Kazan — summer 2010

Tonight I attended the ballet at the "M. Jalil Tatar Academic State Opera and Ballet Theater." We saw "Romeo and Juliet" set to Prokofiev's score. I wish I could convey to you how beautiful the theater itself is. It's a fully renovated building, and the inside walls are all a slightly off white, and all the decorations are gilt. (The inside photos all look yellowish because of the internal lighting, but really it is beautiful beyond words.)

I'm not a big ballet fan, but I'm glad I went. I have never listened to the whole score before, so the music and dance failed to touch my heart, though I thought both the musicians and dancers were very talented. I've noticed this about ballet and opera for me. I really need to read the literature and listen to the musical score several times before I see the event. That way the emotion of the production is more likely to reach me. On this occasion I failed to listen to the score in advance. My advice to viewers is this. If you go to the ballet or opera, be sure to buy a program and actually read about the action before each act. It makes a huge difference.

Below you will find some pictures of the building, and finally of me and Gulnaz (one of our Russian instructors here).