“Figaro? Son qua!”
One of the world’s most popular and beloved operas is returning to the Mikhailovsky Theatre. The first three concert performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia will take place on 12 and 13 March, and 2 April.
“Over the course of the last few seasons we have regularly put on concert performances of canonical operas for the public,” says General Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Vladimir Kekhman. “This gives the opportunity for performers to constantly grow, and to widen their repertoire, while for the theatre as a whole it provides a touchstone — one which places real value on our ability to prepare full-scale productions.”
Il barbiere di Siviglia holds a very special importance for the Mikhailovsky Theatre. This opera, which premiered on 6 March 1918, marked the beginnings of the Mikhailovsky Theatre opera company. Gioachino Rossini’s composition has regularly featured in the company’s repertoire, having been performed here 1,006 times in all. On this occasion the concert performance of the celebrated opera has been produced under the direction of Mikhail Tatarnikov, the company’s Musical Director and Principal Conductor.
“The score for Il barbiere di Siviglia enjoys tremendous popularity and even features in advertising clips, so we expect to find ourselves under close scrutiny”, Tatarnikov said. “I hope that the theatre’s vocal ensemble and the guest performers will be able to deliver a top-quality show. Indeed, a concert performance allows them to focus entirely on the musical aspects of the performance, which always helps to raise the bar somewhat. Rossini requires an individual approach for singers, their individual abilities, talents, the versatility and clarity of their voices, as well as their vocal technique. I hope that those performing in the first concerts, even those who have not sung Il barbiere di Siviglia before, will prove themselves to be true Rossini singers.”
In rehearsal for the main roles are Svetlana Moskalenko and Natalia Mironova as Rosina; Andrey Zhilikhovsky and Boris Pinkhasovich as Figaro; Dmitry Korchak and Evgeny Akhmedov as Count Almaviva; Andrey Gonyukov and Yury Monchak as Bartolo; and Stanislav Shvets as Basilio.
Opera aficionados will be particularly excited to learn that Dmitry Korchak will sing at the opening concert on 12 March. The renowned tenor will include Count Almaviva’s aria ‘Cessa di piu resistere’ in his role, a passage rarely performed in Russia. For the preparation for this concert rendition, the theatre company made use of the rarest and most complete sheet music edition of Rossini’s opera from the Czech publisher Bärenreiter, which contains all the arias and recitatives that appear in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
