This holiday weekend, on November 4 and November 6, 2022, the first Russian classical opera A Life for the Tsar will be presented at the Primorsky Stage. The primary roles will be performed by soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre such as Yuri Vlasov, Antonina Vesenina, Yekaterina Krapivina, and Kirill Belov. The opera will be performed only twice in Vladivostok.
Titled A Life for the Tsar, this first opera by Mikhail Glinka was performed in Saint Petersburg in 1836. It is usually considered to be the first truly national opera because of its historical plot and music language carrying plenty of references to the Russian folklore. The part of the protagonist was performed in a bass voice, and it has become one of the distinctive features of the Russian opera tradition later on.
The Mariinsky Theatre’s production in 2004 was timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Glinka’s birth. The original title and libretto of the opera were restored. The Stage Director Dmitri Tcherniakov shifted the scene to the middle of the 20th century. He brought numerous signs of Soviet everyday life into the acting space and thus gave a new meaning to the very essence of the peasant’s exploit. In Glinka’s times, Ivan Susanin gave his life for the Tsar, and in the Soviet years he did so for his country. In the new production, he gives his life for his family, for his nearest and dearest ones whose death is much more ghastly than his own death.
In the both performances at the Primorsky Stage, Yuri Vlasov will appear as Ivan Susanin, Antonina Vesenina as Susanin’s daughter Antonida and Yekaterina Krapivina as his adopted son Vanya. The part of Antonida’s bridegroom Bogdan Sobinin will be performed by Kirill Belov.
The Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage will be conducted by Pavel Smelkov, Principal Conductor of the Primorsky Stage.
