Moscow Celebrates

Every evening over the last week, I’d heard the loud explosions outside indicative of fireworks. I had also heard colleagues living in different parts of the city talking about it at work and praising the spectacle. Most had not needed to leave their homes to enjoy the view; they had just gone to look out the window after they'd heard the noise, saw the fireworks and enjoyed it from indoors. Everyone I’d heard talking about it was quite impressed and all agreed that it was very short, lasted just a few minutes, but very beautiful.

One particular night, the sound was very close to my house, but already curled up in bed with the low temperatures we’d been experiencing, I did not feel like wrapping myself up in heavy layers to go and stand at the window with the hope of seeing a show. The next day, however, I was lucky. Just as I left my tango practice class in Malaya Ordinka on my way home, I walked right into it. First I heard a loud explosive noise, then I sensed the sparkles and raised my head to be regaled with a great display of colors bursting into the dark sky – reds, greens, yellows, arches, sparkles, small explosions, gigantic ones, all with their accompanying “boom”, “boom”, “boom”. I stayed rooted to the ground together with a few others who felt it worth stopping for, my head raised, enjoying it till the end; rather sad when it all ended. Another military marching band concert had just come to an end.

Moscow was in full festive mode. The headlines on the front page of the Friday edition of the daily Metro publication dated August 31^st read “Happy Birthday, beloved city! J. The city had turned 865 and was celebrating in full pomp. Several cultural activities had been organized over the weekend around the city to toast to this very special occasion, and the program details were mapped out on pages 16 and 17 for all those interested. There was a variety of activities – concerts, dances, food stations, theater plays … and that was just one event!

Moscow’s birthday is not the only event celebrated in September. In June 1812, Russia defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Borodino on the outskirts of Moscow and the troops had had to retreat. Muscovites, at the time, burned the city down to prevent the French from seizing it. Leo Tolstoy elaborately and beautifully penned this event in his great masterpiece “War and Peace”, as did a few others in English, with titles such as "Borodino 1812" and "1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow" .  The Russian history teacher at school had made sure her classroom reflected the evidence of the event putting up pictures with captions of different battle scenes as well as informative texts. This 200^th anniversary was also a good reason to go out partying, if nothing at all, to pay tribute to all the fallen from both sides.

The commemoration of the battle itself was celebrated with  an elaborate reenactment of the battle in a field outside of Moscow. At the time of this event, I was watching the witch and wizard welcome us back to school. For the first time, it is said, the event was attended by several dignitaries. There was a fair representation of French citizens, and even former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing was among the guests. I admire the stoicism of all the attendees of the event – children and adults alike who braved the rain and cold weather as they took in the fine spectacle, I presume, of a fight between historians, amateurs and fans from both sides, dressed in brightly-colored French and Imperial Russian army uniforms.

No celebration would be complete without the customary accompanying music, and to this effect, military marching bands from different parts of the world had been invited to Russia to show off their skills and entertain us. I had seen the posters around the city advertising these concerts, but uncertainty about availability of time kept me from buying tickets for any of the scheduled concerts which took part in different parks in different parts of the city. The end of each concert culminated in a feast of colors in the dark sky every night, resounding loudly enough to draw people in their homes to their windows.

I’d had my fair share of celebrations with the back to school event after which I had to go home to prepare for the week ahead, so I didn't join the crowds in the jollification of Moscow’s birthday bashes or the revelry at the concerts, but observed these events somewhat more quietly. The Kremlin Palace was hosting a series of ballets I had bought tickets to. It is such a relief to finally get to the venue after being pushed and shoved on the metro, ascending and descending stairs and escalators. It would have been better had they been spaced out over several weeks or months instead of cramming ten ballets into three weeks. However, if I wanted to enjoy them, that would be my only chance, and I was determined to do so since they were so reasonably priced, unlike the extortionate ticket prices at the Bolshoi.

And so it was that I set off to my third ballet in a week yesterday, on a beautiful sunny day; one of the few we get to enjoy occasionally in Moscow. It would have been my fourth, had I not been unwell for the first one which was “Swan Lake”.  I had seen it in other places, but seeing it in Moscow would have made a difference. I’d seen “Figaro” and “Don Quixote” and the same Kremlin Ballet Ensemble was performing “The Nutcracker” yesterday. Unlike the other two occasions when I just walked in a few minute before it started, this time there were throngs of people. It was pleasant to see families and young couples dressed to the nines for the occasion. Groups of Japanese and Chinese tourists were also present for the performance which was every bit as enjoyable as every ballet performance I've seen in Russia – the colorful, elaborate costumes, the graceful, sublime movements, the beautifully choreographed dances, the powerfully soothing music.

I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to see all these wonderful performances and I am impatiently looking forward to seeing “Sleeping Beauty”, “Esmeralda”,” Gisele”, “Le Corsaire” and “A Thousand and One Nights”. I was born too late and in the wrong place to see Alicia Alonso dance “Gisele” – that would have been a treat and a half, but I still get to see it, albeit sans Alicia. Unlike “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” which I’ve seen many times in different places, the others are all a first experience. The icing on the cake, however, is the coming National Gala of the Stars of the Stars of Ballet, where there are short performances of different dances by first dancers and prima ballerinas of different companies.

I saw a similar performance in June at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall which left me speechless. It featured all kinds of dances; traditional dances such as zarzuela, flamenco, contemporary dances choreographed by Nacho Duato, tango, classical ballet and more. It was such a brilliant performance, I was dumbstruck at the possibility of such beauty and grace. The audience couldn’t stop clapping and screaming out “bravo”. The best part of it all was meeting one of the dancers at the Tchaikovsky Café adjacent to the concert hall where we went for a coffee afterwards. He had executed one of my favorite performances which was a tango, as he flipped around a cowboy hat he would wear and toss alternatively as he danced. I nearly screamed as I saw him walk in with the hat in his hand, and it took a lot of self-restraint not to go and ask him for an autograph. I knew that even if I did, I was past the age where such things meant much; seeing him standing next to my table in the flesh was more than enough for me. In the end, I was quite sure he would take the metro at the station two doors down from the Café, Mayakovskaya, back home, just like the other eleven million people in Moscow do everyday, and blend into the crowd.

Still in celebration mode, long after the marching bands have gone back home exhausted, and the remnants of the festivities of the birthday party have been cleared from the different parts of the city, I will still be attending ballets and concerts in Moscow. Fortunately, there are always plenty of those for every palate.