MY TIME WITH THE BOLSHOI BALLET (Part 1)
I wrote this blog about my time with the Bolshoi more than 10 years ago - but with the Bolshoi Ballet being unable to tour due to the terrible war between Russia and the Ukraine, it brought home to me a flood of memories of when we represented the Bolshoi Ballet in the UK, USA and many other countries. That period in the 80's and early 90's was an extraordinary time - the Bolshoi were at the height of the incredible powers - Yuri Grigorovich reigned supreme and of course the Soviet Union was in existence. The world has changed since those days, but the Bolshoi Ballet is still one of the wonders of the world.
I vividly remember our first visit to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow - the faded opulence of the director's office with the magnificent swan vase on his desk and the splendid chandeliers stay in my mind - Stansilav Alexandrovich Lushin, the General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre & the Kremlin Palace of Congresses welcomed Victoria Charlton and I, accompanied by the interpreter Natasha Ivanova into his hallowed domain.
I remember feeling that we were in the middle of a Tolstoy Novel - the snow had been falling all day, laying thickly on the pavements and roads - this was the Russia that I had read about in novels, historical and political biographies, that I lapped up of Nicholas and Alexandra, Rasputin, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and others - also from reading many of those great Russian writers Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Chekov, Pasternak and Nabokov - and don't forget the poets - I have always loved the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetaeva.
At that time I was certainly no expert on all things Russian, although I was reasonably well read and informed about Russian literature and its history, but when Vicki and I first went to Moscow in 1981 - it was like entering a historical cultural wonderland - for the people of the Soviet Union who toiled daily, to feed themselves, with the (at that time) long lines for food and any form of daily necessities - 'historical wonderland' was probably the last thing they would have described the place, but we were entranced!
I will write a future blog on our initial experiences and impressions of arriving in Moscow and Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and how we ended up at the Bolshoi Theatre, but for now let us continue with our visit and time with the Bolshoi Ballet (and Opera).
Vicki and I had walked from the offices of Gosconcert (the State Cultural Organisation), which was situated in Ulitisa Neglininaya, a five minute walk from the Bolshoi Theatre - the roads were deeply covered in snow and thick flakes quickly covered us, as we trudged through the slush caused by the Lada, Zils and other Soviet cars & trucks, who gamely tried to drive through the oncoming deluge of snow with compacted ice on the roads. I will always remember passing a large store which sold ice cream (morozhenoye) even in the depths of winter - I loved it - nothing like Russian ice cream in a snow storm!
(The magnificent Bolshoi Corps de Ballet)
To be at the Bolshoi Theatre, was the culmination of a dream - by that time we had been very active working with many Soviet artists and companies including the Moscow Classical Ballet, whom we had toured in the UK in 1981/2 and this featured a former star of the Bolshoi Ballet, the wonderful, amazingly talented prima ballerina and ethereal Ekaterina Maximova - this was the beginning of an extraordinary decade long association with the world of USSR greatest artists and performers and the Bolshoi Ballet.
So here we were in the offices of the General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre - Stanislav Lushin was a kind man and obviously one that was deeply knowledgeable and involved with the heart of Russian (Soviet) cultural life (a former cellist who had studied at the Moscow State Conservatoire), but the real shock came when we were introduced to the Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Bolshoi Ballet Yuri Grigorovich.
(Yuri Grigorovich)
Yuri Grigorovich was to become the dominating factor and influence of our lives from that moment on, until the collapse of the Soviet Union. An extraordinary man in so many ways - world famous and hugely talented choreographer, fiery energy, commanding authority, acerbic wit, passionate for life and vodka (in equal measures) - anyone who has had the privilege of seeing his productions of Spartacus, Ivan the Terrible, Golden Age, The Legend of Love, The Stone Flower and of course, his adaptations of the great Russian classical ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle and The Nutcracker will know that you are in the presence of a genius.
(Grigorovich and his wife and Prima Ballerina Natalia Bessmertnova)
Yuri was dynamic, opinionated, charming, ruthless, dictatorial, wonderful host, eloquent, funny, fierce - all the things you would possibly expect from a towering giant of his art and artistic director of one of the greatest ballet companies the world has ever seen - you have to remember Yuri Grigorovich was not only upholding the honour of his artistic work, that of the Bolshoi Theatre and Ballet Company but also for the Soviet Union itself. This was a massive responsibility, with all kinds of obligations and political as well as artist objectives.
