On August 23, 24 and 25, 2024, the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will perform in the capital of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing, for the first time. The company will present its own original production of Fikret Amirov’s ballet A Thousand and One Nights choreographed by the Ballet Artistic Director, Honored Artistic Creator of Russia Eldar Aliev. The performances will take place on the stage of the Beijing Performing Arts Centre.
The Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will be the first company to present such a large-scale ballet performance on the stage of the new Beijing Arts Centre.
The tour in the capital of the People’s Republic of China will be accompanied by the National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra conducted by the Principal Conductor of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Honored Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ayyub Guliyev. The performances will feature the Chorus and soloists of the Opera Company of the Primorsky Stage Anastasia Kikot and Samira Galimova.
The leading parts will be performed by prima ballerinas of the Primorsky Stage Anna Samostrelova, Irina Sapozhnikova, Lilia Berezhnova, principal dancers Sergei Umanetc and Viktor Mulygin, soloists Yuri Zinnurov, Lada Sartakova, Alexandra Shalimova. In addition, on August 25, 2024 the part of Shahriar will be performed by the Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, principal dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg Timur Askerov.
The ballet A Thousand and One Nights is one of the Company’s most striking performances, and has a large touring geography. The performance has succeeded on the stages of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Tatar Musa Jalil State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Kazan, and the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) in Doha.
The series of performances in Beijing will be the Company’s first foreign tour in the season 2024/25. At the dawn of the season, the Company traditionally presented performances of the Primorsky Stage in St Petersburg and held a series of performances in Vladivostok.
Eldar Aliyev commented on the upcoming tour:
“For us, it is essential that this performance, whose literary foundation is a monument of Persian and Arabic literature, the famous collection of fairy tales A Thousand and One Nights, is appreciated by the Chinese public. We tried to reflect the best traditions of Eastern culture in it, and therefore we very much hope that all performances will be a success”.
For the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, A Thousand and One Nights was staged in the choreographic embodiment by Eldar Aliev. A native of Baku, a holder of the “Dostlug” Order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, he actively staged this ballet in America and Europe over the years, and created a new version for the Primorsky Stage Ballet Company.
