СHORUS

The chorus of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus has passed a glorious 70 year way of its professional growth and today it is one of the leading choruses of the country.

A major contribution to its formation was brought by the People’s Artist of Belarus Aleksey Kogadeev (1926-1997), who headed the ensemble from 1960 to 1993. Since 1993, the People's Artist of Belarus Nina Lomanovich has been chief chorus master.

Today the chorus consists of over 70 highly professional artists. Its considerable part comprises the creative youth – graduates of the vocal department of the Belarusian State Academy of Music.

A brilliant performance of Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms, so-called choral operas, such as Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor, Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco and Turandot, Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, brought about the takeoff of the chorus artists. Other prominent works of the chorus include Aida, Un ballo in maschera, Il trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, Carmen by Georges Bizet, The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, ballet productions Carmina Burana by Carl Orff and Passions by Andrei Mdivani, etc.

The repertoire of the chorus also includes cantatas and oratorios, namely Spring by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Songs of Kursk by Georgy Sviridov, Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky. Its concert programmes comprise choruses a cappella (sacred music, music of Russian and Soviet composers).

The marvelous performance of the chorus became one of the constituents of the success of the opera company’s tours in Brazil, Germany, Israel, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Thailand.

The foreign press mentioned the chorus as one of the main heroes of the festival in their reviews of the performance of the Belarusian opera company at the Classic Openair Festival in Solothurn, Switzerland.