In the first years after World War Two, the center of Lithuanian ballet was in Kaunas. The pre-war Valstybės (State) Theatre was disbanded, replaced by the newly created Kaunas State Drama Theatre and the Lithuanian SSR State Opera and Ballet Theatre, which performed for the next three years on the stage of the former State Theatre. The chaos that plagued the arts in the immediate post-war period curbed the enthusiasm of many artists. Rehearsals and dance performances took place in unheated halls, and many veteran ballet dancers still recall how they sometimes forgot to take off sweaters or leg warmers before appearing on stage.
The Lithuanian ballet company essentially lost its corps de ballet after many artists were forced to flee Lithuania due to the onset of the second Soviet occupation. A shortage of performers meant taking on new, physically capable amateur dancers, and working with a semi-professional company presented its challenges for senior choreographer Bronius Kelbauskas Bronius KelbauskasBronius Kelbauskas (December 25, 1904, Liepāja, Latvia – June 9, 1975, Vilnius) was the first professional Lithuanian ballet dancer and choreographer.
Kelbauskas trained at a ballet studio in Kharkov, Russia, before returning with his family to live in Kaunas, where he continued his studies with Olga Dubeneckienė. Kelbauskas danced in productions at the Lithuanian State Theatre, where he became a soloist in 1925. In 1934, he traveled to Paris to continue his training at the studio of Matilda Kshesinskaya. In 1937–1940, Kelbauskas directed and taught at the Ballet Studio of the Lithuanian State Theatre. He choreographed and directed numerous productions, including Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1937, Boris Asafiev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and The Prisoner of the Caucusus in 1938, Reinhold Glière’s Red Poppy in 1940, Juozas Pakalnis’ Sužadėtinė (The Fiancée) in 1943, and Juozas Gruodis’ Jūratė and Kastytis in 1965. Kelbauskas also choreographed productions for Lithuanian Television, among them Pavasaris ir Mados (Spring and Fashion) and Žvejo nuotykis (The Fisherman’s Adventure) in 1970. (1904–1975). The heaviest artistic burden fell on the more senior soloists—Jadvyga Jovaišaitė, Marija Juozapaitytė, and Kelbauskas himself—as well dancers who had debuted on stage on the eve of the war, such as Tamara Sventickaitė, Genovaitė Sabaliauskaitė, Marija Galočkinaitė, Aliodija Ruzgaitė, Regina Jamontaitė, Henrikas Jagminas, and Petras Baravykas.
Kelbauskas trained at a ballet studio in Kharkov, Russia, before returning with his family to live in Kaunas, where he continued his studies with Olga Dubeneckienė. Kelbauskas danced in productions at the Lithuanian State Theatre, where he became a soloist in 1925. In 1934, he traveled to Paris to continue his training at the studio of Matilda Kshesinskaya. In 1937–1940, Kelbauskas directed and taught at the Ballet Studio of the Lithuanian State Theatre. He choreographed and directed numerous productions, including Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1937, Boris Asafiev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and The Prisoner of the Caucusus in 1938, Reinhold Glière’s Red Poppy in 1940, Juozas Pakalnis’ Sužadėtinė (The Fiancée) in 1943, and Juozas Gruodis’ Jūratė and Kastytis in 1965. Kelbauskas also choreographed productions for Lithuanian Television, among them Pavasaris ir Mados (Spring and Fashion) and Žvejo nuotykis (The Fisherman’s Adventure) in 1970. (1904–1975). The heaviest artistic burden fell on the more senior soloists—Jadvyga Jovaišaitė, Marija Juozapaitytė, and Kelbauskas himself—as well dancers who had debuted on stage on the eve of the war, such as Tamara Sventickaitė, Genovaitė Sabaliauskaitė, Marija Galočkinaitė, Aliodija Ruzgaitė, Regina Jamontaitė, Henrikas Jagminas, and Petras Baravykas.
In the initial years, the company performed ballets first mounted before the war, as well as the only ballet to premiere during the war itself—Juozas Pakalnis’ Sužadėtinė Sužadėtinė (The Fiancée)The main characters in the realistic five-tableau production were Petras Vargelis’ daughter Marytė and her fiancée Antanas Danaitis. At their engagement ceremony, Antanas and Marytė “pledge their eternal love for one another” (according to the program for the 1946-1947 production of the ballet), but the overseer of the manor, Pūstapėdis, puts an end to their celebration and takes a group of young women to work on the Veblevksy estate, where a banquet is taking place.
