Simon Pastukh

Biography

Graduated from the Leningrad State Cherkasov Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema (now Russian State Institute of Performing Arts) in 1975, specialising in set design. From 1976, worked as a set designer in theatres throughout Russia including the State Academic Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet, the Bolshoi Theatre and the Leningrad Maly Drama Theatre. In 1980 – 1991 was a principal designer at the Leningrad State Academic Maly Theatre of Opera and Ballet (now Mikhailovsky Theatre).

Simon Pastukh has designed more than 200 productions in music and drama theatres. He collaborated with the Bolshoi Theatre, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre and Moscow Sovremennik Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre and Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia; Indianapolis Repertory Theatre, Indianapolis Ballet, American Ballet Theatre /ABT in New York City, USA; Universal Ballet Company in Seoul, NHK Tokyo, National Theatre in Oslo, National Theatre in Budapest, Sophia National Opera, in Holland, Finland, Ukraine, Poland and others.

His productions with director Yevgeny Arye include Enemies. A Love Story and Hidden Perspective (Moscow Sovremennik Theatre); Enemies. A Love Story, A Pigeon and a boy, The Dybbuk and I am Don Quixote (Gesher Theater, Tel Aviv); The Idiot and Eugene Onegin(Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow).

He debuted as a designer at the Bolshoi Theatre with the production of Khrennikov’s Hussar Ballade in 1980. In 2005, he designed the production of Shostakovich’s Bolt. His next productions for Bolshoi is The Idiot by M. Weinberg (2017) and Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky (2019).

As a rule he works in alliance with his wife, Galina Solovyova, who was the costume designer for most of his productions.