A concert in the memory of Tikhon Khrennikov was held in Helikon-opera

10.04.2013

A concert in the memory of Tikhon Khrennikov was held in Helikon-opera

On the 10th of April "Helikon-opera" theatre celebrated its 23rd birthday. This date was marked with the festive concert, devoted to the 100th anniversary since Tikhon Khrennikov's birth.

As a composer, Khrennikov’s main works were written between 1930 and 1970, including several operas. Tikhon Khrennikov ran the USSR’s Union of Composers from 1948 until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

For Dmitry Bertman, the artistic director of Helikon Opera, one of the most important aspects of Khrennikov’s legacy was his relationship with Dmitry Shostakovich, whose memoir Testimony casts Khrennikov in a negative light.
In 2000, however, Khrennikov attended the Helikon’s production of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and told Bertman: ‘I have seen and heard Shostakovich’s opera for the first time; not a single other production ever gave me this feeling’.

Bertman’s production was the first original version of Lady Macbeth to be staged in Russia since its 1934 world premiere, which led to the denunciation of the composer by Stalin. Shostakovich subsequently revised his score, bringing it closer to the dogmas of socialist realism under the new title Katerina Izmaylova, and this version is still more commonly staged in Russia.

The Helikon’s programme present scenes from Khrennikov’s Into the Storm, Mother and Frol Skobeyev, plus fragments of his children’s operas and operettas, popular songs and incidental music for Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing and Sheridan’s The Duenna. Inna Zveniatskaya, Maria Maskhulia, Elena Mikhailenko, Lidia Svetozarova, Alexander Miminoshwili, Peter Morozov, Vadim Letunov, Andrey Palamarchuk, Maxim Perebeynos, Dmitry Skorikov, artists of the choir and orchestra participate in the concert. Stage director – Ilya Ilin, conductor – Vladimir Ponkin.

Performances at the Helikon Opera in Moscow run from 10 to 14 April.