Veblevsky begins fawning over Marytė, but Antanas soon arrives with his men. Marytė fails to escape from the estate and is locked away in a room inside the manor where, at midnight, Veblevsky visits her “to express his passion for her.” Antanas tries to save Marytė but is assaulted by manor servants and is forced to flee. In keeping with dramaturgical traditions of romantic ballets, the production also included a tableau portraying Marytė’s dream in which she—”tired, poor and homeless”—cradles her baby.
A strong wind arises and she leaps into a lake, but is saved by fairies, who frolic and transform Marytė into one of their own, until suddenly a carriage arrives, pulled by Antanas. Marytė liberates him and “they both remember their own fate and suffering”. When Veblevksy appears in the dream, Marytė becomes frightened and awakens. The final tableau portrays the people gathering in the Vargelis family's village after learning of the end of serfdom. Marytė returns from the estate and her uncle Trimpas arrives bearing a printed manifesto, which he reads to the assembled people and then hangs on a nearby tree. The people rejoice and later “disperse, singing.” Marytė’s and Antanas’ dream comes true. When the production was restaged in Vilnius, the libretto was adjusted to emphasize social disparities and conflict (with the serfs setting fire to the manor house). Later still, the ballet was again rewritten into a social and political allegory, expanding the fourth and sixth acts, and was renamed Aušta aušrelė (“Sužadėtinė“) (Dawn Breaks—The Fiancée).
The new production focused principally on the conflict between Antanas and Daugėla (formerly Veblevsky). New features included a revolver that Daugėla uses to shoot Antanas, a necklace used to tempt Marytė, and a whip to beat Marytė’s father. The rewritten libretto sought to display the “rapidly developing social awareness” of the ballet’s characters and their rise to fight their oppressors. The premiere of this version of the ballet took place at the Vilnius Opera and Ballet Theatre on November 23, 1952. (The Fiancée). The ballet’s libretto was constantly being rewritten, introducing an ever-increasing number of social and political elements, while the name of the first libretto’s author, Stasys Santvaras, who had emigrated to the West, disappeared entirely from the program.
Veblevsky begins fawning over Marytė, but Antanas soon arrives with his men. Marytė fails to escape from the estate and is locked away in a room inside the manor where, at midnight, Veblevsky visits her “to express his passion for her.” Antanas tries to save Marytė but is assaulted by manor servants and is forced to flee. In keeping with dramaturgical traditions of romantic ballets, the production also included a tableau portraying Marytė’s dream in which she—”tired, poor and homeless”—cradles her baby.
A strong wind arises and she leaps into a lake, but is saved by fairies, who frolic and transform Marytė into one of their own, until suddenly a carriage arrives, pulled by Antanas. Marytė liberates him and “they both remember their own fate and suffering”. When Veblevksy appears in the dream, Marytė becomes frightened and awakens. The final tableau portrays the people gathering in the Vargelis family's village after learning of the end of serfdom. Marytė returns from the estate and her uncle Trimpas arrives bearing a printed manifesto, which he reads to the assembled people and then hangs on a nearby tree. The people rejoice and later “disperse, singing.” Marytė’s and Antanas’ dream comes true. When the production was restaged in Vilnius, the libretto was adjusted to emphasize social disparities and conflict (with the serfs setting fire to the manor house). Later still, the ballet was again rewritten into a social and political allegory, expanding the fourth and sixth acts, and was renamed Aušta aušrelė (“Sužadėtinė“) (Dawn Breaks—The Fiancée).
The new production focused principally on the conflict between Antanas and Daugėla (formerly Veblevsky). New features included a revolver that Daugėla uses to shoot Antanas, a necklace used to tempt Marytė, and a whip to beat Marytė’s father. The rewritten libretto sought to display the “rapidly developing social awareness” of the ballet’s characters and their rise to fight their oppressors. The premiere of this version of the ballet took place at the Vilnius Opera and Ballet Theatre on November 23, 1952. (The Fiancée). The ballet’s libretto was constantly being rewritten, introducing an ever-increasing number of social and political elements, while the name of the first libretto’s author, Stasys Santvaras, who had emigrated to the West, disappeared entirely from the program.
