_The Legend of Love_ performed by the stellar cast of the Mariinsky Ballet

On July 1, 2026, a stellar cast of the Mariinsky Ballet presented Arif Melikov's ballet "The Legend of Love". The leading roles were performed by Victoria Tereshkina, Kimin Kim, and Renata Shakirova.
"The Legend of Love" was the second ballet by the young Leningrad choreographer Yuri Grigorovich staged at the Kirov – now Mariinsky – Theatre, and it was a ballet that was to change both his life and the destiny of Soviet ballet. As with "The Stone Flower" – his first production at the Kirov Theatre – Grigorovich created "The Legend of Love" together with Simon Virsaladze. The designer executed the sets in the form of an old book, the pages of which are adorned with Arabic script. The characters in "The Legend" as if come down to us from the pages of this book – the proud, cruel and deeply passionate Queen Mekhmeneh Bahnu, who pays the price of her own unparalleled beauty to cure her dying sister Shyrin and the artist Ferkhad, who is captivated by the young and gracious Shyrin and who spurns Mekhmeneh Bahnu’s love...