Enamoured with an unknown lady, a young soldier discovers that her grandmother holds a secret to win at cards. Although his beloved requites his love, happiness slips out of reach when his obsession with the powerful secret drives him to madness. Set in imperial Russia, Tchaikovsky’s late brooding thriller about a fanatic gambler is a tour de force of stirring melancholy, consuming passion and grand sweeping orchestration. If the opera saw the light of day thanks to his brother, the librettist Modest Tchaikovsky, The Queen of Spades soon became Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky’s personal obsession: composed in only 44 days, he considered it a masterpiece.
The reopening show of the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theatre by Jurowski and Tcherniakov. "Ruslan and Lyudmila", opera by Mikhail Glinka, has particular relation with the Bolshoï Theater, it held more than 700 representations throughout the history and nine different productions. Logically the fable of Mikhail Glinka (from a poem of Pushkin), symbol of the Russian opera, opened the season 2011-2012 of the majestic Moscow s opera, after its long renovation. This reopening inspired the director Dmitri Tcherniakov, who signed the direction of this new production. The new devices of the Bolshoi Theatre and its two giant screens are fully exploited in a spectacular staging. Tcherniakov transposes Glinka s opera at the 21th century with contemporary ambitions because of the "modernity of the subject", trying there to put forward "the deep feelings of the characters , exposing the protagonists to very modern temptations: a "harem" for Ruslan, a Thai massage for Lyudmila.
The pain of unrequited love is portrayed unforgettably by two of today’s greatest stars. Renée Fleming is musically and dramatically radiant as the shy Tatiana, who falls in love with the worldly Onegin, played with devastating charisma by Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Their mesmerizing vocalism and chemistry explode in one of opera’s most heartbreaking final scenes. With Valery Gergiev on the podium conducting Tchaikovsky’s passionate score, this performance is one for the ages.
A lyrical drama in a context of political, religious and cultural revolution, in the heart of the late 17th century in Russia. The story takes place during the 1682 revolt opposing the Old Believers and the New Orthodox. Ivan Khovanski (Vladimir Ognovenko), head of the streltsy's uprising, embodies the movement of religious indignation which ends up being bloodily crushed.
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.
Glinka's "patriotic-heroic tragic opera" in four acts 'A Life for the Tsar' or 'Ivan Susanin' (as it was known during the Soviet era), recorded live at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1992, and starring Evgeny Nesterenko, Marina Mescheriakova, Alexander Lomonosov and Elena Zaremba, with the chorus and orchestra of the Bolshoi, conducted by Alexander Lazarev. The historical basis of the plot involves Ivan Susanin, a patriotic hero of the early 17th century who died in the expulsion of the invading Polish army for the newly elected Tsar Michael of Russia, the first of the Romanov dynasty, elected in 1613.
Elena Zaremba (born July 10, 1957) is a Russian-born mezzo-soprano long active in the United States. Zaremba was born in Moscow into a family of singers, and studied at the Gnessin State Musical College, joining the Bolshoi Opera in 1984 upon graduation. On the company's 1989 tour to La Scala she made her Western debut as Vanya in A Life for the Tsar. At this stage in her career she sang mainly Russian roles, such as Laura in The Stone Guest, the Innkeeper in Boris Godunov, Olga in Eugene Onegin, and Amelfa in The Golden Cockerel; other roles included Cherubino and Lola in Cavalleria rusticana. In 1990 Zaremba was engaged as Konchakovna for Prince Igor at the Royal Opera House, a performance which has been preserved on video. In 1991 she bowed in New York with the Bolshoi on tour; in 1992 she was Ulrica at the Vienna State Opera, and that same year she sang Carmen for Bregenz. In 1991 she took part in the world premiere of The Master and Margarita by Nicolas Slonimsky in Moscow. Zaremba has since moved to the West, and taken on roles such as Dalila. She has sung frequently with the Metropolitan Opera since her debut with the company as Azucena in 1999.[2] Zaremba has recorded the role of Erda in Das Rheingold under Christoph von Dohnányi, and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera under Carlo Rizzi, but the majority of her recordings are of Russian music. Source: Article "Elena Zaremba" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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