The premiere of the opera «Il Trovatore» by G. Verdi in "Helikon-Opera" will close the 27th season
The premiere of the opera «Il Trovatore» by G. Verdi in "Helikon-Opera" will close the 27th season
On June 27, 2017 Moscow Music Theatre "Helikon-Opera" will present the fifth premiere of the 27th season – “Il Trovatore” by G. Verdi staged by the Theatre's Artistic Director Dmitry Bertman.
"Il Trovatore" has entered the treasury of the world culture – and this is not surprising - as it has no equal as to its tragic beauty, intense emotion and drama. Which of us would not recognize the powerful chorus of the Gypsies, struck with the blows of the hammer on the anvil, mournfully tragic chorus Miserere, or tearing the soul Azucena's Aria "Flame burning"? "Il Trovatore" has taken a strong place in the hearts of millions of viewers and conquered the planet. "And in the heart of Africa, and in India you can hear “Il Trovatore," wrote Giuseppe Verdi to one of his friends.
Worldwide, despite the exorbitant complexity of the vocal part, "Il Trovatore" is staged with admirable regularity, though one can see a few productions on Moscow opera stages. Opera experts still remember a production of "Il Trovatore" at the Bolshoi made in 1972 by German Director Erhard Fischer. At that time such prominent as Yuri Mazurok, Tamara Milashkina Elena Obraztsova, Vladislav Piavko were starring in it. In 1993 the Opera was revived, already in the Italian language and remained in the repertoire of the Bolshoi theater until the end of the 90-ies. In the Moscow theater "New Opera" of Eu.Kolobov in 2012 s Il Trovatore was staged by Marco Gandini with Maestro Jan Latham-Koenig as musical director.
Now "Helikon-Opera" has got its own production of the masterpiece of the great composer, made by the team:
Stage Director – People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Bertman, Musical Director and Conductor – Oliver Diaz (Spain), Production Designers – the Honored Artists of Russia Igor Nezhny and Tatiana Tulubieva, Lighting Designer – Honored Worker of Arts of Russia Damir Ismagilov, Choreographer – Laureate of international prizes - Edvald Smirnov, Chief Choirmaster - Eugene Ilin.
It is not the first time when “Helikon-Opera” appeals to Giuseppe Verdi. The very first opera of the great Italian composer staged in "Helikon-Opera" was "La Traviata" (1995), then the muscovites and the guests of the capital saw "Aida" (1996), it was followed by "Falstaff" (2001). "Nabucco" appeared in the repertoire of "Helikon-Opera" in 2004, premiere performances took place in Dijon and Paris. Since 2005 the co-production ”Nabucco” appeared in the repertoire of the Mariinsky theatre. The performance was conducted by Valery Gergiev with Placido Domingo and Maria Guleghina starring in it.
“Un Ballo in Maschera” was premiered in September, 2013 with great success with the audiences and musical critics.
"Il Trovatore" is a special and the most mysterious opera by Verdi. The most important factor that allows one to put it on stage of an opera house is the cast. "Today, in "Helikon" we have a collection of artists who are able to create any opera," – sais the Stage Director. Verdi was a man with a great sense of humor: in fact, "Il Trovatore" is an interesting detective story with some elements of “vampuka”. It is hard to deliver the sense of the story because the libretto totally violates the causation. But we have to solve the mystery".
The Musical Director, Spanish Maestro Oliver Diaz is the Principal Conductor of the Madrid Theatre de La Sarzuela and Barbieri orchestra, he has comes to Russia on purpose to work over the Helikon’s version of the legendary Opera.
According to the Stage Director, the plot of the opera is about how "One brother kills another, and a fratricidal war is on. I think now is high time to remind that we are all humans and we all have the same blood. There should be no wars. War is unnatural."
With this topic the photo exhibition "War and ... piece?",located in the S. Zimin foyer is connected, available not only to the audiences of the premiere performances, but also to the visitors of Helikon excursions till July 2017.
Photographs for the exhibition are provided by MIA "Russia today". The theme of the exhibition is the fate of Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world. The shots of the of photographers MIA "Russia today", Valery Melnikov, Ilya Pitalev, Mikhail Voskresensky and Michael Alaeddin have captured the tragic consequences of the military conflict, introducing chaos and devastation in the lives of ordinary people and in the appearance of the great cities. Photo exhibition shows that the tragedy of war has no statute of limitations, and throws a bridge from the history of medieval blood feuds, embodied in the story of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" to the tragic events of the XXI century in Syria. Modern war – senseless and merciless are not quite different from the events of the romantic opera of Verdi.
With the premiere series of "Il Trovatore" the collaboration with the Charity Foundation of Alisher Usmanov "The Arts, Science and Sports" has started, it is connected with the program of supporting people with visual impairments "Special look". Since the 4th of July, 2017 “Il Trovatore” and almost all the productions of the next season will be accompanied by special commenting. Using the headphones, the visually impaired audience will hear comments that would help them to understand what is happening on stage from acting of the singers to changing the scenery.
The première series of performances of "Il Trovatore" will take place on the 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th of June, the 4th and 5th of July, 2017 in the Stravinsky Hall. The performances start at 19:00.
We invite you to get accredited for the pre-show of the final premiere of the 27th season – the opera “Il Trovatore” by G. Verdi, staged by the Artistic Director of the Theatre Dmitry Bertman, on the 26th of June, 2017 at 19:00.