The ballet «The Master and Margarita» appeared in the repertoire thanks to the theater’s collaboration with the renowned European choreographer Edward Clug, who received a commission to create an exclusive production for the Bolshoi Ballet Company. The world premiere took place on December 1, 2021, and attracted the close attention of the general public.
Mikhail Bulgakov’s famous novel, which has been staged in theatres and films many times, despite its appeal to intellectuals around the world, is still too closely tied to the realities of our country’s history, and therefore the fact that the idea to stage a ballet based on this book came from a foreigner has generated additional interest in the production. In addition to the title characters and other main characters of the novel, who are very well known to everyone, this work also features another equally significant «hero» — Moscow in the 1930s.
Edward Kljug, a choreographer of Romanian origin who has been leading the Slovenian troupe — the ballet company of the theatre in Maribor — for almost a quarter of a century, turned a pool into a «genius loci.» He was guided by the conviction that it was necessary to choose a single location for the action, without visualizing the different places where the events unfold, so as not to create unnecessary difficulties for himself and not to overwhelm the audience with excessive variety in the scenery. An empty pool with a large number of doors around it, leading to changing rooms, provides an excellent opportunity to visit all the locations and read through all the chapters of the book, the choreographer decided. And as an argument in his favor, he listed the «platforms» that, in his opinion, successfully «water his mill.»
The question that Edward Kleg also pondered for a painfully long time was this: is it possible to convey in a ballet the love that is based on the heroine’s sacred attitude towards the hero’s creativity? «Perhaps that is precisely my message,» says Mr. Kleg. «When I first read this novel, I was very young. I didn’t analyze it, I didn’t read it from a political perspective; I simply enjoyed the craft, the literature.» This book, it seems to me, rises even above its own concept, above the author’s intentions. And I wanted to convey this feeling in my performance. To metaphorically convey the artistic quality of this book in dance. Margarita loves the manuscript. She is in love with the Master’s creation. It has taken hold of her mind. She depends on it. She is enslaved by it. She is ready to sell her soul for it… It’s captivating. In any case, I was completely and utterly captivated.
