Guide to the performance "Russian Seasons. Spring"

A guide to the main premiere of this spring has been prepared especially for the performance "Russian Seasons. Spring", which will take place at the National Centre RUSSIA on 7 and 8 March. It contains brief descriptions of the episodes of the performance, information about the main characters, the artists and the music, as well as the unique paintings used in the multimedia design of the production and the history of the emergence of the "Russian Seasons". The guide to the performance is available via the link. Visitors to the performance can also receive it in the foyer of the Grand Concert Hall before the start.

The original multi-genre production of the National Centre RUSSIA — "Russian Seasons. Spring" — presents the great legacy of our culture. It is a story about pride, love and the future. The production is dedicated to the art of the early twentieth century and to the women who made it a global phenomenon. Different art forms come together on stage: ballet, opera and music by Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Modest Mussorgsky, while the stage designs of Nikolai Roerich, Alexander Benois and Leon Bakst appear on the screens. The audience enters a space where the great past and the present of Russian art meet, and where a new era begins.

The performance is dedicated to the women who inspired and shaped the era: Anna Pavlova, Bronislava Nijinska and Matilda Kschesinskaya. Their talent and charisma made Russian ballet a global phenomenon and helped spread the fame of Russian art far beyond the country.

"Russian Seasons" was a project of Sergei Diaghilev that became a cultural phenomenon, bringing together composers, artists, choreographers and dancers whose work transformed Europe’s perception of Russian ballet and theatre.

The "Russian Seasons" had a tremendous influence on world culture and helped spark a fascination with everything Russian. On 19 May 1908, the "Russian Seasons" opened at the Paris Opera with Modest Mussorgsky’s opera "Boris Godunov". From 1910 onwards, each season of the permanent ballet company included a specially prepared premiere. At first these were ballets by Russian composers, above all Igor Stravinsky ("The Firebird", "Petrushka", "The Rite of Spring").