October, 10 2014 already performed with Joyce DiDonato on a European tour; he also has his own ensemble and this time he made his debut on the Bolshoi Theatre New Stage in a title project.
William Christie and his ensemble "Les Arts Florissants" will be the next guests of the festival "Journey into the World of the Baroque". Julia Lezhneva composed the program in such a way, that is had an intrigue. In the aria with solo violin from the opera "Rodrigo" she made the audience freeze as she sang the same note for almost a minute, graduating the sound from pianissimo to forte. It is obvious that Handel composed this aria for singers with remarkable abilities to hold their breath for a long time. In "Salve Regina" she managed to find colors of worldly happiness and elevated sadness, but at the same time she did not go beyond "angel" timbre and emotional reserve, which was appropriate for this church music. The singer built the aria of Beauty from "Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" and the aria of Dafne on the contrast of playful, light virtuosity and cantilena. She demonstrated her dramatic skills in the scene of the jealous Rosanne from the opera "Alessandro". Finally, she simply shocked the audience with breathtaking virtuosity in Agrippina's aria from Carl Heinrich Graun's opera "Britannico". This vocal part is written in a very instrumental manner, with passages, embellishments and leaps; it is much easier to imagine that this is a violin or even a clavier piece. It is no wonder that it was very popular back in the day. Later, during the encore, the singer used different charms: she took a slow tempo in the famous Handel aria "Lashia la spina" (and managed to keep it!) and entranced the audience with the beauty of her timbre. When the ensemble kept silent in the last part and the singer was accompanied only by the lutenist Luca Pianca, we did not want the music to stop. The Bolshoi Theatre opened the doors to parallel reality The festival "Journey into the World of the Baroque" started with the triumph of Julia Lezhneva Photo: Damir Yusupov Heaps of flowers, unceasing ovations, exclamations of gratitude, an excited audience and the third part of the concert - the encores: the concert at the Bolshoi Theatre finished like in legends about performances of opera divas. In this particular case the opera diva was from a parallel reality that has nothing to do with today's Bolshoi. Julia Lezhneva opened the festival "Journey into the World of the Baroque" on the Bolshoi's New Stage; the theatre decided to implement this project in order to demonstrate its open-mindedness. It is probably not mature enough to have its own baroque repertoire (the whims of Currentzis, who tortured local orchestra musicians during the production of "Don Giovanni" have become ancient history), but these strange guys from the authentic world are welcome here. Perhaps, they do not quite realize the scale of this event here at the Bolshoi. The locals will have a hard time trying to achieve similar success. Julia Lezhneva is a 24- year old miracle; she already has a brilliant international career, and over the past year she has been a headliner of several of the important events in Moscow (for example, the Russian premiere of John Tavener's "Requiem"). She is now turning into Russia's main vocal superstar. At the same time her career is not connected with our opera institutions. She performs a very different repertoire and different style; this is all about different colors, different instruments, different acoustic emotions and ideas of chic and virtuosity. V iolin and voice, voice and lute, lute and a small portable organ. The music consists of dialogues, improvisations, cross glances and understanding smiles; emotional turmoil and unbelievable beauty unfold against this background. The singer's two trademark composers, Handel and Vivaldi, were the central characters of the program; the audience was presented with sophisticated selections of arias from operas, oratorios and cantatas. There was the famous Handel "Salve Regina" and the obligatory "Lascia la spina" for the encore. The singer was accompanied by the ensemble "La voce strumentale", a relatively new team of baroque musicians from Moscow and St. Petersburg (and the languishing Swiss lutenist Luca Pianca) that have serious intentions. They were brought together by the young Moscow violinist, conductor and counter tenor Dmitri Sinkovsky. During the concert he demonstrated all his skills and was not lost next to the miniature girl with bright eyes and an angel voice, which knows no boundaries at all. Photo: Damir Yusupov Lezhneva is guaranteed happiness, and Sinkovsky is baroque luxury and gallant boldness. His solo in Vivaldi's concerto for violin "Per Pisendel" was as breathtaking as Lezhneva's coloraturas, and after his violin sang in "Largo", I wished that applause between the parts of a music piece had not been considered bad taste. This way or another, the Bolshoi Theatre has made the first step towards baroque. As we are waiting for Handel's "Rodelinda" (co-production with the English National Opera, which has been planned by the previous management and has not been cancelled by the current administration yet) we are also looking forward to the next program of the baroque festival, which will be presented on October 26th and 30th by the ensemble "Questa Musica", conducted by Philipp Chizhevsky, and local young singers. A big concert will be organized to mark the bicentennial of Mikhail Lermontov's birth A gala, which will be the final and most important event marking the bicentennial of Lermontov's birth, will take place on the Bolshoi Theatre Historic Stage on October 15th.
