News & Events in Belarus

MINSK, 14 December (BelTA) - The Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum will open in the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of Belarus on 14. Teh event will be running through 20 December, BelTA learned from the theater.

The program features world opera classics, the premieres of the season and new opera stars. This is the seventh time that the Opera Forum of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus will bring together true lovers of classical art.

The Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum opens on 14 December with the legendary Spanish drama, Carmen by Georges Bizet featuring the rising opera star Francesco Pio Galasso as Jose (Italy). A student of Montserrat Caballe, Francesco Pio Galasso is well known and is in great demand in the world of opera. This young Italian tenor captivates the audience with beautiful voice timbre and a rare ease of performance. On 14 December, the opera will be conducted by Maestro Daniel Montane (Spain).

On 15 December, the Macbeth production will take the audience into the dark atmosphere of palace conspiracy and intrigue accompanied by the stirring music of Giuseppe Verdi. The part of Banquo, the ally and the closest friend of the king Macbeth, is performed by the soloist of the Young Artists Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia Goderdzi Janelidze (Georgia). A graduate of the vocal faculty of the Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatory, Goderdzi Janelidze started his performing career while still a student, singing the leading roles in such operas as Die Zauberflote by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioacchino Rossini, etc. He participated in master classes of Renato Bruson and Brigitte Fassbaender. From 2015, Goderdzi Janelidze has been in the Young Artists Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia.

On 17 December the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus will host the opera company of the Odessa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. It will show The Queen of Spades to the music of Peter Tchaikovsky staged by People's Artist of Moldova Alexandru Samoila (music director), People's Artist of Russia Alexander Titel (director), Honored Artist of Russia Stanislav Morozov (art director). The Queen of Spades premiered on the stage of the Odessa Opera Theater in 2013, and ever since has remained the most popular performance in the repertoire.

On 18 December, the audience of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus will see the premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the current theatrical season. The leading male cast: Figaro – German Yukavsky (Russia), Count Almaviva - Sergei Moskalkov (Russia). A soloist of the Boris Pokrovsky Moscow Chamber Music Theater, German Yukavsky is a graduate of the Gnessin State Musical College (1994) and the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theater Arts (GITIS) (1996). Since 1994 he has worked with the Chamber Music Theater and tours with solo concerts in Russia and abroad. In 2010, he was nominated for The Golden Mask National Theater Award (Russia) for the role of Khludov in the opera The Flight by Nikolai Sidelnikov. Artistic director and the soloist of the theater ‘Russian Opera,’ Sergei Moskalkov is familiar to the Belarusian public for his impersonation of Tonio in the premiere performance of Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo at the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus (2014).

Ruthless and beautiful Princess of Giacomo Puccini will own the stage of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus on 19 December. Three deadly riddles of the grim princess Turandot are to be solved by Prince Calaf impersonated by the Honored Artist of Russia Akhmed Agadi. Akhmed Agadi makes frequent and very successful appearances at the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus: in December 2013, he starred in the role of Calaf in Turandot during the Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum, and in 2014, he sang the part of Radames in Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida and Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.

The Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum 2016 will culminate in a gala concert that will give opera admirers a chance to see the celebrated world opera stars including Helen Lepalaan (Estonia), Arevik Gyulbudaghyan (Russia), Talgat Mussabayev (Kazakhstan), Fidan Hajiyeva (Azerbaijan), Anton Zaraev (Russia), Romans Polisadovs (Latvia), Daniel Damyanov (Bulgaria), Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure (Canada), Kirill Borchaninov (Uzbekistan), Frantisek Zahradnicek (Czech Republic), Francesca Sorteni (France-Italy), Anna Lubaсska (Poland), Akhmed Agadi (Russia), Dainius Stumbras (Lithuania), Yulia Lysenko (Ukraine), and Martin Babjak (Slovakia). Great opera arias and duets, musical hits and popular melodies performed and accompanied by virtuoso musicians of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus will create the inimitable atmosphere of the Christmas opera fete. The conductor is Andrei Galanov.