Unknown authorUnknown author — Искусство Советской Белоруссии. — Москва: «Искусство», 1940. С. 90—91. · Public domain
Nightingale is a 1939 ballet made jointly by Aleksey Yermolayev and Fedor Lopukhov, with a libretto the two choreographers wrote alongside Yuri Slonimsky, adapting a story by the Belarusian writer Źmitrok Biadula. Its historical weight rests less on any surviving choreographic record than on a single fact the article states plainly: it was the first Belarusian ballet staged at the National Opera and Ballet of Belarus, opening there on 5 November 1939.
What is danced
The source article gives no synopsis, no scene breakdown, and no description of steps, holds, or technique used anywhere in the ballet. It names the creative team (Yermolayev and Lopukhov as choreographers, Slonimsky as co-librettist), the literary source, the composer, and the premiere date and venue, but nothing about what was actually danced on stage. Any statement about pointe work, character dance, mime, or ensemble structure would be invention rather than reporting, so none is offered here.
Context
1939 sits in the period when the Soviet Union was actively building national ballet companies and opera-and-ballet theatres in its constituent republics, each expected to produce a founding work rooted in local literature or folklore — the article's description of Nightingale as the first Belarusian ballet to be staged at the National Opera and Ballet of Belarus fits that pattern exactly. Both credited choreographers were significant figures in Soviet ballet of the period: Lopukhov was already known in Leningrad for structurally ambitious, often experimental choreography, and Yermolayev was a leading Bolshoi dancer moving into choreographic work; that pairing on a founding national commission is itself a notable event, though the article does not elaborate on how their approaches combined.
Staging history
The article records a single staging: the premiere on 5 November 1939 at the National Opera and Ballet of Belarus, credited as the first Belarusian ballet mounted there. No later revivals, restagings, or companies are mentioned.
How to watch it
There is no performance record, film, or notated score description available here to guide viewing; the article supports only the fact of the premiere, not its staging conventions. Anyone encountering a modern account or revival should treat claims about its choreographic style with caution, since this source is silent on it.