Bolshoi Theatre Offers Baroque Opera In 2015-16 Season

Rebecca Evans as Rodelinda in the Richard Jones production this season at ENO (Photo: Clive Barda)

"The Bolshoi Theater's 2015-2016 season, which was announced at a press conference Wednesday, will include a number of new stagings and modern productions in both opera and ballet. In the first half of the season, the Bolshoi will debut a children's opera, “The Fables of The Vixen, The Duckling, and Balda.” The production will combine three operas about fairy tales — Sergei Prokofiev's The Ugly Duckling, Igor Stravinsky's Renard, and Alexander Pravednikov's The Tale of the Priest and his Workman Balda. The opera will be conducted by Dmitry Belyanushkin, who also directed last year's children's opera The Legend of Kai and Gerda. Musical director Tugan Sokhiev told attendees at the conference that the opera will include 'interactive elements.' Also in October, the Bolshoi will premiere a program that includes both the Nutcracker Suite and the opera Iolanta, a realization of Tchaikovsky's initial plans for the two productions to be performed on a single bill. In December, the Bolshoi New Stage will feature a production of Handel's Rodelina in collaboration with the English National Opera, a rare staging of a baroque opera at the theater. In the spring, the theater will offer a new production of Donizetti's opera-buffa Don Pasquale, under the direction of Timofei Kulyabin, who was fired for his modern staging of Wagner's Tannahauser at the Novosibirsk Opera and

Venera Gimadieva To Perform At Royal Festival Hall On April 1

"Leading Tartar soprano Venera Gimadieva introduces the music of Tatarstan. Following on from a performance that won her critical acclaim at Glyndebourne this summer ('a sensation' in the words of The Guardian), Gimadieva joins conductor Guerassim Voronkov and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra for a celebration of recent works by composers from Tatarstan, alongside vocal masterpieces by Sergey Rachmaninoff, himself of Tatar descent. Highlights include songs such as 'Vocalise' and 'Ne poy krasavitsa pri mne' and arias from Francesca da Rimini as well as Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden."[Source] Click here to purchase tickets. See the concert program, and learn more about Ms. Gimadieva, after the jump. Watch the soprano sing "Salammbô's Aria," by Bernard Herrmann from the movie score of Citizen Kane, in the video below.

Bolshoi Theatre Revives Robert Carsen Circus "Rigoletto"

Kristina Mkhitaryan as Gilda

"Giuseppe Verdi's immensely popular opera Rigoletto returned to the Bolshoi Theater earlier this month, after an absence of 25 years, in a staging by Canadian director Robert Carsen co-produced by the Bolshoi, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, in France, where it originated in the summer of 2013, and the opera houses of Brussels, Strasbourg and Geneva. The Bolshoi played host to the Russian premiere of Rigoletto in 1859 and over the next 130 years the opera went on to become one of the theater's most-performed works, appearing nearly 1,600 times in 11 different stagings. To say that Carsen's production is unlike any seen before at the Bolshoi would amount to a gross understatement. Moving the action from its

Justina Gringyte as Maddalena and Sergey 
Romanovsky as the Duke of Mantua

original locale, the 16th-century ducal court of Mantua, in northern Italy, to a modern-day circus arena, Carsen has turned the libidinous Duke into an equally libidinous circus director and the court jester, Rigoletto, into a clown. To conduct Rigoletto, the Bolshoi engaged prominent Italian conductor Evelino Pido, who encountered certain difficulties in coordinating his forces and for whom the orchestra played rather insensitively at times. The principal treat vocally on opening night was the Duke of Sergei Romanovsky, who, after a brief stint with Novaya Opera, left Russia in 2009 to pursue a career abroad. His bright, technically secure lyric tenor proved a near-perfect fit to the music, marred only by a few cracked high notes. And he played the philandering Duke with enormous gusto and conviction. Kristina Mkhitaryan, a

Dimitris Tiliakos as Rigoletto

member of the Bolshoi's Young Opera Artists Program, showed considerable potential in her sympathetic account of the doomed Gilda, though she lacked, on opening night at least, the pure, bell-like high notes heard from the part's finest interpreters. The vocal disappointment of the evening was the Rigoletto of Greek baritone Dimitris Tiliakos, who seemed to possess several different voices, principal among them an only intermittently full-bodied sound in the mid-range of a sort that marks the true 'Verdi baritone' and rather weak and fluttering notes in music's upper reaches." [Source] Click here for information about Rigoletto performances at the Bolshoi. Watch a video after the jump.

