On 2 January 2022 the great Russian ballet master Yuri Nikolayevich Grigorovich will be 95 years old. Sofia Opera and Ballet will mark this Jubilee with the ballet “The Nutcracker” – choreography by Grigorovich.

The ballets “The Tale of Stone Flower” (1965), Music by S. Prokofiev and “The Nutcracker” (1988), music by P.I. Tchaikovsky, produced on the stage of Sofia National Opera by Yuri Grigorovich, enjoy enormous success and are a real triumph for the Bulgarian ballet art.

Grigorovich’s choreographies are part of the repertoire of all world ballet stages and this proves indisputably his artistic genius. Yuri Grigorovich is author of eight original ballets, and among the classic ballet titles, edited and staged by him, are “Swan Lake”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Giselle”, “La Bayadère”, “Don Quixote”, “Raymonda” and many others, which form the main repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Sofia Opera and Ballet wishes Yuri Grigorovich health and longevity. For us it is a real honour that stagings by him are part of our repertoire and that the Bulgarian ballet has not just once touched on his mastery and talent. Undoubted is the enormous contribution of the ballet maestro for our native ballet art and we feel proud of the fact that we were privileged to touch on the talent of this remarkable and unique artist.