"We are preparing a lot of surprises for the audience"

On April 23, the Kremlin Ballet will present the premiere — the name "Vain Precaution" is well known to everyone who is interested in classical dance, but this time we are talking about a completely new, author's version of the classic performance. On the eve of the event, the director of the play, Honored Artist of Russia Juliana Malkhasyants, spoke with Izvestia about the specifics of this stage story, as well as what she and her colleagues in the production group hope to surprise the audience with.

— For more than two hundred years, a huge number of different editions of "Vain Precaution" have appeared in the world — the play was performed under different names and even to music by different composers, Louis Gerold and Peter Hertel. What, in your opinion, explains its popularity?

— He is very clear and incredibly funny. And the public has always loved it. By the way, if we turn to the history of this, in fact, the oldest classical ballet that has come down to us, we will see that in 1789, the premiere of "Vain Precaution", which was then called "Ballet of Straw, or From good to Evil is just one step," took place in the year of the Great French Revolution — Choreographer Jean Dauberval staged it based solely on the melodies of French folk songs of the 18th century. By the way, they were quite famous in Europe, and you can even hear some of them from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in "The Nutcracker" — for example, "Kade Roussel" is used to dance a character named Mamma Gigon. Later, in 1828, Doberval, apparently deciding that a more substantial musical basis was needed for his performance, turned to the composer Gerold. And he successfully completed the order, and the ballet continued its successful journey through Europe with new music.

Dauberval, by the way, turned out to be an innovator in terms of plot: inspired by etchings by Shoffar and Fragonard about how unlucky lovers were caught on straw in rural areas, he brought commoners to the ballet stage for the first time. Before that, only gods, heroes, monarchs, and so on could appear on it. And his idea was not understood and accepted at first, he could not even show the ballet in Paris, the premiere took place in Bordeaux. By the way, we also use the themes of these etchings in the design of the performance.

— As far as I understand, the performance will be decorated with exaggerated luxury. By the way, how does this fit in with the setting, an 18th—century village?

— We're going to have a fantasy village! And this solution fully corresponds to the aesthetics of classical ballet, which implies beauty in everything. And in this matter, I was immediately well understood by the set designer Vyacheslav Okunev, a well-known master, People's Artist of Russia, and in fact already a classic of our time. Vyacheslav Alexandrovich suggested using Watteau's style as a basis and created an absolutely realistic design — one that the viewer has already missed today. No conventional "plywood" — just picturesque houses, balconies, haylofts.

As for the costumes of the artist Natalia Zemalindinova, they are made in the style of peasant clothes of the XVIII century: matching corsets, sleeves of that era, figmas, full skirts. But still pleasing to the eye. Because, well, imagine for a minute what it would look like if we dressed our villagers in some kind of rags. I am against such a truth of life on the ballet stage, at least when it comes to classics.

And we will also have such a cherry on the cake: additional and very important accents are created by lighting designer Irina Vtornikova. I have prepared more than one of my productions with her, and she has the gift of bringing a lot of air into the performance, some kind of special transparency, which in this case would be very appropriate.

In general, we are preparing a lot of surprises for the audience. For example, in the house of Simone, the mother of the main character, a portrait of Marie-Madeleine Crespe, Dauberval's wife and the first performer of the role of Lisa in his play, will hang on the wall in a round frame. So she will also be invisibly present on the stage.

— Have you used any of the already existing versions of "Vain Precaution" as inspiration?

— I didn't want to rely on anyone's version and decided that both the direction and the choreography would be completely mine.

— And why did you turn to the Herald's music?

— It was interesting for me to work with the original source. In addition, there are many editions based on the choreography of Alexander Gorsky based on the music of Peter Hertel, which was written much later, in the second half of the 19th century, and they are all recognizable by the basic pas de deux, the mise en scene, and some preserved dances. But there were few original versions of the Herald's music after Frederick Ashton (60s) and Oleg Vinogradov (70s).

The performances of Ashton and Vinogradov were a breakthrough at the time, but today they are classics that must be preserved. And, by the way, a lot of work was done with the musical material in both cases. For Ashton, the transcription of the music was performed by composer, conductor, and arranger John Lanchbury, a unique man. In Europe, almost all musical classics are processed by him. Oleg Mikhailovich Vinogradov, as far as I know, composed the musical composition of his performance himself. Perhaps someone from the Mariinsky Orchestra helped him, I don't know for sure. But it is known that Vinogradov worked with Yuri Slonimsky, a man with unique knowledge, and I studied his book myself before starting work (in 1961, Yu.I. Slonimsky published the monograph "A Vain Precaution," in which he paid attention, among other things, to the fate of the musical score, Izvestia).

