cinema masterpiece. It is cobbled from 377 fragments from Prokofiev's Ivan Part II musical design in addition to other pieces by the great composer.

In 1976, based on this Bolshoi Theater performance, the film-ballet was shot, which was released on screens in 1978 by Mosfilm.

Composer: Sergei Prokofiev, in a musical edition and composition by Mikhail Chulaki
Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich
Costume Designer: Simon Virsaladze
Set Designer: Simon Virsaladze
Screenplay and Directors: Vadim Derbenev, Yuri Grigorovich
Artistic Director: Yuri Grigorovich

Cast & Characters:
Ivan the Terrible - Yuri Vladimirov
Anastasia - Natalia Bessmertnova
Prince Kurbsky - Boris Akimov

Ballet dancers and the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR
Conducted by Algis Žiūraitis

For Yuri Vladimirov, the title role became a milestone, and the part of Tsaritsa Anastasia became one of the most consistent to Natalia Bessmertnova’s acting personality and professional talents in her creative biography. The following tsars, which have always included artists, distinguished by technical virtuosity and endowed with acting temperament, – Mikhail Lavrovsky, Alexander Godunov, Irek Mukhamedov, Alexei Fadeyechev, Alexander Vetrov – left a vivid mark on this ballet’s history.