The Mariinsky Theatre is honouring the outstanding Russian composer and friend of the theatre Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin, who celebrates his eighty-fifth birthday this year.
On 27 February at 19.00 at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre there will be a concert consisting entirely of music by Rodion Shchedrin. The programme for the evening includes Concerto dolce for viola and strings with harp, featuring soloists Sofia Kiprskaya (harp) and Yuri Afonkin (viola) and Piano Concerto No 2 with guest soloist Denis Matsuev. The Mariinsky Orchestra will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.
On 1 March the series of celebratory events will continue with the premiere of Rodion Shchedrin's opera Not Love Alone. Working on the production are: Stage Director Alexander Kuzin, Set Designer Alexander Orlov and Costume Designer Irina Cherednikova. Conductor – Valery Gergiev.
Not Love Alone, Rodion Shchedrin's first opera, was composed in 1961 and is dedicated to Maya Plisetskaya. Vasily Katanian's libretto took as its basis Soviet writer Sergei Antonov's tale Aunt Lusha about post-war life in a collective farm village. The young composer constructed his opus around ditty-like refrains and folk-tunes, several of which became pieces in their own right (Varvara's Song and Ditties). In concert practice, the greatest popularity was won by a symphonic suite compiled from material from the opera in 1964. Not Love Alone was not immediately staged at Russian musical theatres – the premiere of 1961 (Bolshoi Theatre) was not approved of, and after four performances the production was dropped from the repertoire. Ten years later, in 1972, Boris Pokrovsky opened the Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre with the opera Not Love Alone. In 2014 it was staged at the St Petersburg Chamber Opera. At the Mariinsky Theatre the opera Not Love Alone was first performed in concert in 2016.
There will be further performances at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre on 8 and 14 March.
Sponsor of premier shows: 
On 22 March at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre there will be a performance of the Russian choral opera Boyarina Morozova for four soloists, mixed chorus, trumpet, timpani and percussion, based on texts from The Life of the Archbishop Avvakum and The Life of Boyarina Morozova, Princess Urusova and Maria Danilova (concert performance). The lead roles will be sung by Yekaterina Sergeyeva (Boyarina Morozova), Violetta Lukyanenko (Princess Urusova), Stanislav Leontiev (Archbishop Avvakum) and Yuri Vlasov (Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich).
The Mariinsky Theatre has enjoyed a warm artistic relationship with Rodion Shchedrin for many years. The theatre has performed most of his operatic works, three of his five ballets and his concert opuses. Specially for the opening of the Mariinsky II the composer wrote the opera The Lefthander, and in December 2015 there came the premiere of the opera A Christmas Tale. Both these works are dedicated to Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre.
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