A Stalinist Soviet Collective Farm Funny? Emerging Pictures Presenting the Bolshoi's Rollicking and Raucous Comedic Ballet "The Bright Stream" in Movie Theaters Nationwide LIVE in HD on Sunday, April 29th

NEW YORK, April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A 1930's Soviet collective farm is not an expected setting for light-hearted comedy, but American audiences will be laugh-out-loud surprised at the antics on stage when Emerging Pictures brings to the big screen the exhilarating and hilarious performance of "The Bright Stream," LIVE in HD from Moscow's renowned Bolshoi Ballet on Sunday, April 29th, at 11 a.m. (Eastern).

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The live performance will be seen simultaneously in nearly 150 of Emerging's network of 300 theaters; the others theaters in the network will show the performance "captured live" in the weeks following the live performance.

Choreographed by international star choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, with music by Dmitry Shostakovich, the cast features a host of world-class dancers, including Svetlana Lunkina, Mikhail Lobukhin, Maria Alexandrova, Ruslan Skvortsov, Denis Savin, Alexei Loparevich and Anastasia Vinokur.  Music is conducted by musical director Pavel Sorokin.

Participating theaters (www.balletincinema.com) and tickets are available at theater box offices and online at http://www.emergingcinemas.com/titles/the-bright-stream-bolshoi/. 

A boisterously comical ballet in two acts, "The Bright Stream" celebrates love and its sometimes funny disillusionments.  The ballet tells the story of the members of a Russian farm collective in the 1930's and their humorous interactions with a group of ballet dancers who have been sent to provide sophisticated entertainment for them during the harvest festival.  After some complicated amorous intrigues, it turns out that the honest country bumpkins have more to teach the city folk than the other way around.

The history of "The Bright Stream" is one that mirrors much of the not-so-humorous political life of the Soviet Union during the early 20th century.  Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich, with a libretto by Adrian Piotrovsky and Fedor Lopukhov, it premiered in Leningrad in 1935 with Lopukhov's choreography.  The ballet was a great success in Leningrad and Moscow.  But Joseph Stalin did not share the public's enthusiasm.  A February, 1936 editorial in "Pravda" ended the performances.  Librettist Piotrovsky was sent to a gulag and never heard from again; choreographer Lopukhov's career was ended; and Shostakovich was banned from having any of his theatrical scores performed.  

Alexei Ratmansky came across the full score of the ballet in 1995.  Since the choreography from the original ballet had never been annotated, there was no way for him to stage the ballet with its original dancing.  Instead, he choreographed and staged a new version which premiered at Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet in 2003, and subsequently at the Met in New York in 2005 and at London's Royal Opera House in 2006.

Estimated running time of the April 29th performance is 125 minutes, including one intermission.

About Emerging Pictures
Emerging Pictures, managed by Barry Rebo and Ira Deutchman, is the largest all-digital Specialty Film and Alternate Content theater network in the United States. With hundreds of venues in the U.S. as well as a growing presence across the globe – from London to Latvia – Emerging's network includes traditional art houses, museums, performing arts centers and commercial multiplexes, including Carmike Cinemas, Harkins Theatres, Allen Theatres, Laemmle Theaters and others. The company also distributes programming worldwide under its Ballet in Cinema and Opera in Cinema brands.

Photography and press notes available at:
http://files.emergingpictures.com/2-%20Ballet/1-%20Ballets/The%20Bright%20Stream/Press%20Kit/

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Media Contact:
Ray Forsythe
RLForsythe Communications for Emerging Pictures
(212) 861-2100
[email protected]

SOURCE Emerging Pictures