11.02.2015

Chaliapin Festival prepares to show Evgeny Onegin and Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly is considered one of the theatre’s best productions.

(Kazan, 20 February, Tatar-inform). The 33rd Chaliapin Opera Festival continues.

On Monday, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi was presented on the stage of Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre. Mariinsky Theatre lead singer Oksana Shilova told the story of Violetta Valery, her stage partners being tenor Sergei Semishkur of Mariinsky Theatre and baritone Boris Statsenko from Germany.

The 11th February playbill features Evgeny Onegin. The audience is to see a striking cast including Ekaterina Goncharova of Mariinsky Theatre as Tatiana and Vasily Ladyuk of Moscow’s New Opera theatre as Onegin.

One of the theatre’s best productions, Madame Butterfly, will be shown on 12 February. The cast includes singers from Germany Sicheng Yi (Cio-Cio-San) and Georgy Oniani (Pinkerton).

On Fedor Chaliapin’s birthday, 13 February, Boris Godunov by Modest Musorgsky, a popular musical drama in three acts, will be presented, featuring three outstanding contemporary bassos at once. They are Mikhail Kazakov as Tsar Boris, Alexei Tikhomirov as Elder Pimen and Mikhail Svetlov-Krutikov as Varlaam. Agunda Kulaeva, a Bolshoi Theatre principal singer, is to perform Marina Mniszech, while Aryom Golubev of Maritime Opera and Ballet Theatre will appear as The Pretender.

Rigoletto will conclude the festival, featuring Boris Statsenko from Germany in the lead part and Venera Protasova of Tatar Theatre as Gilda. Sergei Skorokhodov of Mariinsky Theatre will sing the part of Duke of Mantua.

The festival will traditionally conclude with two gala concerts featuring world opera stars, the theatre’s press service has said.