Altynai Asylmuratova, artistic director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company

Simon Virsaladze, set and costume designer
Ruslan Pronin, production coordinator and assistant choreographer
Oksana Tsvetinskaya, assistant choreographer
Mikhail Sapozhnikov, revival designer
Lyudmila Ius, Elena Netsvetaeva-Dolgaleva, revival costume designers
Alexey Perevalov, lighting designer
Yerzhan Dautov, chief choirmaster

Slovenian Philharmonic Women’s Choir

Cast:
Spartacus: Bakhtiyar Adamzhan
Crassus: Arman Urazov
Phrygia: Madina Unerbayeva
Aegina: Aigerim Beketayeva
Gladiator: Serik Nakyspekov

Aram Khachaturian began writing the ballet Spartacus  in December 1941, during the most tragic days of the Second World War. He was greatly inspired by the heroic figure of Spartacus and the theme of the slave revolt in ancient Rome. The work was completed in 1954 and premiered two years later. The ballet was perfected in 1968 when Yury Grigorovich, a master of Soviet ballet, developed a new, psychologistic production, tense with tragedy. The music embodies the best qualities of the composer: bright imagery, exuberant ensemble scenes and a unique melodicism which organically combines European sound with oriental undertones. The ballet will be performed by the State Opera and Ballet Theatre Astana Opera in collaboration with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. The Theatre was founded in 2013 on the initiative of the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and has quickly established itself as one of the biggest institutions of its kind in Central Asia thanks to worldwide tours and collaborations with stars such as Plácido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, and Anna Netrebko. Besides performing top classical works, their repertoire is characterised by a desire to support Kazakh composers. Already last year, Astana Opera has dazzled audiences with its performances of various ballet excerpts.

• Yury Grigorovich was artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995
• the story of Spartacus was also told in the 1960 film Spartacus  directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas (Michael Douglas’s father), the film won four Academy Awards and at the time of its release was the highest-grossing film in the history of Universal Studios
• the Soviet Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian composed the first Armenian ballet music, symphony, concerto and film score
• the Astana Opera company has performed at many leading cultural venues including the Graz Opera, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in Rome, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia
• in 2017 the Astana Opera was the venue for Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition