Sydney Opera House top view. Sydney Opera House Repertoire and additional programs

The Sydney Opera House is Australia's flagship landmark. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1973, the Sydney Opera House is becoming one of the most important attractions in Australia, refusing to visit which would be an unforgivable mistake. Until 1958, a tram depot was located on the site where the opera house now stands, and even before the depot - a fort.

The theater took 14 years to build and cost Australia about $ 102 million. It was originally planned to complete the project in 4 years, but due to difficulties with internal finishing work, the opening moment was significantly delayed. For normal operation, the theater needs as much electrical energy as would be enough for a city with a population of 25 thousand people. For the construction of this unique complex, piles were driven into the ocean floor of Sydney Bay to a depth of 25 meters. The roof covering consists of 1.056.006 pieces of white tiles and tiles with a matte cream shade.

The Sydney Opera House has very recognizable shapes that resemble giant sails. But if many people recognize the theater immediately, seeing it from the outside in a photo or on television, then not everyone will be able to answer with confidence what kind of building it is, examining its decoration from the inside. You can get to know all the beauties of the theater with an excursion going through its bowels at 7 o'clock in the morning, that is, at a time when the Sydney Opera House is still dormant and its walls are not disturbed by sonorous and loud performances.

This excursion is conducted only once a day. A huge number of different performers from all over the world perform in the theater, among them a tradition has arisen to kiss the wall before a performance, but only the most worthy and great among them are honored. For example, Janet Jackson's imprinted lips can be found on the kissing wall. Nevertheless, the excursion can only be an introductory stage in the world of the Sydney Opera House. In order to get the maximum impressions and positive emotions, you need to attend at least 1 performance.

Another impressive venue for performances in Sydney is the Australia Stadium, which has a capacity of 83.5 thousand people.

Information for visitors:

The address: Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000.

How to get there: The Opera House is located in Sydney Harbor at Bennelong Point. It will be easy for you to get here from anywhere in Sydney, near the intersection of sea and land transport routes.

Working hours:

Daily (except Sunday) from 9:00 am to late evening;

Sunday: 10:00 am until late evening (subject to event).

Prices: depending on the event.

Location: Australia, Sydney
Building: 1959 - 1973
Architect: Jorn Utzon
Coordinates: 33 ° 51 "25.4" S 151 ° 12 "54.6" E

Short description

The whole world admires the Sydney Opera House. Against the backdrop of skyscrapers and yachts, the theater looks like an elegant stone flower folded from petal walls. Sometimes the domes of a building are compared to the shutters of huge sea shells or blown sails.

Sydney Opera House aerial view

The analogies are justified: this unusual structure with a sail-shaped roof is located on a rocky promontory, cutting into the bay. The Sydney Opera House is famous not only for its original roof structure, but also for its magnificent interiors, made in a futuristic style called "Space Age Gothic".

It is in the building of the Sydney Opera that the world's largest theater curtain hangs - each of its halves is 93 square meters. The Sydney Theater also boasts the world's largest organ with 10,500 pipes.

The importance of the House of the Muses in the life of Sydney cannot be overemphasized. A concert hall with 2679 seats and an opera house with 1547 seats are located under one roof. For dramatic and musical performances, a "small stage" is set aside - another hall for 544 spectators. There is also a cinema showroom with 398 seats. The venue with a capacity of 210 people is used for conferences. The theater complex, which is visited by about 2 million people annually, is complemented by a recording studio, library, art mini-rooms, restaurants and cafes.

Sydney Opera House - a masterpiece of a Danish architect

Utzon The creation of the Sydney theater was inspired by the English conductor and composer Eugene Goossens, who was invited to Sydney in 1945 to record a concert cycle. The musician found that the inhabitants of the former British colony have a keen interest in music, but there is no suitable hall for performances of opera and ballet throughout the continent.

In those days, concerts were held in the city hall, which in its architecture resembles a "wedding cake" in the style of the Second Empire, with poor acoustics and an auditorium for 2.5 thousand listeners. "The city needs a new theater that all Australia can be proud of!" - declared Sir Eugene Goossens.

880 specialists from 45 countries took part in the competition for the best project, but only 230 of them reached the final. The winner is 38-year-old Dane Jorn Utzon. It is difficult to say what could have been built on the site of the building crowned with "sails-domes" if the American architect Erro Saarinen hadn’t been the chairman of the selection committee, who insisted that such an extraordinary project should be won in the competition. According to Utzon himself, the original idea came to him when he peeled an orange and assembled a full sphere from hemispherical orange peels. The construction of the Sydney Opera House, which began in 1959, was delayed and instead of the planned 4 years it lasted 14 years.

