Evening vocal concerts

A new series of vocal chamber concerts will begin on 17 October in the dress circle foyer. This season, theatregoers will be able to enjoy evenings of 19th century salon music, a retrospective of French opera masterpieces, and songs from Soviet films of the 1930s to 1970s.

The first evening vocal concert of the season will take place on October 17, and will be dedicated to 19th-century European and Russian salon music. The foyer’s cosy atmosphere will serve as the setting for popular romantic songs by Tchaikovsky and Glinka, performed by soloists Ekaterina Egorova, Alexander Kuznetsov, and Maria Litke.

Last season featured two vocal concerts — one dedicated to Italian bel canto and another to the greats of the Viennese School. In the coming season, we will continue our musical journey across Europe. On 21 November, visitors will have the chance to hear a unique retrospective dedicated to French opera, which has previously been under-represented at St. Petersburg’s theatre and music venues.

The evening will open with French bel canto: an aria by the female lead of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Dinorah. Next, the audience will be treated to the Flower Duet from Lakmé by Léo Delibes, followed by the closing scene of Charles Gounod’s Sapho and works by Jules Massenet, including fragments from Werther and from Manon, an opera long overlooked by St. Petersburg venues. Natalia Mironova will perform an aria from Esclarmonde: a piece so exceptionally complex that it can be tackled by only the most skilled vocal masters.

The 5 December concert will focus on music from Soviet films of the 1930s to 1970s. Theatre soloists will step out of their comfort zone to perform songs that may be closer to the pop genre, but that nonetheless demand organic delivery without artificial amplification. The evening will include compositions by Isaak Dunayevsky, Dmitry Kabalevsky, and many others.