The main character of Vincenzo Bellini's opera is named Norma. In Italian, the name Norma means "standard" or "measure," both in a mathematical and ethical sense. However, Norma's behavior is highly controversial from a social perspective. She has violated two laws: she engaged in a sexual relationship while serving as a high priestess of the druids, and she fell in love with a Roman, despite being a member of a Gallic tribe. Norma will be able to reconcile her love for her homeland, her husband, and her sons only at the cost of her own voluntary death.…

"Ariadne auf Naxos" is an evolutionary creation that has undergone several transformations. Originally conceived as a charming musical homage to the director Max Reinhardt, who brilliantly staged Strauss and Hoffmannsthal's previous opera, "Der Rosenkavalier," it initially served as the finale of a multi-hour dramatic work before returning to its purely musical form as an opera with a prologue. In the original version, Ariadne replaced the Turkish divertissement in Molière's adapted comedy, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.…

In art – in literature, in theater, and in music – tears as an artifact-symbol of the tragedy of a particular hero, and weeping as a natural form of human reaction to the outcome of life’s hardships, have always been essential to art in every historical era. However, let us narrow our focus to the realm of musical theater and turn our attention to the myth of Ariadne, the daughter of the Cretan king Minos and the sister of the Minotaur, a bloodthirsty half-man, half-bull.

As part of the XXXII Stars of the White Nights music festival, the Mariinsky Theatre presented a production of the opera Ariadne auf Naxos, which also marked the final opera premiere of the 241st season for the theatre.

This premiere marked the third production of this opera on the Mariinsky Theatre stage. The production was directed by Sergey Novikov, who emphasized that Ariadne... juxtaposes seemingly unrelated elements. The unusual interpretation of the "theatre within a theatre" technique also captivated the audience.

Sergei Slonimsky began working on the opera in 1966, immediately after reading the first publication of the novel in the magazine Moskva. In 1972, the first act of the opera was performed at the Leningrad House of Composers. The performance was attended by Georgy Tovstonogov, Yevgeny Mravinsky, David Oistrakh, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who was standing behind the conductor's podium.

Immediately after the performance, the opera was banned. "The next day, at 10 a.m., the Union of Composers received a call ordering them to de-magnetize the recording," Slonimsky recalled. "However, following Rozhdestvensky's advice, I arrived at 9 a.m. and re-recorded it."

As a rule, they are captivating, but they actually disregard the philosophical essence of the work. This is an inevitable occurrence with almost every great composition. The opera genre has also responded in kind, even becoming a pioneer in this process of "reinterpretation." The premiere of Sergei Slonimsky's opera "The Master and Margarita" took place at the D.D. Shostakovich Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which recently underwent a rebranding process and is now known as "Shostakovich Opera and Ballet" and is searching for a new creative path.

Shostakovich Opera Ballet presented a new version of Sergei Slonimsky's "The Master and Margarita." The premiere was timed to coincide with the composer's 90th birthday, continuing the rich tradition of performing his works in Samara.

The Russian premiere of an opera written more than half a century ago took place in Samara. Sergei Slonimsky's "The Master and Margarita," based on a libretto by Yuri Dimitrin and Vitaly Fialkovsky in 1972-1973, had never been performed in its entirety in Russia before. In 1972, the first act was performed in a concert at the Leningrad Union of Composers, but it was immediately banned. During the Perestroika period, the work was briefly performed, but mostly abroad (a concert performance in Hanover, 2000, conducted by Mikhail Yurovsky), and in 2012, Vladimir Yurovsky, the son of Mikhail Yurovsky, and director Vitaly Fialkovsky staged the first act at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St.…

The premiere of Slonimsky's opera "The Master and Margarita" took place in Samara

On Friday, October 6, the D.D. Shostakovich Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre presented a full-scale production of Sergei Slonimsky's opera "The Master and Margarita" for the first time in the country. The premiere was a resounding success. After the performance, the theatre's staff and production team were congratulated by Governor Dmitry Azarov.

On Friday, November 17, as part of the IX St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, Sergei Slonimsky's opera "The Master and Margarita" was performed by the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Dmitry Shostakovich at the Mariinsky Theatre. The audience and the expert community were delighted with the Samara production.

Sergei Slonimsky's outstanding work has been waiting for its moment for more than half a century. After the concert performance of the first act of the opera in 1972 (at the Leningrad House of Composers), conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the work was banned from performance the very next morning. Almost twenty years later, during the Perestroika era, Mikhail Yurovsky conducted a concert version of the opera, followed by a single performance at the soon-to-close Moscow Forum Theater. He also staged the work in Hanover (in German!).…

The production, directed by Yuri Alexandrov, was brought to the tour by the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre. The role of Pontius Pilate was performed by the world-renowned baritone Sergey Leiferkus.

S. M. Slonimsky's devotion to the genre of opera is well known. Each score has its own unique style and genre solution.

The composer called Samara his second musical homeland, because five of his nine operas were staged here. The three premiere performances were a success that could only be described as deafening. Thanks to the three line-ups of vocalists, each performance stood out for its own characteristics.

The opera "The Master and Margarita" was written in 1972. Slonimsky was the first to musically interpret Bulgakov's plot. In 1972, the first act of the opera was performed on the stage of the Leningrad House of Composers. The audience included Georgy Tovstonogov, Evgeny Mravinsky, David Oistrakh, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who was standing behind the conductor's baton.

The 15th Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum continued its work at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus. Guests and spectators of the musical festival saw the performance of the D. D. Shostakovich Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre "The Master and Margarita" by one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, Sergei Slonimsky, directed by People's Artist of Russia Yuri Alexandrov. The musical director and conductor-director was Evgeny Khokhlov.