Money was sorely lacking, and expenses were growing at an accelerated pace. Investors had to be attracted, which entailed a revision of the initial design of the building in favor of commercial space allocated for restaurants and cafes. "A little more, and the building will turn into a swollen square, into a stamped living box!" - Utzon exclaimed in indignation. The total amount spent on the construction of the Sydney Opera House ($ 102 million) was 15 times higher than the projected amount ($ 7 million). The Cabinet of Ministers, accused of "unreasonably high spending and protracted construction," resigned, and the architect himself, in despair, burned the blueprints and decisively left Sydney.

Sydney Opera House Opening

The work on the design of the facades and interior decoration was completed 7 years after Utzon's resignation. In October 1973, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of England, the theater was inaugurated, and the first performance given on the stage of the Sydney House of the Muses was Sergei Prokofiev's opera War and Peace. In 2003, Utzon received the prestigious Pritzker Prize for his theater project, and in 2007 the Sydney Opera House was declared a World Heritage Site. But, alas, Utzon's resentment against the Australian authorities was so great that he never returned to Sydney and died in 2008 without seeing the completed opera house in all its glory.

(English Sydney Opera House) - one of the most famous and easily recognizable buildings in the world, which is the symbol of Australia's largest city, Sydney, and one of the main attractions of Australia - Sail-shaped shells that form the roof make this building unlike any other in the world. The Opera House is recognized as one of the outstanding buildings of modern architecture and since 1973, along with the Harbor Bridge, has been the hallmark of Sydney.

The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney Harbor, at Bennelong Point. This place was named after an Australian aborigine friend of the first governor of the colony. It is difficult to imagine Sydney without the Opera, but until 1958 there was an ordinary tram depot in its place (before the opera building, there was a fort, and then a tram depot).

The architect of the Opera House is the Danish Jorn Utzon. Despite the success of the concept of spherical shells, which solved all the problems of construction, well suited for mass production, precise manufacturing and ease of installation, construction was delayed, mainly due to the interior decoration of the premises. It was planned that the construction of the Opera will take 4 years and will cost 7 million Australian dollars. Instead, the opera took 14 years to build and cost $ 102 million!

The Sydney Opera House is an Expressionist building with a radical and innovative design. The building covers an area of ​​2.2 hectares. Its height is 185 meters and its maximum width is 120 meters. The building weighs 161,000 tons and rests on 580 piles, which are lowered into the water at a depth of almost 25 meters from sea level. Its power supply is equivalent to the electricity consumption of one city with a population of 25,000. Electricity is distributed over 645 kilometers of cable.

The roof of the opera house consists of 2,194 prefabricated sections, its height is 67 meters, and its weight is more than 27 tons, the entire structure is held by steel cables 350 kilometers long. The roof of the theater is formed by a series of "shells" of a non-existent concrete sphere 492 feet in diameter, commonly referred to as "shells" or "sails", although this is incorrect from an architectural definition of such a structure. These shells are constructed from precast, triangle-shaped concrete panels supported by 32 pre-fabricated ribs of the same material. All ribs are part of one large circle, which allowed the outlines of the roofs to have the same shape, and the whole building a complete and harmonious look.

The entire roof is covered with 1,056,006 azulejo tiles in white and matt cream colors. Although from a distance the structure appears to be made entirely of white tiles, the tiles create different color schemes under different lighting conditions. Thanks to the mechanical method of laying the tiles, the entire surface of the roof is perfectly smooth, which was impossible with manual covering. All tiles were produced by the Swedish factory Höganäs AB with self-cleaning technology, but despite this, work is regularly carried out to clean and replace some of the tiles.

The two largest shell vaults form the ceiling of the Concert Hall and the Opera Theater. In other rooms, the ceilings form groups of smaller vaults.

The stepped roof structure was very beautiful, but created height problems inside the building, as the resulting height did not provide the proper acoustics in the halls. To solve this problem, separate ceilings were made to reflect sound. In the smallest sink, away from the main entrance and the main staircase, is the Bennelong restaurant.

The interior of the building is decorated with pink granite brought from the Tarana region (New South Wales), wood and plywood.

For this project, Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in architecture, in 2003. The awarding ceremony was accompanied by the words: "There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of extraordinary beauty that has become known all over the world - a symbol not only of the city, but of the entire country and continent. . "

The Sydney Opera House houses four key companies in the art of Australia - the Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, The Sydney Theater Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, in addition to which there are many other companies and theaters based in the Sydney Opera House. This theater is one of the liveliest centers for the performing arts, hosting approximately 1,500 performances annually with a total attendance of over 1.2 million. It is also one of Australia's most popular attractions, with over seven million tourists visiting it every year.

The Opera House has three main performance halls:

The Concert Hall, 2679 seats, is the home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.It contains the world's largest functioning mechanical organ, with over 10,000 pipes.

The Opera House, seating 1507, is the home of the Sydney Opera House and the Australian Ballet.

The Drama Theater, 544 seats, is used by the Sydney Theater Company and other dance and theater groups.

