Summary

TAPE_NUMBER: EN9923/a IN_TIME: 10:39:15 LENGTH: 03:45 SOURCES: APTN RESTRICTIONS: Music/Performance rights must be cleared FEED: SCRIPT: xfa Moscow, 5-6 June 1999 PUSHKIN CELEBRATIONS REACH CRESCENDO Opera star PLACIDO DOMINGO joined the Bolshoi ballet and a host of officials in the spotlight over the weekend as Muscovites took part in celebrations marking the birth of Russian literary icon ALEXANDER PUSHKIN. The streets of Moscow were closed, as the Russian capital began a street party marking the 200th anniversary of his birth. Many Russians regard Pushkin as a Russian literary giant - equivalent to Shakespeare in the English-speaking world. Thousands of Muscovites took to the streets for the ongoing celebrations. The main event in Moscow was a parade of 19th century-style dancers down the city's main boulevard, Tverskaya Street, which leads to the Kremlin. The celebrations reached their climax on Sunday night with a concert in Red Square, featuring performances by the Bolshoi Ballet and special guest Placido Domingo, in Russia especially for the event. The Spanish tenor sung extracts from the Tchaikovsky opera based on Pushkin's famous poem "Eugene Onegin". The concert concluded with a spectacular fireworks display. In Moscow, where Pushkin was born, every second billboard carries a picture of his face accompanied by his verse. Theatres and concert halls are running productions of his works or re-worked interpretations of his life and the English-made film based on his novel "Eugene Onegin", starring RALPH FIENNES and LIV TYLER, has just enjoyed a gala premiere in Moscow. Although he died at the young age of 37, Pushkin was a prolific author, starting with early folkloric epics like "Ruslan and Ludmilla", through to his literary masterpiece "Eugene Onegin" and onto later prose such as "The Captain's Daughter". But it was his life itself that helped to transform him in the people's imagination from popular poet to secular saint. A dashing young nobleman of African lineage, Pushkin was both feared and revered by the authorities, one day embraced by the Czar, the next, pushed into internal exile. His death is the stuff of classic romantic tragedy; after fighting a duel in the snow over the honour of his beautiful wife, Pushkin died at his home in the imperial capital of St Petersburg, with crowds of mourners keeping vigil in the street outside. Throughout Russian history, the Pushkin story has been remoulded to reflect the dominant ideology of the moment. In 1899 it was explained that he was a monarchist and a believer. In 1937 when Stalin's great terror began, the opposite model was given and the communist authorities marked the 100th anniversary of his death with a gala ceremony and celebrations at his family estate in the Pskov region. Nowadays, Pushkin and his verse appears on everything from cheap mugs to chocolates and vodka bottles. Hundreds of books by and about Pushkin have been prepared for the anniversary. At Pushkinskiye Gory, the town in Pskov where Pushkin lived alone and in exile from 1824 to 1826 and lies buried, the authorities are bracing themselves for hundreds of thousands of visitors. SHOTLIST: SHOWS: WS SQUARE WITH ALEXANDER PUSHKIN STATUE ; CU STATUE ; CA MILITARY BAND PLAY ; GVS WALTZING COUPLES IN TRADTIONAL COSTUME DANCING IN STREET ; WS OPEN AIR STAGE ; GVS PERFORMANCE ; CA AUDIENCE ; GVS BACKSTAGE ; PLACIDO DOMINGO BACKSTAGE ; PERFORMERS IN COSTUME BACKSTAGE ; PLACIDO DOMINGO IN CONCERT ; SOT DOMINGO ; PERFORMANCE ; GVS CROWD RISE TO CLAP ; DOMINGO TAKES APPLAUSE ; WS CROWD ; PICTURE OF PUSHKIN?