18.02.2015

Chaliapin Festival concludes with spectacular gala

(Kazan, 17 February, Tatar-inform, Alsu Gataullina). A spectacular gala concert concluding the 33rd edition of Chaliapin Opera Festival took place on Tuesday night at Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Eduard Treskin hosted the evening. This year’s 11 performances had been a great success, he said.

The festival’s guests applauded to the principal singers at leading theatres of Italy, Austria, Germany, the UK, the US, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The gala began with the famous song from Chaliapin’s repertoire Hey, Ukhnem, performed by Musa Jalil Theatre’s men’s choir. Lubov Draznina was the choirmaster.

Dmitry Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, performed by the theatre’s symphonic orchestra, conducted by Renat Salavatov, continued the concert.

The gala’s youngest participant, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya of Maritime Opera and Ballet Theatre, performed Juliet’s waltz from the opera Romeo and Juliet.

The audience were also offered instrumental music rarely performed in operatic concerts, A. Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet that requires virtuoso performance skills. The concerto was played by Arena di Verona Foundation’s deputy artistic director Giampiero Sobrino, a virtuoso clarinet player. The audience thanked the musician with a generous round of applause.

Daniel Kramer was another guest star at the concert.

Other performers who sang last night were Albina Shagimuratova of Metropolitan Opera, Mariinsky Theatre principal singer Oksana Shilova, and others.

The gala concert concluded, artists took the curtain and the audience cried ‘bravo’ for quite some time.