The plot centres around a group of ballet dancers who have been sent to provide sophisticated entertainment on a new Soviet collective farm[1] during their harvest festival.
[2] The workers, along with two older residents of a nearby dacha, welcome the city dancers, with special welcome given to the troupe's ballerina who was the former dance teacher of Zina.
[1] Woodwinds: piccolo, 2 flutes (flute II = piccolo II), 2 oboes, cor anglais, E♭ clarinet, 2 B♭ clarinets, bass clarinet (= clarinet III), 2 bassoons, contra-bassoon (= bassoon III) Brass: 6 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, Brass Band (1 E♭ Cornet, 2 B♭ Cornets, 2 B♭ Trumpets, 2 E♭ Altos, 2 B♭ Tenors, 2 B♭ Baritones, 2 B♭ Basses) Percussion: timpani, triangle, tambourine, snare drums, cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, bass drum, gong, wood blocks Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses, harp 2/1+1.2+1.3/1+Eflat.3/1 - 6.3.3.1 - timp.perc:tgl/SD/cyms/glsp-harp-strings In 1945, Shostakovich approved Konstantin Titarenko to make a suite from the ballet.
"[4] The Bright Stream's deliberately simple melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and colors had the work playing successfully in both Leningrad and Moscow from June 1935 through February 1936.
In January 2011, American Ballet Theatre performed The Bright Stream in Ratmansky's choreography, at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.