Bolshoi Confidential: History of the Bolshoi Ballet

This new history of the Bolshoi Ballet will be published this October and will be available through the usual outlets.

Advance Praise

“The title means what it says. There’s plenty of scandal here: arson, double suicide, dead cats flung at curtain calls. At the same time, the book is energetically researched, beautifully written—fun, relaxed, sophisticated—and full of serious ideas, boldly stated.” —Joan Acocella, dance critic for The New Yorker

“A colorful and erudite view on Russia through the tumultuous history of the sumptuous Bolshoi.” —Peter Pomeranzev, author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible

“Simon Morrison’s Bolshoi Confidential is a magisterial portrait of the art, intrigue and politics buffeting Russia’s great cultural institution, the Bolshoi Ballet. From its birth in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars to the corrosive intrigues of the twenty-first century, ballet was the heart of Soviet compliance and attempted resistance. A chilling cautionary tale about the perils of art pressed into the service of dogma and subdued into a servant of the state, Bolshoi Confidential offers fresh details about how deeply and indelibly Stalinist censorship bruised culture, artists and audiences in the USSR.” —Janice Ross, author of Like A Bomb Going Off: Leonid Yakobson and Ballet as Resistance in Soviet Russia

“Another marvelously informative book from Simon Morrison, dishing this time on Russia's great musical theater, onstage and off. It is a wonderful read, full of intriguing spectacle and spectacular intrigue.” —Richard Taruskin, author of The Oxford History of Western Music

“Simon Morrison has written an engrossing history of one of Russia’s most enduring cultural institutions. Bolshoi Confidential deftly shatters the distinctions between high-brow and low-brow, art and politics, authority and violence.” —Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana and A World on Fire

“Bolshoi Confidential turns [Morrison’s] keen eye and critical mind on the operatic story of Russia’s premier ballet, from 1776 through a recent $680 million renovation and 2013’s headline-making acid attack on its artistic director, masterminded by a lead soloist.” —Kirkus Reviews“Bankruptcies, corrosive conflicts, dramatic shifts of power! Simon Morrison’s history of the Bolshoi is a treasure. His research is impeccable, his prose captivating. Bolshoi Confidential is a real treat not just for balletomanes, but for anyone fascinated by the intersection between art and politics.” —Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace and Empress of the Night

About the Author

SIMON MORRISON is a professor of music at Princeton University, a contributor to the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, and the author of, most recently, Lina and Serge: The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev. 

If you love seeing beautiful places and things, and bingeing on ballet, please check out my other outstanding ballet trips by clicking here. Booking for the following trips opens next Monday, August 22:

Bordeaux and Toulouse, July 2017 (more info here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/08/food-wine-sightseeingand-ballet-trip.html )

Paris and Amsterdam, May 2017 (more info here: http://toursenlair.blogspot.ca/2016/07/amsterdam-and-paris-ballet-trip-may-2017.html )

New York, October 2017 

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