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“Cavalleria rusticana” is one of the most famous examples of verismo (from the Italian vero meaning – true, honest), an trend in Italian literature, music and art of the late 19th century. The music of the opera is enchantingly beautiful and moving. Its bright, catchy melodies, dramatic depth and expression determined the further fate of this piece that made the composer internationally famous.
“Cavalleria rusticana” was composed for one-act opera competition announced by the Italian publisher Edoardo Sonzogno. The premiere was a great success, and after the performances in Rome the opera was soon staged in Berlin and Moscow. This is the first time that The St. Petersburg Chamber Opera turns to the works of Pietro Mascagni.
From the Director
Sunken mysteria of innocence
A young Governess gets a job at Bly, in the East of England. She is supposed to be a teacher and a nanny to orphaned siblings: Miles and Flora. The woman is enchanted by the beautiful and prosperous Victorian house as well as her wards. However, it soon turns out there is some mysterious, ephemeral evil at the Bly residence. What is evil? The answer turns out to be interesting: in Britten's opera, the so-called 'Evil' means individualism and presumptuousness, including sexual presumptuousness. Evil means a rebellion against the Victorian morality. It is an instinct that bursts the corset into pieces. It is the right of the strong, it is a life lesson learnt through exploiting the weak. Dark desires emerge, and innocence sinks.
The Governess, a young girl full of good intentions on the one hand, but under a lot of pressure on the other hand, will be thrown into a world to face problems beyond her understanding and capabilities. She had been raised at a girls' school, raised on literature and wishful thinking. Her soul drowns in her own fears and desires. The Governess is haunted by the ghosts of the dead residents of Bly. They come out of her head and force her to watch them. The view is unbearable. And that is how the mysterium in which her innocence sinks is completed. The Governess' fall leads to a tragedy and leaves us against a horrifying image in the mirror. An uneasy question arises: where is the taboo?
Again, quoting Umberto Eco, because of excess virtue the forces of hell prevail.
Production of the premiere supported by Britten-Pears Foundation – Britten Award.
By permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.
Original language version with Russian surtitles
Giacomo Puccini wrote about the opera 'La rondine’ in a letter to the librettist Giuseppe Adami: 'The swallow opens its wings, it is full of the sun and the beauty of the blue sea and it flies back to the golden nest to save itself and its beloved. I find the plot is not so bad. Don’t you?'. The plot of 'La rondine' is partly tied with 'La Traviata' but music is devoid of Verdi’s drama. The composer himself claimed that in this opera there is a lot of good music and the musical atmosphere of the opera recalls the exquisite Viennese salons.
In the fashion salon ‘Rambaldo’ in Paris, the last collection of the master is demonstrated. Magda, the mistress of Rambaldo and the supermodel, is in an inexhaustible longing and she is driven by an impulse to fly like a swallow in order to obtain happiness.
Yvette, the confidante of Rambaldo, appeals to reason in vain. When Ruggero, a brave young man from the province, suddenly appears in the salon, Magda begins to believe that he is the object of her aspirations. Also Ruggero himself thinks to find in Magda an ideal wife who is matching the image born in his dreams.
the dancing hurricane and bustle of Parisian nightlife, they promise each other love and happiness. In a fit of feelings, Magda separates with Rambaldo and bids farewell to Paris. Nevertheless, everyday life with Ruggero fetters her. This world is too small for Magda, too delineated, too planned. She is noticeably alienated from her lover.
Once again the swallow wants to spread its wings and go to the ephemeral 'everywhere'. Magda begs Ruggero to forgive her, not even knowing how far her wings will bring her.
'La rondine' in the Chamber Opera of Hamburg is elegant and light performance which corresponds to the genre of lyric comedy that Puccini wrote. Ini Herat is the Producer and the Author of the German version of the libretto. She skillfully wrote the play in the nowadays’ realities. This is one of the new premieres of the theatre. A vivid, new play which is based on not well-known opera in Russia will certainly rise interest to the St. Petersburg audience.
The Chamber Opera of Hamburg is the only private chamber opera in Europe and it focuses mainly on the works of musical theatre of the XVI – XIX centuries. The basis of the repertoire of Chamber Opera of Hamburg consists of classical works. At the International Festival of Chamber Opera in St. Petersburg the theatre artists will perform for the first time.
Cast:
Magda: Luminita Andrei
Ruggero: Ljuban Živanović
Lisette: Natascha Dwulecki
Prunier: Richard Neugebauer
Rambaldo: Titus Witt
Yvette: Feline Knabe
Gobin: Robert Elibay-Hartog Allee
Theater Ensemble Orchestra
Violin: André Böttcher / Maline Zickow, Ada Schwengenbecher
Viola: Kei Takano
Violoncello: Erika Sehlbach / Nariman Akbarov
Flute: Melanie Sobieraj
Clarinet: Sonja Jünemann
Bassoon: Christian Elsner
Horn: Cesár Cabañero Martínez
Harp: Konstanze Kuß
Piano: Martynas Stakionis
Conductor: Ettore Prandi
Celos, aun del aire matan is the earliest extant complete Spanish opera with music by Juan Hidalgo de Polanco on a libretto by Pedro Calderon de la Barca. Composed in 1660 for the marriage of Princess Maria Teresa of Spain to Louis XIV of France it strikes with its bright and distinctive palette of refined recitatives, intricate arias and choruses, dynamic Spanish dance rhythms and catchy melodies.
