The Limpid Stream
The Limpid Stream (Russian: Светлый ручей, also translated as The Bright Stream), Op. 39, is a ballet in 3 acts, 4 scenes, composed by Dmitri Shostakovich on the libretto by Adrian Piotrovsky and Fyodor Lopukhov, with choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov. It premiered in Leningrad's Mikhaylovsky Theatre in 1935.
Plot
The plot centres around a group of ballet dancers who have been sent to provide sophisticated entertainment on a new Soviet collective farm[1] during their harvest festival.[2] The workers, along with two older residents of a nearby dacha, welcome the city dancers, with special welcome given to the troupe's ballerina who was the former dance teacher of Zina. Zina introduces the ballerina to her husband, Pyotr, and Pyotr immediately begins to flirt with the ballerina. Hurt, Zina removes herself from the celebrations and is comforted by the ballerina. The ballerina suggests a plan in which she will dress as her dance partner, her dance partner will dress as a female dancer, and Zina will dress as the ballerina. They will fool Pyotr and the two dacha dwellers[2] and Pyotr will realize his mistake.[3] The woes of two other couples with overly-assured men are also resolved through the plan. After this all has been accomplished, there is a grand celebration which, in the Ratmansky production, includes the grim reaper who, after a scare, is banished.[3]
Score and instrumentation
The score includes references to Tchaikovsky and other ballet composers.[1]
Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes (flute II = piccolo II), 2 oboes, cor anglais, E♭ clarinet, 2 B♭ clarinets, bass clarinet (= clarinet III), 2 bassoons, contra-bassoon (= bassoon III)
Brass: 6 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, Brass Band (1 E♭ Cornet, 2 B♭ Cornets, 2 B♭ Trumpets, 2 E♭ Altos, 2 B♭ Tenors, 2 B♭ Baritones, 2 B♭ Basses)
Percussion: timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drums, cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, bass drum, gong, wood blocks
Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses, harp
2/1+1.2+1.3/1+Eflat.3/1 - 6.3.3.1 - timp.perc:tgl/SD/cyms/glsp-harp-strings
Suite
In 1945, Shostakovich approved Konstantin Titarenko to make a suite from the ballet. It was designated Op. 39a and comprises five movements:
- Waltz
- Russian Popular Dance
- Galop
- Adagio
- Pizzicato: Allegretto
Reception
The other two ballet scores written by Shostakovich are The Golden Age, from 1930, and The Bolt, from 1931. "All three were banned shortly after their premieres, leaving Shostakovich's reputation so damaged that he was reluctant ever to write for the lyric stage again."[4] The Bright Stream's deliberately simple melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and colors had the work playing successfully in both Leningrad and Moscow from June 1935 through February 1936. An editorial entitled "Balletic Falsity" in Pravda in early February 1936 condemned the ballet, which was subsequently withdrawn.[5] Due to this, one of the librettists, Piotrovsky was arrested in November the following year and executed in a gulag.[6] Lobukhov, as choreographer and co-librettist, likely escaped from a similar fate due to his connections through his sister Lydia Lopokova.[4]
Productions
Alexei Ratmansky, currently an artist in residence at the American Ballet Theatre and the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet, first came across the full score of the ballet in a recording made by Gennady Rozhdestvensky in Stockholm in 1995. Unable to restore the original choreography of the ballet, which was never notated, Ratmansky wrote his own choreography and staged the new two act version of The Limpid Stream with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 2003.
In July 2005 the Bolshoi performed The Bright Stream at the Met, and in August 2006, at the Royal Opera House, London. The Bolshoi performed it in Moscow during late October 2017, as well as in London during August 2019.
In January 2011, American Ballet Theatre performed The Bright Stream in Ratmansky's choreography, at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
References
- ^ a b "The Limpid Stream op. 39 (1934-35)" (Press release). Boosey and Hawkes. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ a b Zijp, Isabella (15 May 2017). "The Bolshoi's Bright Stream is a ballet unlike any other". bachtrack. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ a b Macaulay, Alastair (12 June 2011). "Peasants Having Fun Down on the Old Soviet Farm". New York Times. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ a b Mackrell, Judith (19 July 2006). "Dance of death". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ Homans, Jennifer (2011-10-20). "Back in the USSR". The New Republic.
- ^ Levene, Louise (8 August 2019). "The Bolshoi's Bright Stream is a reminder of how funny ballet can be". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
External links
- "Dance of Death" by Judith Mackrell, an article in The Guardian
- The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia: The Bright Stream at the Met
- The Kennedy Center Performances: American Ballet Theatre
- v
- t
- e
- The Nose
- Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District/Katerina Izmailova
- The Big Lightning (unfinished)
- Orango (unfinished)
- The Twelve Chairs (unfinished)
- Katyusha Maslova (unfinished)
- The Gamblers (unfinished)
- Moscow, Cheryomushki
- The Golden Age
- The Bolt
- The Limpid Stream
- No. 1 in F minor
- No. 2 in B major (To October)
- No. 3 in E♭ major (The First of May)
- No. 4 in C minor
- No. 5 in D minor
- No. 6 in B minor
- No. 7 in C major (Leningrad)
- No. 8 in C minor
- No. 9 in E♭ major
- No. 10 in E minor
- No. 11 in G minor (The Year 1905)
- No. 12 in D minor (The Year 1917)
- No. 13 in B♭ minor (Babi Yar)
- No. 14 in G minor
- No. 15 in A major
Piano |
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Violin |
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Cello |
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- Tahiti Trot
- Suite from The Golden Age
- Suite from The Bolt
- Suite from The Limpid Stream
- Five Fragments
- Scherzo (1922)
- Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1
- Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 (orch. McBurney)
- Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 (arr. Atovmyan)
- Festive Overture
- Suite from Encounter at the Elbe
- Suite from The Gadfly (arr. Atovmyan)
- Novorossiisk Chimes, the Flame of Eternal Glory
- October
- "Intervision"
- The New Babylon
- Alone
- Golden Mountains
- Counterplan
- The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda
- The Youth of Maxim
- Girl Friends
- The Return of Maxim
- The Vyborg Side
- Friends
- The Great Citizen
- Zoya
- Simple People
- The Young Guard
- Pirogov
- Michurin
- Meeting on the Elbe
- The Fall of Berlin
- Belinsky
- The Unforgettable Year 1919
- The Gadfly
- Five Days, Five Nights
- Sofiya Perovskaya
- Hamlet
- King Lear
- Gogoliad (unfinished)
- Suite on Finnish Themes
- Song of the Forests
- The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland
- Antiformalist Rayok
- From Jewish Folk Poetry
- The Execution of Stepan Razin
- Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok
- Loyalty
- Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva
- Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti
- Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin
String quartets |
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Other |
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- Three Fantastic Dances
- 24 Preludes
- Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor
- Children's Notebook
- 24 Preludes and Fugues
- Galina Shostakovich (daughter)
- Maxim Shostakovich (son)
- Concerto DSCH
- DSCH motif
- Europe Central
- Ian MacDonald
- Muddle Instead of Music
- The Noise of Time
- Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox
- Solomon Volkov
- Testimony: book
- film
- The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin
- Wihuri Sibelius Prize