11.11.2016
An evening of children’s opera
On 17 December, the vocal chamber concert in the dress circle foyer will feature excerpts from the children’s operas of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Dmitry Shostakovich, and Yury Levitin.
“Even many adults find opera to be a complicated genre that is difficult to understand. In order to really get children to engage with opera, we need to pick truly outstanding works,” said pianist and vocal coach Maria Kopyseva. “In large productions you can use impressive scenery and bright costumes to attract the attention of our younger audience members, but in a chamber concert setting, things are a little harder. It’s vital to put together a programme that includes pieces with colourful, memorable music and an interesting story.”
The pieces in this concert are not part of the theatre’s usual repertoire. Tatiana Ryaguzova, Yury Monchak, and Alexander Shakhov will perform excerpts from Shostakovich’s Tale of a Priest and His Worker Balda. This musical fairy tale was written in the mid-1930s for a cartoon opera that never made it to the screen.
“The melodic style of this piece was unusual and new for Shostakovich. It has a folky, farcical, fairground feel reminiscent of Russian popular prints from the 18th and 19th centuries,” continued Kopyseva. “The score was kept at the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture for a long time, but it was finished in the early 2000s by the composer Vadim Bibergan, who studied under Shostakovich. This is a completely unexpected facet of Shostakovich’s oeuvre that will be exciting to discover even for adults who are very familiar with his style of music.”
Levitin’s children’s opera Moydodyr is about a washbasin who scolds a young boy for refusing to ever wash. It’s also performed extremely rarely on stage, but is widely known in Russia through a famous cartoon from 1954. Its director was Ivan Ivanov-Vano, one of the pioneers of Soviet animation. Alexander Shakhov is rehearsing the role of the “Great Washbasin” and “Chief of the Sponges”. “As with many of the other characters featured in this evening, we thought up a fun costume and staging for the Moydodyr piece,” said the director of the evening, Olga Kokh. “Our baritone took a real artist’s approach to the role.”
The programme for the evening will also include an excerpt from The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Rimsky-Korsakov. This piece was performed at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in the mid-1990s and the magnificent costumes survive to this day. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote this musical version of Pushkin’s fairy tale for the poet’s centenary. It marked the completion of a triptych of operas by the composer based on Russian fantasy tales, the first being Kashchey the Deathless and the second, The Golden Cockerel. Our singers will perform the opera’s prologue, where the three maidens imagine that they are the tsarinas of Tmutarakan. Tatiana Ryaguzova, Sofia Fainberg, and Svetlana Monchak are rehearsing the roles of the sisters.
“Even many adults find opera to be a complicated genre that is difficult to understand. In order to really get children to engage with opera, we need to pick truly outstanding works,” said pianist and vocal coach Maria Kopyseva. “In large productions you can use impressive scenery and bright costumes to attract the attention of our younger audience members, but in a chamber concert setting, things are a little harder. It’s vital to put together a programme that includes pieces with colourful, memorable music and an interesting story.”
The pieces in this concert are not part of the theatre’s usual repertoire. Tatiana Ryaguzova, Yury Monchak, and Alexander Shakhov will perform excerpts from Shostakovich’s Tale of a Priest and His Worker Balda. This musical fairy tale was written in the mid-1930s for a cartoon opera that never made it to the screen.
“The melodic style of this piece was unusual and new for Shostakovich. It has a folky, farcical, fairground feel reminiscent of Russian popular prints from the 18th and 19th centuries,” continued Kopyseva. “The score was kept at the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture for a long time, but it was finished in the early 2000s by the composer Vadim Bibergan, who studied under Shostakovich. This is a completely unexpected facet of Shostakovich’s oeuvre that will be exciting to discover even for adults who are very familiar with his style of music.”
Levitin’s children’s opera Moydodyr is about a washbasin who scolds a young boy for refusing to ever wash. It’s also performed extremely rarely on stage, but is widely known in Russia through a famous cartoon from 1954. Its director was Ivan Ivanov-Vano, one of the pioneers of Soviet animation. Alexander Shakhov is rehearsing the role of the “Great Washbasin” and “Chief of the Sponges”. “As with many of the other characters featured in this evening, we thought up a fun costume and staging for the Moydodyr piece,” said the director of the evening, Olga Kokh. “Our baritone took a real artist’s approach to the role.”
The programme for the evening will also include an excerpt from The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Rimsky-Korsakov. This piece was performed at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in the mid-1990s and the magnificent costumes survive to this day. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote this musical version of Pushkin’s fairy tale for the poet’s centenary. It marked the completion of a triptych of operas by the composer based on Russian fantasy tales, the first being Kashchey the Deathless and the second, The Golden Cockerel. Our singers will perform the opera’s prologue, where the three maidens imagine that they are the tsarinas of Tmutarakan. Tatiana Ryaguzova, Sofia Fainberg, and Svetlana Monchak are rehearsing the roles of the sisters.
