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| Arts Calendar / March 22 / Opera |
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Musical drama in two parts to music by Modest Mussorgsky. 160 min (with one intermission). Music Director: Dmitry Volosnikov. Conductors: Dmitry Volosnikov, Valery Kritskov. Stage Director: Valery Belyakovich. Set Designer: Eduard Kochergin. Novaya Opera’s production of the original version of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, which was rejected by the Committee of the Imperial Theatres 130 years ago, came as a major revelation to the opera-goers. All authentic compositions should be returned to the public, and the Novaya Opera Theatre brings back not only the original version of the opera, composed by Mussorgsky in one go, but also the historical events surrounding the Time of Troubles, on which Aleksandr Pushkin’s drama is based. The true heroes of the opera are not the haughty Tsar and boyars, but people of tragic fate, caught in the whirlpool of history. The style of the production is austere, consistent, figurative and theatrical. "In the production… there is no politics… there israther politics of the soul, as the characters look primarily like people with a hint of physical and spiritual weakness," - Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper. Novaya Opera Theatre |
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Opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. 165 min (with an intermission). Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica based on Henry Murger’s novel Scenes de la Vie de Boheme. Music Director: Evan Rogister. Stage Director: Jean-Romain Vesperini. Sung in Italian. La boheme is one of opera’s most popular and unforgettable stories. In an unheated garret Marcello, an artist, is working on his canvas “Crossing the Red Sea”. He has difficulty holding his brush because the cold has so cramped his fingers. His friend, the poet Rodolfo, enviously looks at the smoke emerging from the smokestacks of the well-heated Parisian houses. Marcello sadly muses over his flighty and unfaithful girl-friend Musetta. Rodolfo turns down Marcello’s offer to fire the stove with his unfinished “Red Sea” and decides to sacrifice the first act of his drama rather than break up the chair for this purpose. Another friend, the philosopher Colline, returns with a bundle of books that he wanted to sell, but since this is Christmas eve the stores were closed. His bad mood is dispelled by the warmth of the heated stove. Bolshoi Theater New Stage |
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