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Winning the Battle - The Moscow Times

The Bolshoi Theater's decision to fit Sergei Prokofiev's sprawling operatic epic, "War and Peace," into the limited confines of its New Stage seemed, from the very beginning, a recipe for disaster. Doubts about the production were raised still further by the defection, just 10 days before its originally scheduled Dec. 6 premiere, of conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, whose leadership in the pit was billed as its principal attraction. But well before the curtain fell on last Friday's delayed opening night, it became abundantly clear that the Bolshoi had managed, against the odds, to come up with perhaps its most outstanding operatic achievement of the entire post-Soviet era. No doubt some with keener knowledge than mine of Leo Tolstoy, Prokofiev and the proverbial Russian Soul will dispute my assessment. But to me, the new Bolshoi staging by Macedonian director Ivan Popovski goes More directly to the heart of "War and Peace" than its principal competitor elsewhere in Russia, the lavish version of the opera that opened at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater in 2000 and Made its way to Moscow in May this year. Musically speaking, the two productions seem practically on a par, with a few weaknesses in each overwhelmingly offset by - More available

Musical Theater

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