Scheherazade/ Chopiniana
Abay Kazakh State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Coliseum, 17th November 2019
Citing Attila the Hun with pride, Erlan Idrissov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the UK, declared to the Coliseum audience that his country was launching a “cultural assault” on the west. In September, the youthful Astana Ballet – not yet a decade old – appeared at the Linbury Theatre. Now, just down the road, its venerable older sibling, the Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre, founded in 1934 and based in Almaty, made its belated UK debut with a Mikhail Fokine double bill. If Scheherazade didn’t entirely deliver eastern promise, then Chopiniana charmed – the gentlest of assaults, clothed in gauzy tulle.
Ulan Badenov (Chief Eunuch) in Scheherazade
© Press office of the Abay Kazakh State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
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