In addition to these three rooms, the Sydney Opera House contains several smaller rooms and studios.

Diana Damrau is a German opera and concert singer, coloratura soprano. Diana Damrau was born on May 31, 1971 in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany. They say that her love for classical music and opera was awakened at the age of 12, after watching a beautiful film-opera by Franco Zeffirelli "La Traviata" (G. Verdi) with Placido Domingo and Teresa Strates in the lead roles. At the age of 15 she appeared in the musical "My Fair Lady" at a festival in the neighboring town of Offingen. She received her vocal education at the Higher School of Music in Würzburg, where she was taught by the Romanian singer Carmen Hanganu; during her studies, she also studied in Salzburg with Hannah Ludwig and Edith Matis. After graduating with honors from the conservatory in 1995, Diana Damrau signed a two-year contract with the theater in Würzburg, where she made her professional theatrical debut as Eliza "My Fair Lady" and an opera debut with the part of Barbarina from The Wedding of Figaro, followed by the roles of Annie ( The Magic Shooter), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Marie (The Tsar and the Carpenter), Adele (The Bat), Valenciennes (The Merry Widow) and others. Then there were two-year contracts with the National Theater of Mannheim and the Frankfurt Opera, where she played the roles of Gilda ("Rigoletto"), Oscar ("Masquerade Ball"), Cerbinetta ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), Olympia ("Hoffmann's Tales") and Queens of the Night ("The Magic Flute"). With the part of the Queen of the Night, she performed in 1998/99 as a guest at the state opera houses in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and at the Bavarian Opera with the part of Zerbinetta. In 2000, Diana Damrau's first performance outside Germany took place at the Vienna State Opera with the role of the Queen of the Night. Since 2002, the singer has been working as a freelance artist in various theaters, in the same year she made her overseas debut with a concert in the United States, in Washington. Since then, she has worked on the world's leading opera stages, the main moments of the formation of Damrau's career are her debuts at Covent Garden (2003, Queen of the Night), in 2004 at La Scala at the opening after the restoration of the theater, starring in Antonio Salieri's opera "Recognized Europe ", in 2005 at the Metropolitan Opera (Zerbinetta," Ariadne auf Naxos "), in 2006 at the Salzburg Festival, an open-air concert with Placido Domingo at the Olympic Stadium in Munich in honor of the opening of the FIFA World Cup in summer 2006. Diana Damrau's opera repertoire is very diverse, she works both in the classical roles of sopranos in Italian, French and German operas, as well as in the works of contemporary composers, and at the beginning of her career in musicals and operettas. The luggage of her operatic roles reaches almost fifty and, in addition to the previously mentioned ones, includes Marceline (Fidelio, Beethoven), Leila (Pearl Seekers, Bizet), Norina (Don Pasquale, Donizetti), Adina (Love Potion, Donizetti) , Lucia ("Lucia di Lammermoor", Donizetti), Rita ("Rita", Donizetti), Marguerite de Valois ("The Huguenots", Meyerbeer), Servilia ("Mercy of Titus", Mozart), Constanta and Blond ("Abduction from the Seraglio ", Mozart), Suzanne (" The Marriage of Figaro ", Mozart), Pamina (" The Magic Flute ", Mozart), Rosina (" The Barber of Seville ", Rossini), Sophie (" The Rose Knight ", Strauss), Adele (" The Bat ", Strauss), Woglindu (" The Gold of the Rhine "and" Twilight of the Gods ", Wagner) and many others. In addition to her achievements in opera, Diana Damrau has established herself as one of the best concert performers in the classical repertoire. She performs oratorios and songs by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Vincenzo Rigini, Beethoven, Robert and Clara Schumann, Meyerbeer, Brahms, Fauré, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, Debussy, Orff, Barber, regularly performs at the Berlin Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall Wigmore Hall, the Golden Hall of the Vienna Philharmonic, as well as a regular guest of the Schubertiada, Munich, Salzburg and other festivals. Her CD of songs by Richard Strauss (Poesie) with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded the ECHO Klassik award in 2011. Diana Damrau lives in Geneva, in 2010 she married the French bass-baritone Nicolas Teste, at the end of the same year, Diana gave birth to a son, Alexander. After the birth of the child, the singer returned to the stage and continues her active career. Photo: Tanja Niemann

