On 24 January (19.00), the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre hosts the world premiere of David Krivitsky’s opera Doctor Zhivago based on Boris Pasternak’s eponymous novel. The Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers’ soloists and ensemble under the baton of Larisa Gergieva will take part in the concert performance. The Mariinsky Orchestra will be conducted by Nikolai Khondzinsky.
Doctor Zhivago, composed in 1990–1992, continues the traditions of Russian classical operas such as those by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, and Sergei Prokofiev. Krivitsky wrote the libretto trying to incorporate the key plotlines and events of the novel into the traditional three-act structure and the novel’s unique multi-faceted literary core into the music. The opera also includes salon music and Romances, boisterous chastushki, and sophisticated tone painting of Neo-Romanticism at the end of the 20th century. The grand lineup – 35 soloists, triple chorus, which is divided into 64 individual parts for the most climatic episodes, and children’s chorus – requires a vast pool of performers.
David Krivitsky was a famous Russian composer active in the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. He frequently collaborated with various theatres (including the Sovremennik Theatre, where the productions of Twelfth Night, Doctor Stockmann and others were accompanied by his music), composed music scores for film and TV productions (The Pickwick Club, The Mistakes of a Night, La Peau de Chagrin, Doctor of Philosophy, The Lynx Follows the Path), wrote operas, ballets, symphonies, instrumental concertos, chamber pieces for adult audiences and children. Krivitsky composed more than 1,500 works in total.
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