Petrouchka

The composer Stravinsky created his Petrouchka in 1911, while the choreographer Varnava created his in 2017. In his adaptation of  the masterpiece, which has not lost its relevance over the last 106 years, the choreographer kept the contours of the libretto, but placed the characters in an entirely different environment. The amusing scenes were substituted with a devil’s clownery. No crowd at the fair, no people dressed up, no merchants or gypsies. Even the traditional bear was substituted with a panda and circus sideshows, made up of big-eared creatures wearing gray suits. "The plot of the ballet unfolds in Pétrouchka’s consciousness, represented in the form of a phantasmagorical circus," the choreographer says. "For us, Petrouchka is a person hunted by the collective, his talent lies in the fact that he senses things more deeply than others. A lonely soul, an individuality, who comes face to face with a crowd. He thinks about the concept of free will: does his own choice actually exist, or has everything been preordained and he is just a character with a role already written."