The original production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet by Matthew Bourne has remained one of the most significant events for almost three decades. There are many other works of different genres on the account of the choreographer. The New Adventures company, created by him, enjoys great success. Matthew Bourne is one of the most famous contemporary choreographers in Great Britain, his ballets are well known in Russia as well. The article provides an analysis of the main productions of the choreographer. On the basis of which an attempt is made to determine the features of the author’s style of Matthew Bourne and to assess the significance of his work.

The creative activity of professional art groups which create musical and choreographic works based on the traditional Cossack dance and musical culture is an important factor in the process of reviving the culture of the Russian Cossacks. One of the examples of such creative works is the vocal and choreographic performance The Don Legend, staged in 2015 at the State Dance Theater Cossacks of Russia. The article makes an attempt to comprehend the phenomenon of creating a full-scale choreographic performance on the material of the original culture of the Cossacks. Author makes an analysis of the artistic resources used in the production and their connections with the traditional dance and musical art of the Cossack.

The article discusses the premiere of 2019 - ballet La Bayadere staged by the Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato at the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg. A brief retrospective of the main stage embodiments of the ballet La Bayadere is given. A comparative analysis of the performance by Duato with the canonical Leningrad three-act version of the ballet by Marius Petipa in the edits of V. Ponomarev, V. Chabukiani, N. Zubkovsky and K. Sergeev in 1941 and 1948 is carried out. Conclusions are formulated on the work of Nacho Duato with the Russian classical ballet heritage. In particular, the author substantiates the position that, despite the leading position in the theater, Duato does not have complete creative freedom when creating performances. On the basis of the above analysis, the conclusion is substantiated that La Bayadère on the stage of the Mikhailovsky Theater is not an original and innovative production by N. Duato due to the fact that the choreography of the ballet is mostly borrowed from the production of Marius Petipa.

The article addresses the ethical aspects of the interaction of dancers (trust, will, intention, consent, directed communication). The assumption is made and their value as a qualitative characteristic and formative elements of partnering is proved. The concept of partnering extends to interaction with the object and acoustic space. Methodological recommendations on the structure of training in partnering are given. It is concluded that compliance with ethical standards distinguishes the situation of partnership from any other interaction.

The article deals with the unique system of training choral conductors at the A. V. Sveshnikov Choral School during the period of post-mutational growth. The complex and painful process of rebuilding the voice apparatus with the right approach and compliance with the rules of voice protection and hygiene must be passed without painful consequences.

Physiological changes in the vocal apparatus during the mutation period cause great problems in determining the classification and further direction of voice development. Voice protection and hygiene - essential complex measures that protect against incorrect voice production.

Considering the question of the multifaceted training of modern choral conductors, it is necessary to understand the enormous responsibility of the teacher-vocalist, who lays the main, fundamental foundations of vocal and technical skill in the learning process at the initial stage. Considering the question of the multifaceted training of modern choral conductors, it is necessary to understand the enormous responsibility of the teacher-vocalist, who lays the main, fundamental foundations of vocal and technical skill in the learning process already at the initial stage.

The article is devoted to the history of the creation of the opera by the American composer John Adams Doctor Atom — a version of American Faust, which tells about historical events. The opera Doctor Atom takes place in the days and hours leading up to the explosion of the first atomic bomb and is based on a representation of historical events: the July 1945 tests of an implosive plutonium bomb. The article analyzes the political views of the composer and the librettist, as well as their joint work within the framework of the production of an opera in a creative collaboration.

The article addresses a number of characteristic phenomena in the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Arthur Honegger. The works under consideration, dating back to the 1910s — early 1920s, reveal an artistic relationship in terms of problems and methods of musical embodiment — harmonic, textured, rhythmic, compositional. The circle of the studied works includes the Scythian Suite, the cantata The Seven of Them, the ballet The Tale of the Jester, Seven Fools Who Joked by S. Prokofiev and the symphonic poem Song of Nigamon, the mimic symphony The Winner of Horace, the stage production of Proverbs about games of the world A. Honegger.

The artistic heritage of the informal Hermitage group (1960–1990) is considered on the example of analytical interpretation of painting The Lion Hunt P. P. Rubens from the Hermitage collection. Representatives of different generations of painters from Hermitage group — A. P. Zaitsev, A. A. Bakun, S. M. Daniel, Y. A. Gusev, V. K. Kagarlitsky, M. E. Tumin, A. M. Sokolov and others-coherently — studied the nature and manner of creativity of old masters in the halls of the Museum through the analytical copying through deep analysis of internal build paintings. A study of the interpretation of the work of Rubens is maintained in historical and cultural context, which includes the history of the formation of the Hermitage group and the formation of the original principles of analytical interpretation of masterpieces of old masters. A unified method of unique empirical research not only enriched Rubens’ creative heritage, but showed the best artistic qualities in each researcher. Dealt with in article works demonstrate the path traversed by artists from copying for the purpose of study to the interpretation as the original creative manifestation, having an independent artistic value.

Theoretical and practical works of Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, created in the second half of the 20th century, continue to produce a great impact on modern theatre worldwide. Grotowski’s experiments formed the basis for a popular trend — anthropological theatre. For the first time ever, the article considers the five periods of Grotowski’s creative legacy from the perspective of the uprise and development of a complex methodology of exploration of human nature in the framework of theatrical and ritual traditions. Drawing on the theoretical underpinning of cultural (social) and structural anthropology, on works by Jung, Eliade, Levi-Strauss, Kosinski, the author of the article addresses complicated connections of Grotowski’s practical works and terms, that he introduces at different stages, follows the use of the Polish reformist’s ideas in modern anthropological theatre. The terms, suggested by Grotowski in the context of development of anthropological theatre, are becoming an important tool for modern art criticism.

The article is devoted to the consideration of the system of musical views of the outstanding Russian pianist and teacher of the first half of the twentieth century, Alexander Danilovich Kamensky (1900–1952). The relatively modest amount of information about his work with students is explained by the relatively short life path of A. D. Kamensky, the small number of his students and extremely active performing activity. Written evidence about the principles and methods of teaching Kamensky is rather scarce and scattered. This article is the first to present and structure information about the teaching methodology of A. D. Kamensky based on the memoirs of his students (D. A. Tolstoy, A. S. Berngardt, Yu. Khalfin and others), as well as on the basis of his own notes in the diaries. The influence of the “anatomical and physiological school” (such musicians as E. Bach and R. Breithaupt played an important role here) and the search for a “universal teaching method” covering different types of physique and mental organization are considered. Archival documents from the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg, as well as from the personal archive of A. D. Kamensky’s relatives, for the first time make it possible to get acquainted with Alexander Danilovich not only as a performer and composer, but also as a brilliant teacher.

The article is devoted to the study of the stage poetics of the play The Trap by M. A. Zakharov (Lenkom, 2019). The subject of the research is the components of Zakharov’s directorial methodology: director’s plot and its structure; the principles of the decoration of the performance; genre of staging; action composition; other. In addition, the task is to determine the place and role performance The Trap in the work of Zakharov. The sources of the research were reviews of the premiere and video recording of the performance, kindly provided to the author of the article by the directorate of the Lenkom Mark Zakharov Theater. The director stage studies the situation, artificially created according to the laws of intellectual drama, when modern heroes find themselves in the Stalin era, which is represented by the means of absurd drama. The play has an episodic structure, the pace of development of the action is provided by a single stage setting and the possibilities of its partial transformation, the rhythm is set by music and attractions. The production of the plot continues the line of Lenkom’s performances of the second half of the 2010s, it is about the nature of power and the peculiarities of the national mentality, which, according to Zakharov, determine the fate of Russia.

The article is devoted to the work of the famous St. Petersburg composer Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky — The Symphony Concerto for an Alto Domra and Symphony Orchestra. Written in 2005, the piece belongs to the composer’s later work, is a vivid example of his and has not previously been the subject of consideration in musicology. S. M. Slonimsky’s Symphony Concerto is a vivid example of the implementation of the synthesized genre in the context of music for domra. The article’s author designates the musical material’s genre origin of presented work, examines its harmonic basis, figurative and intonational sphere, and formation peculiarities. Special attention is directed to the study of the composer’s methods of working with material of folklore origin, the identification of interaction principles between the solo alto domra and the symphony orchestra. The article also discusses questions related to performing interpretation by analyzing the domra’s solo part. The author provides musical examples to demonstrate the work’s fragments that are most significant from the dramaturgy’s point of view. The topic of the article is actualized by the fact that the presented work has not previously been the subject of consideration in musicology.

The article examines the main trends in the evolution of the performance of Franz Liszt’s piano music on the example of his Transcendental Etudes, which have occupied one of the key places on the concert stage for more than a century and a half. The article also touches upon the aspect of the pianists’ embodiment of the concept of “transcendence” in musical images. The work is based on a retrospective historical overview of the development of Listianism and a comprehensive comparative analysis of the interpretations of Transcendental Etudes No. 1 and 2 by the performers of the 20th century: Svyatoslav Richter, Gyordy Tsifra and Leslie Howard. The author concludes that the tendencies in the evolution of performing performance from repertoire “omnivorousness” to narrow specialization and from fixing concert performances of individual pieces to studio recordings of “complete collected works” that appeared in the 20th century led to the evolution of imagery of interpretation from “fresco romantic painting” ( Richter) to a highly detailed (Digit) and intellectual and “rational” artistic image rather than its expressive and emotional content (Howard).

The article deals with a subject which has obvious practical importance for opera conductors. Its key idea is the need of an active involvement of the accompanist’s profession into the “passport of qualification”. In this connection, the author dwells on the history of the subject highlighting careers of a number of outstanding masters of the art of conducting who also distinguished themselves as accompanists. Their experience both proves beyond any doubt the profound in-ternal kinship between the arts of conducting and accompaniment sharing aims, musical materials and principles of work, and calls for the need to go back to the positive expertise accumulated by the previous generations of Russian educators and performers.