Mariinsky at BAM opens with a contemporary opera rarity—The Enchanted Wanderer, Jan 14
Rodion Shchedrin’s mystic opera comes to New York in its first full staging
Bloomberg Philanthropies is the 2014—2015 Season Sponsor
BAM and the Mariinsky present The Enchanted Wanderer By Rodion Shchedrin Directed by Alexei Stepanyuk Mariinsky Opera Musical direction by Valery Gergiev Conducted by Valery Gergiev
Libretto by the composer after the novel by Nikolai Leskov, The Enchanted Wanderer Set design by Alexander Orlov Costume design by Irina Cherednikova Lighting design by Yevgeny Ganzburg Choreography by Dmitry Korneyev
Cast: Sergei Aleksashkin (Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, Storyteller) Andrei Popov (Flogged monk, Prince, Magnetiser, Old man in the woods, Storyteller) Kristina Kapustinskaya (Grusha the Gypsy, Storyteller)
In Russian with English titles
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave) Jan 14 at 7:30pm Tickets start at $45
Brooklyn, Dec 8, 2014—Rodion Shchedrin’s The Enchanted Wanderer—in a fully staged US production premiere—ushers in the momentous, two-week BAM residency of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, led by Artistic Director Valery Gergiev, with its world- renowned opera, ballet, and orchestra on one stage in Brooklyn. The opera, a commission of the New York Philharmonic, has not been performed in New York since its world premiere in 2002.
In The Enchanted Wanderer, Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, the eponymous wanderer and a repentant monk, recounts his youthful misadventures and entanglement in the torrid love affair of the Prince and the beautiful Gypsy girl Grusha. Rodion Shchedrin wrote the libretto based on a novel by Nikolai Leskov (whose story was also the source of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk). The music, which contains elements of Russian Orthodox choral music, gypsy songs, and traditional Slavic instruments (church bells, balalaika and gusli—a Russian zither), avoids operatic conventions. Solo voices weave in and out of the chorus, punctuated by three orchestra interludes and a postlude.
The New York Philharmonic gave the opera world premiere in 2002 in a concert version conducted by the late Lorin Maazel. This full production was premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2008. Director Alexei Stepanyuk fills the stage with reeds through which soloists and chorus, wearing traditional Russian costumes, move as though in a trance.
About the Artists The son of a music theorist and writer, Rodion Shchedrin studied piano with Yakov Fliyer and composition with Yuri Shaporin at the Moscow Conservatory. Not long after his graduation, Shchedrin wrote what has become one of his best-known works, the ballet Konek-gorbunok (“The Little Humpbacked Horse”,1956), which quickly became a staple of the Bolshoi Ballet. In the mid-60s, Shchedrin started to incorporate modern sounds and techniques like tone-rows and aleatorics (chance elements) into works like his Symphony No. 2 (1962—65) and the Piano Concerto No. 2 (1966). Since then, Shchedrin has exhibited an eclectic style. Elements of the avant-garde, neoclassicism, folk, jazz, and pop music all have played roles in his compositions, which he has called "post-avant-garde." Also a virtuosic pianist, he played the solo part in the premieres of the first three of his six piano concertos.
Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev is one of the leading figures in world culture. In 1988, he was appointed principal conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre, and in 1996 he became its artistic and general director. Since Gergiev became artistic director, the theater’s opera and ballet repertoire has expanded significantly. Today, it includes an incredibly broad range of operas by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Mussorgsky, and Tchaikovsky in addition to 20th-century European classics such as operas by Leoš Janáček, Richard Strauss, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten, and Shchedrin.
Alexei Stepanyuk studied at the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire and for seven years was principal director at the Chelyabinsk Academic Glinka Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Stepanyuk’s debut at the Mariinsky Theatre was the 1993 production of Rimsky- Korsakov’s Sadko, which has enjoyed great success and has toured widely. To this day, he has staged more than 70 opera productions in and outside Russia. He was named “Director of the Year” by the newspaper Music Review and the Russian Union of Theatre Workers in 2002.
After graduating from the Saratov State Sobinov Conservatoire, Sergei Aleksashkin (bass) was engaged by the Saratov Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. He also trained at La Scala, Milan from 1983—84. He has been a Mariinsky Theatre soloist since 1989 where his repertoire ranged from Méphistophélès (Faust), Grand Inquisitor, (Don Carlo), Leporello (Don Giovanni), and the King (Lohengrin) to many Russian operas including the title role in Boris Godunov, Ivan Khovansky (Khovanshchina), Rostov, Kutuzov (War and Peace), Gremin (Eugene Onegin), and the General (The Gambler)—the latter two he also performed at the Metropolitan Opera.
Tenor Andrei Popov was trained at the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire and joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 2007. His roles include Grishka Kuterma (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh), the Holy Fool (Boris Godunov), Bobyl Bakula (The Snow Maiden), Police Inspector (The Nose), Truffaldino (The Love for Three Oranges), Shabby Peasant (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Dr. Caius (Falstaff), and Mime (Das Rheingold and Siegfried), among others. He performed the role of Police Inspector in The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013.
Mezzo-soprano Kristina Kapustinskaya was a graduate of the National Tchaikovsky Music Academy of Ukraine and made her Mariinsky Theatre debut as Smeraldina in The Love for Three Oranges in 2007. She has also sung The Angel (The Demon), Polina and Milovzor (The Queen of Spades), Servant (Elektra), and Agrafena Alexandrovna (The Brothers Karamazov). In 2009 she received a Golden Mask award for her interpretation of Grusha in The Enchanted Wanderer.
For press information, contact David Hsieh at [email protected] or 718.636.4129 x9.
Credits Bloomberg Philanthropies is the 2014—2015 Season Sponsor.
BAM engagement made possible by the Mariinsky Foundation of America.
Leadership support for the Mariinsky Residency at BAM provided by Frederick Iseman.
Support for the Signature Artists Series provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation.
Leadership support for opera at BAM provided by Aashish & Dinyar Devitre and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
Major support for the Mariinsky Residency at BAM provided by Renova.
Endowment funding has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Music- Theater.
Major support for opera at BAM provided by The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust.
BAM 2014 Winter/Spring Season supporters: Bank of America; Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman; Booth Ferris Foundation; Brooklyn Community Foundation; Jessica E. Smith & Kevin R. Brine; William I. Campbell & Christine Wächter-Campbell; Betsy and Ed Cohen/Areté Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Estate of Richard B. Fisher; Judith R. & Alan H. Fishman; Ford Foundation; The Harkness Foundation for Dance; Stephanie & Timothy Ingrassia; Suzie & Bruce Kovner; Leon Levy Foundation; Diane & Adam E. Max; James I. McLaren & Lawton W. Fitt; MetLife Foundation; Donald R. Mullen Jr.; The Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc.; Rolex SA; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; Target; Viacom; The Winston Foundation, Inc.
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