Debuts in Aida

Scene from the opera Aida

On 17 November at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre Natalia Evstafieva and Vladislav Sulimsky will be singing as Amneris and Amonasro in stage director Daniele Finzi Pasca’s stunning production of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida for the first time under the baton of Valery Gergiev.

Mezzo-soprano Natalia Evstafieva is well-known to St Petersburg audiences, first and foremost for her portrayals of such expressive characters as Konchakovna (Prince Igor), Didon (Les Troyens), Judith (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle), Fenena (Nabucco) and Carmen. The singer has succeeded in creating a “simultaneously seductive and repellent” image as Carmen: “in each of the singer’s movements” in this role, critics found “coquetry, rebelliousness and self-will.” One of the central characters in Aida, for Natalia Evstafieva the role of Amneris will be a new work in a completely different stage space. Finzi Pasca unfolds the narrative of the opera through a prism of childlike and naive perception; the world created by the stage director is as fragile as a house of cards and the feelings of the protagonists are stripped naked. The title role in the performance is to be sung by Viktoria Yastrebova, and Vladislav Sulimsky will be making his debut in the role of Amonasro.

The young Mariinsky Opera Company baritone’s “calling card” was once the role of Kovalyov in Dmitry Shostakovich’s opera The Nose; this was the first role that the singer recorded on the Mariinsky label. The singer also won undisputed acclaim for his portrayal of the role of Alyosha in Alexander Smelkov’s The Brothers Karamazov. Sulimsky’s repertoire of Verdian baritone roles includes Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Rodrigue di Posa (Don Carlo), Ford (Falstaff), Ezio (Attila) and Macbeth (Macbeth). The singer can fabricate an “ideal drama of intonations,” with his “powerful charisma, demonstrating great skill,” as Britain’s BBC Music Magazine noted.