The company’s creative spirit was lifted by revisiting classical ballets: Adolphe Adam’s Giselle, Leo Delibes’ Coppélia, Don Quixote by Ludwig Minkus, and Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, all mounted using the choreography composed for pre-war productions at the State Theatre by Nikolai Zverev and Aleksandra Fiodorova and the same sets and costumes from these earlier performances. In later years, the company continued to focus on a classical repertoire, which, while affording an opportunity to present a less than literal representation of the new Soviet reality, nevertheless transformed the ballet over time into a “museum piece” within the realm of the theatrical arts and continued to impede the search for new means of expression.
The aesthetics of Soviet Russian classical ballet gained a significant foothold in Lithuania through the production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The Lithuanian production was initially led by Kelbauskas, but in the end it was completed and mounted by Fyodor Lopukhov Fyodor LopukhovFyodor Lopukhov (October 20, 1886, Saint Petersburg – March 28, 1973, Leningrad) was a Russian ballet performer, choreographer, and educator.
Lopukhov graduated from the Imperial Theatre School, and from 1905 to 1922 danced with the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He toured Europe and the United States in 1910–1911. Lopukhov served three terms as director of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Opera and Ballet Theatre’s ballet company (1922–1931, 1944–1946, 1955–1956), and staged more than 20 ballets. In 1962, Lopukhov founded a Choreography Department at the Leningrad Conservatory, whose graduates include Konstantin Boyarsky, Nikolai Boyarchikov, and Giorgi Aleksidze, all of whom mounted productions on Lithuanian stages, as well as Lithuanian choreographers Elegijus Bukaitis and Alfredas Kondratavičius. (1886–1973), specially invited from Soviet Russia for this purpose. Lopukhov was a renowned dancer and choreographer who had toured Vilnius with concert performances in the early 20th century. Lopukhov made slight rewrites to the ballet’s libretto (striking the ball dances of the first act and doing away with the roles of the Joker and the Tutor) and adjusted Marius Petipa’s directorial and choreographic choices to adapt them to the ballet company’s capabilities. Sets and costumes for the ballet were designed by set designer Vytautas Palaima—his first project for a ballet production.
Lopukhov graduated from the Imperial Theatre School, and from 1905 to 1922 danced with the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He toured Europe and the United States in 1910–1911. Lopukhov served three terms as director of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Opera and Ballet Theatre’s ballet company (1922–1931, 1944–1946, 1955–1956), and staged more than 20 ballets. In 1962, Lopukhov founded a Choreography Department at the Leningrad Conservatory, whose graduates include Konstantin Boyarsky, Nikolai Boyarchikov, and Giorgi Aleksidze, all of whom mounted productions on Lithuanian stages, as well as Lithuanian choreographers Elegijus Bukaitis and Alfredas Kondratavičius. (1886–1973), specially invited from Soviet Russia for this purpose. Lopukhov was a renowned dancer and choreographer who had toured Vilnius with concert performances in the early 20th century. Lopukhov made slight rewrites to the ballet’s libretto (striking the ball dances of the first act and doing away with the roles of the Joker and the Tutor) and adjusted Marius Petipa’s directorial and choreographic choices to adapt them to the ballet company’s capabilities. Sets and costumes for the ballet were designed by set designer Vytautas Palaima—his first project for a ballet production.
By the time the Lithuanian SSR State Opera and Ballet Theatre was moved to Vilnius, the small ballet company had become quite professional. The company took up residence in the largest theatre then existing in the capital, on J. Basanavičiaus Street (now home to the Russian Drama Theatre), and remained there until 1974. The theatre itself was refurbished and rehearsal halls and storage rooms for props and costumes were enlarged.
A fondness for the Soviet Russian ballet style within Lithuanian ballet circles was already clearly evident in the early 1930s. Returning from a visit to Moscow, Bronius Kelbauskas mounted two ballets by Boris Asafiev, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and The Prisoner of the Caucasus, while the first premiere after the ballet company’s relocation to Vilnius was also linked to this school of choreography: Kelbauskas’ 1949 remounting of Reinhold Glière’s Red Poppy (first staged in Kaunas during the first Soviet occupation). Red Poppy portrays a love story between a Soviet captain and a Chinese tea dancer, a reflection of Soviet cultural propaganda in an era dominated by expanding ties with China and the promotion of the struggle against capitalism as one of the Soviet Union’s main ideological exports. Overall, ideological themes were less evident in the ballet company’s repertoire than on the stage of the drama theatre, but even classical ballets often emphasized motifs associated with social inequality. In 1952, Kelbauskas remounted Pakalnis’ ballet The Fiancée, with corresponding changes to the libretto and under a new title: Aušta aušrelė (Dawn Breaks).
Comments
Write a comment