Marina Poplavskaya Fails to Impress at Tchaikovsky Hall

"In the Tchaikovsky Hall was a concert soprano Marina Poplavskaya - the one most quoted is online famous western scenes of domestic divas. The singer appeared with the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater....Less glossy hype than for La Netrebko, but it is really impressive demand, as well as an intriguing versatility, declared from the very beginning. Belkantovye queens of Donizetti and Verdi's dramatic party, Rimsky-Korsakov and Puccini, and another drop of the Baroque (she sang with Theodore Currentzis Belinda in Dido and Aeneas Purcell) and a bit of Wagner (Third Norn in Götterdämmerung). In short, nothing prima donna assoluta, for which there is neither repertory nor tessitura obstacles. But the launch of its present-day Moscow concert discouraged. The impression of Matilda's aria from Guillaume Tell Rossini singer greased colorful tone unstrung, hacking, and top notes of muffled sounds. Well, let's not raspelas, but then there was another smash hit once, and now a rarity - Isabella's cavatina from Robert le diable Meyerbeer, where no qualitative leap has not happened. For Marina Poplavskaya is not a problem of depth and penetrating power, it is beautiful sound and Mills parades elegant pianissimo, it is in the middle of the range is really memorable, entailing the nobility of tone, in addition, it is artistically without affectation, and enumerates the styles with adequate certainty. However, the picture of undisputed maestro of all this is in no way willing to take shape. Perhaps the best were two imposing Verdi Room, "Toi qui sus le neant" Elizabeth, from Don Carlos and the final scene of Desdemona

from Otello. Also not ideal - in Elizabeth ever did, and yell, and dilute the persistent tone portamento, but still the character of the party is clearly more comfortable for her. But Desdemona (by Marina Poplavskaya in 2008 sang with Riccardo Muti in Salzburg) has turned out much closer to the model - and not just pure technique, and even that little old-fashioned, but beautifully made until nuance little things 'Theatre,' which stood out in the vocals. Ironically, the last Russian disappoint prepared block. If a small aria from Francesca Francesca da Rimini, Rachmaninoff's lack of warming up and prunes phrasing looked more likely reason for the arraignment, the scene of writing is objectively Tatiana was annoyed at that: in the interpretation of the singer's spectacular, but heavy, sounded appeared out of nowhere constraint , the lack of organic and elemental tonal clarity. Speak in such cases, the general words about the lack of good schools, which theoretically could result in malfunctioning vocal and worse - the last thing, but there's one, and in addition to logic-chopping can judge the taste that ultimately outweighs: spontaneous, natural shades of a rare game, but not completely faceted voice or is it carefully, uniformity and orderliness." [Source]

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]

Russian Operatic Royalty Attends Bolshoi Theatre Gala

The audience for the reopening of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was filled with politicians, businessmen, celebrities and some well-known opera singers who performed at the landmark auditoriums throughout their careers.

Mezzo-soprano Elena Obraztsova was sitting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (not pictured) in the Tsar's box which rests in the center rear of the auditorium. 

Soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, widow of Mstislav Rostropovich, was sitting in a special box stage right. 

In addition to guests in the auditorium a number of artists that have been part of the Bolshoi Theatre's history were present through previously recorded interviews, including the late Irina Arkhipova who passed away in February 2010:

Although Russia has two powerhouse opera facilities (the other being that bastion of culture in St. Petersburg led by Valery Gergiev known as the Mariinsky Theatre), it seems odd that so many prominent Russian opera singers were not present for the festivities that reopened the Bolshoi Theatre on October 28 either to perform or just appear as dignitaries. Perhaps this had to do with schedules and the fact that the government was in charge of the invitation list for the evening. Here are some audio clips in their honor:


Anna Netrebko - "O ne rydai, mai Paolo" Francesca da Rimini (Rachmaninoff)


Galina Gorchakova - "''Da, On Rassejalsja'' The Fiery Angel (Prokofiev)


Ljuba Kazarnovskaya - "Den li tsarit" (Tchaikovsky)


Olga Peretyatko - "Lilacs" (Rachmaninoff)


Olga Borodina - "Merknet svet dnevnoj" Prince Igor (Borodin)


Larissa Diadkova - "Duenna's Aria" Betrothal in a Monastery (Prokofiev)


Sergei Leiferkus - "The Field Marshal" Songs and Dances of Death (Mussorgsky)


Vladimir Atlantov - "Kuda, kuda vï udalilis" Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)


Maria Guleghina - "The Cuckoo" (Tchaikovsky)


Yevgeny Nesterenko - "Vas tabor spit. Luna nad nim" Aleko (Rachmaninoff)


Nina Rautio - "Prastite Vy, Xalmy" The Maid of Orleans (Tchaikovsky)


Vladimir Chernov - "Prince Andrei's Aria, Act I" War and Peace (Prokofiev)

Also curiously missing were some major opera singers who participated in a cultural exchange in 1964 between La Scala and the Bolshoi Theatre. Opera stars like Renata Scotto, Fiorenza Cossotto, Leontyne Price and Mirella Freni, all took part in that event and are all still around today. Would that have been too much of a gesture on the part of Moscow? The exchange between companies took place again in 1974 (with Montserrat Caballé and Plácido Domingo) and 1989. Here is an audio clip of Mirella Freni singing "Non mi resta" from L'Amico Fritz at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on September 13, 1964:

Большой театр: What You Get in Russia For $700 Million

The Bolshoi Theatre spent what averages out to $401,606.46 per auditorium seat to renovate the great opera and ballet house in Moscow, Russia. The reopening night gala was streamed live on YouTube for the world to join in the festivities. Following is a brief summary of the evening, facts about the architecture of the building and more photos from inside the hall during the gala.

