Organization

Singer

Soprano

Tamara Kalinkina

Mezzo-soprano

Iryna Zhytynska

Baritone

Ilya Silchukov

Olexandr Forkushak

Tenor

Dmitro Foshchanka

Set designer

Nadzeya Sayapina

Stage director

Nicolai Khalezin

Conductor

Vitali Alekseenok

Dramaturge

Natalia Kaliada

Narrator

Andrėĭ Kali︠a︡da

Choreographer

Maryia Sazonava

Nadya Sayapina

Costume designer

Anastasiya Ryabova

Mask design

Anastasiya Miadzelets-Teush

Lighting designer

Peter Small

Video designer

Dmytro Guk

Soloist

Andrei Bondarenko

Oleksandr Chuvpylo

Olena Arbuzova

Mykola Hubchuk

Raman Shytsko

Actors

Yuliya Shauchuk

Pavel Haradnitski

Stanislava Shablinskaya

Siarhei Kvachonak

Kate Vostrikova

Daniella Kaliada

Others

Five-Storey Ensemble

Soloists

Barbican Centre

Belarus Free Theater

Belarusian

King Stakh's Wild Hunt

London

United Kingdom

King Stakh's Wild Hunt Belarus Free Theatre: King Stakh's Wild Hunt Podgaiskaya

Public

16+ Only

Sound and lighting warnings

Explicit language

Violence

English

Approved

King Stakh's Wild Hunt Padhaiskaya

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A thrilling gothic noir from one of the world’s bravest theatre companies based on the celebrated novel. Featuring acclaimed actors, opera singers and musicians from Belarus and Ukraine.

King Stakh's Wild Hunt is one of Uladzimir Karatkievich’s most popular novels. Inspired by Eastern European folklore, it follows the ghostly hunt to free a young heiress from an evil curse.

Directed by Belarus Free Theatre’s co-founding Artistic Directors, Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, this show unites actors, opera singers and musicians from Ukraine and Belarus, many of them political refugees from war or dictatorship.

This world premiere features a transporting score by composer, Olga Podgaiskaya, conducted by Vitali Alekseenok, with the lead roles performed by Ukrainian baritone, Andrei Bondarenko and Ukrainian soprano, Tamara Kalinkina.

King Stakh's Wild Hunt interlaces opera, theatre, multimedia and live music to tell a story rooted in the history of Belarus with blazing contemporary relevance for Europe today.

Tagged with:
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THEATRE AND DANCE AUTUMN 2023
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Running time: approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, including interval

Age guidance: 16+ (contains adult themes, violence, depictions of death and hanging, loud noise including gun shots, smoke, haze and strobe lighting)

Performed in Belarusian with English surtitles

Presented by the Barbican 

King Stakh's Wild Hunt is a Belarus Free Theatre production, co-commissioned by the Barbican, and supported by the Maria Björnson Memorial Fund, Backstage Trust, the Belarusian Council of Culture and GMF (The German Marshall Fund of the United States).

Photography and Production: TsvitPaporoty Production

Creative team
Based on the novel by Uladzimir Karatkievich
Nicolai Khalezin Director, Dramaturgy and Original Text Adaptation
Natalia Kaliada Director
Andrėĭ Kali︠a︡da Narrator
Vitali Alekseenok Conductor
Olga Podgaiskaya Composer
Andrei Khadanovich Librettist
Maryia Sazonava Choreography
Nadya Sayapina Set Design & Head of Production Design
Nicolai Khalezin Set Design
Anastasiya Ryabova Costume Design
Anastasiya Miadzelets-Teush Mask Design
Peter Small Lighting Design
Dmytro Guk Video Design
Show less
Performers
Soloists Tamara Kalinkina (Soprano), Andrei Bondarenko (Baritone), Iryna Zhytynska (Mezzo-soprano), Oleksandr Chuvpylo (Tenor), Oleksandr Forkushak (Baritone), Olena Arbuzova (Soprano) and Mykola Hubchuk (Baritone)
Musicians Five-Storey Ensemble
Actors Raman Shytsko, Maryia Sazonava, Yuliya Shauchuk, Pavel Haradnitski, Stanislava Shablinskaya, Siarhei Kvachonak, Kate Vostrikova, Daniella Kaliada (in video projections only)


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The Belarus Free Theatre brings together actors, opera singers, and musicians from Belarus and Ukraine to present the world premiere of ‘King Stakh’s Wild Hunt” on Sept. 14-16 at the Barbican Theatre.

Composer Olga Podgaiskaya’s score is based on Uladzimir Karatkievich’s novel by the same name.”King Stakh’s Wild Hunt” is one of the most popular novels by the Belarusian writer. The story is inspired by Eastern European folklore and follows the ghostly hunt to free a young heiress from an evil curse.

The co-founders and Artistic Directors of Belarus Free Theatre, Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada will direct. Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko and Ukrainian soprano Tamara Kalinkina will take on the lead roles. They are joined by the Belarus and Ukrainian Five-Storey Ensemble and Belarus Free Theatre’s permanent ensemble, who all have been exiled from their homeland and now live in Poland and the UK. Vitali Alekseenok conducts.

Excerpts from the audiobook recorded by Natalia Kaliada’s father, the late Andrėĭ Kali︠a︡da are featured as narration. The opera will run just over two hours and will be sung in Belarusian with English subtitles. There is an adult advisory in place for mature content.

Director, Nicolai Khalezin, said in a press release, “King Stakh’s Wild Hunt is a piercing story that combines mysticism and reality, love and hatred, nobility and cowardice, history and modernity. We wanted to give this amazing story a new tone by combining opera singers with stage actors, classical musicians with new theatrical technologies. Another one of our intentions was to unite some of the talented artists who cannot perform in their homeland today. Uladzimir Karatkievich managed to find his way to the reader even under the communist Soviet regime, weaving truth and relevance into the lines of his novels. History puts everything in its place, and this is exactly what we hope to achieve in King Stakh’s Wild Hunt.”
- Operawire

King Stakh's Wild Hunt by Podgaiskaya, From (2023/2023), Directed by Nicolai Khalezin, Natalia Kaliada,, Conductor Vitali Alekseenok, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Co-Producer

Program, About & Synopsis

Videos

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues