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Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece, the opera "Rigoletto", is back at the Bolshoi Theatre New Stage. International and Russian mass media write about the upcoming broadcast of the ballet "The Nutcracker" in cinemas A big exhibition at the Memorial Estate of F.I. Chaliapin, marking the jubilee of the great opera singer Elena V. Obraztsova, has been prolonged until January 25th 2015 Facebook: take part in the Bolshoi Theatre's competition and win tickets for "The Nutcracker"; congratulations to artists on their birthdays December 18th - Irina Udalova (soprano), an Honored Artist of Russia and the Bolshoi Theatre soloist, celebrated her birthday. Our best wishes to the singer! December 14th, 16th - 21st - premiere series of "Rigoletto" December 9th - 19th - the famous American singer Carol Vaness is working with the participants of the Bolshoi Theatre Young Artists Opera Program December 21st - live broadcast of the ballet "The Nutcracker", staged at the Bolshoi Theatre, at a thousand cinemas around the world Historic Stage - The Nutcracker. Ballet in two acts New Stage - Rigoletto. Opera in three acts. PREMIERE Beethoven Hall - "My lord, if any ancient proverb is true...". Bolshoi Theatre Chamber Orchestra The Bolshoi Theatre and TASS signed an agreement on informational cooperation again. Photo: Damir Yusupov December 21st - do not miss the live broadcast of the ballet "The Nutcracker", presented by the Bolshoi Ballet, at 1140 cinemas around the world .youtube.com/user/bolshoi " Rigoletto " at the Bolshoi V alery Alexeev (baritone) creates a very precise image of a person in a mask, especially in the third act, when the jester has to act out a performance for people that lied to him and kidnapped his daughter. W e see the clown but hear a heart filled with anxiety and grief; we can also feel Rigoletto's humiliation. In the finale, when the jester hears the Duke's voice, he almost loses his mind; he tries to find the "exit", goes through the curtain tucks and finds the corpse of his daughter in a sack. The final scene and Gilda's final arias are, perhaps, the most powerful fragments of the whole production (therefore, as it was said in one popular Soviet film, they are remembered best and have the strongest effect). The dying Gilda is already thinking about ascension into the sky, she stretches her hands up, where a trapeze artist is flying against the background of a wide wine-red piece of cloth. It looks like this is either the girl's soul, or the soul of her mother, who died very young. Quite recently Gilda herself has been flying under the big top; she was inspired by her feeling and repeating the name (a fake one, unfortunately) of her lover like a prayer. Robert Carsen makes it dif ficult for the singer: she has not only to demonstrate absolute freedom up there, but also sing one of the most difficult arias that has extremely high notes. The Belgium singer Anne-Catherine Gillet could not relax; it was clear that both her body and her voice were tense. This happened when she was in the "sky" and down on the stage as well; sometimes the singer's intonation was not very precise, and sometimes she did not have enough breath. Fabrizio Paesano could not always cope with his voice, which is rather bright. Valery Alexeev, as it has been mentioned above, is one of those singers that can convey the meaning with the help of their voice; however, due to his age the voice let him down sometimes. Only two bass singers, the heart-broken Monterone (Vyacheslav Pochapsky) and the greedy assassin Sparafucile (Alexander Tsymbalyuk) were convincing. The conductor Evelino PidГІ is considered a specialist of Italian opera; he managed to turn the heavy orchestra machine into a light feather bed, but did not do anything else. However, one would expect the orchestra in Verdi's operas to be not only an accompanist, but a full-fledged participant of the drama. "About Elena Obraztsova with love…" A big exhibition, marking the jubilee of the great opera singer Elena V. Obraztsova, opened at the Memorial Estate of F.I. Chaliapin on October 14th; at the visitors' request it has been prolonged until January 25th 2015. Various concerts and educational programs will be organized as part of this project. The People's Artist of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of Lenin and State prizes - Elena Obraztsova has lots of various titles, but there is one thing that is the most important: the singer's creative career symbolizes the prosperity of the Russian vocal school in Newsletter There is only one