At the end of october the perm ballet company, the choir musicAeterna, opera soloists and the orchestra musicAeterna left on tour for Madrid. On the stage of the Teatro Real they performed S. Prokofiev's ballet The Jester (choreography by Aleksei Miroshnichenko) and I. Stravinsky's Les Noces (choreography by Jiri Kylian) – unique projects by the Perm Theatre that were nominated for the Golden Mask Theatre Awards in 2012.

In Madrid the ballet troupe were given the opportunity to perform on the national stage at the Teatro Real. Spain is a new touring destination for the Perm theatre, and also important as it was the first European audience to watch the latest choreographic innovations of the theatre.

AlekseiMiroshnichenko, chief choreographer:

‘The majority of people outside Russia still think of Russian ballet being like Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, and the vast majority of Russian theatres only perform these classic ballets when on tour abroad. No-one wants to take risks – the tried and tested classic ballets are a guaranteed win’.

‘But we are gradually beginning to change the opinions of our European impresarios. The trip to Madrid has been a historical moment. We have come on tour with our modern programme, and come to the Teatro Real with the latest high-profile premieres, Les Noces and The Jester. In doing so we are getting closer to achieving our dream of presenting all European audiences our latest programmes’. 

The premiere of the ballet The Tale of the Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons, written by Prokofiev on commission by Sergei Diaghilev in 1914, took place in 1921. Since the premiere right up to today the ballet has been mostly ignored by choreographers. The Perm theatre's production of The Jester, first performed in 2011, was considered a brave experiment, combining the new choreography of Aleksei Miroshnichenko with original scenography and costumes by the futurist artist Mikhail Larionov, which were used in the very first performance of the ballet. In 2013 The Jester was performed as part of the Golden Mask theatre festival in an evening of one-act ballets linked to Sergei Diaghilev. ThePerm ballet and its artistic director Aleksei Miroshnichenko received a special prize – “for the regeneration of the Diaghilev repertoire”. 

The premiere of the ballet Les Noces, with choreography by Bronislava Nizhinska, was performed by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russe in the Paris Théâtre de la Gaîté, in 1923 to great acclaim. Many choreographers have adapted the ballet, but possibly the most successful version was choreographed by Jiří Kylián for his production of Les Noces in the Netherlands Dans Theatre in 1982.

It is locally a well-known fact that the legend of modern dance, Jiří Kylián passed on the ballet to the people of Perm, which caused a great deal of noise amongst critics and ballet lovers, it being the first time that the choreographer had given any Russian ballet company permission to perform Les Noces. Three factors influenced his decision: the high technical abilities of thePerm ballet dancers, the use of live music rather than an audio recording (as Kylián himself had done previously), and the remarkable history and development of the ballet in Perm, a once closed industrial city in the USSR.

During the tour in Madrid, the musicAeterna orchestra with its conductor Teodor Currentzis will be recording Les Noces with Sony Classical. This recording will soon be released on disc together with another piece by Stravinsky –The Rite of Spring, which was recorded between the 7th and 10th October in Cologne, Germany following the performance of the Perm orchestra at the Ruhrtriennale. We should remind you that this is not the first time that the musicAeterna orchestra and Theodoros Kourentzis have worked together with Sony Records: in June 2012 Rameau-Gala was recorded in Diaghilev House, and in September 2012 and January 2013 the operas The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte were recorded in the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre.

For listings of performances in Madrid and information on tickets go to the Teatro Real website