An Evening of Classical Operetta
23 June

The Mikhailovsky Theatre’s Principal Conductor, Mikhail Tatarnikov, is leading the symphony orchestra and opera company soloists in their preparations for a concert devoted to classical operetta. On 23 June, the theatre’s stage will play host to excerpts from operettas by Johann Strauss, Imre Kálmán, Ferenc Lehár, Charles Lecocq, Carl Zeller, Jacques Offenbach, and Nikolay Strelnikov.

The theatre’s decision to put this genre in the spotlight is no accident: it could be said that operetta has been a distinguishing feature of the Maly Opera Theatre ever since it established its own company. Nikolay Smolich, the theatre’s director and artistic director in the 1920s, felt it was essential that the theatre’s repertoire included works capable of “lifting the audience’s mood and providing some jolly light-heartedness and an element of entertainment.” Some of the greatest opera directors of all time — Aleksey Feona, Sergey Radlov, Nikolay Petrov, and Viktor Rappaport — staged classical and modern operettas at the theatre at various times. Over the years, the repertoire has included La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Eva, The Three Graces, Bridegrooms on Wheels, The Black Amulet, La belle Hélène, and The Gypsy Baron, as well as hugely successful productions which drew packed audiences in Leningrad: The Bells of Corneville by Robert Planquette and Ferenc Lehár’s The Yellow Jacket, which ran for a record 462 performances.

On the evening of 23 June, the audience will once again have the opportunity to delve into the world of operetta. The Mikhailovsky Theatre’s symphony orchestra, along with opera company soloists Ekaterina Egorova, Natalia Mironova, Svetlana Monchak, Marina Tregubovich, Fyodor Ataskevich, Evgeny Akhmedov, Alexander Volynkin, Nikolay Kopylov, Yury Monchak, and Boris Pinkhasovich, will be performing arias and duets from the best operettas in the international repertoire, revealing a whole new side to their musical and artistic talents.

Marina Tregubovich is one of the performers taking part. She will be joining Boris Pinkhasovich to perform the Rosalinde and Eisenstein duet from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and will also take to the stage alongside Fyodor Ataskevich to sing the Mary and Sou-Chong duet from Ferenc Lehár’s operetta The Land of Smiles.

Marina Tregubovich had this to say about the event:

“Operetta is a genre in which I have always felt at home. From the age of 17, I studied under the principal conductor of the Theatre of Musical Comedy, Vladimir Vorobiev, and spent five years performing small roles at the theatre. We were taught how to sing but we were also taught how to enunciate the text clearly, so that even people sitting in the back row could hear every word. We had lessons in fencing, acting, and classical dance. And I have to say that all these skills came in very handy in later life, in my career as an opera singer.

I have returned to the operetta genre after a long break. The part of Rosalinde in Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus is one of the most complex soprano parts ever written. I don’t think anyone has ever written a part with so many top Cs in it. I’m delighted that I will be singing an excerpt from the much-loved Die Fledermaus at the Evening of Classical Operetta, and that I have been given the opportunity to get to grips with the duet from The Land of Smiles, an operetta which is very popular in Europe but is hardly ever performed in Russia. I have no doubt that all those involved — both the soloists performing in the concert and the audience — will remember this evening dedicated to operetta for years to come!”