Shurale to be staged on ice
Farid Yarullin and Modest Mussorgsky will be united on the Ak Bars Arena Stage
On April 26, the Ak Bars Arena will host the Shurale ice show with a symphony orchestra, combining music by Farid Yarullin, Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergey Prokofiev and Edvard Grieg. One third of the tickets will be distributed for charitable purposes. The authors of the project told reporters about the peculiarities of the Tatar ballet.
Fire, ice, and stilts
“This work by Tukay has never been presented like this in its entire history — on an ice rink accompanied by a symphony orchestra,” noted Olga Pavlova, advisor to the chairman of the Dynamo physical culture and sports society.
As Timur Gafitulin, the director of the Moscow Cultural Foundation Music and Transformation and artistic director of the Moscow — Tatarstan project, pointed out, they announced the Shurale a year ago, showing The Nutcracker.
At that time, 60 musicians of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra Preobrazhenie with conductor Azat Maksutov, about 25 figure skaters, ballerina Mana Kuvabara and a small group of acrobats participated in the show, which took place within the framework of the projects “Ice seasons” and “Moscow — Tatarstan”.
The grand production of Shurale will bring together 130 performers: 55 members of the ice and circus troupe, and 75 musicians. The show will include acrobats, Kazan’s own synchronised skating team “Idel,” and pyrotechnic specialists. One of the highlights promises to be a figure skater performing on towering stilts.
According to Mansur Khashimov, the chairman of the Board of the Socially useful Terak-Opora Charitable Foundation, about a third of the tickets, which are 6,000 seats, will be distributed free of charge, primarily to children from the families of the participants of the SVO, the disabled, the poor and foster families.
Yarullin is not quite Tukay
The show will be shown on April 26, Gabdulla Tukay's birthday and Mother Tongue Day. It is based on the ballet of the same name by Farid Yarullin. He began writing this work on the instructions of composition teacher Heinrich Litinsky, who also asked writer Ahmed Faizi to come up with a libretto, which was also handled by actor and choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater Leonid Yakobson. Yarullin went to the front. And he didn't come back. Composer Fabius Vitachek was already finishing the instrumentation. The premiere of “Shurale” took place at our Opera and Ballet Theater on March 12, 1945.
The Kirov Theater (Mariinsky) is actively staging the production — it was shown three times on March 22 and 23, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the production and the 80th anniversary of the premiere in Leningrad.
It should be noted that the plot of the ballet does not look like Tukay's fairy tale, and it is little known to the general public, which was also noticeable by the questions of journalists at the press conference.
The main character of the ballet, hunter Ali-Batyr, gets lost in the forest and ends up in the lair of Shurale, who steals the wings of one of them, Suyumbike, during the games of the girl birds. Ali-Batyr saves her and takes her to her parents' house, where they are going to have a wedding. Suyumbike, who is sad for her friends, is lured by black ravens with her wings and taken to Shurale's lair. But Ali Batyr is cracking down on him again.
Yarullin will be performed at the Ak Bars Arena in versions by Rustam Abyazov. By the way, the La Primavera Chamber Orchestra, led by him, won a Tatneft grant in 2021 to record the “Grand Suite” from the ballet. This music is played in the play “New Fantasy SHURALE” by the Ekiyat Theatre.
As the authors of the show noted, they took the most dynamic numbers from Ablyazov. They also introduced music by Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergey Prokofiev and Edvard Grieg for the performance. “But they fit very well into the overall composition," said Gafitulin.
“When we come to Kazan, we attend cultural events, including the Tukay Museum, and we know Shurale from different angles," said choreographer Tatiana Kasatkina. “Now there is an opportunity to make this story come true on ice. The costumes for the performance are sewn by Kazan craftsmen. There will also be decorations, Kasatkina said:
“Props are magicians, what seems heavy and voluminous should be light and elegant. There will be a log, there will be an axe, a prop with a forest.”
How to dance on ice in Tatar
The main female role, the Suyumbike bird, is played by the already famous figure skater Elena Jovanovic from The Nutcracker, a multiple champion of Serbia.
While preparing for the role, Yovanovitch actively communicated with Alexandra Yelagina, who is dancing this part in Kazan.
“The difference from the European one is that it should be very modest, very neat,” said the athlete. “Interaction is not eye to eye, but from under the brows.”
So, Yovanovitch explained, they will dance with Denis Golubev not shoulder to shoulder, but rather in parallel.
In addition to them, Andrey Khvalko and Elena Leonova (who play the Mother and Father of the hero), Arina and Andrey Bagin (who play the roles of evil spirits) are involved in the show. And the Shurale will be performed by Andrey Yezhlov, known for his love of acrobatics.
In March, the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Tatarstan recognised the use of the trademarks “Shurale”, “Su Anasy” and “Kamyr-Batyr” by the National Toys company as an act of unfair competition. And the Federation Council will consider this story as a precedent for changing legislation — you will not have to pay for the national treasure.
