Spartacus Ballet Cairo Opera House, Main Hall February 18,19,21,22,23,24 at 8 pm

Spartacus, a neo-classical ballet by Aram Khachaturian is the story of the enslaved king Spartacus, who becomes the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the ‘Third Servile War’. Sadly, the tale ends when he is eventually captured by the Roman king, Crassus and killed. Although the ballet’s story line takes considerable liberties with the historical records, Khachaturian was awarded a Lenin Prize when he composed the ballet in 1954. The performance was first staged at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in 1958, choreographed by Igor Moiseev; however it was the 1968 production, choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich, which achieved the greatest acclaim for the ballet. Starting February 18th, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company will present the Spartacus sensation with an absolutely original version choreographed by V. Yelizariev that he produced in 1982. Yelizariev stays true to the original conception of the ballet and with less focus on the historical accounts, he puts more emphasis on the opposition between the Roman tyranny and the insurgent slaves.