Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The repertoire includes such classics as Tchaikovsky‘s "Eugene Onegin" and "Swan Lake" and works by Mozart, Verdi and Rossini. Other popular productions are Massenet‘s ballet "Manon" and the operas "Don Juan" by Mozart, "War and Peace" by Prokofiev and Wagner‘s "Das Rheingold". The latest productions are Tchaikovsky‘s "The Nutcracker" Puccini‘s "La Boheme" and Verdi‘s "Macbeth". The most famous Russian ballet companies are; Tatchkine, St. Petersburg, Bolshoi companies just to name a few of the most famous.

For the history of Russian Classical ballet, it originated in a group of dance academies in Moscow and St Petersburg in the eighteenth century. At first the dancers were from poor backgrounds - usually from orphanages - but the Tsars were particular ballet enthusiasts and so the profile grew. However, in the nineteenth century some of the best French and Italian dancers and teachers went to Russia and ballet developed considerably more than in Western Europe where opera was preferred. It was under this climate that Russian ballet led the way in classical dance with such famous stars as Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Foskine and the legendary Nijinsky, who all trained with the Frenchman Marius Petipa at the St Petersburg Imperial Ballet.

The Overture 1812 ("1812") was composed in 1880 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the most famous of all Russian composers and perhaps best-loved for his ballet

Although it was The Firebird ballet, first performed in Paris in 1910, that began his international career, and although the orchestral suite has remained his most popular work, he was still a little embarrassed by it years afterwards. The original "wastefully large" instrumentation he revised in 1919, when he wrote a second suite, and again in 1945, when he put together a third and longer orchestral suite. Such critical actions, he said, "are stronger than words."

Three years later in 1866 he and his family had moved to Moscow with a professorship of harmony at a new conservatory. Even by this time very little of his music had pleased the conservative musical establishment or the more nationalist group. It was not until 1868 when his 1st Symphony had a good public reception when heard in Moscow.

‘Swan Lake' was re-choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in1895, after initially being choreographed by Julius Reisinger in 1877. The musical score was composed by Pytor Tchaikovsky. ‘Swan Lake' was created towards the end of the romantic period, so the culture and style of romanticism was prominent, with glimpses of the beginning of the classical era. Because of this, it contains elements of both eras. Some of the romantic characteristics include the pursuit of the unattainable, romance, fantasy, focus on the female role, gas lighting and simple sets, pointe work, soft and feminine technique for females and the bell tutu. Some of the classical features include the length of the ballet, the classical tutu and more

Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular of all composers. The reasons are several and understandable. His music is extremely tuneful, opulently and colourfully scored, and filled with emotional passion. Undoubtedly the emotional temperature of the music reflected the composer's nature. He was afflicted by both repressed homosexuality and by the tendency to extreme fluctuations between ecstasy and depression. Tchaikovsky was neurotic and deeply sensitive, and his life was often painful, but through the agony shone a genius that created some of the most beautiful of all romantic melodies. With his rich gifts for melody and special flair for writing memorable dance tunes, with his ready response to the atmosphere of a theatrical situation

During the latter part of his life, rumors emerged of Tchaikovsky being a homosexual. This effected how his works were received, mainly in the Western part of the world. According to Poznansky, “His music began to be criticized as sentimental, romantically excessive, charged with many imperfections and even pathological” (Poznansky, 2012). It is now known that although Tchaikovsky was married to Antonina Miliukova in July 1877, their marriage lasted less than three months. Tchaikovky admits to having homosexual escapades in 1861 and even to falling in love with a student, Losif Kotek. It is quite obvious that these events have no bearing on the popularity of his work now.

The composer of the Nutcracker is Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky. Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 in Vyatka, Russia. Tchaikovsky was the 2nd oldest child in his family out of 6 children. When Tchaikovsky was 5 he began taking his first piano lessons. When he was 10 he went to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence which was a very prestigious school for boys located in St. Petersburg, Russia. At age twenty-one he decided to take lessons at the Russian Musical Society, it was here that he became one of the first composing students. Tchaikovsky’s first public performance was in 1865. His first well received symphony was in 1865 and was called Piano Concerto No. 1. Tchaikovsky died in St. petersburg on November 6, 1893.

Tchaikovsky=s first masterpiece was composed from 1869-1870. It was a symphonic fantasy based on Shakespeare=s Romeo and Juliet. ARomeo and Juliet@ was the first of Tchaikovsky=s works in which his superbly

waltzes, which were then performed by his orchestra. He soon began receiving praise for his

During his years in Moscow, Tchaikovsky was able to teach, compose, write, travel, and associate with other composers of the time. With one of those, Balakirev, a member of a group of Russian composers known as "the Five", he formed a close friendship, and from him he gained the idea for the fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet. But the relationship between him and the Five soured, and he even later parodied in one of ballets their use of certain folk melodies over and over again. Although Tchaikovsky was enjoying life in Moscow among his composer friends, he found himself constantly in periods of deep depressions and unhappiness. The largest contributor to his bouts of depression and sadness was his self-hatred and guilt that he had from carrying a heavy secret: Tchaikovsky was gay.

At 1889, he attended the Paris International Exposition, where he discovered the wondrous colours of Asian music that picked up his interest. He was also fascinated by the pieces composed by the Russian composers Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, therefore he was lured in to the folk music of Russia soon after.

From September of 1850 to May of 1859, Tchaikovsky attended the School of Jurisprudence. At this boarding school in St. Petersburg, he received an excellent education and further pursued his interest in music. During this time,

'It seems to me, my dear friend, that the music of this ballet will be one of my best creations. The subject is so poetic, so grateful for music, that 1 have worked on it with enthusiasm and written it with the warmth and enthusiasm upon which the worth of a composition always depends." - Tchaikovsky, to Nadia von Meck.