The Best New Production of the International Opera Awards 2021. An unforgettable opera of original beauty.
The titles of some operas are in themselves sufficient to capture the imagination. For the centenary of Pushkin's birth in 1899, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov drew inspiration from one of his celebrated fairy tales and composed a delightfully imaginative opera, with the Flight of the Bumblebee as instant hit.
The composer's gift for melody and orchestration combines perfectly with the poet's often absurd humour and overflowing imagination. Alain Altinoglu can here revel in the role of orchestral wizard, while the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov returns with a many-layered psychological staging.
Tsar Saltan marries the youngest of three sisters, having heard that it is her dearest wish to present him with a heroic son and heir. Her jealous sisters and the old Aunt Barbarikha cannot bear this, and by trickery see to it that the Tsaritsa and her newborn son Gvidon are thrown into the sea. In their barrel they are washed ashore on an enchanted island where the rapidly growing tsar’s son saves a swan from the clutches of a wizard. In gratitude, the swan helps Gvidon to visit his native country once again in the guise of a bumblebee. Three wishes, three miracles and three bee-stings later, father and son are finally able to get to know each other.
With the collaboration of Naxos
Сказка о царе Салтане
Opera in four acts with a prologue
Music by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Libretto by Vladimir Bielsky, based on the poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin
Premiered at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow on November 3, 1900
New production
Artistic team
Conductor | Alain Altinoglu
Stage director | Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costume designer | Elena Zaitseva
Art director, video and lighting designer | Gleb Filshtinsky
Chorus master | Martino Faggiani
Cast
Tsar Saltan | Ante Jerkunica
Tsaritsa Militrisa | Svetlana Aksenova
Tkatchikha | Stine Marie Fischer
Povarikha | Bernarda Bobro
Babarikha | Carole Wilson
Tsarevitch Gvidon | Bogdan Volkov
Tsarevna Swan-Bird / Lyebyed | Olga Kulchynska
Old man | Vasily Gorchkov
Skomorokh / Shipman | Alexander Vassiliev
Messenger / Shipman| Nicky Spence
Shipman | Alexander Kravets