Coming of the Golden Age

by Gwen Herat

It is a unique ballet and according to its choreographer and ballet master of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, there is nothing like it in the world. I am referring to Yuri Grigorovich’s Golden Age. It is a modern ballet so different from the Russian classic set in the Chicago, prohibition era.

The way Grigorovich mounts Dmitry Shostakovich’s Golden Age makes it an event of more magnitude than a normal one.

Quest for the Golden Age

Unlike Bolshoi which specialises in big operas and ballets, the lesser known ones look for chamber pieces and lay precedence to works of modern directors who can lay emphasis on life as it is today. Yet, this intent is not easy to achieve as composers do not make operas and ballets on contemporary themes, for example, when in 1974 Director Mikhail Yourovsky and Sergei Sapozhnikov, a music historian and composer working as a consultant came up with the idea of resurrecting the forgotten ballet music of Shostakovich’s The Golden Age.

They approached the composer who reacted somewhat sceptically. He told them he was not in possession of the notes or the scores and would not happy at the condition of them if they could be found in the archives. Shostakovich did not want to kill their enthusiasm and gave them access to his personal archives where some originals lay.

The better part of material were in the Leningrad archives and also in the library of the Kirov Theatre where the ballet had been performed. Sapozhnikov and Yorovsky were two who had a sound knowledge of music but they found it difficult a task to locate what they were looking for. When found, they were in a chaotic condition and were faced with the task of sorting them out within a limited time. The new version had to be ready by a scheduled date.

Did their plans have to be altered?

No. Sapozhnikov determined to keep to schedule whatever it involved and restore at least the music of Shostakovich’s first ballet, The Golden Age. Some pages had vanished, some pieces were found without names and the files with the Golden Age contained works of others and they were all in a mess. In such cases he had to determine whether they belonged to the ballet at hand or some other work.

Some scores were nowhere to be found. After an exhausting research, all were ready. His strength and determination to unearth a gigantic research score, inspired Sapozhinikov who went all out to render whatever was within his power. What Sapozhnikov desired was the most scrupulous filigree precision music and that side of things were undertaken by a pupil of Shostakovich, the famous composer, Benjamin Basner. The current full score includes amendments made by Shostakovich after the 1930 premiere.

Some of the pages are evidently proved as they were found dated with amended orchestral tones and sounds which means they could have emerged only from an orchestra heard by a large audience during a performance of the ballet. But unfortunately Shostakovich did not live to see the final of all his works. He passed away in 1975 and the great effort to rebuild The Golden Age was completed only in 1980. So, the original score became a dossier of music paper.

Then, arrived Dmitry Shostakovich, the talented and dedicated wife of the composer who was a one-time editor of a music publisher, made a request to Yuri Grigorovich to return The Golden Age to the stage. Here was a man of true talent and the top Soviet choreographer of the day whose ballets brought new vigour to this fine art. Dmitry Shostakovich was absolutely right in her choice. The famous ballet critic, Mary Clerk reviewed Griogorovich saying that he was the choreographer who could be outdone only by himself and it proved to be true. Grigorovich’s innovative powers attracted people in the most diverse countries.

Shostakovich held him in high esteem as a talented choreographer and spotting his abilities, he was assigned to his first major ballet The Stone Flower’ when he was only thirty years old. Thus the composer and choreographer became the best of friends and met for chats. Grigorovich always had the dream of mounting a ballet with Shostokovich’s music but did not have the courage to ask him, knowing that the composer was going through stress, dragged through ballets and also being engaged in more serious symphonic works. But fate brought about his greatest dream, Grigorovich was over the moon mounting The Golden Age and drove it with such passion. After half a century of silence, The Golden Age was resurrected but the work to the return of the ballet had just begun with intense efforts under way. This clearly fettered the composer who earlier found narrow bounds and lyrical moments making their way into his score and vague about what would really be the end. But the compositions, style and spirit the new version offered, made Golden Age take a turn for excellence.

Now, the ballet included human comedy in its music, the Adagio from the First and Second Concertos for Fortepiano that brought spectacular effects. The composer himself made such transfer of theme material from one work to another. For example, The Golden Age has the theme from the finale of his First concerto for Fortepiano. Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky had done the same.

The insertion in the Golden Age had been done with utmost taste and tact, so much so that composers such as Georgy Sviridov were enraptured. It took over a year before the final touch was put to the ballet and was ready for mounting. An inseparable partner of Grigorovich, Simon Virsaladze designed the massive stage. The Chief Conductor of the Bolshoi theatre, Yari Simonov and a young assistant, under Lavrenok were in charge of the orchestra. The premiere of The Golden Age in all its glory, was staged in November 1982 and was such an outstanding success that it evoked rave reviews.