Several soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre will take part in a performance of the opera Don Carlo (March 15, 2024) and a concert performance of Requiem (March 17, 2024) by Giuseppe Verdi on the main Opera Stage of Primorye.
Don Carlo is an opera for great voices conveying great passions. The action takes place in the 16th century Spain, during the reign of the powerful King Philip II. The epic canvas depicts a tragic love story against the background of large-scale historical events.
The audiences will be able to enjoy the rarely performed opera, which requires a large cast of first-class singers, on March 15, 2024. Tenor Alexander Mikhailov, prizewinner at international competitions and an owner of an impressive list of parts performed at the Mariinsky Theatre, will appear as Don Carlo, the son of Philip II. The image of Princess Eboli will be embodied by Zinaida Tsarenko (mezzo-soprano). Over a single theatrical season, this young opera singer attracted the attention of audiences at the Mariinsky Theatre with the parts of Lyubasha (The Tsar’s Bride) and Marfa (Khovanshchina), Joan of Arc (The Maid of Orleans), and Princess Eboli, and then became a sensation at the XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition, having won the First Prize and the Grand Prix. The part of Élisabeth de Valois will be performed by the virtuoso coloratura soprano Inara Kozlovskaya. Other main parts will be performed by soloists of the Primorsky Stage Marat Mukhametzyanov (Rodrigo) and Bat-Erdene Dorjtseden (The Grand Inquisitor).
On March 17, 2024, another Verdi’s masterpiece will be performed with the participation of singers from the Mariinsky Theatre, the famous Requiem. Created in memory of the great figures of Spanish culture, Verdi’s Requiem is called “an opera dressed in church robes”. The luxury of a grand romantic orchestra, the power of a grand chorus, as well as the brilliant solo parts, all this takes the audience into the space of theatrical performance. The composer concentrates on the main thing, the feelings of a person who has reached the fateful moment between life and death, expressing these feelings in an impeccable musical form. It is not the submissive resignation before the blows of fate that the Requiem is about. The Requiem is about the eternal desire for happiness, which drives the heroes of all Verdi’s operas.
The Requiem will be performed by the Primorsky Stage opera soloists and Chorus, as well as by the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage under the baton of the Theatre’s Principal Conductor Pavel Smelkov.