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FULL CHRISTMAS EVE (Rimsky-Korsakov) Moscow 2022 Petr Sizov, Albina Fairuzova, Lyudmila Bodrova
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Noch' pered Rozhdestvom or Christmas Eve
- Composer: Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai
- Libretto: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov based on the short story by Gogol Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Moscow State Academic Children's Music Theater Named After Natalya Sats, Moscow, Russia
- Recorded: 2022
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Petr Sizov, Albina Fairuzova, Lyudmila Bodrova, Maxim Usachev, Alexander Khananin
- Conductor: Yevgeny Brazhnik
- Orchestra:
- Chorus Master: Vera Davydova
- Stage Director: Georgy Isaakyan
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Kultura TV
- Date Published: 2022
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
A magical New Year’s fairy tale is returning to cinemas! The “Theater in Cinema” project presents a film version of the opera “The Night Before Christmas,” directed by the Natalia Sats Children’s Musical Theater. The film version was produced by the Rossiya-Kultura TV channel. The director is Valery Spirin. “
Written based on Gogol’s story in the 1890s, the opera bears all the hallmarks of a ‘grand imperial opera,’ with extensive folk scenes, ensembles, and ballet divertissements,” explains the production’s musical director and conductor, Yevgeny Brazhnik. “In turning to it, we felt the need to energize the action and bring it closer to today’s young audiences.” Thus was born the musical and literary edition of the N. I. Sats Children’s Musical Theatre, where, despite the inevitable cuts, we have strived to recreate the extraordinary atmosphere of the bright holiday of Christmas. We hope that our “Night Before Christmas” will become a true adventure for young listeners and leave vivid impressions of everything they see and hear that will last a lifetime.
The production’s principal choirmaster, Vera Davydova, says of “Night Before Christmas”:
“I remember as a child, I devoured Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s story “Night Before Christmas,” part of the “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” cycle. And not only because Gogol’s stories were part of the required school literature curriculum. Gogol’s amazing world, where fantasy intertwines with everyday life, and humor coexists with a bright outlook on life, is captivating. It’s no coincidence that this Gogolian plot twice inspired operas: Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Cherevichki” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Night Before Christmas.” According to the author, “The Night Before Christmas” is a true story and carol, steeped in folklore and humor, where humorous and mystical events unfold on the eve of the Christian holiday of Christmas. And although the opera’s characters include a witch, a sorcerer, and the devil, they are all merely heroes of a fairy tale, and the devil—a figure of parody—is comical, evoking not fear but a smile.