Opera Art Festival “Chaliapin Nights in Ufa” will be dedicated to city’s anniversary

From May 17 to 28, the capital of Bashkortostan will host the XVII International Festival of Opera Art "Chaliapin Nights in Ufa." Our city is significant in the life and destiny of Fyodor Chaliapin as he started his opera career on the stage in Ufa. The Bashkir State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater has been holding an opera festival for several decades.

The international festival of opera art "Chaliapin Nights in Ufa" traditionally pleases all theatergoers with a solid line-up: the best singers of Russia take to the Bashopera stage to honor the memory of Fyodor Chaliapin and perform songs, romances, and arias from his repertoire.

As the theater's press secretary Gulnaz Nasyrova told Bashinform, the seventeenth festival will open on May 17 with a grandiose concert, "Opera Gala," featuring Igor Morozov (Helikon Opera), Albina Shagimuratova, Maria Bayankina, Anna Kiknadze and Mikhail Kolelishvili (Mariinsky Theatre). Artem Makarov is at the conductor's stand.

On May 19, the Greek Hall will host the literary and musical performance "Two Huge Men. Chaliapin and Gorky", which was created with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. The role of the singer will be performed by Alexey Tikhomirov (Helikon-Opera), and the role of Gorky by Ivan Krushin (Kazan Academic Russian Bolshoi Drama Theater named after V. Kachalov).

As part of the festival, the opera Attila will be shown on May 20. Tatyana Serzhan (Mariinsky Theater) and Shota Chibirov (Helikon-Opera) will perform the leading roles.

On May 22, soloists of the Mariinsky Theater, Anna Kiknadze and Mikhail Kolelishvili, will perform in the opera Don Quixote.

On May 24, the theater will host a large concert, "Fyodor Chaliapin Playing the Lead Part," with famous soloists participating.

On May 25, Ufa residents will be able to see the opera Prince Igor, conducted by Vladislav Karklin, with the participation of Igor Morozov (Helikon-Opera) and Maria Bayankina (Mariinsky Theater).

On May 26, an evening of the romance "The Heavens Burn in the Stars..." will take place in the Greek Hall of the theater. Bashopera soloist Alfiya Karimova will appear as a chamber music performer. Famous musicians Rustam Shaikhutdinov (piano) and Arthur Naziullin (clarinet), as well as soloist of the Saratov Academic Opera and Ballet Theater Abbaskhan Rakhmatullaev, will attend the concert.

"Chaliapin Nights in Ufa" ends on May 27-28 with the ballet "Rachmaninoff. A life-long symphony," where one of the main characters is Fyodor Chaliapin, a friend and ally of the great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov.

The idea of holding the first festival was born back in 1991, starting a tradition of gathering the best opera singers on the stage of the Ufa Theater. The second festival took place in 1992, but later, it began to be held every two years.

Author: Leyla Aralbaeva