News
14/03/2022. Cultural meetings
March 14, 2022:
The National Library of Karelia was visited by artists working on a new production of the ballet Sampo based on the Karelian and Finnish epic poem Kalevala at the Musical Theater of Karelia.
Alyona Pikalova, one of the leading Russian set designers for ballet performances, head of the Bolshoi Theater Art Department, multiple nominee for the National Theater Award 0171«Golden Mask», and Tatyana Noginova, the most famous designer of ballet costumes in Russia, costume designer for the opera «The Tsar's Bride» at the Musical Theater of Karelia, two-time laureate of the National Theater Award «Golden Mask» (the Best Work of a Costume Designer) are working on the creation of the new ballet.
At the National Library, Alyona Pikalova and Tatiana Noginova were offered the best editions of the Kalevala collection, illustrated by domestic and foreign artists in different periods and in different styles of painting. The guests of the library also were acquainted with the publications of the book exhibition «Elias Lennrot. Trips to Karelia», prepared this year for the 220th anniversary of the birth of the scientist and the creator of the Kalevala book.
The National Library is happy to help creative immersion in the diverse world of the Kalevala epic poem and artistic inspiration of the creators of the future ballet. We wish creative success in creating the new Kalevala staging and look forward to seeing the embodiment of Kalevala heroes on the stage of Karelia!
In 2020-2021, the National Library of Karelia created various video and audio lectures about Kalevala. During the annual cultural festival "Kalevala Mosaic", we invite all admirers of the Karelian national culture to listen to the audio lecture "Kalevala" on the theater stage" and learn about the legendary first national ballet "Sampo" (1959) at the Musical Theater of the Republic of Karelia and other performances of the National Theater and the Puppet Theater of the Republic of Karelia based on the epic poem. Enjoy listening!
We invite you to refer to full-text electronic resources.
In the Electronic Library of the Writers of Karelia, there is an article Incomparably Modest Elias Lönnrot and a Pine by a A. P. Perttu, a writer and a member of famous rune singers’ family Perttunen.
In the Electronic Library of the Republic of Karelia, there is a book in Finnish «Kalevalan laulumailta : Elias Lönnrotin poluilla Vienan Karjalassa» (Eng. From the Kalevala Song Country: Lönnrot’s Footsteps to the Folk Singing Villages of Archangel Karelia) written by I. K. Ihna, an ethnographer, journalist and photographer, who made a trip to the places of E. Lönnrot (free registration is required) in the end of the 19th century.
The Collection of Full-Text Documents on the Theme of the Epic Poem Kalevala contains electronic copies of the most valuable editions of Kalevala in Russian and other languages and also presents full texts of textbooks and literary documents dedicated to the theme of the Karelian and Finnish epic poem, and also handwritten notes by composers of the republic containing musical works based on the Kalevala.
Your attention is invited to a photo gallery of scenes from performances, posters, creative teams that created theatrical embodiment of the runes of the epic poem Kalevala, and publications of the Electronic Catalog of the National Library of Karelia.