“Some time ago Slava Okunev called me on the phone and said: “Can you imagine: I’m sitting in a cosy cafeteria on the shore of Danube and looking through some old photographs… We should make a ballet using Strauss’ music, which would contain as little of depression as possible, and a lot of irony and glamour”. Just a little bit later I received his sketches by e-mail (it is not very easy to catch Okunev “live”). They reflected exactly what he was talking about, so I was immediately inspired to create a new plotline. I wanted to saturate the love story of this ballet with deep psychological undertones, although I refused to give all of the little details about composer’s tempestuous love affair with Russian girl Olga Smirnitskaya (she’s Anna in the libretto). Instead, I gave some features of the prima ballerina of Imperial Theatres Mathilde Kschessinska to the character of Francisca.”
~ Andrej Melanjin
Premiere: 31 December, 2011