slight hitch: there is not enough light (although the light was designed by Carsen himself, together with the lighting designer Peter Van Praet), it is possible to see most of the cast well only during curtain calls, and during the performance it is sometimes difficult to find the main characters on the stage. The father is saying "farewell" to his daughter. Photo: Damir Yusupov Bearing in mind some details of this production, one could have been worried about the audience's reaction: there are naked girls and even one naked man. The Bolshoi General Director, Vladimir Urin, mentioned in his interviews that the production might be controversial and stressed that he was only an intendant that followed the provisions of the contract, signed by the previous management. But it became obvious during the very first performances that the provocative corps de ballet scene does not shock the audience too much. The viewers even applaud the Duke as he is taking off his jeans and his shirt; although a couple of years ago the same viewers would have started a row. By the way, two singers perform this provocative scene dif ferently: Sergey Romanovsky gets rid of the silk robe as well, before he goes to Gilda's room, while the Italian singer Fabrizio Paesano prefers only to hint the rules of the game as he unties the sash. The Duke is a rake, his friends are cynics, the evil jester is a cold-blooded murderer; there also is the crowd of prostitutes, and they all are characters of one of the 19th century's most wonderful operas. But the viewer, or, rather, the listener, lets his guard down: thanks to V erdi's efforts, the Duke now has charm and charisma (the playful "La donna e mobile" is one of the most popular arias in the world!), and Rigoletto has compassion. In many productions the jester changes in the scenes with his daughter and turns into a kind and loving father. But this is not the case in Carsen's production. In his understanding Rigoletto is devoted to Gilda in some maniac way; he is so devoted to her, that he is ready to punch her as soon as he feels he might lose her. The inner ugliness is changed by the physical ugliness: Rigoletto is not a disgusting humpback that Victor Hugo wrote his drama about. He is a clown! But he, whose job it is to make others laugh, scares them; the white mask and the smiling face with red lips sometimes terrifies. During the overture Rigoletto cannot help laughing, and then he cannot help crying; all his emotions are extremely powerful, and this is what his profession is about. December, 19 2014 Mass media about the Theatre For articles published 17 December 2014 Many local editions all over the world announce the upcoming live transmission of the Bolshoi Ballet's Nutcracker in cinemas including Inverclyde Now (UK) and Osceola News Gazette (USA) as well as many others. The Worcester News (UK) says "Masterfully interpreted by the Bolshoi dancers, it will enchant the whole family" The Telegraph publishes an article about the release of performances of Bolshoi Ballet star Maya Plisetskaya on DVD. The Guardian dance critic Judith Mackrell publishes her Top 10 favourite dance shows of 2014. She lists Natalia Osipova former dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet who now is the prima of the Royal Ballet as her first choice. Irina Udalova (soprano), an Honored Artist of Russia and the Bolshoi Theatre soloist, celebrated her birthday on December 18th. Our best wishes to the singer! Irina Udalova http:// Only on Facebook: take part in the Bolshoi Theatre's competition and win tickets to "The Nutcracker"! "The Nutcracker", the most "New Year" ballet, will be broadcast live at the cinemas across Russia on December 21st. Magical set, emotions of the artists and even the slightest nuances - nothing will escape the cameras. The magical ballet on the big screen will let you feel the holiday atmosphere and make you wait for a miracle to happen! It is the first time that the Bolshoi Theatre announces a tickets draw for the live broadcast of "The Nutcracker" at the cinemas in the following cities: Krasnodar Krasnoyarsk Moscow Murmansk Mytishchi Ryazan Saint Petersburg Syktyvkar Newsletter the second half of the 20th century. Elena Obraztsova performed leading mezzo- soprano parts in the classical Russian and foreign repertoire and in the operas of the 20th century composers; she created a whole gallery of characters that have become living opera classics. The exhibition is organized at the Memorial Estate of F.I. Chaliapin, and this is not for nothing. Elena Obraztsova became the first Russian singer after Chaliapin whose appearance on