Juan Hidalgo’s setting of Pedro Calderón’s verse drama combines the myths of Cefalo, doomed to kill his own wife, Pocris; and of the goddess Diana, whose temple is burnt down by Erostrato.
“In addition to a truly great music, plenty of humor and affecting drama, this opera explores crucial questions for young people embarking on relationships. How can one manage emotions of love, loss and jealousy? Is revenge noble, or destructive? How can one establish one’s own identity? Do other people see us the same way we see ourselves?” says Andrew Lawrence-King, musical director and conductor of the show, baroque opera and orchestral director, imaginative continuo-player, director of The Harp Consort (international Early Music ensemble), Early Harp virtuoso, specialist in baroque gesture and Historical Action, Grammy, Echo, Gramophone Awards winner, one of the world’s leading performers of Early Music and the most recorded harpist of all time.
Opera “Love Kills “ marks the second collaboration between Natalia Sats Theatre and Andrew Lawrence-King, following “Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo” by Emilio De Cavalieri in 2012 (The Golden Mask Theatre Award Laureate 2013).
Every opera is no saint... But if the seven deadly sins are combined in a collaborative creation of the composer Kurt Weill and the dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht, an extraordinary result is to be expected. And that is exactly what happened. It is difficult to determine the genre of their work at once. Is it an opera in which they dance or a ballet in which they sing? Retelling the plot makes no sense: the performance is definitely worth seeing. Besides, the opera-ballet “Seven Deadly Sins” is rarely staged in Russia, so try not to miss such an opportunity.
The most famous production of the opera was staged by Boris Pokrovsky in The Moscow State Academic Chamber Musical Theatre in 1981. Nowadays, in the time of "quick perception" Kurt Weill's music is more relevant than ever.
The performance is full of the special psychology which is known to be the Helikon’s actors’ strong point. "During the work on the performance our team thought about the meaning of the word "sin" more often than we usually do. Its interpretation is extremely personal, and that is why each of the two actresses who play the role of Anna I completely differs from each other," - says the director Ilya Ilyin. "When I discovered "The Seven Deadly Sins", I felt that special energy of it. It affects as a contrast shower which brings the purification of the soul, - admits the musical director of the staging, conductor Valery Kiryanov. - And the eternal biblical canons become closer to us. This is a necessary thing of current interest in modern times. It feels like a confession..."
The score of "Seven Deadly Sins" was provided by the publishing company Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG
The repertoire of the Warsaw Chamber Opera includes music of various genres, styles and time periods: from medieval mysteries to operas of the baroque and classical periods, from the pantomime of the 18th century to the operas of Rossini and Donizetti. The oeuvre of contemporary composers are also being performed. In total the troupe has mastered two hundred compositions, many of which were created by order of the theatre.
The troupe was founded almost half a century ago by Stefan Sutkowski. The first performance was the opera buffa «La Serva-Padrona» by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and it took place on September 4, 1961.
Since 1991, the Warsaw Chamber Opera has been organizing the Mozart Festival annually. For the International Festival of Chamber Opera in St. Petersburg the theatre also brings Mozart's opera. The premiere of latest production "Die Entführung aus dem Serail” carried out by Yuri Alexandrov within the creative exchange of the two theatres.
According to critics' reviews and connoisseurs of music, this is one of the most significant events of recent years on the stage of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. A team of famous directors have been working on this opera. Yuri Alexandrov has produced the bright and memorable play and Pavel Dobrzycki has created colorful, breathtaking decorations and costumes. Part of the costumes was delivered in Warsaw directly from the famous manufactory in Istanbul, which owns the costumes of such movie hits as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Troy".
Cast:
Konstanze: Moskowicz Joanna
Belmonte: Kunach Aleksander
Pedrillo: Nowak Bartosz
Blonde: Horajska Paulina
Osmin: Ulatowski Robert
Selim: Pieron Piotr
Vocal ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
The head of the vocal ensemble is Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz
The ensemble of ancient instruments of the Warsaw Chamber Opera "Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense"
The conductor is Marcin Sompoliński
This is the first appeal of the theatre "St. Petersburg Opera" to George Bizet's work. However, Yuri Alexandrov hasn't made the production of world-known opera "Carmen". He produced less famous but no less brilliant opera "Les pêcheurs de perles".
“Les pêcheurs de perles” was the first opera commissioned to the young composer by Theatre Lyrique, the main theater of the French capital in the middle of the 19th century. It took Bizet only a few months to write the opera. After the premiere Hector Berlioz wrote that the score of the opera "contains a lot of fine expressive moments, full of fire and rich color". “Les pêcheurs de perles” fascinates the audience with its melodic richness and dramatic expressiveness.
It is these properties of the musical score, as well as passion for staging opera rarities that attracted the director Yuri Alexandrov, known for his extraordinary interpretations of opera stories.
