Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
26
out of the post-Soviet slump and finding a
balance between honoring the classics and
testing new artistic directions.
Russia's rigorous
ballet
traditions have
relaxed little in the past 200 years, and
that commitment to physical perfection
carries over into every form of dance rep-
resented in today's Russia. Even strippers
often have classical training. The wave of
departures by Russian ballet prodigies
for richer Western companies has ebbed
in recent years, and a new generation is
carrying on the traditions of Baryshnikov,
Nureyev, and Nijinsky in their homeland.
Russia's reputation makes it a top destina-
tion for dance festivals, offering a great
opportunity to see international super-
stars or smaller European and Asian com-
panies.
For
classical music
fans, there's no bet-
ter way to pay tribute to the homeland of
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky,
Scriabin, Shostakovich, and Rimsky-Kor-
sakov than to hear their works played in a
Russian conservatory by their dedicated
heirs. Russia's musicians—like its athletes
and dancers—are trained from preschool
age, with strict discipline and devotion to
classicism. Even though musicians remain
dreadfully underpaid and many have left
for more lucrative jobs, theirs remains a
highly selective profession. Any concert
you hear in Russia is bound to be of top
quality.
Devotees of playwright
Anton Chek-
hov
and the
Stanislavsky acting method
may appreciate a visit to the
Moscow Art
Theater,
where both found fame. How-
ever, it's difficult to celebrate their contri-
butions to theater traditions in Moscow or
St. Petersburg without a good command
of Russian. A relatively new phenomenon
in the Russian performance scene is the
musical; fans of the originals may find it
amusing to watch the Russian-language
version of
Chicago
or
The Hunchback of
Notre Dame.
What Russian
opera
lacks in subtlety, it
makes up for in volume and visuals. Opera
tickets generally cost less than ballet tick-
ets, and seeing Mussorgsky's historical saga
Boris Godunov
is a dramatic way to dose
up on Russian culture and see the interior
of a monumental theater like the Mariin-
sky (Kirov) at the same time.
RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Dense, fatalistic, philosophical, lyrical,
haunting, bleak, passionate. . . . These
stereotypes cling to Russian literature and
often scare newcomers away. But even a
little knowledge of the country's greatest
authors will help you make sense of the
many literary museums, monuments, and
slogans you'll run across during your trip.
Russians are extremely well-read, and take
any opportunity to celebrate their literary
traditions (and they may know more
about your country's authors than you
do).
Russian writing didn't really blossom
until the 19th century, long after most
European cultures had well-established
literary traditions. In the early 1800s, serf-
dom was still enshrined in law, and literacy
remained the luxury of the upper classes,
who preferred to read European literature
to demonstrate their Western mind-set.
But a burst of nationalism following the
victory over Napoleon began to change
Russia's literary habits, much as it affected
Russian art of the same period. A growing
class of students in universities and acade-
mies took up their pens.
Alexander Push-
kin
is the most important of these, revered
by Russians as the father of modern Rus-
sian literature for applying day-to-day
language to poetic forms. This made his
work more accessible than any other Rus-
sian writer's work before his. His death in
a duel in 1837 at the age of 37 elevated
him to icon status.
If Pushkin's romantic epics such as
Eugene Onegin
and
Ruslan and Ludmila
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