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On 13 November soprano Gelena Gaskarova will perform the role of Liù in Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot for the first time at the Mariinsky Theatre (production by Charles Roubaud).
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The French stage director Charles Roubaud presented his version of Turandot to St Petersburg audiences in 2002. The public adored his accurate stage interpretation, which creates a striking contrast with myriad other productions in which the tale of the cruel and icy beauty Turandot is often portrayed using more brutal aesthetics.
“Roubaud’s creative signature stands apart for its unhurried approach to the plot and the ‘poster-like’ quality of his technique,” wrote the correspondent of Kommersant newspaper, “For the hypnotically delayed fresco-ish Turandot these qualities are absolutely perfect.” The role of the slave girl Liù, which the composer wrote specially for the soprano Gilda Dalla Rizza, is the antithesis of the protagonist Princess Turandot. Liù’s love for Calaf is unreciprocated, but the slave girl has the courage not to reveal her beloved’s name to her more successful rival. This slave girl has a noble nature that the spoilt and capricious princess does not, even though Calaf does not need her warmth, loyalty and love. Gelena Gaskarova’s repertoire includes numerous roles in the soprano repertoire, and in addition to her magnificent voice the young soloist also has an incredible acting gift. St Petersburg audiences particularly loved her interpretation of the role of Eliza Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady, now in its third stunning season at the Mariinsky Theatre. Critics commented on the singer’s acting abilities: “in every incarnation as the young Doolittle – as both the rough and ready flower-seller with her resonant screeching under the columns of the market at Covent Garden in London, as Higgins’ shrewish pupil who takes a veritable age to bring her slang under control, subjugating Cockney to ‘received pronunciation’, and as the fair lady in dazzling hired jewels, amusingly articulating her each and every word to perfection and as an opera singer who suits the vocal style brilliantly – she is totally legit.”
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