Postcard from Bishkek

Visitors to Bishkek are sometimes surprised that we have a Theater of Opera and Ballet which maintains companies – especially when it is remembered that neither ballet nor opera really feature in traditional Kyrgyz culture.

Although a lot of attention is paid to Bubusara, the Kyrgyz ballerina who appears on the five som banknote – and who statue stands between the Hyatt and the Theater of Opera and Ballet, but she is not the only star to have emerged from the small republic.

Born on the 4th February, 1949, in the small village of Kum-Dobo, in the Kochkor District of the Naryn oblast of what was then the Kyrgyz SSR, was a baby boy who was destined to become one of Kyrgyzstan’s great ballet dancers – Cholponbek Bazarbaev.

Indeed, he was to become the first, (and only), dancer from the Central Asian republics to be granted the title People’s Artist of the USSR.

In September, 1959, he enrolled in the Kurenkeeva music and choreographic school in Frunze, (which is nowadays called Bishkek), and as early as 1966 began his career as a performer in the troupe of the Theater of Opera and Ballet.  In his first year he took part when the company went on tour and performed in both Moscow and Leningrad.

Afterwards, the young Cholponbek studied at the Moscow Academic Choreographic School, returning to Frunze in 1968 to become a soloist in the company.

For over twenty years he headed the ballet company taking on over thirty roles in productions of world classics as well as local, Kyrgyz, ballets – roles including Siegfried in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Alberta in Adan’s Giselle and Conrad in his La Corsaire,  the title roles in Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Khatchaturian’s Spartacus, Jose in Bizet’s Carmen Suite, Zeus in Aristokesyana’s Prometheus, Kira or Cyrus in Musaeva’s Tomiris and Nurdin in Rauhvergera’s Cholpon.

He wasn’t restricted to performing here in Bishkek – but went on tours and gave performances throughout the Soviet Union as well as in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Libya, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

He also appeared in film, both for television and the big screen.

He wasn’t just a performer … but played a major role in the administration of the company and the Theater of Opera and Ballet.  In 1987, he was elected the Chairman of the Theater Union of Kyrgyzstan – which he led for the next ten years, also playing a role later in the International Confederation in the CIS.  Then, in 1993, he was appointed the Minister of Culture in the newly independent Kyrgyz Republic – a role which he continued, (albeit as just a Deputy Minister and Director of the Department of Culture), when the Ministry was merged with that of Education in 1996.

In addition to being awarded the title People’s Artists of the USSR – he was also recipient of a number of other awards in recognition of both his talent and his work in developing and promoting culture in the Republic.

He died as the result of a car accident in 2002 – just 53 years old.

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As an aside, and on a personal note – I was in Bishkek in September 2002, and remember the news of the the accident.  To be honest, I didn’t know anything about Bazarbaev at the time, but I do remember clearly the level of shock and surprise felt in the community at the time … he was clearly a well liked and respected character.

 

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Since then, the school of Choreography from which he graduated has been renamed … in his honour.

Then, in 2012, a bronze statue of him was unveiled in downtown Bishkek – appropriately enough in what is known as Theatre alley, flanked by the National Museum of Fine Arts to the North and the Republican Children’s and Youth Library of Bayalinov to the South and running between the Russian Drama Theater and the Opera and Ballet in which he spent most of his working life.

 

Tags: People