U.S. To Sample Kirov Archives' Riches - Library of Congress given access to Kirov Ballet Company and Kirov Opera Company records - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, August, 2001 by George Jackson

On the heels of the Kennedy Center's ten-year agreement with St. Petersburg's Kirov/Maryinsky Theatre that will bring some of Russia's best ballet and opera to the U.S. capital annually (see Presstime News, Dance Magazine, June, page 36) came another arrangement that will give Library of Congress patrons access to priceless documents on Russian dance. This spring, the LC announced that it would help to preserve holdings in the Imperial Music Library, which is part of the archive of the Kirov/Maryinsky. It is a fabulous collection of musical scores, related documents, and other items--including stage directions and dance notations--relevant to opera and ballet. Unfortunately, many of these holdings were beginning to decay.

In return for its conservatorial assistance, the Library of Congress will receive copies of the rare source documents and plans to make them available to researchers. Stagers and scholars might, for example, be able to look up Lev Ivanov's original choreography for the Polovtsian Dances in Borodin's opera Prince Igor and compare it to Mikhail Fokine's revision, which is better known.

To launch this pact, a concert in the LC's Coolidge Auditorium featured several opera singers from the Kirov/Maryinsky and one of its ballerinas: Uliana Lopatkina, who danced Fokine's The Dying Swan. The performance marked the ballerina's return to the stage following a major injury, and her rendition was poignant and noble. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and Valery Gergiev, artistic director and principal conductor of the K/M, presided at the black-tie event, which was attended by members of Congress and people from the performing-arts world. Initial visits to St. Petersburg by LC staff have already taken place. The entire project is expected to take several years, but the Library plans to make individual items available as soon as work on them is completed.