Organization

Conductor

Дмитрий Банаев

Chorus master

Olga Zhilinskaya

Stage director

Sergey Shepelev

Costume designer

Tatiana Izycheva

Lighting designer

Valentina Nikolaeva

Choreographer

Alla Alexandrova

Singer

Tenor

Dmitry Semkin

Vakula the blacksmith

Alexander Stolbov

Mezzo-soprano

Galina Mikhalina

Solokha

Anna Stolbova

Soprano

Elvira Gurieva

Oksana

Baritone

Pavel Kryuchko

Head of the Village

Oleg Loginov

Clerk

Rushan Shaibekov

Vladimir Seregin

Heck

Alexey Chistyakov

Bass-baritone

Alexander Belyaev

Patsyuk

Сергей Гарашкин

Reader

Maria Maksakova

Star

Set designer

Sapaev Mari State Opera and Ballet Theatre

Christmas Eve -  (The Night before Christmas)

Yoshkar-Ola

Russia

Christmas Eve Rimsky-Korsakov

Public

The Night before Christmas

Approved

Even Pushkin's poems, most of which became the basis of opera librettos, did not deserve to be used twice or thrice. In this sense, The Night Before Christmas is a unique case: P. Tchaikovsky, N. Solovyov, N. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote operas based on its plot.

“I want to say,” Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, “my opera is called The Night Before Christmas.” Please note: not “Cherevichki”, like in Tchaikovsky, and not “Blacksmith Vakula”, like in Solovyov, but precisely “The Night Before Christmas” ... “During the life of Tchaikovsky, I could not take up this plot, so as not to cause him grief. But now, after the death of Pyotr Ilyich, I am morally calm and can work. I have always dreamed about this topic…” And he also emphasized: “I am writing a different opera – the fantastic world that Gogol showed is important to me…”

Although he decided to follow Gogol exactly, Rimsky-Korsakov could not suppress the desire to introduce a lot of fantastic and pagan into the plot, for which, as he himself admitted, he had a passion since the days of May Night, The Snow Maiden and Mlada. . "My fascination with myths and connecting them with Gogol's story is, of course, my mistake, but this mistake made it possible to write a lot of interesting music."

Leaving the main plot lines of the story, Rimsky-Korsakov abundantly supplemented them with scenes and characters that Gogol does not have: Kolyada and Ovsen, stars, dark and light spirits. Indeed, the music of The Night Before Christmas created a huge scope not only for interpreting everyday scenes, but also for presenting a fantastic extravaganza.

A hundred years ago, in the first third of the 19th century, on the stage of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater (now the building of the St. Petersburg Conservatory), the magic-comic opera "Mermaid" based on the plot of the Austrian writer K.F. Gensler with music by F. Cauer. According to contemporaries, it was a grandiose enchanting spectacle with transformations, fire-breathing fountains, rivers overflowing their banks, an underwater kingdom, monsters and spirits.

After 90 years, Rimsky-Korsakov seems to be returning the genre of "magic" opera to the stage, but in a completely different incarnation. He masterfully creates mythological "portraits" of Slavic pagan deities and "evil spirits", drawing amazingly contrasting musical pictures of Vakula's "flight" on the Line to Petersburg and his return to Dikanka. Here is an almost physical-sound sensation of frosty air, and the beauty of a calm winter sky, and a dance of stars and celestial bodies, and a miraculous picture of dawn, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a sudden burst of rattle and howl of demonic pursuit.

These amazing musical sketches have awakened and are still awakening the imagination of artists, directors and choreographers, opening up vast scope for the most incredible stage solutions

English

The Night before Christmas by Rimsky-Korsakov, From (2015/2015), Directed by Sergey Shepelev,, Conductor Дмитрий Банаев, Sapaev Mari State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yoshkar-Ola, Russia

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues