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| | Arts Calendar / December 4 / Opera |
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 Opera in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. 190 min (with two intervals). Libretto by Giovanni Ruffini based on Angelo Anelli’s libretto “Ser Marcantonio”. Music Director: Michał Klauza. Stage Director: Timofey Kulyabin. Sung in Italian. This Donizetti opera had its 1st performance at the Théâtre-Italien, Paris, on 3 January 1843 and was an immediate success. The composer was repeatedly called to take his bows, and many of the numbers were encored. In the same year Don Pasquale was presented in Milan, Turin, Vienna, London, Brussels and Lille. And to this day it continues to be one of Donizetti’s most popular repertory works. But, for all this, the Bolshoi Theatre has done no more than two productions of Don Pasquale – in 1850 and 1872. And now, almost 150 years later, the opera is again to grace our stage. Timofei Kulyabin: “My aim was to ensure that the plot no longer took the form of an abstract theatrical joke, that all the characters acquired the flesh and blood of present-day people, I tried to find accurate prototypes for them in the modern world. I had to equip each personage with profession and biography, and work out his/her social status. … One of the main problems with the original libretto is that Don Pasquale, who is very well off and advanced in years, is totally naïve in all matters concerning the opposite sex. He is almost like a child. It is very hard to conceive of someone like this in the world today. I had to locate an authentic image for it is the make-up of this strange naivety that acts as the spring to plot developments.”
Bolshoi Theater New Stage  |
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 Opera in three acts (performs with one intermission) by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on "La Dame aux camélias." Stage Director: Dmitry Bertman. Music Director, Conductor: Alexander Sladkovsky. During Verdi’s lifetime La traviata was one of the most frequently performed of all operas, and it has continued to be through to the present. The opera was originally titled Violetta, after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice. Piave and Verdi wanted to follow Dumas in giving the opera a contemporary setting, but the authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past, "c. 1700". It was not until the 1880s that the composer's and librettist's original wishes were carried out and "realistic" productions were staged. La Traviata is the story of a lively Parisian courtesan who gives up the man she loves to save his family’s reputation. Perhaps this is the greatest theme of La Traviata; self-sacrifice. The opera is a touching story, not just because it is a story people can believe in, but because it is a story people want to believe in. It encourages the ideal that it is possible to experience the joy of a pure, redemptive love. The story shows that it is possible – no matter what hurt and offence has been caused – to right wrongs by sacrifice to the greatest good.
Helikon Opera |
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