The Wedding Cortège

A ballet in one act

Music

Dmitri Shostakovich

Set design

Alyona Pikalova and Tatiana Vyushinskaya

Costumes

Tatiana Noginova

Lighting

Kamil Kutyev

Choreography

the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Leonid Yakobson

The revived show premièred on November 30, 2018

9 minutes

The premise and choreography of this ballet have been inspired by the early paintings of Marc Chagall, from the so-called Vitebsk period.

A wedding cortège is moving down a street, accompanied by a tiny orchestra. The bride is overcome by sadness: her parents have arranged a union with a prosperous family, but she already has a sweetheart; the girl loves him dearly, but he is just as penniless as herself. The wretched youth is completely shattered. Writhing in agony, he starts begging, beseeching not to take his beloved away. But the wealthy groom's parents delight in jeering at him, and the bride's family is too powerless to stop the wedding from happening. The cortège moves on.

The young man, despondent and forlorn, bursts into bitter tears. The Wedding Cortège is a concise, laconic ballet with a heart-wrenching tragic undertone and an emphasis on the issue of social disparity. Each character has his or her own body language, completely unique and profoundly passionate.