Pauline Viardot, full name Pauline Michelle Ferdinand García-Viardot (fr. Pauline Michelle Ferdinande García-Viardot) is a leading French singer, mezzo-soprano, 19th century, vocal teacher and composer of Spanish origin. Pauline Viardot was born on July 18, 1821 in Paris. Daughter and student of the Spanish singer and teacher Manuel Garcia, sister of Maria Malibran. As a child, she studied the art of playing the piano with Franz Liszt and was going to become a pianist, but her amazing vocal skills determined her profession. She has appeared in various theaters in Europe and has given many concerts. She was famous for the roles of Fides ("The Prophet" by Meyerbeer), Orpheus ("Orpheus and Eurydice" by Gluck), Rosina ("The Barber of Seville" by Rossini). The author of romances and comic operas on a libretto by Ivan Turgenev, her close friend. Together with her husband, who translated Turgenev's works into French, she promoted the achievements of Russian culture. Her surname is spelled in various forms. With her maiden name Garcia, she achieved fame and fame, after marriage she used the double surname Garcia-Viardot for some time and at some point she abandoned her maiden name and called herself "Mrs. Viardot". In 1837, 16-year-old Pauline Garcia gave her first concert in Brussels, and in 1839 she made her debut as Desdemona in Rossini's Othello in London, becoming the highlight of the season. Despite some shortcomings, the girl's voice combined exquisite technique with amazing passion. In 1840, Pauline married Louis Viardot, composer and director of the Théatre Italien in Paris. Being 21 years older than his wife, her husband began to pursue her career. In 1844, in the capital of the Russian Empire, the city of St. Petersburg, she performed on the same stage with Antonio Tamburini and Giovanni Batista Rubini. Viardot had many fans. In particular, the Russian writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev fell passionately in love with the singer in 1843 after hearing her performance in The Barber of Seville. In 1845 he left Russia to follow Pauline and eventually became almost a member of the Viardot family. The writer treated Polina's four children as his own, and adored her until his death. She, in turn, was a critic of his work, and her position in the world and connections presented the writer in the best light. The true nature of their relationship is still a matter of debate. In addition, Pauline Viardot communicated with other great people, including Charles Gounod and Hector Berlioz. Famous for her vocal and dramatic abilities, Viardot inspired composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns and Giacomo Meyerbeer, the author of the opera The Prophet, in which she became the first performer of the role of Fides. She never considered herself a composer, but actually composed three music collections, and also helped in writing music for roles that were created especially for her. Later, after leaving the stage, she wrote an opera called Le dernier sorcier. Viardot spoke fluent Spanish, French, Italian, English, German and Russian and used various national techniques in her work. Thanks to her talent, she performed in the best concert halls in Europe, including the Opera House in St. Petersburg (in 1843-1846). Viardot's popularity was so great that Georges Sand made her the prototype for the protagonist of the novel Consuelo. Viardot sang the mezzo-soprano part in Tuba Mirum (Mozart's Requiem) at Chopin's funeral on October 30, 1849. She performed the main role in Gluck's opera Orpheus and Eurydice. In 1863, Pauline Viardot-Garcia left the stage, left France with her family (her husband was an opponent of the Napoleon III regime) and settled in Baden-Baden. After the fall of Napoleon III, the Viardot family returned to France, where Pauline taught at the Paris Conservatory until her husband's death in 1883, and also kept a music salon on Boulevard Saint-Germain. Among the pupils and students of Pauline Viardot are the famous Desire Artaud-Padilla, Sophie Roer-Brainin, Bilodz, Hasselman, Holmsen, Schliemann, Schmeiser, Bilbo-Bachelet, Meyer, Rollant and others. She had an excellent vocal school for many Russian singers, including F.V. Litvin, E. Lavrovskaya-Tserteleva, N. Iretskaya, N. Shtemberg. On May 18, 1910, Pauline Viardot died, surrounded by loving relatives. Buried in the cemetery of Montmartre in Paris. Russian poet Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev dedicated his poem "The Singer" (Viardot Garcia) to her: No! I don’t forget you, captivating sounds, As the first sweet tears of love, I don’t forget! When I listened to you, torment was humbled in my chest, And again I was ready to believe and love! I don’t forget her ... Either an inspired priestess, covered with a broad-leaved wreath, She appeared to me ... and sang a sacred hymn, And her gaze burned with divine fire ... Then a pale image in her I saw Desdemona, When she, bending over the harp golden, She sang a song about the willow ... and the moans were interrupted by the sad overflow of that old song. How deeply she comprehended, studied the One who knew people and the secrets of their hearts; And if a great one rose from the grave, He would put His crown on her forehead. Sometimes Rosina appeared to me, young And passionate, like the night of her native country ... And, listening to her magic voice, To that fertile land I strove with my soul, Where everything enchants the ear, everything delights the eyes, Where the eternal blue sky shines, Where the nightingales whistle on the branches of the sycamore tree And the cypress, the shadow trembles on the smooth surface of the waters! And my chest, full of holy pleasure, Pure Delight, heaved high, And disturbing doubts flew away, And my soul was calm and light. As a friend after days of painful separation, I was ready to embrace the whole world ... Oh! I don’t forget you, captivating sounds, As the first sweet tears of love, I don’t forget!<1846>

