The Bolshoi premiered Carmen Suite on 20 April, 1967. Ballet was completed quite quickly. Music, taken from opera Carmen by George Bizet, was transcripted in a record time by Shchedrin - it took him only twenty days. Splendid and accurate decorations, whose key idea ballet master formulated by this concise sentence: “Bullfighting is Carmen’s entire life”, were designed by well-known theater artist, Maya Plisetskaya’s cousin, Boris Messerer, principal artist of Moscow Art Theatre. Premiere cast (and the only cast for a long time), besides Maya Plisetskaya, included Nikolai Fadeyechev (José), Sergei Radchenko (Bullfighter), Natalia Kasatkina (Fate), Alexander Lavrenyuk (Corregidor); conducted by Gennady Rozhdenstvensky.

Baffled by the novelty, audience took ballet quite coldly. One of the few people who unconditionally accepted new performance was Dmitri Shostakovich. He immediately reported on that to the Ministry of Culture. Creators of such unusual and erotic Carmen Suite (clearly interpreted as politically incorrect) desperately needed support as their work was banned right away. “You betrayed classical ballet”, – Soviet Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva would claim outraged. Comments on this statement can be found in the book Portrait of Plisetskaya by Andrei Voznesensky. “In Carmen she first stepped on the soles of her feet, not on pointes, but solidly, flatly, in a flash-and-blood human way”.

Ballet was prohibited from being shown at Expo 67 in Canada (tour of The Bolshoi Theatre Ballet troupe was a part of cultural program of exhibition), yet it wasn’t banned there. From time to time Carmen gained success and would tour worldwide. The most precious recognition for Plisetskaya was by Spanish audience “When they (Spanish) shouted out “Ole”, I realized that I won” – she said.

“There was an interesting moment in Cuba. After our performance, Raul Castro came backstage. He congratulated artists and greeted Alexander Lavrenyuk, who had a role of Corregidor like this: hello, my military colleague. I think his sarcasm gave evidence that he got it: it was a political performance. Even If there was any evil deed in Carmen, it definitely was the political rationale behind, not the erotic one. In any case, erotica was not welcomed by Soviet government anyway (from interview to The Bolshoi Theatre newspaper, 11.2005).

“When telling the story of Carmen she usually mentions that Furtseva strongy recommended her to cover thighs. Spartak that was staged a year later had thighs exposed too. However it was perceived as ideologically correct. Costumes were not the problem. Her costume produced an effect of hyper sexuality onstage. The role interpretation was built around it. And that – like with any other roles as well – attracted to her thousands of people. Combination of imperial kremlin theatre with such apparent sexuality could not leave people indifferent (A. Ratmansky, from booklet for anniversary gala, 2005).

Revived in 2005, to celebrate 80^th anniversary of legendary artist, ballet continues living its second life on The Bolshoi Theatre stage. Prima ballerinas of different generation at The Bolshoi Theatre decided to try out the title role such as Galina Stepanenko, Maria Alexandrova, Svetlana Zakharova, Ekaterina Shipulina, Ekaterina Krysanova, Anna Nikulina, Olga Smirnova. This list, without any doubt, will be adding more names on it!

Mr. Samodurov is sure that in modern times the accent of the audience’s attention has shifted greatly: people come to ballet performances not to observe its aesthetic qualities, but for the energy boost. This is what he is giving them in his new opus, having infected the auditorium, as well as the artists involved in this ballet, with “dance mania”. Thanks to this production, the music by the wonderful St Petersburg composer, Yuri Krasavin, who was commissioned to write it by the Bolshoi, will be heard here once again (Vyacheslav Samodurov characterizes this music as 'high-voltage' and with a great sense of humour). It is a curious coincidence (if only it is not that very “special case of regularity”): just over twenty years ago at the Bolshoi, a ballet based on the canvases by the famous surrealist Rene Magritte was staged to the music of Krasavin, which was quite energetically charged and also with a sense of humour, and the ballet was called Magrittomania!