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Title: ANNA KARENINA

Reference number: 11291

Date: 1993, September 24

Sound: sound

Original format: S-VHS

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 153.14 mins

Description: A full performance of Anna Karenina, a ballet in three acts inspired by the novel of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Recorded on 24 September 1993 at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen.

Three different performances are preserved by National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, see also refs 11270 and 11292

First performed by Australian Ballet Company 25 October 1979.

First performed by The Scottish Ballet at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, on 8 September 1993.

The Scottish Theatre Archive holds material relating to this production including:
Anna Karenina Programme, Theatre Royal Glasgow, 1 Sep - 30 Oct 1993, STA SB 15/29

Please note this is a copy of the raw capture of the original analogue video for preservation and as such may display defects such as dropout, washed out colour and sound fluctuation.

Credits: [Music: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arranged and orchestrated by Guy Woolfenden
Additional music: Guy Woolfenden
Choreography, production and scenario: Andre Prokovsky
Design: Peter Farmer
Lighting: Andre Prokovsky and George Thomson
Conductor: Guy Woolfenden

Sets, props and costumes courtesy of Ballet West

Cast:

Anna Karenina: Noriko Ohara
An aristocratic young woman

Count Alexei Vronsky: Robert Hampton]

Shotlist: Prologue - Moscow Railway Station (02.01-05.35)
The St Petersburg train is arriving at the station. Anna Karenina is greeted on the platform by her good natured brother Stiva Oblonsky and his wife Dolly. The handsome young officer Vronsky is there to meet his mother who introduces him to Anna. Vronsky is astounded by her beauty. Anna who is married to an older man and has a child, is disturbed by the meeting

Act One: (05.36-51.50)

Scene 1: A Public Park in Moscow, A Sunny Winter Day
Young society people are skating. Dolly’s pretty young sister Kitty enters with her suitor Levin. She is in a flirtatious mood but she is in love with Vronsky and she goes to him when he arrives. He is cold to her. Anna enters and Vronsky expresses his fascination with her in a pas de deux and a lyrical solo. Anna foresees danger and retreats.

Scene 2: Moscow Railway Station
Anna is hastily leaving Moscow for the security of her home in St Petersburg. She does not see Vronsky who has followed her to the station

Scene 3: The Garden of House in St Petersburg
Karenin, cold and formal, is reading his papers. Anna shows the warmth of her love for their child Seryozha in some simple games. Karenin leaves for his office without any show of affection. Vronsky is announced and passionately declares his love. Anna tries to send him away, but finally surrenders. She is in love and lost.

Scenes 4 & 5: The Ball
A grand ball in St Petersburg. Kitty is dancing with Levin but leaves him for Vronsky who is coldly formal to her. Anna arrives with her husband. Ignoring conventions of social behaviour, she leaves her husband and accepts Vronsky’s invitation to dance. They dance together oblivious to the gossip around them. Karenin stamps out in humiliation. Levin consoles the desolate Kitty.

Scene 6:
Changing images of Anna and Vronksy’s passionate affair, ending with the lovers in bed: she is his mistress. She writes her husband a letter telling him the truth and seals her wedding ring in it.

Scene 7: Karenin’s House
Following her letter, Anna arrives to explain herself to her husband. He indignantly rejects her and returns her ring, refusing her a divorce. When Seryozha runs to his mother, Karenin takes him away fond forbids her to see the child again. Vronsky rushes in and takes her from the house.

Act Two: (1.13.12-1.46.17)

Scenes 1-4: Vronsky’s House in the Spring
The lovers arrive, are greeted by peasants and servants and dance their happiness. One year passes and the changing seasons are shown. Anna and Vronsky are seen quarreling. Vronsky is growing tired of the simple life and looks forward to the glamour of the Capital. Anna stills hopes to obtain a divorce and regain her child.

Act Three: (2.06.36-2.28.55)

Scenes 1 and 2: Foyer of the Opera House, St Petersburg
Interval at the opera, high society are moving into the foyer. Levin and Kitty are now happily married. Karenin is ushering in a member of the Imperial Family. Vronsky enters and is greeted by all. His mother, who now disapproves of his scandalous affair, introduces him to a ‘suitable match’, Princess Sorokina. As Vronsky escorts his mother and her party to her box, Anna comes in alone and is snubbed by her former friends. When Karenin sees her he walks out. The performance is about to resume and the patrons return to their boxes. Seeing Anna in despair, Stiva seeks out Vronsky to comfort her. She misinterprets Vronsky’s compassion and reassurance of his love for her as mere pity and runs out.

Scenes 3-6: The Streets – Karenin’s House, Railway Station
In despair, Anna walks through the streets to see her chid. She is jeered at by a party of tipsy revelers. Arriving at her old home she finds her child asleep and has a tender meeting with him. Karenin hears them and sternly orders Anna form the house forever. Alone and desolate she walks through the snow to the railway station. She things she sees Vronsky and Princess Sorokina in the crowd. She hears a train coming in and, in utter desperation, throws herself under it.

Curtain call: 2.29.10-2.32.07

(Description from STA SB Box 15/29)