Yulia Novikova is a Russian opera singer, soprano. Julia Novikova was born in St. Petersburg in 1983. She began to study music at the age of 4. She graduated with honors from a music school (piano and flute). For nine years she was a member and soloist of the Children's Choir of Television and Radio of St. Petersburg under the direction of S.F. Gribkov. In 2006 she graduated with honors from the St. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov, vocal class (teacher O.D. Kondina). During her studies at the Conservatory she sang the roles of Suzanne (The Marriage of Figaro), Serpina (The Maid-Lady), Martha (The Tsar's Bride) and Violetta (La Traviata) at the opera studio. Yulia Novikova made her professional debut in 2006 at the Mariinsky Theater as Flora in B. Britten's The Turn of the Screw (conducted by V. Gergiev and P. Smelkov). Julia got her first permanent contract at the Dortmund theater when she was still a student at the conservatory. In 2006-2008. Julia performed at the Dortmund Theater the roles of Olympia (The Tales of Hoffmann), Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Queen of Shemakhan (The Golden Cockerel) and Gilda (Rigoletto), as well as the role of the Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) in opera in Frankfurt. In the 2008-2009 season. Julia returned with the part of the Queen of the Night to the Frankfurt Opera, and also performed this part in Bonn. Also this season were performed Oscar ("Masquerade Ball"), Medoro ("Furious Orlando" by Vivaldi), Blondchen ("Abduction from the Seraglio") at the Bonn Opera, Gilda - in Lübeck, Olympia - at the Komische Oper (Berlin). Season 2009-2010 began with a successful performance as Gilda in the premiere production of Rigoletto at the Berliner Komische Oper. This was followed by the Queen of the Night at the Hamburg and Vienna State Operas, at the Berlin Staatsoper, Gilda and Adina ("Love Potion") at the Bonn Opera, Zerbinetta ("Ariadne auf Naxos") at the Strasbourg Opera, Olympia at the Komische operas, and Rosina in Stuttgart ... On September 4 and 5, 2010, Julia performed the part of Gilda in the live TV broadcast of Rigoletto from Mantua to 138 countries (producer A. Andermann, conductor Z. Meta, director M. Belokchio, Rigoletto P. Domingo, etc.). In the 2010-2011 season. Julia will perform with the pariah of Amina (Somnambula) in Bonn, Norina (Don Pasquale) in Washington, Gilda at the Comische Berlin, Olympia at the Frankfurt and Oscar operas, Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta and Adina at the Vienna State Opera. Yulia Novikova also appears in concerts. Julia has performed with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor J. Darlington), with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Orchestra (conductor Ch. Poppen), as well as in Bordeaux, Nancy, Paris (Champs Elysees Theater), Carnegie Hall (New York). There were recitals at the Grachten Festival in Amsterdam and the Muziekdriedaagse Festival in The Hague, as well as a gala concert at the Budapest Opera. In the near future, a concert with the Berne Chamber Orchestra and a New Year's concert in Vienna are planned. Yulia Novikova - winner and laureate of several international music competitions: - Operalia (Budapest, 2009) - first prize and audience award; - Musical debut (Landau, 2008) - winner, winner of the Emmerich Smola Prize; - New Voices (Gutersloh, 2007) - Audience Award; - International Competition in Geneva (2007) - Audience Award; - International Competition. Wilhelm Stenhammar (Norrköpping, 2006) - third prize and prize for the best performance of contemporary Swedish music. Information from the official website of the singer Yulia Novikova http://www.julianovikova.com/

Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova - Soviet and Russian opera singer, mezzo-soprano, soloist of the Bolshoi Theater (1956-1988), People's Artist of the USSR (1966), Knight of the Order of Lenin (1971, 1976, 1985), Lenin Prize laureate (1978), Hero of the Socialist Labor (1984), laureate of the State Prize of Russia (1996). Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova was born on January 2, 1925 in Moscow. Already at the age of eight she entered the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory, but due to a sudden illness she could not study there. Later, Irina entered the Gnessin School. During the Great Patriotic War, she was evacuated with her family to Tashkent, where she entered the Moscow Architectural Institute, which was also evacuated there. After graduation, work on the design and construction of a number of facilities in the capital, including a new complex of buildings at Moscow State University on Vorobyovy Gory, parallel vocal lessons with N.M. Malysheva, and later studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the singing class of L.F. Savransky. In 1953 she graduated from the conservatory. In 1954-1956 she was a soloist of the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1956-1988 she was a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. The performance of the part of Carmen in the opera of the same name by Georges Bizet has received worldwide recognition. She was characterized by a deep inner disclosure of the image and thoughtfulness of interpretation. She possessed the gift of stage transformation. Since 1955 he has toured abroad (Austria, Poland, East Germany, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, USA, Japan, France, Canada). In 1967 and 1971 she sang at the Teatro alla Scala (the part of Martha and the part of Marina Mnishek). Since 1975 he has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, since 1984 - professor. In the 1980s she gave a series of concerts "Anthology of Russian Romance". In 1966 she was invited to the jury of the Tchaikovsky Competition, and since 1967 she has been the permanent chairman of the jury of the Glinka Competition. Since that time, she has been a jury member of many prestigious competitions in the world, including the "Verdi voice" and the name of Mario del Monaco in Italy, the Queen Elizabeth competition in Belgium, the Maria Callas competition in Greece, the Francisco Vinyas competition in Spain, the vocal competition in Paris, vocal competition in Munich. Since 1974 (with the exception of 1994) she was the permanent chairman of the jury of the Tchaikovsky Competition in the "solo singing" section. In 1997, at the invitation of the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan, Pallada Bul-Bul Ogly, Irina Arkhipova headed the jury of the Bul-Bul Competition, organized on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Since 1986 IK Arkhipova is the chairman of the All-Union Musical Society, at the end of 1990 transformed into the International Union of Musical Figures. Since 1983 - Chairman of the Irina Arkhipova Foundation. Honorary Doctor of the National Academy of Music named after the Musical Republic of Moldova (1998), President of the Russia-Uzbekistan Friendship Society. She was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th convocation. People's Deputy of the USSR (1989-1991). Author of the books: "My Muses" (1992), "Music of Life" (1997), "A Brand Named" I "" (2005). The singer's husband is People's Artist of the USSR Vladislav Piavko. The son is Andrey. Great-granddaughter - Irina. On January 19, 2010, Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova was hospitalized with cardiac pathology at the Botkin City Clinical Hospital. The singer passed away on February 11, 2010. She was buried on February 13, 2010 at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Maria Callas (born Maria Callas; name in the birth certificate - Sophia Cecelia Kalos, English Sophia Cecelia Kalos, baptized as Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos - Greek Μαρ? Α Καλογεροπο? Λου; December 2 (4), 1923, New York - September 16, 1977, Paris) - American opera singer (soprano). Maria Callas ranks among such opera reformers as Richard Wagner and Arturo Toscanini. The culture of the second half of the 20th century is inextricably linked with her name. In the early 1950s, on the eve of the phenomenon of postmodernism, when 19th century opera became an aesthetic anachronism, Maria Callas brought operatic art back to the top of the stage Olympus. Having revived the era of bel canto, Maria Callas did not confine herself to virtuoso coloratura in operas by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti, but turned her voice into the main means of expression. She has become a versatile singer with a repertoire ranging from classic opera series such as Spontini's Vestal, to Verdi's latest operas, Puccini's veristo operas and Wagner's musical dramas. The rise of Callas' career in the middle of the 20th century was accompanied by the appearance of the LP in the recording and friendship with the prominent figure of the EMI record company Walter Legge. The arrival on the stage of opera houses of a new generation of conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein and filmmakers such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli made every performance with Maria Callas an event. She turned opera into a real drama theater, forcing even "trills and scales to express joy, anxiety or longing." Maria Callas was born in New York to a family of Greek immigrants. In 1936, Mary's mother, Gospel, returned to Athens to continue her daughter's musical education. The mother wanted to embody her failed talents in her daughter and began to take her to the New York Library on Fifth Avenue. Maria began listening to classical music at the age of three, at the age of five she began to take piano lessons, and by the age of eight she began to take vocal lessons. At the age of 14, Maria began her studies at the Athens Conservatory under the guidance of the former Spanish singer Elvira de Hidalgo. In July 1941, in German-occupied Athens, Maria Callas made her debut at the Athens Opera as Tosca. In 1945 