On 25 November the Mariinsky II will be hosting the premiere of a new production of the opera Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. The production is being rehearsed by French director Arnaud Bernard who has also created epic and "cinematic" versions of Verdi's I vespri siciliani and Puccini's La fanciulla del West. Valery Gergiev is the new production's music director and conductor.
The young composer Mascagni's debut opera brought him international acclaim and emerged as an emblem of Italian verismo. Cavalleria rusticana was written for a competition of one-act operas organised by the Milanese publisher Edoardo Sonzogno. The libretto is based on the eponymous short story by Sicilian author Giovanni Verga which features "little" people who are torn apart by grand passions. Mascagni's compact masterpiece with its small cast is one of the most frequently performed operas. At the Mariinsky Theatre, however, it was last staged in Imperial times (at the premiere in 1893, the roles of Santuzza and Turiddu were sung by the Figner husband-and-wife team).
This summer, Mariinsky Theatre singers performed Cavalleria rusticana in concert in St Petersburg, Moscow and Vladivostok. Then, the role of Santuzza was performed by Ekaterina Semenchuk (the singer refined this role in productions at the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera) and that of Turiddu by Najmiddin Mavlyanov. The premiere of the new production at the Mariinsky Theatre is being rehearsed by several casts. In the first performances, as well as Ekaterina Semenchuk, it will be possible to see Yulia Matochkina and Tatiana Serjan as Santuzza. The lead tenor role is being undertaken by Akhmed Agadi, Yevgeny Akimov and Mikhail Vekua. The image of the jealous Alfio is to be portrayed by Roman Burdenko, Alexei Markov, Vladislav Sulimsky and Vladislav Kupriyanov.
Before the close of this calendar year, the Mariinsky Theatre plans to present yet another premiere – Strauss' Die Fledermaus – and also to revive Vasily Barkhatov's production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
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