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| | Arts Calendar / April 14 / Opera |
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 Opera in one act to music by Umberto Giordano. Libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. Music Director: Anton Grishanin. Stage Director: Yury Muravitsky. Set Designer: Pyotr Okunev. Sung in Italian with Russian surtitles. Rosalina, a young and beautiful miller’s daughter, has suddenly changed her mind about marrying her sweetheart Colombello. The young man is in despair, the Miller and his wife are both anxious. They seek help from the Astrologer, the Priest and the Judge. The Astrologer proposes to cast a secret spell to get rid of the evil eye. The Priest suggests praying more and donating more to the church. The Judge insists on taking Rosalina to court. The bicker is interrupted by the young maid herself. In response to her mother’s pleas Rosalina explains herself. She heard a warbler in the woods. It was foretelling her happiness and prosperity. Shortly after she saw the hunting King and immediately fell in love. Now all she thinks about is him, not the rustic simpleton Colombello. All of a sudden a voice of the King’s Herald is heard: the King awaits his subjects with gifts. The Miller, his wife and Colombello decide to go and beg for help...
Boris Pokrovsky Chamber Stage  |
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 Opera in seven scenes to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Libretto by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Vladimir Belsky based on Russian bylinas. Conductor: Timur Zangiev. Director and Set Designer: Dmitry Tcherniakov. Costume Designer: Elena Zaitseva. Sung in Russian with English surtitles. The music is highly evocative, and Rimsky-Korsakov's famed powers of orchestration are abundantly in evidence throughout the score. According to the Soviet critic Boris Asafyev, writing in 1922, Sadko constitutes the summit of Rimsky-Korsakov's craft. From the opus 5 tone poem the composer quoted its most memorable passages, including the opening theme of the swelling sea, and other themes as leitmotivs - he himself set out to "utlize for this opera the material of my symphonic poem, and, in any event, to make use of its motives as leading motives for the opera". The merchants of Novgorod are sitting down to a feast, rejoicing in their prosperity. Nezhata, a singer and gusli player from Kiev, sings on the heroic days of his city?s past. The merchants would like one of their own countrymen to sing about their town and the minstrel Sadko, who enters at that moment, is asked to oblige. But his song disturbs them: Novgorod is on a lake, he sings, with no access to the ocean. If only their ships could reach the sea they would bring back fortunes from all over the world...
Bolshoi Theater |
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