Maria Callas returned to New York. A series of failures followed: she was not introduced to Toscanini, she refused to sing the part of Cio-Cio-San at the Metropolitan Opera because of her heavy weight, hopes for a revival of the Lyric Opera in Chicago, where she hoped to sing, collapsed. In 1947, Callas made her debut on the stage of the Arena di Verona in Ponchielli's La Gioconda under the baton of Tullio Serafin. The meeting with Seraphin was, in the words of Callas herself: "The true beginning of a career and the greatest success of my life." Tullio Seraphin introduces Callas to the world of great opera. She sings the first parts in "Aida" by Verdi and "Norma" by Bellini at the end of 1948. In early 1949, within one week, the vocal incompatible roles of Brunhilde in Wagner's Valkyrie and Elvira in Bellini's The Puritans created the creative phenomenon of the singer Maria Callas. She sang lyrical, dramatic, and coloratura parts, which was a singing miracle - “four voices in one throat”. In 1949 Callas went on tour to South America. In 1950 she sings for the first time at La Scala and becomes the “Queen of the Italian prima donnas”. In 1953, EMI released complete recordings of operas with Maria Callas for the first time. In the same year, she loses weight by 30 kilograms. The transformed Callas captivates audiences on opera stages in Europe and America in the operas Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, Norma by Bellini, Medea by Cherubini, Verdi's Troubadour and Macbeth, and Tosca by Puccini. In September 1957, Maria Callas first met Aristotle Onassis at a ball in honor of the birthday of journalist Elsa Maxwell in Venice. In the spring of 1959, in Venice, they met again at a ball. After that, Onassis went to London for a Callas concert. After this concert, he invited her and her husband to his yacht. At the end of November 1959, Onassis's wife Tina filed for divorce, and Callas and Onassis at this time openly appeared in society together. The couple fought almost constantly, and in 1968 Maria Callas learned from the newspapers that Aristotle Onassis had married the widow of the President of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy. 1959 marked a turning point in his successful career. This was facilitated by a loss of voice, a series of scandals, a divorce, a break with the Metropolitan Opera, a forced departure from La Scala, an unhappy love for Aristotle Onassis, and the loss of a child. An attempt to return to the stage in 1964 ends with another failure. In Verona, Maria Callas met the local industrialist Giovanni Batista Meneghini. He was twice her age and had a passion for opera. Soon, Giovanni confessed his love to Maria, completely sold his business and devoted himself to Callas. In 1949, Maria Callas and Giovanni Meneghini got married. He became everything for Maria: both a faithful spouse, and a loving father, and a devoted manager, and a generous producer. In 1969, Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini invited Maria Callas to star in the role of Medea in the film of the same name. Although the film was not a commercial success, it is of great cinematic interest, like all of Pasolini's other works. The role of Medea was for Maria Callas the only role outside of the opera. The last years of her life, Maria Callas lived in Paris, practically without leaving the apartment, where she died in 1977. She was cremated and buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. Later, her ashes were scattered over the Aegean Sea. Italian phoniatrists (doctors specializing in diseases of the vocal cords) Franco Fussi and Nico Paolillo have established the most probable cause of death of the opera diva Maria Callas, writes the Italian La Stampa (translation of the article into English published by Parterre Box). According to their research, Callas died of dermatomyositis, a rare disorder of connective tissue and smooth muscle. Fussi and Paolillo came to this conclusion after studying Callas' recordings made in different years and analyzing the gradual deterioration of her voice. Spectrographic analysis of studio recordings and live performances showed that by the end of the 1960s, when her vocal deterioration became apparent, Callas's voice range had actually changed from soprano to mezzo-soprano, which explained the change in the sound of high notes in her performance.In addition, careful study Video recordings of her later concerts revealed that the singer's muscles were significantly weakened: her chest practically did not rise when breathing, and when inhaling, the singer lifted her shoulders and strained her deltoid muscles, that is, in fact, she made the most common mistake with the support of the vocal muscle. The cause of Maria Callas' death is not known for certain, but it is believed that the singer died of cardiac arrest. According to Fussi and Paolillo, the results of their work directly indicate that the resulting myocardial infarction was a complication as a result of dermatomyositis. It is noteworthy that this diagnosis (dermatomyositis) by Callas was made shortly before her death by her doctor, Mario Jacovazzo (it became known only in 2002). Opera roles by Maria Callas Santuzza - Rural Honor by Mascagni (1938, Athens) Tosca - Tosca by Puccini (1941, Athens Opera) Gioconda - La Gioconda by Ponchielli (1947, Arena di Verona) Turandot - Turandot by Puccini ( 1948, Carlo Felice (Genoa) Aida - Aida by Verdi (1948, Metropolitan Opera, New York) Norm - Bellini's Norm (1948, 1956, Metropolitan Opera; 1952, Covent Garden London; 1954, Lyric Opera, Chicago) Brunhilde - Wagner's Valkyrie (1949-1950, Metropolitan Opera) Elvira - Bellini's Puritans (1949-1950, Metropolitan Opera) Elena - Sicilian Vespers "Verdi (1951, La Scala", Milan) Kundri - "Parsifal" by Wagner ("La Scala") Violetta - "La Scala" by Verdi ("La Scala") Medea - "Medea" Cherubini (1953, "La Scala") Julia - "Vestal" Spontini (1954, La Scala) Gilda - "Rigoletto" Verdi (1955, "La Scala") Madame Butterfly (Cio-Chio-san) - "Madame Butterfly" Puccini ("La Scala") Lady Macbeth - "Macbeth" Verdi Fedor - "Fedora" Giordano Anna Boleyn - "Anna Boleyn "Donizetti Lucia -" Lucia di Lammermoor "Donizetti Amina -" Somnambula "Bellini Carmen -" Carmen "Bizet