The celebration will be organized in an unusual form. Yuri K. Laptev, the director of the concert and People's Artist of Russia said it would be a concert-performance. Evgeny K. Volkov, the music director of the program, mentioned that "the concert will demonstrate the complexity and the diversity of Lermontov's words and its interpretation in the broadest spectrum of genres". According to Volkov, the audience will be presented with the art of declamation, as well as orchestra, vocal and symphonic, opera, choir and chamber music and folklore; the program will include 23 pieces of music. The list of musical pieces will include world premiers: for example, the vocal interpretation of the waltz "A Meeting with Lermontov" by A. Khachaturian and Nina's romance from the opera "Masquerade" by A. Mosolov. These scores were found in the archives. The audience will also hear the cantata "Your Poem" by César Cui, marking the centennial of Lermontov's birthday, which was forgotten for many years. The Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Honored Artist of Russia, Alexander Titov, the A. V. Sveshnikov State Academic Russian Choir, the Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Chorus and other collectives will take part in the concert; Zlata Bulycheva, Ekaterina Mechetina, Alexander Naumenko and others will perform solo parts. The People's Artist of Russia Nikolai Burov, Egor Beroev and Kristina Asmus will be MCs. The celebration of the bicentennial of Lermontov's birthday in 2014 will be organized in compliance with the order of the President of Russia /…/ Newsletter

October, 10 2014 No speeches: Moscow paid last respects to Yuri Lyubimov Last respects were paid to Yuri Lyubimov in Moscow. The commemorative event was organized at the Vakhtangov Theatre. It was there that he started his life in art 70 years ago. It was there that he staged "The Demons", one of his last productions. This great director founded the famous Taganka Theatre, which turned upside down the perception of theatre, the country and freedom; Lyubimov wanted the last respects to be paid to him in silence. This is why there were no speeches. There were just words of gratitude from members of the audience, friends, students and colleagues, who approached the theatre. This was the director's will - no funeral speeches: so the last respects to Yuri P. L yubimov were paid at the theatre audience hall in silence. Thousands of people came to the Vakhtangov Theatre. It was here that Lyubimov first appeared on the stage in distant 1946; it was here that he became a director; it was here that he staged "The Demons" in 2012, after he had left Taganka forever. So in a way the circle of life was closed…But of course all words and all tears were about Taganka, the theatre that he made a legend of the 20th century and where he became a legend himself. Lyubimov's theatre is always more than just a theatre. Each premiere, starting from "The Good Person of Szechwan" was a public event: people queued for tickets at night and there were mounted police. Taganka censors had a lot of work. Why is Galileo standing on his head? Otrepyev is wearing a sailor's shirt and a pea- jacket - "Didn't you know that Andropov was a sailor?". When the director was told: "W e are tired of your liberties, you should stage classical plays", he did so. He staged "Hamlet", starring Vysotsky. But it was not only about the political connotation of his productions, but also about his poetic language. All of those who were blessed to work with him and to be in contact with him just a little bit, have not forgotten about this experience.
Over a hundred performances on major stages of the world. The opera "Prince Igor" at the Bolshoi Theatre was the director's last project. The audience broke the silence that the maestro asked for: it is a theatre tradition to applaud while the last respects are paid. Y uri P. Lyubimov's office in the Taganka Theatre will be a memorial. A street in Moscow will be named after him. His friends and colleagues remembered the words of Bulgakov's Moliere, one of a few parts that L yubimov played himself: "He needs nothing for his fame. But we need him for our fame". There were only those people closest to him at the funeral service at the Donskoy monastery church. There is a simple wooden cross on the director's grave and a sign that says: "1917-2014". This is almost a century in the history of our country and in the history of theatre. The capital is getting ready for the international festival "The Circle of Light", which starts on Friday. A journey around the world will be its main theme. All citizens will be able to see familiar buildings in the new light free of charge. The organizers do not tell all the secrets of the coming event. Each light bulb is an additional accent for a painter's work. There are five thousand such bulbs and each of them has its own place in this celebration of light. It is considered that the first festival of light was organized 200 years ago in Italy; it was called "luminaria". Very soon the strange constructions will be filled with light and will shine with all the colors of the rainbow. Classical Stalin architecture at the VDNKH will be decorated with ancient baroque motifs.
