Eugene Onegin and Un ballo in maschera at Savonlinna

The Mikhailovsky Theatre is to give five performances at the celebrated opera festival between 30 July and 3 August. The ancient Olavinlinna Castle, which during the festival is transformed into an auditorium seating 2,000 people, will be the setting for three performances of Eugene Onegin and two of Un ballo in maschera.

Mikhail Tatarnikov, the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s Musical Director and Principal Conductor, considers this short tour to be of strategic importance: “The Savonlinna Opera Festival has a remarkable history and a great reputation, and I am delighted with our collaboration. I know our Finnish neighbours have been following events at the Mikhailovsky Theatre closely for a long time – we have given two joint gala concerts in St. Petersburg. Now, finally, we have this very important and demanding visit to Finland.”

Commenting on the choice of operas for the festival, Mikhail Tatarnikov said that Eugene Onegin and Un ballo in maschera were two of the theatre’s outstanding productions of recent years. Un ballo in maschera, in the production by Andrejs Žagars, the Director of the Latvian National Opera who is well known throughout Europe, will be part of the festival’s celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. “We have worked a great deal on the Italian repertoire and are continuing to do so”, remarked the theatre’s Musical Director. “So we are proud to perform Un ballo in maschera before any audience. It is no secret that Russian companies have not always been successful with Verdi from a musical point of view, and it is very rare for Russians to be invited to a prestigious Western festival with this repertoire. So it is all the more welcome that we have been accorded this honour.”

The Savonlinna audience will also see one of this season’s sensational Russian opera premières: Andriy Zholdak’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Tatarnikov called this production, which caused a great furore in the press and prompted a discussion about the possibility of a non-traditional interpretation of the classics, “fresh and young”. “It is Zholdak’s opera debut”, said the conductor. “There are moments in it that seem very unusual, but we wanted this director to add some unpredictable incidents, a little ‘madness’ to Onegin, with which it is now very difficult to surprise anyone from a production point of view. And that is exactly what we got.”

Taking part in the festival performances will be Mikhailovsky Theatre soloists Tatiana Ryaguzova, Marina Tregubovich, Sofia Fainberg, Evgeny Akhmedov, Dmitry Darov, and Fyodor Ataskevich, as well as guest singers including Elena Pankratova, Janis Apeinis, Andrey Gonyukov, Gelena Gaskarova, and Irina Shishkova.