For the First Time in the Bolshoi

Le Villi.Fatum is staged on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus for the first time. This is the first opera by Giacomo Puccini, who wrote it for a competition announced in 1883 by one of the Milan theatres. The libretto is based on an old Germanic legend, the plot of which was previously used in the ballet Giselle by the French composer Adolphe Adan.

By a strange coincidence, the young composer's Opera was not even admitted to the competition. However, it was soon successfully staged in Milan. The audience warmly welcomed the composer. ‘There are many episodes that touch the heart in the young Maestro’s music,’ one reviewer noted, ‘because they come from the heart.’

Conductor Ivan Kostyakhin, director Oksana Volkova (this is the debut of the famous Belarusian singer), set designer Ethel Yoshpa (designer of the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre), chorusmaster Nina Lomanovich, lighting and video designer Stanislav Svistunovich (Russia) and choreographer Konstantin Kuznetsov are working on the production at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus.

‘In order to choose an opera for production, I listened to a large number of different musical material,’ Oksana Volkova said. ‘But this music caught my eye with its beauty and emotion. And the clash of worlds-real and ephemeral-is a very fertile ground for the theatrical stage. The characters got me excited. The characters are very expressive, and with the help of modern artistic devices we can vividly and dynamically tell the story of each of them. This is a story about the clash of good and evil, about love and betrayal, but most importantly-about crime and punishment, and the last one always awaits a person for the actions that he commits.’

The leading roles in the production will be performed by Maria Galkina, Marta Danusevich, Anastasia Moskvina, Klavdiya Potemkina (Anna), Ivan Berezin, Vasily Mingalev, Taras Prisyazhnyuk, Dmitry Shabetya (Roberto), Vladimir Gromov, Vladimir Petrov, Ilya Silchukov (Guglielmo) and ballet soloists Olga Gaiko and Tatsiana Ulasen (Sirena).

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