Don Giovanni’s Journey

There can be no better confirmation of the Bolshoi’s total integration into the world opera, dance and festival space, than its first two premieres of the present season. Both — the recent ballet and approaching opera first night — are the result of collaboration with world-famous companies and both have a French ‘accent’, so appropriate in the Year of France in Russia and of Russia in France. (We remind readers that the ballet season kicked off with a piece by the well-known choreographer Anjelin Preljocaj And Then, One Thousand Years’ Peace, uniting Bolshoi Ballet dancers and dancers from his own Company, based in Aix-en-Provence). Don Giovanni, which opens this season’s series of opera premieres also ‘comes’ from Aix-en-Provence. It is a co-production of the Bolshoi Theatre, the Festival international d’art lyrique d’ Aix-en-Provence, Teatro Real, Madrid and the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto.