The article highlights the work of the Polish dancer Stanislav Gillert on the Russian imperial stage at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Based on the materials of his personal file, periodicals and memoirs of contemporaries, the professional path of the artist is traced. Unlike many fellow countrymen invited to St. Petersburg or Moscow to perform mazurkas, Stanislav Gillert made a career as a classical dancer in Russia – he became the first performer of Prince Siegfried role in Swan Lake in Moscow, when he moved to the St. Petersburg stage, he was assigned the repertoire of the leading dancer of the Mariinsky Theater, and the provision of a teaching position at the St. Petersburg Theater School was recognition of his high professionalism. A comparison of references from the sources indicates that the stage success of the dancer, whose path has not yet been considered in the research literature, was not hindered by either the scandal associated with his name or a break in professional activity.

The fundamental problem of saving and studying of classical heritage not only guaranteed existence of old ballets in reality of new lives, but also provides insight into perspectives of development of choreography arts in future as assumed by the author of presented article. For understanding of accumulated experience in this area and developing acceptable benchmarks only repeating returns and multifaceted discussions provides success. In presented article the results of the discussion of this problem at the 1979 meeting of the Department of Culture of the Leningrad City Executive Committee were analyzed. Latter outlined the principal positions of the participants and their general confusion in understanding of current situation. For ensuring the productivity of the polemic the returning to the initial positions and specifying the terms in order to clarify them were proposed by the author.

The article deals with the problem of local inconsistencies in the dramatic strategies of the director of the TV ballet The Marriage of Balzaminov A. A. Belinsky and the author of the music V. A. Gavrilin. It is emphasized that the outline of the musical development of ballet tends to a greater extent to the genre model of lyrical comedy, while the director’s decision is aimed at forming the image of a sitcom. The composer’s idea, connected with the consistent disclosure of the psychological states of the protagonist, found its full expression in the author’s version of the suite from the ballet, which premiered in 1990. The structure of the suite emphasizes its differences from the musical drama of the TV version of The Marriage of Balzaminov, and puts the music itself (taking into account the strengthening of the lyrical beginning) in a different genre perspective.

The article is devoted to the Vaganova Ballet Academy’s history. For the first time it provides detailed information about the 1923’ graduates and the graduation performance as well as about preparations for the 185th anniversary of the first Russian ballet school celebration.

The article analyzes the specifics of the influence of cultural, social and biographical factors on the formation of opera vocalists. In the first part, based on the material of ancient treatises on the system of training opera singers, key points were identified that experts of the distant past considered important factors for the formation of opera mastery and future professional success. The corpus of sources includes treatises by representatives of the leading vocal school bel canto (as well as their successors and followers), written in the period from the Baroque era to the beginning of the 20th century, when the most important reforms in opera took place. In the second part of the article, based on interviews with modern representatives of opera creativity, socio-cultural factors that influence the preparation for a professional career today are described. Thus, it is possible to trace the continuity of the traditions recorded in the treatises of the past, and to identify the features of professional routes to the creative success of our contemporaries who have already taken place in opera.

The article is devoted to the famous teacher of character dance (folkstage dance) Ksenia Yesaulova, whose name unfairly forgotten recently. K. A. Yesaulova devoted over forty years of her pedagogical activity to the Perm State Choreographic School and firmly linked her name with it. K. A. Yesaulova, being a graduate of the Leningrad Choreographic School, as well as pedagogical and choreographic courses in it, stood at the origins of the Perm ballet and choreographic education in Perm. Carefully preserving the traditions of the Leningrad ballet school, she brought up a whole galaxy of outstanding character dancers, some of whom continued the work of their teacher in the pedagogical field. This article, based on the biographical method, describes the life and creative path of K. A. Yesaulova, the stages of her pedagogical style formation and concerns some issues of her teaching methodic.

