Censorship in Ballet: the Case Study of The Master and Margarita by Mai Murdmaa in the Estonia Theater Ballet Company
Censorship in Ballet: the Case Study of The Master and Margarita by Mai Murdmaa in the Estonia Theater Ballet Company
Author(s): Heili EinastoSubject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Politics and society, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism, Politics of History/Memory, History of Art
Published by: Latvijas Universitātes Literatūras, folkloras un mākslas institūts
Keywords: censorship in the Soviet Union; Estonian ballet; censorship in theatre; Mai Murdmaa; the Estonia Theater Ballet Company;
Summary/Abstract: In 1985, Mai Murdmaa choreographed a ballet based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, set to music by Eduard Lazarev. This ballet offers a good example of late-Soviet-era censorship in ballet, as the Communist Party’s ideological functionaries interfered in the production of this ballet before and after its premiere. Censorship in the Soviet Union is difficult to research because it was a forbidden subject and there are few official references to it – most suggestions were made orally, and thus information about them is largely based on people’s memories. In the case of the ballet The Master and Margarita there are, in addition to oral sources based on memories, also a written record of an eyewitness about of the alterations made in the ballet in its first season of production. This article presents an overview of what happened and when, and analyzes the reasoning behind the changes.
Journal: Letonica
- Issue Year: 2023
- Issue No: 51
- Page Range: 144-157
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English