The 598 Beats ballet gets nominated for the Golden Mask

The theatre community was following the Russian Theatre Workers’ Union Secretariat January 22 meeting with baited breath. The Secretariat was reviewing the long list of the Golden Mask National Award nominees for the 2023/24 theatre season. The nominee recommendations, submitted by the Award’s Expert Council, have now been officially approved. Among them, is 598 Beats, a production by the Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre from St. Petersburg. The show has been nominated for Best Ballet. For his work on the ballet, its creator, Vyacheslav Samodurov, has also been nominated for the Golden Mask, in the Best Ballet Master/Choreographer category. For reference: 598 Beats is a one-act ballet set to a score by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. It premièred in February 2024 and won the Golden Soffit, St. Petersburg’s most sought-after theatre award, as one of the season’s best productions.

The winners of the Golden Mask National Award will be revealed this summer at an official ceremony in Kazan. This will be the first time in the Award’s history for the event to be hosted outside Moscow.