Spartacus

The Spartacus of history is a shadowy figure, a Thracian soldier who was captured by the Romans and led a slave rebellion in 73 B.C.E. To the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian, Spartacus was a hero battling “on behalf of human rights”, and the eponymous ballet he wrote in 1954 is a richly colourful, at times graphic depiction of semi-fictionalised events from Spartacus’ life. By far the best known number in Khachaturian’s three-hour score is the “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia”, an impassioned dance celebrating the rescue of Spartacus’ wife Phrygia from her Roman captors. The “Adagio” is, though, far from being the ballet’s only highlight. Both “The Dance of the Greek Slaves” and the “Etruscan Dance” in Act I highlight Khachaturian’s gift for sharp, spicy orchestration, and the influence Armenian folk music had on him. Act III’s “Final Battle” is another of the ballet’s set-piece dramatic moments, while in “The Death of Spartacus and Requiem” Khachaturian scales considerable heights of poignancy and eloquence. Spartacus was first performed at the Kirov Ballet, Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in 1956, and pleased the Soviet authorities of the day, who saw in it an allegory of the Soviet people casting aside Tsarist oppression. The ballet’s gripping tale of forced slavery and freedom-fighting retains a strong contemporary relevance, and it is still widely performed today.