The first nights of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride will open the 78th season of NOVAT on 15 and 16 September. One of the deepest, most intricate and grand-scale productions of the Russian classical heritage is taken care of by the company’s Artistic Director, Conductor Dmitri Jurowski and Chief Stage Director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev. This staging will also for the first time unite a well-known family of Russian production designers, father and son Vyacheslav Okunev and Petr Okunev.
“This is quite a peculiar name for any Russian opera company, The Tsar’s Bride. On the one hand, it is a very “directory” production, since it shows a distinct development of its characters. On the other hand, it requires a sharp and precise visual solution to make the right impression. It doesn’t really matter if the costumes and the sets reflect that exact era, the main thing is to convey the right atmosphere through both musical and visual context, which under no circumstance are allowed to break the image – states Dmitri Jurowski, Music Director of the production – we were planning to stage this production for quite a long time, but everyone needed to “grow into it”, and I’m not an exception here. This is the first time I get acquainted with this work in its entirety, and I feel like it’s about time we get down to it. The last, but not least, is that it fits our company perfectly well. Having under our belt such performers of Gryaznoy as Alexey Zelenkov and Gury Guryev, or such Lyubasha as mezzo-soprano Ksenia Dudnikova, it would be a grave mistake not to stage The Tsar’s Bride with our company”.
Chief Stage Director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev: “In terms of musical dramaturgy and the abundance of operatic hits The Tsar’s Bride is positively one of the greatest Russian operas. Clots of boiling passions and anguishes are encrypted in every note of this drama. I believe that modern Russian culture requires this particular show in our repertoire. It comprises a very broad scale of various human relations. Operatic art represents humankind with its passions and emotions, it demonstrates the ways of human soul at its finest. Rimsky-Korsakov’s score embraces the gaping contrast between a sublime, empyrean love and a powerful, terrifying, dark concept of destruction. This range between a heavenly happiness and a horrifying disaster is an ageless subject of theatrical studies!”
The plot of this historic musical drama is based on true historic events of the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Its fever pitches and acute conflicts bring this work beyond time and space, while keeping a true Russian spirit at its core. Heart burning passions, vivid and controversial characters, deepest emotional torments are brilliantly depicted in this tragic, yet bright opera by Rimsky-Korsakov.
The Tsar’s Bride opera is set to premiere on 15 and 16 September on the Main Stage of NOVAT.
Thó performance is covered by The Pushkin Card.
Tickets are available on official website, mobile application and the theatre box office.
Looking forward to meeting you at the first nights of the show!