Art, music, theatre from central & eastern Europe

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Thursday 8 to Tuesday 20 May
Monday to Friday at 5 pm and 7.45 pm
(except Tuesday 20 May at 5 pm only)
Saturdays at 3 pm and 7.45 pm

Sundays 3 pm and 6 pm at 8 pm
Preston Park, Brighton

Olesya - waltz on a high trapeze tickets: 01273 709709 (Dome box office)
or in person on site 9 am to 9 pm, on site
mobile 07721 565558
or 0844 856 5555 (Ticketmaster)
Moscow State Circus
35 of Russia's greatest circus performers in a new Moscow State Circus show, which includes unique springboard troupe The Puzanovs, Andrey Voronin's gaucho act, illusionists Khil and Spira, the solo trapeze artiste Olesya and the award-winning clowns Valik and Valerik.

Modern circus was started in London in 1768 by Philip Astley and rapidly became the chief form of performance entertainment throughout much of the world during the 19th century.  In Russia, Catherine the Great invited the English trick rider and impresario Charles Hughes (Astley's rival) to set up a riding school in St Petersburg, and circus quickly spread, eventually producing its own dynastic families - the Durovs, Zapashnys, Kios, Kantemirovs and others - who passed on their skills from one generation to the next.

During the Soviet period circus had a special significance which put it on a par with, even above, the ballet and opera: it was a truly popular - egalitarian - form of entertainment, and thus enjoyed 70 years of massive state support.


Russia
- a journey with Jonathan Dimbleby

Sunday 11 May at 10.05 pm
BBC-2


Breaking the Ice
In summer 2006 Jonathan Dimbleby explored ten thousand miles of one of the world's most awe-inspiring countries. He made his first stop in the city of Murmansk, which stands as a reminder to the years when England and Russia were close allies in a war of survival against the Nazis. Then he went on to the strange and remote world of Karelia and savoured the sophisticated elegance of St Petersburg.
Sunday 18 May at 10 pm
BBC-2
Country Matters
If the action in today's Russia is in the cities, the eternal spirit of Russia is in the countryside. Jonathan Dimbleby first goes to a reception for a Madonna concert, attended by anyone who's anyone in Moscow, including top restaurateur, Arkady Novikov. But the next day he takes the train to a different world: the family estate of Leo Tolstoy, arguably the greatest of all Russian writers.

Saturday 17 May at 8 pm
Dome Concert Hall, Brighton

tickets: 01273 709709

The same day at 2 pm Fanfare Ciocarlia take over New Road, Brighton, in gypsy style

– a free Brighton Festival event
Fanfare Ciocarlia from Romania
and Tcha Limberger's Budapest Gypsy Band

Fanfare Ciocarlia won BBC Radio 3's World Music Award for Europe in 2006.  Tcha Limberger studied the roots of Hungarian music in Budapest, and mixes that city's café culture with the jazz legacy of Django Reinhardt.


Thursday 29 May at 7.30 pm
Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton
tickets: 08700 606650
The Russian State Opera of Siberia

Puccini     Madam Butterfly
sung in Italian with English surtitles.  The opera company is on its first ever tour of the UK, accompanied by the Russian State Opera Orchestra.


Friday 30 May at 7.30 pm
Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton
tickets: 08700 606650
The Russian State Opera of Siberia

Verdi     La Traviata
sung in Italian with English surtitles.  The opera company is on its first ever tour of the UK, accompanied by the Russian State Opera Orchestra.


Saturday 31 May at 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm
Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton
tickets: 08700 606650
The Russian State Opera of Siberia

Puccini     La Bohème
sung in Italian with English surtitles.  The opera company is on its first ever tour of the UK, accompanied by the Russian State Opera Orchestra.


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