A plastic igloo, built from 250 red containers will look like something magic, but not something funny. It is the fourth year that Moscow has been a venue for light installations. The Bolshoi Theatre, the VDNKH pavilions, Tsaritsyno and the Manege - lighting artists from all over the world will change the familiar buildings in such a way that no one will be able to recognize them. They work with projectors and light. Their goal is to take the audience's breath away. It is expected that during 5 days of the festivals 6 million people will see the installations. /…/ T ickets to the Bolshoi Theatre: how to buy them /…/ Every person, who visits the capital of Russia, dreams to visit the Bolshoi Theatre; however, it is extremely difficult to get tickets there. But everything is possible, and if you take care of everything beforehand, you can get the precious tickets for a talented production. You can order tickets to the Bolshoi Theatre on the theatre's official web-site; it will take only a few minutes. The virtual playbill will help you to choose a suitable performance and to learn when a long- awaited premiere will take place. In just a couple of clicks you can get a ticket to one of the world's most legendary opera theatres. There is no point to wait until all tickets are sold out and to regret the chance you have missed; the 21st century technology can help you bring your dreams to life. Use the Internet portal in order to keep your eye on the ball. In this case you will not miss the event you would like to attend; you can always order a ticket for a performance beforehand. The Bolshoi Theatre gift shop is open now! Photo: Damir Yusupov From now on you can buy a pleasant gift to remember your visit to The Bolshoi Theatre forever! Porcelain and t-shirts, magnets and post cards, audio and video recordings of the performances and books about The Bolshoi - these and much more you can find on the shelves of a cosy shop right in the historical building. Every 11am - 17pm you can get into the shop through the entrance 9-a (on the left hand of main entrance to the theater). And for the theatre audience the shop will be open inside from the beginning of the performance until its end. Bolshoi Theatre in the Internet Newsletter October, 10 2014 , 7 Photo: Damir Yusupov Photo: Damir Yusupov

For articles published 8 October 2014 Ismene Brown the dance critic for The Spectator (UK) writes about World Ballet Day saying that more than 5million tweets were sent by viewers watching the event on internet and a total of 307,393 viewed either the live stream or the catch-up later which live viewers watched for an average of 28 minutes. Marcia White SPAC president and director writes a letter in the Albany Times Union (USA) saying "thank you on behalf of the board and staff of Saratoga Performing Arts Center to Russia's legendary Bolshoi Ballet that brought 250 years of magnificent tradition and breathtaking bravura artistry to our stage for a historic "first" that attracted fans from around the globe. An event that drew more than 17,000 people, every aspect of this experience surpassed our expectations". German publications including Tagespiegel, Stern and Klassik.com continue to write about the departure of the Bolshoi Music Director Tugan Sokhaiv from the des Deutsche Symphonie-Orchestra (DSO). The Tagespeigel writes that Tugan Sokhiev is taking a big risk to leave the DSO and concentrate on working at the Bolshoi Theatre because as the newspaper says the conductor's place in the orchestra pit of the Bolshoi Theatre is also an ejection seat. Stern and Klassik.com republish the DP A and DSO press announcements about Sokhiev's departure from the DSO. Opera talents will compete in front of everyone's eyes Elena Obraztsova will decide who is the best singer On Saturday, October 18th, the third program of the cycle "Big Opera" will be broadcast. This is a competition for young vocalists. They sing duets with stars and organized programs of requests where they sing pieces that the jury members request them to sing. There are 10 competitors, five participants from Russia and one participant from each of the following countries: Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. During the first two broadcasts they demonstrated their skills; starting from the third program it will be a game of elimination. Three participants will leave the show. The competitors will perform fragments from operas by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Glinka. People's Artist of the USSR Elena Obraztsova, the artistic director of the Helikon Opera and People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Bertman, People's Artist of the RSFSR Galina Kalinina and the former head of the Vienna Opera Ioan Holender are on the jury. The choreographer Alla Sigalova and the artist and architect Alexei Betak are the MCs. The competition "Big Opera" has already been organized twice. In 201 1 Veronika Dzhioeva, who is singing at the Bolshoi Theatre today, won the competition. Vladimir Magomadov, who became the winner in 2013, is touring the world.
In brief