DRAGON AND SWALLOW

Biography

One-act ballet in 4 scenes.

Music - Balnur Kydyrbek. Libretto, choreography and staging - Zaurbek Raibayev. Set designer - Orynbasar Zhanbyrshiyev. Costume designer - Tolkyn Esaliyeva. Production conductor - Mukhtar Kaldayakov.

The premiere took place in 1996 at the Abay SAOBT.

Characters and performers: Serpent Aidakhar- Maxim Chelnokov; Swallow - Evgenia Vizhunova; Mosquito - Leila Alpieva; Eagle - Zaure Umbetkulova.

The dramatic basis of the ballet was the Kazakh folk tale “Why the swallow has a tail with little horns”. In ancient times, the serpent Aidakhar ruled over all living beings and non-living, and mercilessly ate all the inhabitants of the steppe. The vile Mosquito was running errands for him. One day, Aidakhar fell ill and ordered the Mosquito to fly around the whole earth and find out whose blood is the sweetest in order to destroy this creature. The mosquito found out that a human has the sweetest blood and hurried to inform Aidakhar about it. The swallow wanted to protect the human, and she rushed to the Mosquito like an arrow and pinched off the tip of his tongue with a sharp beak. Aidakhar became furious at the Swallow and jumped into the sky. The Swallow darted aside and escaped from death. The villain only managed to grab her by the tail, pulled out a few feathers from the middle of the tail and collapsed to the ground, hit on a stone and died.

Bibliography

• Жумасеитова Г.Т. Страницы казахского балета. – Астана: Елорда, 2001. – 144 с – С.44-46.
• Программка к спектаклю «Дракон и Ласточка» в ГАТОБ имени Абая. – 1996 год.