Debuts in the opera The Love for Three Oranges

The Love for Three Oranges, based on the play by Carlo Gozzi, is one of the merriest and life-affirming operas of the 20^th century. The speedy changes between the diverse scenes are created by the uninterrupted flow of the music, giving the opera a unique rhythm. The “evergreen” March, so beloved by Prokofiev himself, seems to be a symbol for us all.

The role of the Prince who must overcome his dreadful melancholy and find a path to happiness in the face of envy, cunning and treachery will be performed for the first time by soloist of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers Dmitry Koleushko, who has already demonstrated his gift for comedy at the Mariinsky Theatre on numerous occasions, though this is the first time he will be performing such a major role.

Ilya Bannik’s stage career began at the Academy of Young Singers after which, having been a prize-winner at several international competitions, he became a soloist with the Mariinsky Opera Company. The singer frequently tours, and one landmark stage in his career came with a recording of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor together with Natalie Dessay and Piotr Beczała which was released on the Mariinsky label in the summer of 2011. The singer’s rich repertoire already includes the roles of Faust and a Young Lad in Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel and Semyon Kotko respectively and six roles in his opera War and Peace (Yermolov, Shcherbaty, Berthier, Raballe, de Tolly and von Bennigsen).

The performance will also see three debuts by soloists of the Academy of Young Singers – mezzo-soprano Yelizaveta Zakharova in the role of Smeraldina, Daria Telyatnikova as Princess Nicolette and Viktor Korotich as Pantalone.

Together with Il viaggo a Reims, Alain Maratrat’s production of The Love for Three Oranges is one of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers’ “calling cards.”