Anna Netrebko & Yusif Eyvazov Attend Domingo 40th Anniversary

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Anna Netrebko and fiancé Yusif Eyvazov attend the 40th Anniversary of Plácido Domingo's Salzburg Festival stage debut. Performers for the July 30 concert included Maria Agresta, Ana María Martínez, Krassimira Stoyanova, and Rolando Villazón. See a photo of the singers on stage from the Gala, after the jump.

La Scala Is First Foreign Company to Perform at New Bolshoi

Bulgarian Stoyanova and Russian Gubanova rehearse Verdi with Maestro Barenboim

The Moscow Bolshoi Theatre played host to its first foreign guests – the orchestra, choir and lead singers of Milan’s La Scala. This on the heels of the reopening after a six-year renovation. The featured work was Verdi's Requiem with Krassimira Stoyanova (soprano), Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo-soprano), Fabio Sartori (tenor) and Mikhail Petrenko (bass) under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. "Russia’s Bolshoi and Italy’s La Scala established friendly ties after the two companies exchanged visits in 1964. Those tours were such a great success that the theatres’ leadership decided to hold them on a regular basis. Since then, La Scala musicians have been visiting the Bolshoi every 10 years. They came in the early 1970s, in the late 1980s, then in 2001, this year, and are planning to visit Moscow again. In December, they are staging two ballets and plan to stage an opera in autumn next year. La Scala performers are led by newly appointed musical director Daniel Barenboim, whose name rings more than a familiar bell with Moscow music lovers. Maestro Barenboim says that he is no stranger to Russia either. 'My wife is Russian, so my kids are half Russian too, - he says. – All of my grandparents came from Russia. They emigrated to Argentina in 1903. I first visited the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Then I repeatedly came back again and enjoyed the Bolshoi’s productions from the audience hall. Now, I’m going to perform at the Bolshoi and it’s a great honor for me,' - Daniel Barenboim said in an interview for Russian television on the eve of his visit. La Scala director also explained why his orchestra would play a Requiem, funeral mass, at the Bolshoi. Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is one of the main pieces in La Scala's repertoire. Naturally, we picked one of the most significant works for our Bolshoi performance, which we see as an event of tremendous importance. Daniel Barenboim invited two Russian singers – Mikhail Petrenko and Ekaterina Gubanova – to take part in the performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Bolshoi. Teaming up with La Scala stars became a good tradition. In different years, La Scala received a host of remarkable Russian opera stars, including Galina Vishnevskaya and Elena Obraztsova. The Bolshoi, in turn, has repeatedly played host to Italian opera celebrities, including Mario del Monaco and Mirella Freni. La Scala’s current Bolshoi tour is accompanied by a number of exhibitions. On display

Russian bass Mikhail Petrenko

at the Bolshoi Theatre are more than 30 costumes made for the top productions of the past 60 years. Among the exhibits are Obraztsova’s and Freni’s stage attire. The Bolshoi’s exhibition at La Scala features works by avant-gardists who painted for the Bolshoi in the 20th century and the history of the Bolshoi’s building in sketches, drawings and photographs. The Bolshoi and La Scala both underwent restoration in recent years. Since La Scala’s renovation preceded the Bolshoi’s, it opened earlier and happily lent Moscow performers its stage while the Bolshoi stage was under repair. The Moscow Bolshoi and La Scala share many other things as well. By a lucky coincidence, they were 'born' in the same year – 1776. La Scala’s construction began in 1776 and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow opened in 1776." Face value for the most expensive ticket was $400, but scalpers were selling them for upwards of $4,000. Welcome to the new Russia. [Source, Source, Source]

Krassimira Stoyanova Follows Debut CD with Slavic Repertoire

"Although she came to international prominence in leading soprano roles in Italian and French operas, Krassimira Stoyanova is equally at home in the Slav repertory, a point well illustrated by her European successes as Xenia in a touring production of Dvorák’s Dimitrij under Sir Richard Hickox and by last year’s triumphant performances as Dvorák’s Rusalka at the Zurich Opera. And she has also appeared frequently in one of the most famous roles in Russian opera: Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. All of which is a good enough reason to present scenes from all these works as part of her new recital for Orfeo, an album in which she appears with the Munich Radio Orchestra under Pavel Baleff. And yet this varied compilation includes far more than this, for with Parashkev Hadjiev’s Maria Desislava and Veselin Stoyanov’s Hitar Petar, Krassimira Stoyanova also draws attention to two operas from her Bulgarian homeland. Both are 20th-century works, and both of the soprano arias that are taken from them reveal a high degree of originality in their handling of the orchestra and their melodic writing. With every breath Krassimira

Stoyanova brings out all the elegance, beauty and radiant colour of these two very different pieces. And the same is true of Tchaikovsky’s final opera Iolanta and of Maria’s lullaby from Mazeppa, a number which, dramaturgically speaking, provides a tragic and profoundly affecting dénouement to the action and which is sung by Krassimira Stoyanova with all the requisite simplicity, making its impact all the more intense. The same may be said of Maenka in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, while Lisa’s aria from another of Tchaikovsky’s operas, The Queen of Spades, reveals all its dramatic potential. Finally, Krassimira Stoyanova displays her world-class credentials in the scenes from Borodin’s Prince Igor and from Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden and The Tsar’s Bride, allowing her uniquely varied vocal facets to flash like diamonds, while building to an impressive climax within the aria’s overarching form." [Source]

Listen to the album by clicking here.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Eugene Onegin, opera, Op. 24: Act 1. Puskáy pogíbnu ya (Letter Scene)
2. Maria Desislava, opera: Scene 4. Velíki bózhe, chuy móyata molbá!
3. Prince Igor, opera (completed by Rimsky-Korsakov & Glazunov): Act 2. Ne málo vrémeni proshió s tekh por
4. Iolanta, opera, Op. 69: Otchevó éto prézhde ne znála
5. Mazeppa, opera: Act 3. Spi, mladénets moy prekrásny
6. Rusalka, opera, B. 203 (Op. 114): Act 1. Mesícku na nebi hlubokém (Song to the Moon)
7. Dimitrij, opera, B. 127/B. 186 (Op.64): Act 4. Mne zdálo se, ze smrt bledá
8. Rusalka, opera, B. 203 (Op. 114): Act 3. Necitelná vodní moci
9. Dimitrij, opera, B. 127/B. 186 (Op.64): Act 4. On odesel! Jiz obet' dokonána
10. Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades), opera, Op. 68: Act 3. Uzh pólnoch blízitsya
11. The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) (i), opera ('springtime tale') in 4 acts with a prologue: S podrúzhkami po yágodu khodit' (Prologue)
12. Hitar Petar, opera: Act 1. Zvezdíte tázi noshch blestyát
13. Prodaná nevesta (The Bartered Bride), opera, JB 1:100: Act 3. Och, jaký zal! jaký to zal
14. The Tsar's Bride (Tsarskaya nevesta), opera in 4 acts: Act 4. Iván Sergéyevich, khóchesh

For information about Ms. Stoyanova's first CD release of operatic arias by Meyerbeer, Verdi, Puccini, Massenet and more, on Orfeo, click here.