FULL The Idiot (Smelkov) Vladivostok 2021 Sandanov Bublik Razgulyaeva Suzdaltseva

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: The Idiot or Идиот  
• Composer: Smelkov Alexander   
• Libretto: Yuri Dimitrin based on the novel by Dostojevsky    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Primorsky Stage Company of the Mariinsky Theater, Vladivostok, Russia  
• Recorded: January 24, 2021
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Mergen Sandanov, Alexei Bublik, Elena Razgulyaeva, Maria Suzdaltseva, Vyacheslav Vasiliev
• Conductor: Vitaly Shevelev  
• Orchestra:
• Chorus Master: Larisa Shveikovskaya  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

  The Idiot is the seventh opera by the Russian composer Alexander Smelkov (born 1950). A graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, he is the author of several symphonies, cantatas, numerous chamber ensembles and vocal compositions. The composer turned to the genre of opera throughout his life. The first opera-parable “Piebald dog running along the edge of the sea” based on the story by Chingiz Aitmatov appeared in 1985 and was successfully staged twice at the St. Petersburg Opera, theaters in Novosibirsk and Alma-Ata.

  The composer became widely known among music lovers after the resonant premiere of The Brothers Karamazov at the Mariinsky Theater in 2008. This was the first production of the new opera, which, on the initiative of Valery Gergiev, was created by a modern composer commissioned by the theatre. Its premiere aroused great public interest and received a wide variety of critical responses. After the premiere, the opera was shown by the Mariinsky troupe in Moscow, as well as on tour in London and Rotterdam.

  The Idiot became the second part of the operatic triptych conceived by the composer based on the plots of the legendary novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Writer Yuri Dimitrin carefully preserved the main collisions of The Idiot in the libretto of the work. The dramaturgy of the opera is largely cinematic. Pictures in different locations alternate with episodes on the proscenium, which does not slow down the dynamics of the plot. The scene in Rogozhin’s room, where Prince Myshkin comes in search of Nastasya Filippovna at the end of the novel, opens the action of The Idiot (No. 2) and unfolds gradually, parallel to the main line (No. 9), leading to a tragic denouement (No. 22).

  The world premiere of the opera The Idiot has been entrusted to the Primorsky Stage Company of the Mariinsky Theater and will be conducted by one of the best interpreters of the composer’s music, conductor Pavel Smelkov.

  Natalia Rogudeeva

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