Bolshoi Theatre Reopening Gala Concert - The Opera Edition

"President Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin hosted the event billed as the 'rebirth' of one of Russia’s cultural treasures, featuring opera stars Placido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu and Natalie Dessay and ballet dancers Natalia Osipova, Svetlana Zakharova and Ivan Vasiliev. The renovation is intended to transform the 1820s theater in central Moscow from a crumbling, acoustically inadequate beauty into a state-of-the-art facility. It is believed to be the most expensive theater renovation project ever, according to Russia's RT network. Invitations for the event were sent out by the Kremlin administration and not by the theater itself and reports have surfaced that that ticket tickets have been up for grabs on the Internet for as much as $65,000. The Bolshoi administration denies any involvement in the matter. 'Could you imagine what the reaction would be if London's Royal Opera House gave up the entire theater to the presidential administration?' Russian music critic Marina Gaikovich told the Interfax news agency. The restoration has been mired in controversy from the start, overshooting the original budget over four times and missing its original reopening date of 2008 as the condition of the building was found to be far worse than first believed. Symbolically, restorers removed the Soviet hammer and sickle from the curtain, while the Soviet coat of arms has been pulled from the facade, replaced with the double-headed eagle, the Tsarist symbol readopted by Russia." [Source]

OPERA SELECTIONS FROM THE PROGRAM

Violeta Urmana: "Prastite Vy, Xalmy"
from The Maid of Orleans (Tchaikovsky)

Dmitri Hvorostovsky: "Ya vas lyublyu"
from Pique Dame (Tchaikovsky)

Natalie Dessay: "Ne poi, krasavitsa, pri mne”
lyrics by Alexander Pushkin and music by Rachmaninoff

Yelena Zelenskaya, Anna Aglatova, Yekaterina Scherbachenko, Svetlana Shilova
sing “Nature and Love” by Tchaikovsky

Irina Dolzhenko, Lolitta Semenina, Andrey Grigoriev, Maxim Paster, Boris Rudak:
"Final Scene" from Betrothal in a Monastery (Prokofiev)

Angela Gheorghiu: "Ach, istomilas ja gorem"
from Pique Dame (Tchaikovsky)

Russians Win Competizione dell'Opera at Bolshoi Theatre

Champion: Baritone Roman Burenko

"Up-and-coming Russian opera singers have scooped a roster of awards, including the coveted first prize of 10,000 euros, at one of the world's leading vocal contests - the Competizione dell’Opera. First prize went to baritone Roman Burdenko with fellow baritone Igor Golovatenko and bass Mikhail Korobeinikov picking up the other two top awards. They ousted finalists flying the flag for South Korea, Mongolia, South Africa and Lithuania. An international competition for singers specializing in Italian opera, the Competizione dell'Opera took place in the Russian capital for the first time in its history. Although traditionally based in the German city of Dresden, this time around the semi- finals and the last round of the competition were held at Moscow's landmark Bolshoi Theatre. Over the last 14 years, the Competizione dell´Opera has been recognized as one of the largest singing competitions worldwide. It is the only competition that uses the great repertoire of Italian opera, from the delicate tones of old music to such giants as Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, and even going further, reaching into the stylistic diversity of the 20th century. The competition originated in Hamburg as 'I Cestelli' Competizione dell´Opera.

Baritone Igor Golovatenko and bass Mikhail Korobeinikov.

However, since 2001, it has established itself in Dresden, though its cultural importance has spread far beyond the boundaries of the city on the River Elbe. With 2011 being widely celebrated as the Italian Year of Culture across Russia, it was suggested that the competition bring its semi-finals and finals to Russia, where operatic traditions have enjoyed a long history. Performing on one of the most beautiful stages of opera – the historic Bolshoi Theatre – the aspiring singers were judged by famous opera and festival directors and singers, as well as important representatives of media and agencies." [Source] Click here to find out more about the competition.

Dmitry Tcherniakov Will Open Renovated Bolshoi Theater

Director Dmitry at Bolshoi

"After six years of renovations that have been beset with allegations of corruption, infighting, delays and political point-scoring, the Bolshoi Theater’s main stage will open again to the public this autumn. Following a gala concert at the end of September that will likely be attended by both the cultural and political elite of the country, the more serious business of opera and ballet will begin on October 2, as one of the world’s most famous theaters finally gets its home back. The first performance on the newly renovated stage will be of Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, regarded as the first major Russian opera—so far, so predictable. Somewhat more surprising, perhaps, is the choice of director for the opera. Dmitry Tcherniakov offended traditionalists with his Bolshoi production of Eugene Onegin in 2006 so much that legendary soprano Galina Vishnevskaya vowed never to set foot inside the theater again."

Galina: Disgruntled Diva

"Then came the fateful Onegin in 2006, which replaced Boris Pokrovsky’s legendary 1944 staging. Vishnevskaya said she had 'cried in humiliation' in a letter to the Bolshoi’s management, and vowed never to set foot in the theatre again, cancelling an 80th birthday party due to be held at the theatre, and railing at the 'completely deformed' main characters. The soprano, who was probably the theatre’s most famous Tatyana of all time, wrote of Tcherniakov’s 'public desecration of our national treasure.'" [Source]