Anna Karenina Hits Tbilisi’s Main Stage

Tolstoy’s timeless novel makes triumphant debut under the guise of one of Russia’s top choreographers

The International Fund for Arts & Cultural Dialogue presented a marvelous premiere for ballet lovers on April 15-16 as the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg put on a performance of Lev Tolstoy’s acclaimed classic, Anna Kerenina.

This is the second time that ballet choreographer Boris Eifman has staged an interpretation of a literary classic for Tbilisi theater goers. During a previous visit to Georgia the company performed a rendition of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.

“Ballet is a very specific realm where psychological drama is reenacted and fulfilled; it is a chance to get an insight into the sub-conscious. Every new production is a search for the unknown,” Eifman has been quoted as saying.

The actors – examples of Russia’s famed school of ballet, unforgettable music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, elaborate costumes by Vyacheslav Okunyev and imposing sets by Zinovy Margolin all make for a fantastic show.

But for Eifman, it is the passion of the heroine of the story and her need to go against social norms and destroy the life she built for herself that propels the story. In the story, Anna is absorbed by passion and ready to sacrifice everything after falling in love with the dashing and much younger Prince Vronsky.

Eifman believes that Anna’s willingness to go against the grain is proof that the ballet is about the present instead of the past. The clear parallel to contemporary women’s private lives instantly grabs the audience’s attention. The psychological twists and turns of Tolstoy’s novel are given all of Eifman’s abilities as he .

While reading Tolstoy, I have always been able to see how fully and intimately he understands the inner world and psychology of his characters and how keenly and precisely he’s able to describe life in late 19th century Russia.

As a Tolstoy devotee, Eifman believes that contemporary literature consistently fails to mine the depths of passion and psychological trauma that Tolstoy so beautifully portrayed.

“I have always been able to see how fully and intimately Toslstoy understands the inner world and psychology of his characters and how keenly and precisely he’s able to describe life in late 19th century Russia.

Anna Karenina and his other productions have received widespread acclaim from the theater community.

“The ballet world no longer needs to search for its next great choreographer. He has arrived and his name is Boris Eifman,” the New York Times wrote in recent review of Eifman’s career. He has received similar praise from France’s Le Figaro and the LA Times, with the latter saying, “Of the ballet choreographers making narrative works for major stages, Russian Romantic Boris Eifman is virtually the only one totally in touch with the 21stst century… Eifman far outpaces the zeitgeist,”

Eifman is never one to shy away from the darker elements of stagecraft and nearly outdoes himself with his depiction of Anna Karenina, where he hopes to show the heavy toll that passion takes on an individual who becomes consumed by its irresistible powers.

By Maka Lomadze

Photo: Gia Abdaladze