THE GAMBLER

Biography

One-act ballet.

Music by S. Prokofiev from the suite "Four portraits and denouement", libretto and choreography by B. Myagkov. The ballet was staged based on the novel by F. Dostoevsky.

The production was staged for the SECD of the Kazakh SSR under the direction of B. Ayukhanov, the premiere took place in 1978.

The first performers: Polina - Vera Dudukalova, Alexey - Vyacheslav Goncharov, General - Alexei Semyananov, Grandma - Nadezhda Pivnitskaya, Frenchman - Gennady Sitakov, Blanche - Olga Aksenova.

The plot: the story of gambling, which has become for a person not the meaning of the game and not even the meaning of life, but the only, existential essence of being. The plot takes place in the German resort town with the fictitious name of Rouletenburg. The main character, Alexei Ivanovich, travels with the family of a retired general as a teacher of his children. Everyone in the family is waiting for the death of their grandmother in order to receive a huge inheritance. Alexei is in love with Polina, the general's stepdaughter. The girl is in love with a Frenchman, the Marquis de Grieux. Meanwhile, Grandma arrives in town completely healthy, got excited with playing roulette and loses part of her money. Aleksey tries to help Polina by winning a huge amount of money for her, but the proud girl does not accept them. All the characters of the story lose sight of each other for some time, Alexei himself becomes a roulette player, and two years later he finds out that in fact, all this time, Polina really loved him.