On 30 April Anastasia Matvienko will be making her debut in the title role in the ballet Anna Karenina.
In this ballet based on Lev Tolstoy’s novel, as an artist with a flawless sense of measure Alexei Ratmansky has succeeded in interpreting the great plot with cinematic lightness and without superfluous sentiments. He has constructed the plot as a series of Vronsky’s memories already after Anna’s death. In the ballet scenes that follow impetuously one after the other the dance is laconic and it unfolds in major forms only in key episodes. The duets of the characters, just like the landmark moments of their inner lives, resemble emotional and dance explosions, and the performers of the lead roles face the task of living as and telling the story of their characters. When Ratmansky was working on the production with Mariinsky Ballet dancers in 2010, he rehearsed the lead female role with three ballerinas. Taking into account their different psychological and physical qualities as well as their individual characters, the choreographer amended his text for each dancer, allowing them freedom for personal interpretations. In this ballet the way that the role of Anna is danced is determined by the performers, each bringing out some feature of this complex character that is close to her own self. What will Anastasia Matvienko’s Anna be like? This season the dancer has already worked on several lead roles in various ballets, appearing as Cinderella, Syuimbike, Mekhmeneh Bahnu and a soloist in Le Parc as well as continuing to expand her repertoire, which includes both classical and contemporary productions, plot-less ballets and dramatic narrative ballets alike.
In addition to Anastasia Matvienko’s debut as the ballet’s female protagonist on 30 April, the series of performances of Anna Karenina on 29 and 30 April will see several other debuts in episodic roles and as minor characters. On 29 April Alexei Tyutyunnik will be appearing for the first time as Count Tushkevich while Lira Khuslamova will be making her debut as the Nanny. On 30 April Alisa Sodoleva will be performing the role of Dolly for the first time together with Yekaterina Mikhailovtseva as Countess Vronskaya and Irina Prokofieva as Princess Shcherbatskaya. The role of Yegorushka will be performed by Anatoly Marchenko for the first time and that of Annushka by Alisa Rusina while Maria Lebedeva will perform the role of the Beggar-woman.

News source: The State Academic Mariinsky Theatre
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