On April 13 and 14, 2023, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the premiere performances of Rodion Shchedrin’s opera The Enchanted Wanderer directed by Alexei Stepanyuk. The parts will be performed by the Primorsky Stage Opera Company soloists Sergei Pleshivtsev, Yevgeny Plekhanov, Tatiana Makarchuk, Natalia Yakimova, Ilya Astafurov, Mingiyan Odzhaev. Pavel Smelkov will be at the conductor console.
The Enchanted Wanderer is the first opera piece by the outstanding composer Rodion Shchedrin staged at the Mariinsky Theatre after more than twenty years. This parable opera began its life journey on the American stage, when it was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for conductor Lorin Maazel who asked the composer to write an opera with a Russian spirit, ancient chants and bell ringing. Shchedrin immediately suggested a plot after the novel of the same name by Nikolai Leskov. “The plot is sharp and tragic; it’s Russian to the bone in terms of mentality, and it possesses that very mysterious Russian soul, which is talked about so much”, the composer noted.
This January, in honor of the 90th birthday of Rodion Shchedrin, the Mariinsky Theatre St Petersburg production of the opera was presented for the first time in Vladivostok and was a resounding success. A separate set of scenery was then made for the Primorsky Stage so that the production would remain in the Theatre’s repertoire. In the premiere performance, many unusual encounters are in store for the audience; harp and balalaika have been added to the symphony orchestra, and one of the opera soloists will perform four parts in turn at once.
Marked with six Golden Mask nominations, Alexei Stepanyuk’s production for the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg has won this Russia’s main National Theatre Award in two categories. “This is the theatre of the future”, said the renowned conductor Yuri Temirkanov after the performance.
