World Opera Masterpieces

The world-famous Savonlinna Opera Festival, held annually in Finland, toured abroad for the first time in its history last year when it took place at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. The concert marked the beginning of a long-term collaboration that will see the Mikhailovsky Theatre perform Eugene Onegin and Un ballo in maschera at the Finnish festival in early August this year. The tour to Finland will be preceded by another joint promotion between the theatre and the festival: on 4 May the Mikhailovsky Theatre will stage a gala concert with a programme compiled by Jari Hämäläinen, the festival’s Artistic Director, and Mikhail Tatarnikov, the theatre’s Musical Director. They will take turns in conducting the concert, which will feature, along with the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s orchestra, choir and soloists, soprano Kirsten Chambers, mezzo-soprano Jordanka Milkova, tenor Franco Farina, and baritone Thomas Hall.

Operatic classics by Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky will be performed, meaning that each of the four ‘great operatic powers’ — Italy, Germany, France, and Russia — will be represented. And whereas Tchaikovsky and Verdi are part of the theatre’s current repertoire, the excerpts from Lohengrin and Samson and Delilah are not performed at the Mikhailovsky, and so will be of particular interest to the audience.