It is no coincidence that the word "fairy tale" was removed from the title of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Golden Cockerel": this is not a fairy tale, but a ruthless musical and theatrical pamphlet. The Russo-Japanese War, the 1905 Revolution, student unrest, and the confrontation between the composer-professor and the authorities provide the historical and biographical backdrop for Korsakov's "fairy tale in personages." Composed in 1907, The Golden Cockerel was Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera and the last work of the pre-revolutionary Russian school of composition, the same school that had once made its mark with the patriotic Life for the Tsar.…

In April 1869, Vladimir Stasov suggested that Alexander Borodin use the remarkable monument of Old Russian literature, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" (1185-1187), as the basis for an opera. The text and music of the opera were composed simultaneously. The opera was written over a period of 18 years, but it was never completed. After Borodin's death, Alexander Glazunov reconstructed the overture from memory and completed the missing sections of the opera based on Borodin's sketches, while Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov orchestrated a significant portion of the opera. The premiere was a great success on October 23 (November 4), 1890, in St. Petersburg, on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.…

The opera "Peter the Great" was first staged at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in Leningrad in 1975 and became the most significant work by Petrov in the genre of opera. In his work, the composer relied on numerous historical documents, decrees, and letters by Peter, as well as the melodies of ancient songs and cantatas, which allowed him to recreate the distinctive atmosphere of the Petrine era.

The opera "Peter the Great" by the Leningrad composer Andrey Petrov has attracted the attention of two regional theaters this year. Just a few days ago, the Ural Opera and Ballet Theatre presented a concert performance of "Peter the Great" at the opening of its season. Now, the baton has been passed on to the Saratov Opera and Ballet Theatre, which has presented a full-fledged production (also at the opening of the season!).…

Among the main thematic areas of the Ninth Festival of Musical Theaters "Seeing Music" (organized by the Association of Musical Theaters with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and a grant from the President of the Russian Federation provided by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives) are characters from Russian history and literature on the modern musical stage.

The 220th anniversary season of the Saratov Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre has begun. As is tradition, it opened with a premiere. This time, the performance was dedicated to another round date – the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great. The opera "Peter the Great" by Andrey Petrov, which was showcased in the summer as an open-air performance in five frescoes, was presented in its full version on October 1

The premiere of the opera "Peter the Great" took place in Saratov on October 1 and 2, this time under a roof, with a full house at the Opera and Ballet Theatre. It marked the opening of a new theatrical season.

This spring, Saratov residents had the opportunity to hear the opera outdoors as part of the XXXV Sobinov International Music Festival, which took place at the end of May on the city's new embankment. However, the production had to be shortened for this purpose.

On the banks of the Volga, the 350th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian emperor was celebrated with a grand premiere. The Saratov Opera and Ballet Theatre staged Andrey Petrov's opera "Peter the Great." The production was directed by Pavel Sorokin, choreographed by Yuri Kochnev, and designed by Sergey Novikov.

The performance was a great success, although there were no Verdi-like roulades in the music, but the entire production was like a blockbuster, with incredible speed and dramatic portrayal of the characters' passionate personalities," said Inga Tokmantseva, a spectator.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this production has been a dream come true for many years, not only for opera lovers, but also for the artists themselves. Once upon a time, audiences eagerly awaited Mozart's "The Magic Flute," and now it is part of the theater's repertoire. However, the thought of "Aida" was too intimidating, as this opera is incredibly complex.

Not much is known about the Udmurtia Opera and Ballet Theatre on a national scale. However, this year marks a double anniversary in the republic: the 60th anniversary of the theatre (which began as a musical and drama theatre and has been an opera theatre since 1993) and the 60th anniversary of the Tchaikovsky Music Festival. The great composer is given special attention here, as the legendary 1958, when the Tchaikovsky Competition was first held, marked the beginning of several cultural projects in Votkinsk and Izhevsk. Despite the storms of the tumultuous 1990s, all the institutions have survived and are successfully developing, becoming the dominant forces in the region's musical life.

The State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Udmurt Republic hosted the premiere of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia." The complex set design, the soaring stage platform, the lighting score that utilizes the entire theatre's lighting equipment, the 20,000-pixel "starry sky" created in-house, and over a hundred DMX-controlled electric candles.…

For more than a hundred years, the set design for The Tale of the City of Kitezh was created in an authentic Russian medieval style. "Rimsky-Korsakov is a classic, an established medieval canon that Sergey Novikov and I did not want to repeat," says Nikolai Markelov, the director of the production and the chief ballet master of the State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Udmurt Republic. "We decided to create our own style using modern technology."

Rimsky-Korsakov's most complex and monumental opera was shown on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater as part of the Tenth Festival of Musical Theaters "See Music", which was held with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives.

The Udmurtia Opera and Ballet Theatre presented Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia" (12+) at the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. This was reported by the press service of the head and government of the republic. The performance took place as part of the 10th festival of musical theatres "Seeing Music".

The Rostov Music Theatre has once again turned to Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular opera, The Tsar's Bride, and presented a vivid and multi-layered performance to the audience.

The new version of the play is a combination of respect for classical literature and the high technology of modern theatre.

Not every theater can boast of having such a large-scale and complex opera as Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride" in its repertoire. This is not the first time that the Rostov State Musical Theatre has staged this work.

Rimsky-Korsakov's famous opera "The Tsar's Bride" is not the first time it has been staged at the Rostov Music Theatre, but in the new version by director Pavel Sorokin and set designer Sergey Novikov, it showcases both the extraordinary depth of the late 19th-century opera and contemporary artistic reflection. The white-stone Russia, the blood-black brutality of the oprichniki, and the iconographic image of the suffering Russian soul are combined with the masterful vocal performances of the artists.