MUSIC DAY

The most important musical event Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum will start on 15 December at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus. It was the topic of the press conference on 5 December.

‘We don’t change the tradition for the past eight years. At the Christmas forum the audience will see the stars of the world opera in the theater’s premiere productions,’ General Director Vladimir Gridyushko said. The winner of the prestigious international competition BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, two-time laureate of the "Golden Mask" Theatrical Award, our compatriot, who now works at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, Nadine Koutcher will perform the role of the Queen of the Night in the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterpiece Die Zauberflöte directed by Hans-Joachim Frey. On 15 December maestro from Germany Wilhelm Keitel will conduct. On 16 December the soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre, Honoured Artist of Russia and guest soloist of Belarusian Bolshoi Akhmed Agadi will appear as Turiddu in the Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana directed by Mikhail Pandzhavidze. On 18 December artists of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic will perform their own interpretation of the story about the fatal beauty Carmen. But the title role will be performed by the prima donna of our theatre Oksana Volkova. On 21 December the Belarusian Bolshoi presents La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi staged by the Latvian director Andrejs Žagars. The soloist of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre Nadezhda Pavlova, who conquered Minsk in the final of the Christmas competition in 2015, when she won the grand and audience prizes, will feature as Violetta Valéry in this production. Well, the forum will end with the Gala-concert of the world opera stars on 22 December.

The constant general partner and support of our forum is Bank BelVEB OJSC. And we hope that tradition to work with this bank will continue in the future.

‘We are pleased to continue the cooperation of the Bank BelVEB OJSC and the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus, which started in 2011 and has always been interesting,’ the Chairman of Bank BelVEB OJSC Nikolay Luzgin said at the press conference. ‘Throughout its history, forum has grown into a multifaceted festival of art, which contributes to the preservation and augmentation of classical music traditions.

The ‘Singer of the World’ Nadine Koutcher expressed her gratitude to the theatre for the opportunity to make her debut on the Minsk stage in the role of the Queen of the Night: ‘Of course, I learned arias from Die Zauberflöte a long time ago and sang them on various venues. But it was only the concert version. I never sang them in the performance. So I can’t wait the opening of the forum on 15 December. All the more, I attended the premiere of this opera in Minsk and I really liked it!’

The Honoured Artist of the Republic of Belarus and laureate of the State Prize Oksana Volkova calculated that the performance of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic will be the 16th production of Carmen, in which she sings the title role: ‘But it is an invaluable experience, because every director has his own Carmen. And the opera forum is always a great music festival, which is known far beyond Belarus.’