June 19, 2020
Start at 19:00
Richard Strauss
Salome
Richard Strauss saw the infamous play Salome by Oscar Wilde in Berlin in 1903 and immediately set to work on an opera. The composer was attracted by the Christian biblical tale, the magic exotica of the Orient, the torrid eroticism, the keen dramatic conflict and, of course, the main heroine, the Jewish princess Salome. Having a lust for Jokanaan (John the Baptist),she performs the ecstatic Dance of the Seven Veils, for which she demands from King Herod the severed head of the prophet on a silver platter. The score of Salome is written with amazingly masterful skill: a very large orchestra conveys every nuance of the heroine’s mixed feelings — from admiration to aversion, from lust for life to the dark of death.
Stage Director Ekaterina Odegova:
Richard Strauss’ Salome is not limited to the well-known Christian biblical story about the salacious dancer who killed the Prophet out of mere freak. Salome and Jokanaan are two virgins, two great poles of the epoch; through them Strauss shows the conjugacy of the old and new worlds, of body and soul. The two beautiful and terrifying meetings of Salome — with Jokanaan and with his head — and the dance for Herod which lies between them become the three steps of Salome’s ascent: from the stunning burn with love she did not know before, through maximal revealing of her sensuality during the dance and the elimination of love with a kiss in the amorous ecstasy of the finale. She is like the moon that has many faces: a cold and innocent moon with amber colored eyes; a nude, hysterical, bibacious moon looking for lovers; a bloody moon, which finally calms down and vanishes in the dark nocturnal night, and only Jokanaan’s hair is darker.
Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig
Herod Alexey Popov
Herodias Margarita Nekrasova
Salome Taisia Ermolaeva
Jokanaan Artyom Garnov
Narraboth Georgy Faradzhev
The Page Of Herodias Valeria Pfister
First Jew Anton Bochkaryov
Second Jew Andrey Balyberdin
Third Jew Andrey Stebenkov
Forth Jew Vasily Gurylyov
Fifth Jew Eduard Babiy
First Nazarene Stanislav Chernenkov
Second Nazarene Maxim Ostroukhov
First Soldier Dmitry Orlov
Second Soldier Kirill Troitsky
A Cappadocian Ivan Petrov
A Slave Anton Bochkaryov
June 20, 2020
Start at 19:00
Vasily Ladyuk
(baritone)
Conductor Vasily Valitov
Soloists Vasily Ladyuk, Ekaterina Kichigina, Victor Sych (marimba)
June 21, 2020
Start at 19:00
Charles Gounod
Roméo et Juliette
One of Gounod’s best operas Roméo et Juliette (1867) has become one of the most successful adaptations of the Shakespeare tragedy. The opera focuses on “drama through lyricism” (Mikhail Muginstein): the feud of the families becomes a background for the love story. The drama is based on the monologues and four brilliants duets of the main characters which reveal the story of their relations.
The Novaya Opera’s present production, the first in 40 years, has been directed by French director and designer Arnaud Bernard: "Roméo et Juliette is an opera that I know well and love a lot. For years it has been one of the compositions most congenial to me. It is very powerful dramatically. Gounod’s libretto compares favourably with Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi which is based on the same plot. Gounod is very faithful to Shakespeare’s text; his adaptation of the play is very precise. The libretto and Gounod’ music have the cruelty that you can feel in the Shakespeare play. I aim my production to restore and reveal this cruelty."
Music Director and Conductor Fabio Mastrangelo
Juliette Irina Kostina
Roméo Georgy Vasiliev
Frère Laurent Evgeny Stavinsky
Count Capulet Vladimir Baikov
Tybalt Veniamin Egorov
Gertrude Alexandra Saulskaya-Shulyatieva
Stéphano Anna Sinitsyna
Mercutio Ilya Kuzmin
The Duke Of Verona Mikhail Pervushin
Count Pâris Sergey Sheremet
Grégorio Andrey Borisenko