The Maid of Orleans. Beginning

On 20 May, the noted stage director, People's Artist of Russia Georgiy Isaakyan held the first stage rehearsal of the production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans. This production will be the final premiere of the 92nd season of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus. The premiere promises to be a bright cultural event and held as part of the Tchaikovsky Year announced by the theatre. The first performances will take place on 17 and 18 June.

At a meeting with the company, Isaakyan presented the sketches of the scenery, exquisite and complex, in which the artists would have to perform. He drew attention to the costumes and, of course, he spoke about the concept of the upcoming production: “The production, on which we are working together with the musical director Artem Makarov, the artistic director of the theatre, and the designer Alexey Tregubov, is conceived as spatially multifaceted: it seems to exist in three dimensions. Firstly, there is Domrémy, which is known throughout the world as the birthplace of Joan of Arc. And this modern town devotes itself entirely to the legendary and, one might say, mythologized heroine, organizing a wide variety of performances, festivals and celebrations in her honour, which are held in a theatrical form. The second space is the theatrical reality itself. But the third one, a historical one, will appear, too. The reality of the 15th century, which is played out in the imagination of a modern young girl, imagining herself to be Joan of Arc and trying on her fate... It turns out to be a large-scale, multi-layered construction, which we have to realize on stage. The task is to combine all these epochs and worlds...”

The team has difficult but inspiring work ahead of them: the staging of one of Tchaikovsky's most rarely performed, but surprisingly beautiful, powerful operas, which tells about the life of Joan of Arc, her faith, struggle and tragic death.

“The Maid of Orleans is characterized by delightful music and extremely difficult parts. A theatre that undertakes to produce this opera must present the highest level of the company – soloists, chorus, orchestra. This is a gigantic piece, in which there is no room for compromise in any detail,” emphasized Georgiy Isaakyan.

Other creators include principal chorus master, People's Artist of Belarus Nina Lomanovich, and lighting designer Irina Vtornikova. The main roles are being prepared by the leading opera soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus: Oksana Volkova, Daria Gorozhanko, Anastasia Malevich, Oksana Yakushevich (Joan of Arc); Maria Galkina, Marta Danusevich, Anastasia Moskvina (Agnès Sorel); Dmitry Kapilov, Andrey Selutin, Stanislav Trifonov (Thibaud); Alexander Gelakh, Victor Mendelev, Iosif Nikitenko (Raymond); Vladimir Gromov, Andrey Klipo, Dzianis Yantsevich (Dunois); Andrey Valentii, Uladzislau Zazulka (Archbishop) and others. The creative team also includes conductors Vitaly Hryshchanka and Vladimir Ovodok.