(From the sensational ballet 'Spartacus')
We almost lived on the road with Yuri, on tours, in the theatre, in restaurants drinking vodka and toasting everyone and everything from my great grandmothers dog to the present day - having immense fun and also deeply endearing conversations that ranged from art, dance, the state of the world, literature to whatever subject captured the imagination of this wonderful and deeply fascinating man. We were incredibly lucky to visit his home (a lovely apartment full of taste and memories) many times over the years - meet his aged mother and of course his wife the great ballerina Natasha Bessmertnova (who sadly passed away some years ago).
To be at the Bolshoi Theatre, was the culmination of a dream - by that time we had been very active working with many Soviet artists and companies including the Moscow Classical Ballet, whom we had toured in the UK in 1981/2 and this featured a former star of the Bolshoi Ballet, the wonderful, amazingly talented prima ballerina and ethereal Ekaterina Maximova - this was the beginning of an extraordinary decade long association with the world of USSR greatest artists and performers and the Bolshoi Ballet.
So here we were in the offices of the General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre - Stanislav Lushin was a kind man and obviously one that was deeply knowledgeable and involved with the heart of Russian (Soviet) cultural life (a former cellist who had studied at the Moscow State Conservatoire), but the real shock came when we were introduced to the Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer of the Bolshoi Ballet Yuri Grigorovich.
Yuri Grigorovich was to become the dominating factor and influence of our lives from that moment on, until the collapse of the Soviet Union. An extraordinary man in so many ways - world famous and hugely talented choreographer, fiery energy, commanding authority, acerbic wit, passionate for life and vodka (in equal measures) - anyone who has had the privilege of seeing his productions of Spartacus, Ivan the Terrible, Golden Age, The Legend of Love, The Stone Flower and of course, his adaptations of the great Russian classical ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle and The Nutcracker will know that you are in the presence of a genius.
Yuri was dynamic, opinionated, charming, ruthless, dictatorial, wonderful host, eloquent, funny, fierce - all the things you would possibly expect from a towering giant of his art and artistic director of one of the greatest ballet companies the world has ever seen - you have to remember Yuri Grigorovich was not only upholding the honour of his artistic work, that of the Bolshoi Theatre and Ballet Company but also for the Soviet Union itself. This was a massive responsibility, with all kinds of obligations and political as well as artist objectives.
We almost lived on the road with Yuri, on tours, in the theatre, in restaurants drinking vodka and toasting everyone and everything from my great grandmothers dog to the present day - having immense fun and also deeply endearing conversations that ranged from art, dance, the state of the world, literature to whatever subject captured the imagination of this wonderful and deeply fascinating man. We were incredibly lucky to visit his home (a lovely apartment full of taste and memories) many times over the years - meet his aged mother and of course his wife the great ballerina Natasha Bessmertnova (who sadly passed away some years ago).
We had started our company the Entertainment Corporation based in Covent Garden around 1979 - I had been a professional musician (drummer), worked in marketing on national newspapers (The Times, Daily Express & Daily Mirror) as well as writing music columns in the trade press - However, in 1973 I joined Jeff Rigby's Astral music agency and management company in Brighton, where I was living at the time and playing drums nightly. Jeff taught me so much about the business side of music, as well as introducing me to the music of artists, as diverse as Van Morrison, Tom Waits to Billie Holiday - a life long friendship developed from that time - we spent literally hundreds of hours listening to all kinds of music - we met regularly, until Jeff sadly passed away three years ago - discussing and listening to the finest music, whilst imbibing fine red wines or an excellent malt. - a forty five year friendship with a fascinating aficionado of the creative arts from jazz, blues, contemporary music to art, poetry and the written word - that is worthy of a series of blogs in itself - however, on with the story...
I had developed my relationship with the great jazz artists or their managers that I knew or had worked with including Buddy Rich, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Pepper, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Louie Bellson, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Donald Byrd, Earl Klugh also fine contemporary artists such as Tom Waits, Michael Jackson, Judy Collins, Willie Nelson, Gilberto Gil, Tony Bennett, Miss Peggy Lee, Billy Eckstine and many others and presented them at varying times in concert throughout the UK and Ireland, sometimes venturing into Europe.
