Fire

A ballet to music by Dmitri Shostakovich

The ballet Fire is a direct provocation both to the audience in Ruse and to all the institutions and organizations on whom the earliest possible restoration of the stage of the Ruse Opera after the fire in 2020 depends, either directly or indirectly.

That is precisely why this production will be presented on the stage of the Ruse Opera, even though it is still completely unfit for performances. Set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich from his symphonies and ballets — the composer who triumphed twice on this very stage six decades ago — the modern alternative ballet performance will reveal what “fires” burn in the human souls of those who have devoted themselves to the theatrical stage.

The theatre — as a stage that looks at life as through a frighteningly candid magnifying glass; life — as a theatrical phenomenon reproduced; and all of it engulfed by the true fire of self-destruction, of war — all comes to life on the long-suffering stage of the Ruse Opera.

A stage-history, a stage-memory, a stage-remembrance — of the passionate fires that have consumed its artists over the decades: the fires of love and jealousy, the fires of fame and envy, the fires of blind obedience and protest, the fires of workaholism and devotion. Fires that smolder or blaze fiercely, fires that consume us, fires from whose ashes we invariably rise again with the power of hope.

Libretto and choreography: Natalia Osipova

Conductor: Dimitar Kosev

Set design: Ifetsa Popova

Ballet, soloists, choir and orchestra of the State Opera Ruse