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| | Arts Calendar / April 8 / Opera |
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 Opera production. 60 min. Director: Rostislav Protasov. Musical Director: Valery Kiryanov. Set and costume designer: Valery Kungurov (Berlin). Sometimes it can happen, that a diploma work of a young graduate of the Conservatory enters into the history of opera world along with masterpieces of recognized masters. But when the author of this work is Sergei Rachmaninoff, and the librettist is a great Nemirovich-Danchenko, who’s libretto is based on the text of our "sun of the poetry" – Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, there is nothing to be surprised of! Opera "Aleko" was written by Rachmaninoff when he was just 19 years old. The young author was obsessed with this work and his creation also impressed another Russian genius – Peter Tchaikovsky, so he desired to see "Aleko" along with his "Iolanta" in one program. In the letter to his brother, he wrote: "I really liked this lovely thing". It is on record that, Rachmaninoff was speechlessly amazed when he heard that, so he only could make some unreasonable gestures and Pyotr Ilyich cheered: "Thank you, coquettish young man, for you honor." In the beginning of the XX century the outstanding Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin was rehearsing with Rachmaninoff in an old residence of Princess Shakhovskaya, in the same place where now Helikon opera is situated. Here in "Helikon" the history is treated very carefully, so not by an accident in the year of the 145th anniversary of the great Russian composer the theater prepares a production of the opera "Aleko", in which greatest Fyodor Chaliapin shone!
Helikon Opera  |
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 Based on the opera in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi. 130 min (with one intermission). Musical version: Evgeny Kolobov. Conductor: Valery Kritskov. Sung in Italian with Russian surtitles. This production prefers black to bright colours. Novaya Opera’s La Traviata is not a romantic love story, but a tragedy of love and death. The performance begins and ends with Violetta’s death. In the interim, Violetta, like a wounded bird, thrashes and rushes about, trying to break out from the closed circuit of her own destiny. The production reveals the gap between the current and the last century. The theatre not only feels sympathy for Violetta and Alfredo, but mourns over them. "Such a professional in all its components, complete and unpredictable performance has not been seen not only at the Novaya Opera, but in the whole of Moscow for a long time," The Kultura newspaper. "In this performance the nerves are naked. The reactions are rapid and spontaneous. The producers have enlarged the emotions of the characters, leaving only the gist of the story and throwing off what in their opinion is useless entourage, d?cor," Supplement to the Pervoe Sentyabrya — Iskusstvo newspaper. "Traviata is an example of a present-day production as it should be like but seldom is — intellectual, stylish, benecial and infatuating," The Moscow Tribune newspaper.
Novaya Opera Theatre |
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