On 11, 13 and 19 April, the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s most exotic opera, Aida, will take place on the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The performance will be presented in its original version by the Honored Art Worker of Russia, stage director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Alexey Stepanyuk. The music director is Pavel Smelkov, the chief conductorof the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.
The audience will enjoy the famous masterpiece in its classic interpretation and large-scale scenery. The bright stagecraft of Alexey Stepanyuk and the costumes by Varvara Evchuk designed to resemble the epoch will complement the modern video projection tools operated by one of the leading Russian specialists Vadim Dulenko. The dance scenes have been staged by choreographer Ilya Ustyantsev. Pavel Smelkov (April 11 and 13) and Anton Torbeev (April 19) will conduct the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage.
The main parts will be sung by the leading soloists of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre opera company: Aida - Alena Diyanova, Liliya Kadnikova; Radames - Alexander Diyanov, Mergen Sandanov, Alexei Smirnov; Amneris - Laura Bustamante, Tatiana Makarchuk, Irina Kolodyazhnaya; Amonasro - Vyacheslav Vasilyev, Dmitry Nelasov, Gennady Akhmedov. The famous coach, La Scala concertmaster Massimiliano Bullo was specially invited to assist the vocalists in practicing of the difficult musical passages.
Aida will be the fourth opera by Giuseppe Verdi in the repertoire of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, as well as the second original production of the 2018/19 season staged specially for the Primorsky audience.
The composer wrote Aida in 1870 by order of the Khedive of Egypt, for the Cairo Opera Theatre. This was the determining factor in the choice of the plot. The libretto is based on a story from an ancient papyrus found by an Egyptologist. The story is set during the reign of the Pharaohs. However, Verdi brought the personal drama of the heroes to the fore: the forbidden love of the Egyptian commander Radames and the Ethiopian slave Aida. Dramatic action, unexpected plot twists, surprisingly beautiful arias and exotic flavor have made Aida the favorite name in the repertoire of musical theatres all around the world.
