About the work
Reinhold Glière composed this three-act ballet for the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution; the choreography was by Vasily Tikhomirov (act 2) and Lev Lashchilin (acts 1 and 3). It premiered on 13 June 1927 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, dedicated to prima ballerina Yekaterina Geltzer. In the score, Glière combined classical ballet technique with East and Central Asian dance motifs.
Plot
In a 1920s Chinese port city, the dancer Tao-Hoa falls for the captain of a Soviet ship who champions the exploited dockworkers. As a token of friendship between peoples, he gives her a red poppy blossom. Her jealous employer kills Tao-Hoa; dying, she passes the poppies on to children, who carry forward the idea of friendship and freedom.
Cultural significance
'The Red Poppy' is considered one of the first Soviet ballets built on a contemporary revolutionary subject rather than a fairy-tale plot, and it demonstrated that classical ballet technique could carry political narrative. With around 300 performances, it became one of the most successful Soviet ballets of its era.