I had also been booking artists for many of the northern nightclubs that were similar to large theatres (sometimes having capacities of 2,000 plus) - I booked and contracted artists such as Michael Jackson & the Jacksons (yes "the Michael Jackson"), Diana Ross, Johnny Mathis, The Four Tops, the Temptations, Deniece Williams, Heatwave, Sasha Distel, The Drifters, Charles Aznavour etc... and most of the major British stars at that time - Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Cliff Richard, Leo Sayer, Dame Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, David Essex, Status Quo and just about every leading artist at that time... BUT no artists in the classical world, ballet or opera - that was all to come in the future!
Victoria had worked with the Soviets in the sports world and was very friendly with the Soviet Cultural Attache - it was this introduction that got us through the door. On top of this Vicki's father Warwick Charlton, had been a renowned writer, journalist during the war (and after) and was great friends with Edmund Stevens who was the doyen of the foreign journalists in Moscow. Pulitzer Prize winner and Moscow correspondent for the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and I believe for Time Magazine. I grew to love Edmund and spent many hours in his wonderful home on Ulitusa Ryleeva (a former masonic house in Tsarist times), listening in total fascination as he talked about his experiences in Stalinist Russia and his meetings with Khrushchev, Breznev, Andropov and other Soviet leaders - Vicki and I both loved their dysfunctional family - wife Nina (former KGB Colonel) and daughter Anastasia (first westerner to dance with the Bolshoi Ballet) - we met ambassadors, writers, ministers, politicians, poets, journalists, traders - you name it - amazing and extraordin(ary times.
The meeting of Victoria with her major political and media connections and my unique experience as an impresario and producer, sparked a partnership that successfully lasted for more than a decade - but that is a story for another day and a few more blogs.
The Bolshoi Ballet and Opera companies (also the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet & Opera) became the mainstay of our lives for many incredible years - we presented them at the world's greatest theatres and opera houses including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The London Coliseum, The Palace Theatre, Manchester, The Birmingham Hippodrome, The Bolshoi Ballet in the Park (Battersea Park, London), Royal Dublin Society, Ireland, The Metropolitan Opera House and New York State Theatre, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Wolf Trap, Virginia, The War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, Aire Crowne Theatre, Chicago, Wang Theatre in Boston, The Civic Theatre, San Diego to name a few. The dancers from Irek Mukhamedov, Natalyia Bessmertnova, Nina Ananaiashvili, Ludmila Semenyaka, Gediminas Taranda, Yuri Vasuchenko, Maria Bylova, Aleksei Fadeyechev, Alla Mikhailchenko, Alexei Lazarev and a host of others, became our friends and daily companions - the teachers and legends of the Bolshoi Ballet became colleagues such as the gracious and regal Galina Ulanova, Marina Semyonova, Nikolai Simachov, Raisa Struchkova and others, gave us the historical umbilical cord to the traditions and love of their art that stretched back to Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachatrurian and the wonders of the Ballet Russe, Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Leon Bakst and so forth
I can't cover all of this in one blog - but I am grateful to the internet and that I can put my thoughts in writing in an attempt to encapsulate the experiences, thoughts and happenings at that extraordinary time. This was the time of Gorbachev, Glasnost and Perestroika - the lowering of the 'Iron Curtain' - I know that we broke many of the cultural barriers at that time - The United States hadn't had any cultural relations with the Soviet Union for around 25 years and the British Government also hadn't had any serious cultural relations with the USSR for approximately 20 years.
Yes, we were in the right place and at the right time - but I also know that we took hold of that opportunity, with both hands and feet and threw everything we had into making this significant relationship a good one - dare I say, a great one.
It wasn't all a one way traffic flow - we toured to Russia, the Ukraine, the Royal Ballet from Covent Garden; The National Theatre with Sir Peter Hall and the last three Shakespeare plays; the English National Opera to Moscow, Leningrad and other cities. Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen played 'Midnight in Moscow" near the Red Square and much later, I took Sir Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, George Michael, Beyoncé, Kylie, Jose Carreras, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, UB40 and others to Russia, but that is a story for another day.
Future blogs will describe what happened and how this all developed - thanks for reading - hope it was of interest
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