The contemporary ballet 'Anna Karenina' premiered in Hà Nội's Friendship Cultural Palace on December 3. Photo courtesy of Saigon Philharmonic

HÀ NỘI — The Eifman Ballet company from St. Petersburg, Russia, will wrap up its Vietnamese tour at the Friendship Cultural Palace in Hà Nội on Friday, after dazzling audiences in HCM City with Việt Nam's first-ever performance of Anna Karenina.

Adapted from Leo Tolstoy's novel and set to music composed by Tchaikovsky, Anna Karenina left Vietnamese spectators with a jaw-dropping experience.

A main draw in the company's rich contemporary ballet repertoire, Anna Karenina has been astounding global audiences for the last 40 years. This year, the company's world tour stops in Mumbai, India, before heading to Cairo, Egypt, after stints in HCM City and Hà Nội.

Like the novel, the ballet focuses on the love triangle of Anna Karenina, her husband Alexei Karenin and her lover, Count Vronsky. Her inner battle to defy societal norms and break free to seek love is devastating. A young Vietnamese boy, the son of a Hà Nội ballerina, plays Anna's own son on stage.

Audience members who leave behind their expectations from knowing and loving the story and who accept the contemporary dance performance with open hearts and minds will leave the auditorium in awe.

The plot may be narrowed down and simplified, but the passionate portrayal and the incredible acrobatic movements and tosses will leave spectators speechless.

Eifman's principal ballerina Maria Abashova brings Anna Karenina's inner struggle to life onstage, with body movements that speak volumes. With Tchaikovsky's music, the ballet itself surpasses the limitations of its genre to explore the depth of the human soul.

Meanwhile, Boris Eifman's choreography brings out the best of Russia's renowned ballet tradition that has charmed London, Paris, New York and Tokyo.

Founded by Boris Eifman in 1977, the Eifman Ballet Company got its start in Leningrad (now called St. Petersburg) and was first named the Leningrad New Ballet. The company has adapted classical masterpieces and contemporary works in its repertoire.

The company has expressed the hope that Anna Karenina will open doors for Eifman's other great masterpieces to come to Việt Nam in the future, including works like The Idiot, The Master and Margarita, The Legend, The Mad Day and The Duel.

Well known in Việt Nam since the 1930s, Tolstoy's famous novel was first translated by literary giant Vũ Ngọc Phan after he accidentally discovered a French edition in a used bookstore in 1937. He read both volumes in five days, then re-read it in the next 10 days before translating it for publication in a French-Vietnamese magazine ahead of its first real print run in 1940.

Despite the close relationship between Việt Nam and Russia, especially between linguists and researchers from both countries, Anna Karenina has never been translated into Vietnamese from the original Russian.

Nhị Ca and Dương Tường published the most popular translation, from a French copy translated by Sylvie Luneau, in Hà Nội in 1978. It is considered one of Tolstoy's greatest works and is still a bestselling novel today.

Eifman Ballet Company performs tonight at Hà Nội's Friendship Palace. Photo courtesy of Saigon Philharmonic

The Friendship Cultural Palace in Hà Nội was originally named the Soviet Friendship Cultural Palace, and was a gift from the Soviet People to the capital city in the 1980s.

This year, Hà Nội's art aficionados have been treated to some of the world's greatest art programmes, performances and exhibitions from Russia's leading music and art institutions. VNS