On December 16 at 19:00, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will be hosting a premiere of the Russian choral opera Boyarina Morozova by Rodion Shchedrin. The only performance will take place at the Chamber Hall of the Theatre on the composer’s birthday. The stage production of the opera will be presented by the Krasnoyarsk Choral Ensemble “Tebe poem”, directed by the Honoured Artist of Russia, Konstantin Yakobson, and artists of the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage.
In 2017 the Mariinsky Theatre is widely celebrating Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin's 85th birthday. Concerts and performances by the Mariinsky Theatre have been dedicated to his anniversary year in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Vladikavkaz. In December there will be special events marking Rodion Shchedrin's anniversary in Moscow, Tula, St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Munich.
Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin's music holds a special position in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre. Over the years of creative friendship with the composer, the Mariinsky Theatre has produced many of his works, several of them for the first time. Here most of his operas and three of his five ballets have been staged, in addition to frequent performances of his symphonic works.
The Second International Mariinsky Far East Festival in Vladivostok was also dedicated to the anniversary of this great Russian composer, its programme featured: Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Japanese pianist Kanon Matsuda and the opera The Enchanted Wanderer performed by the soloists, Chorus and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Valery Gergiev. The Primorsky Stage’s current repertoire includes Carmen Suite to music by Georges Bizet-Rodion Shchedrin.
Boyarina Morozova is an original choral opera, telling a story of the famous religious dissenter Feodosia Morozova, and depicted by the author in the score with an unusual instrumentation: instead of the orchestra, the composer used singing of four soloists and the chorus accompanied only by trumpet, timpani and percussion. The opera’s premiere in Moscow in 2006 became an important cultural event and Boyarina Morozova was acclaimed by music experts as one of the best operatic works of the beginning of the 21th century. After that, a concert version of the opera was on many occasions performed by various ensembles, through the composer himself expressed a wish to see its staged production.
The production staged by the Honoured Artist of Russia, Vasily Vavilov premiered at the closing of the Winter Surikov Festival of Art in Krasnoyarsk at the end of January 2015. The laconic in terms of its stage design, but, at the same time, highly expressive production, performed by the Tebe Poem Choral Ensemble, received rave reviews in the press and a positive response from the author: “A huge emotional impression, everything without exception is beyond all praise. What gigantic work you have done to achieve such a powerful outburst of feelings through musical intonation! My sincere congratulations to everybody involved. And my author’s gratitude…” wrote Rodion Shchedrin after watching a video of the Krasnoyarsk production to the artistic director of the ensemble, Konstantin Yakobson.
