Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus
On 15 October the legendary Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner will moor at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus. The lead role of the most popular German opera will be sung by one of the best European basses, Kurt Rydl. The bridge of the orchestra will be occupied by maestro Wilhelm Keitel.
Kurt Rydl is a recipient of numerous professional awards and titles; in operatic circles he is mostly referred to as mega bass. A resident of Austria, Kurt Rydl studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Moscow Conservatory, and also in the USA as an exchange student. The singer made his debut in 1976 at the Vienna State Opera as Ferrando (Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore). His repertoire comprises over 80 roles from German, Italian, French, Czech and Russian operas, including Colline (La bohème), Pimen (Boris Godunov), Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlo), Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Osmin (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Rocco (Fidelio), Daland (Der fliegende Holländer), Roger (Jérusalem), King Henry (Lohengrin), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Geronte (Manon Lescaut), Talbot (Maria Stuarda), Veit Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Titurel and Gurnemanz (Parsifal), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Hunding (Die Walküre), Fafner (Siegfried), Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier), Landgraf (Tannhäuser), and Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte).
Kurt Rydl guests on major festivals in Bayreuth, Schwetzingen, Salzburg, Bregenz, Florence, Verona, Munich and Glyndebourne. His concert repertoire ranges from Mozart to Penderecki, and from Beethoven to Mahler.
His titles include Austrian Kammersänger and Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera. Rydl was decorated with the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.
Wilhelm Keitel, a pianist, conductor and impresario, is widely known to the European audience. Since 1986, he has appeared at different venues of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, etc.; he also organizes opera festivals in European countries. In 1989, he was the artistic director of the festival “Rossini in Wildbad”. The highlights of Keitel’s artistic biography include his cooperation with the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein during traditional summer concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tanglewood (the USA) and his work with such maestros of symphony conducting as Christoph Eschenbach and Gustav Kuhn. In 2007-2008, he was the artistic director of the Monschau Klassic Festival.
Maestro Keitel maintains close artistic relations with Minsk. In 1994, he formed the Minsk Orchestra here which later toured Austria and Germany for several years. In 2011, Wilhelm Keitel started collaborating with the symphony orchestra of the Belteleradiocompany.
The cooperation between the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus and the conductor has lasted for about fifteen years. The theatre’s guest performances at open-air venues in Germany, Austria and Tunisia drew a wide response; the tours took place from 2000 to 2008 and provided a perfect opportunity to see Nabucco, Aida and La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Turandot and Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In 2011, the symphony orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus went on tour of Germany, Switzerland and Denmark with Wilhelm Keitel.
On 15 October the performance of Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer under the baton of Wilhelm Keitel will also star Elena Zolova as Senta, Eduard Martyniuk as Erik, Maria Aksentsova as Mary, Yury Bolotsko as the Steersman.