— So you needed other musical material in addition to the ballet score created by Louis Joseph Ferdinand Gerold?

— Absolutely. As soon as I accepted the offer of Alexandra Timofeeva, the chief choreographer of the Kremlin Ballet Theater, this question arose in front of me. And, as I usually do in such cases, I turned to my great friend Yuri Petrovich Burlaka, who has been helping me all my life, in all my productions. Musically, Yuri Petrovich is a real collector. And if something is required for work, then, as we joke with him, he opens the "Minkus locker", "Puni locker" or some other of his many lockers. Yuri Petrovich told me that he has an old author's score of the Herald's "Vain Precaution," which has never been fully played in Russia. Only fragments were taken from it, and they are recognizable from the performances of Ashton and Vinogradov, but nothing more. He also had other scores of the Herald, for example, the ballet "Somnambula" — Oleg Vinogradov used a fragment from it in his production, there are ballets "Lydia", "Peasant Wedding" and even "Sleeping Beauty" by the Herald himself. Can you imagine?

And, of course, to figure it all out, I needed a professional musician. And I invited Olga Sokolova, a wonderful composer, an active pianist, and a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, to collaborate. As a result, she literally deciphered old scores with a magnifying glass, and even their writing system is somewhat different than it is now. And then we built the play on this material.

Of course, it was impossible to get away from folk songs either — I really wanted Doberval's first idea to live on. So in the end, they also sound like us — for example, to the same "Kade Roussel", where we are talking about the miser and the stingy, Simon dances a solo variation. Because she's a cheapskate and a miser in the story. So, as you can see, it still makes sense.

— Is Simone the mother of the main character Lisa? The one usually called Marcelina?

— Marceline is a later version. Initially, Doberval's name was Simone.

— And what is this story about the wheeled lyre, on which Simone will play instead of the usual tambourine in your performance?

— This is also a rather interesting point. In general, the notorious ballet tambourine, on which all the Simone-Marcellins accompany Lisa, has always been incomprehensible to me. Yes, it is a convenient instrument for ballet, but why does the Italian tambourine appear in the French countryside? And at some point Olga Sokolova told me that there is an amazing French plucked musical instrument of the XVIII century — a wheeled lyre. There the strings are hidden inside, the role of the bow is performed by the wheel. There are keys on the case and the handle turns like a hurdy-gurdy. Since Simone is a well—to-do peasant, she could well have had such a tool. Thus, we had a duet "Sing, my bagpipes".

— Did Olga Sokolova have to finish the music for the production while working on "Vain Precaution"?

— Yes, and these are not just musical joints, but rather large fragments. She is the author of the musical concept and editorial staff, and I am the author of the musical drama, since it was I who, based on purely directorial ideas, decided what exactly was required in a particular place by character and timing.

— The stage of the Kremlin Palace, as you know, is very large. How convenient or difficult is it for you to work on it?

— It's not difficult, I'm used to thinking big scenes (laughs). But, of course, I had to go to certain tricks. In principle, I like it when there are a lot of plans in a play, and here I also suggested Vyacheslav Alexandrovich Okunev to provide them — this gives volume and makes it interesting to work with a large space.

— Could you tell us something about your directorial and choreographic decision? At least in general terms?

— Both the style of this ballet and the musical material, as it seems to me, imply an exquisite choreographic language. That's why I use a lot of small equipment. As for directing... Comedy is a difficult genre. My directorial search is based on a French sitcom.

— Does someone assist you during the rehearsals?

— My assistant is the wonderful ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Elena Andrienko. A person I know very well, this is not the first time we have worked with her, the last thing we released with her was "Corsair" at the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theater.

— What are your impressions of the collaboration with the Kremlin Ballet?

— We have a great team! I really like the team. A young troupe, everyone's eyes are on fire. Enthusiastic tutors who are constantly involved in the process offer something along the way. The leading soloists are wonderful! The luminaries have extremely difficult dances this time, and they are doing a great job with them. Everything, including the corps de ballet, is always in the material. The atmosphere at the rehearsals is very creative and friendly. Of course, it's not for me to judge the result, but it's a pleasure to work with the Kremlin Ballet!