the world opera stage had such a significant artistic resonance. T ogether with other musical luminaries Elena V. Obraztsova actively supported the idea of creating the Museum of F. I. Chaliapin in Moscow, and presented concert programs there. The exhibition features materials from the All-Russian Museum Association of Musical Culture named after Mikhail Glinka and the Bolshoi Theatre museum, as well as the materials that were provided by the Elena Obraztsova Foundation and private collections. There are playbills and programs of performances, sketches of sets, phonograph records and CDs, books dedicated to the singer, her awards (including "Golden V erdi" award and "Russian National Olympus" award) and stage and concert costumes (the singer's repertoire includes about 40 parts). Various characters, episodes of rehearsals and life behind the scenes are reflected in the works of famous photographers (V. Gende-Rote, L. Pedenchuk, G. Solovyov, A. Stepanov and others) and in amateur pictures. Some valuable exhibits come from the singer's private collections. Video fragments of opera productions, concerts, TV films and drama productions will be demonstrated. The organizers of the exhibition tried not only to reflect the main events of the singer's biography, but also tried to demonstrate all the numerous sides of the unique phenomenon of world culture named "Elena Obraztsova". The All-Russian Museum Association of Musical Culture named after Mikhail Glinka makes its own contribution to the great singer's anniversary - it presents the exhibition, filled with love for Obraztsova's art. The singer herself was the first guest. She joked and looked surprised; she also mentioned that she saw some of her photographs for the first time, remembered when other pictures had been taken and was pleased with such a present from the museum. The singer wished her fans to have bright impressions from the exhibition as well. Concerts of laureates of the Elena Obraztsova Competition are organized as part of this project; V asilisa Berzhanskaya (soprano), a nominee of the "Big Opera" award takes part in one of the concerts. The award ceremony for opera veterans, organized by the Elena Obraztsova Foundation, will take place at the Memorial Estate of F.I. Chaliapin on December 25th. Master-classes of leading opera soloists from various Moscow theatres will be organized in January. The visitors to the exhibition will also be presented with various videos featuring Elena Obraztsova performing outstanding opera parts at the world's best theatres. The exhibition has been prolonged until January 25th 2015. Chelyabinsk mass media: The Chelyabinsk opera and ballet theatre chief ballet master: Yes, I am coming to the Bolshoi As it was announced earlier, Mr. Klevtsov was offered a position as one of the Bolshoi Ballet's heads. He said: "I am not going to resign from the Chelyabinsk theatre; I am going to stay there and to maintain my position as the chief ballet master. I am coming to the Bolshoi Theatre, but I am going to work on the new project that we are working on together with Radu Poklitaru: the ballet "Hamlet" is to premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in March". The Bolshoi Theatre's Press Office announced they did not know anything about Mr. Klevtsov joining the company. It is said in the letter, signed by the Bolshoi Theatre General Director Vladimir Urin: "The Bolshoi's administration is not aware of this appointment". Y uri Klevtsov has been working at the Chelyabinsk theatre since August 2011. Over this period of time the ballet "Swan Lake" has been revived, "Sleeping Beauty" returned to the repertoire, the company has also danced "Esmeralda" and "Servant of Two Masters"; the ballet "The Nutcracker" has been almost re-created. "La Bayadere" has become one of the company's latest premieres. Mr. Klevtsov used to dance leading parts at the Bolshoi Theatre and also worked abroad. December, 19 2014 Bolshoi Theatre in the Internet Newsletter , 7 There will be one winner in each city; the winner will get two tickets to the showing of the legendary ballet, signed by Denis Rodkin and Anna Nikulina, who perform the main parts in the production. T o participate in the competition you need: 1. Sign up for the Bolshoi Theatre page on Facebook 2. Repost this message 3. Put the name of your city before the text of the repost 4. Make your page open to everyone The competition will continue until 3 p.m. December 19th (Moscow time). The winner in each city will be chosen by a random number generator. Good luck to all! .theatrehd.ru/ru/titles/2584/schedule/1 December, 19 2014 |
