Maris Liepa, 52, Dies in Moscow; Bolshoi Star Was Popular in West
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: March 28, 1989
Maris Liepa, a star of the Bolshoi Ballet whose virile dramatic portrayals made him especially popular in the West, died Saturday in Moscow. He was 52 years old.
Mr. Liepa had a heart attack, said his son, Andris, who is performing with American Ballet Theater in California.
A bravura technician in the Bolshoi from 1960 to 1981, Mr. Liepa was the embodiment of the masculine heroic style that was traditional to the Moscow company. Nonetheless, audiences at home and throughout the world were stunned by the overwhelming expressive power that Mr. Liepa poured into his indisputably great performance as Crassus, the Roman tyrant in ''Spartacus.''
The Bolshoi star created the part in Yuri Grigorovich's version of the ballet to the Khachaturian score in 1968. In 1970, he received the Lenin Prize, the Soviet Government's highest award, for his portrayal.
As Crassus, Mr. Liepa brought something new to Soviet ballet. The forcefulness of his dancing and the intelligence of his characterization made a negative character equal to the so-called positive hero that Socialist Realism had bequeathed to contemporary Soviet ballet. His Crassus was cruel and sensual, momentarily crushed into cowardice. Cast opposite Vladimir Vasiliev's Spartacus, Mr. Liepa held his own and made this a duel of two great dancers.
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