The article is devoted to the study of the role of thoughtful reading of a book in the cultural and personal development of the future artist, dancer, actor, artist. The relevance of the reading process for future specialists in artistic culture is emphasized, since their professional activities fill the socio-cultural space with spiritual meanings. The functions of the book as a structured and reference custodian of the spiritual experience of generations are also considered. The humanistic essence of the book is considered as the most important means of transmitting knowledge, social experience and a means of professional development of the future artist. A review of the literature on the history of the art of ballet and choreographic education in Russia is recommended for the professional development of a student. The author emphasizes the great contribution of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in the preservation and popularization of the classical book heritage of Russia, dedicated to dance and theatrical art.

The paper is devoted to two premieres of the ballet Raymonda by A. K. Glazunov, which took place in May 2023 at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theater in Vladivostok and in June at the Samara Academic Theater named after D. D Shostakovich. Both performances were staged by the artistic directors of the ballet companies Eldar Aliev in Vladivostok and Yuri Burlaka in Samara. The first one is based on the historical production by Marius Petipa (1898) edited by Konstantin Sergeev (1948), the second one is a reconstruction of the lost Moscow production by Alexander Gorsky (1908). The review noted the originality of each production, its artistic merits, and evaluated the work of the performers.

The article is devoted to the analysis of one of the most significant music theatre composition De temporum fine comoedia by C. Orff. Within the framework of the ritual form, a complex philosophical concept is embodied, based on the fusion of Jewish, Christian, apocryphal prophecies about the end of time. The article traces the relationship of music and lyrics, their role in the embodiment of eschatological images of the last day, Divine will, the Last Judgment, the new heaven and the new earth.

The article discusses the essence of the concepts and phenomena of ‘creative industries’ and ‘art collaborations’, which determine a significant vector in the development of modern culture and art. The special role in the actualization of creative industries as a combination of creativity and high technology explains their relevance in the field of contemporary art, as well as the significance of its design forms with collective authorship. Specific examples show that creative partnership in the field of culture and art, carried out with the aim of creating and jointly promoting projects, becomes a tool for expanding the modern cultural space. The social and economic return of the conglomeration of different areas of human activity is emphasized, which, as a result, expands the concept of synthesis in the field of presented arts. The substantiation of the special role of art collaborations in the process of increasing and rejuvenating the target audiences involved in the field of art in general and academic music in particular is given. A number of art collaborative projects carried out by Russian concert organizations are analyzed, as well as examples of works initiated and implemented thanks to the creative and technological approach are given. This allows us to identify two vectors in the development of creative industries: design and organizational, aimed at creating new formats for presenting art, enlightenment and economic profitability; design and creative, associated with the creation of experimental works of art on the basis of art collaborations and modern technologies, opening up the horizons of the art of the future.

The article presents materials by S. K. Makovsky dedicated to A. N. Scriabin. Makovsky — representative of the Silver Age, editor of the Apollo magazine, critic, memoirist, son of a famous artist. After the death of the composer, he was a member of the Petrograd Scriabin Society and the Scriabin Wreath Foundation. Among Makovsky’s documents, the report “The Touch of Scriabin’s Music on the Plastic Arts” stands out, which is stored in the archives of the Makovsky Department of Manuscripts of the State Russian Museum. The autograph contains Makovsky’s memories of a meeting with the composer at the school of E. I. Rabeneck and reflections on the “dance of the future”. The document by S. K. Makovsky, which is an interesting evidence of Scriabin’s choreographic searches, emphasizes the special role of the composer’s works on the way to the ideal embodiment of “synthesis of the arts”.

This article analyses the play Here is Lear by the Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT) which was founded in 1986 by director and actor Wu Xinguo. Based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, the director combines the scenic techniques of Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera with music and dance from Taiwanese rituals, as well as European traditions. In Here is Lear, Wu Xinguo plays ten roles alone. The study reveals how different Chinese schools are embodied in the actor’s work. The actor uses the types of a role (han dan principles) of the Peking opera. For Lear, laosheng is used. The article analyses individual characteristics of three Lear’s daughters through comparison of three different schools (masters Ceng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng, Mei Lanfang) of the dan role performed by male actors.