Drawbacks of the First Version of "Cholpon"
In the first version of the legend, we encounter the same main characters of the poetic fairy tale. This is the young man Nurdin, seduced by the ghostly love of the sorceress Aydai, and Cholpon, who tenderly loves Nurdin.
In pursuit of the sorceress Aydai, Nurdin forgets Cholpon, whom he was in love with. He searches for the one who captivated him, overcoming many difficulties in his quest until he reaches the palace of the sorceress. Nurdin's unexpected appearance prevents Aydai from transforming into a beauty, and she stands before him in all her repulsive ugliness. Cholpon, disguised as a shepherd, sets out to find Nurdin and successfully navigates the traps set along her path. One of them leads to the demise of the sorceress Jarkyn (played by V. Zalivako and O. Terentyeva), as a result of which Cholpon becomes the owner of the magical "syuyke" — a breast ornament that helps her enter Aydai's palace. Now the rivals confront each other face to face. Both whirl in a swift dance. Feeling her strength fading, Aydai throws some potion in Cholpon's face, and she, blinded, loses her "syuyke." But Aydai fails to seize the magical amulet — it is intercepted by Nurdin, who has managed to free himself from the evil spells. And as soon as he waves the "syuyke" in a sign of victory, Aydai's kingdom collapses, and the treacherous sorceress perishes.
The entire performance was characterized by a romantic uplift. However, the development of the action was hindered by certain episodes that appeared extraneous and essentially weighed down the presentation. One such episode was the dance of the enchanted young men — Aydai's captives. The dance did not express their emotional state. Moreover, the young men appeared passive, which contradicted the very idea of the performance — the active struggle against evil forces. This dance was perceived as a purely stage number, slowing down the action and clearly being an alien episode. To enhance the impression of the sorceress's power, the director L. Kramarevsky introduced a scene with robbers; it also did not achieve its goal. Their behavior on stage was so grotesque that instead of fear, it evoked laughter from the audience.
Overall, the performance did not have a distinctly expressed national color and was perceived "generally" in an Eastern style.
In essence, the national element of the performance was limited to a scene in the first act — the dance of the hunters. This was quite an exotic domestic picture, similar to those we had already encountered in "Ai-Churek" and "Anar." The national motifs in the music were also limited; Western European rhythms prevailed. And finally, the most serious drawback was the muted expression of the pathos of struggle, the active forces opposed to the dark forces of evil. This diminished the ideological resonance of the production.
The performers of the main roles — B. Beyshenalieva (Cholpon), D. Arsygulova (Aydai), R. Urazbaev (Nurdin) created expressive images; their dances testified to a high level of technique, which they had successfully mastered.
But these individual successes could not compensate for the noted shortcomings of the performance.
The first artist of the production "Cholpon" was Y. Z. Shtoffer. Some elements in the design of "Cholpon" resemble the artist's previous work in "Anar." The main focus remained on the emphasized contrast between the two themes. The gloomy color palette of Aydai's kingdom was replaced by scenes of bright landscapes. Thus, the artist contrasted love with treachery.
On December 30, 1944, the premiere of the ballet "Cholpon"