18.02.2014

Thirty second Chaliapin Opera Festival concludes in Kazan

The final gala concert took place on the stage of Musa Jalil Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

(Kazan, 18 February, Tatar-inform, Yekaterina Vislavskaya). On Tuesday, the 32nd Chaliapin Opera Festival concluded at the Musa Jalil Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

The concluding gala featured stars engaged in the festival’s productions. They are a constellation of opera scene masters, including Taras Shtonda of Ukraine, Tatiana Melnichenko of Spain, Vitaly Biliy of Germany, Giampiero Sobrino of Italy, and others.

The concert began with the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre’s orchestra performing a waltz by Dmitry Shostakovich. When the performance concluded, the host Eduard Treskin, a People’s Artiste of Tatarstan, welcomed the audience and summed up the festival.

On behalf of the theatre, Eduard Treskin thanked President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Tatarstan Culture Ministry, commercial partners and informational sponsors, including the Tatar-inform news agency.

The concert continued with arias and romantic songs from operas and operettas. The theatre’s choir performed Hebrew Slaves Chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco. The globally renowned musician Giampiero Sobrino performed the clarinet concerto fantasy from Rigoletto.

The audience gave an especially warm welcome to performances in Russian, including the ones from Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila, Nikolay Strelnikov’s Lackey, and others.

Black Eyes song concluded the first movement. It was Fyodor Shaliapin who had first included the song in his repertoire and introduced it to the world during his tours. He had also added to it a few verses of his own composition.

The second movement opened with the overture to Franz Suppe’s Light Cavalry, performed by the theatre’s choir. Fyodor Chaliapin had used to like both listening to and singing Ukrainian songs.

Pieces by George Gershwin, Ernesto Curtis, Giuseppe Verdi and other composers were played as well. The concert ended with Tukay’s aria from Rezeda Akhiyarova’s Love of a Poet, performed by Akhmed Agadi and theatre’s choir.