Spartacus

In 1968 the Bolshoi Ballet was looking for an appropriate production to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution under the Soviet regime. They opted for the ballet Spartacus that had been composed by Aram Katsjatoerian in 1954. The revolutionary fight for freedom by the slave Spartacus and his followers was seen as a symbol of the communist proletarian revolution, and was therefore suitably aligned with Marxist thought. Yuri Grigorovich developed a new concept in which the conflict between the two formidable heroes, Spartacus and the Roman general Crassus, is given a central place.

Spartacus is a ballet that was the creation of a certain system, it can also be interpreted as an indictment of that system. As a work of art, Spartacus transcends the strictures of the time in which it originated. It tells the moving and universal story of the victim who, by sheer force of will, stands up to a far more powerful oppressor.