Natalie Dessay (born Nathalie Dessaix) is a French opera singer, coloratura soprano. One of the leading singers of our time, at the beginning of her career she was known for her very high and transparent voice, now she sings in a lower range. Loved by the audience for excellent dramatic performance and a lively sense of humor. Natalie Dessay was born on April 19, 1965 in Lyon, raised in Bordeaux. While still in school, she dropped the letter "h" from her name, in honor of the actress Natalie Wood, and later simplified the spelling of the fimilia. In her youth, Dessay dreamed of becoming a ballerina or an actress and took acting lessons, but once, playing with fellow students in a little-known play of the 18th century, she had to sing, she sang Pamina's aria from The Magic Flute, everyone was amazed, she was advised to switch her attention to music. Natalie entered the State Conservatory in Bordeaux, completed a five-year study in just one year and graduated with honors in 1985. After the conservatory she worked with the Orchestra National de Toulouse Capitol. In 1989, she took second place in the New Voices competition held by France-Telecom, which allowed her to study for a year at the Lyric Arts School of the Paris Opera and play the role of Eliza in Mozart's The Shepherd Tsar. In the spring of 1992 she sang a short part of Olympia from Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann" at the Opera Bastille, her partner was Jose van Dam, the production disappointed critics and audiences, but the young singer received a standing ovation and was noticed. This role will become a landmark for her, until 2001 she will play Olympia in eight different productions, including during her debut at La Scala. In 1993 Natalie Dessay won the Vienna Opera's International Mozart Competition and stayed to study and perform at the Vienna Opera. Here she sang the role of Blonda from Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio", which has become another most famous and most frequently performed role. In December 1993, Natalie was offered to replace Cheryl Studer in the well-known role of Olympia at the Vienna Opera. Her performance received the recognition of the audience in Vienna and the praise of Placido Domingo, in the same year she performed this role at the Lyon Opera. Natalie Dessay's international career began with performances at the Vienna Opera. In the 1990s, her recognition was constantly growing and her repertoire of roles was constantly expanding, there were many offers, she performed in all the leading opera houses of the world - the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Bavarian Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna Opera and others. A distinctive feature of the actress Dessay is that she believes that an opera singer should consist of 70% of the theater and 30% of music and strive not only to sing her roles, but also to play them dramatically, so each of her characters is a new discovery. never like the others. In the 2001/2002 season, Dessay began to experience vocal difficulties and had to cancel her performances and recitals. She left the stage and in July 2002 underwent surgery to remove polyps on her vocal cords, in February 2003 she returned with a solo concert in Paris and actively continued her career. In the 2004/2005 season, Natalie Dessay had to undergo a second operation. A new public appearance took place in May 2005 in Montreal. The return of Natalie Dessay was accompanied by a reorientation in her lyric repertoire. She gives up on "light", without depth roles (like Gilda in "Rigoletto") or from roles that she no longer wants to play (Queen of the Night or Olympia) in favor of more "tragic" characters. This position at first brought serious disagreements with some directors and colleagues. Today Natalie Dessay is at the pinnacle of her career and is the leading soprano of our time. Lives and performs mainly in the USA, but constantly tours in Europe. Russian fans could see her in St. Petersburg in 2010 and in Moscow in 2011. In early 2011, she sang (for the first time) the role of Cleopatra in Handel's Julia Caesar at the Opera Garnier, returned to the Metropolitan Opera with her traditional " Lucia di Lammermoor ", then returned to Europe again with a concert version of" Pelléas and Melisande "in Paris and London and a concert in Moscow. The singer's immediate plans include many projects: La Traviata in Vienna in 2011 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 2012, Cleopatra in Julia Caesar at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013, Manon at the Paris Opera and La Scala in 2012, Marie ("The Daughter of the Regiment") in Paris in 2013, and Elvira in the Metropolitan in 2014. Natalie Dessay is married to bass-baritone Laurent Nauri and they have two children. On the opera stage, you can rarely see them together, unlike the Alanya-Georgiu star couple, the fact is that there is much less repertoire for the baritone-soprano than for the tenor-soprano. For the sake of her husband, Dessay adopted his religion - Judaism.

Joyce DiDonato is a famous American opera singer, mezzo-soprano. He is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of our time and the best interpreter of the works of Gioacchino Rossini. Joyce DiDonato (née Joyce Flaherty) was born on February 13, 1969 in Pryre Village, Kansas, USA to a family with Irish roots, the sixth of seven children. Her father was the leader of the local church choir, Joyce sang in it and dreamed of becoming a Broadway star. In 1988 she entered Wichita State University, where she studied vocals. After Joyce University DiDonato decided to continue her musical education and in 1992 entered the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. After the academy, for several years she participated in the training programs "Young Artist" in various opera companies: in 1995 - in the "Santa Fe Opera", where she received musical practice and made her opera debut on the big stage, but so far in minor roles in operas "The Marriage of Figaro" by W. A. ​​Mozart, "Salome" by R. Strauss, "Countess Maritza" by I. Kalman; from 1996 to 1998 - at the Houston Grand Opera and was recognized as the best "emerging artist"; in the summer of 1997 - at the San Francisco Opera in the Merola Opera training program. During her studies and initial practice, Joyce DiDonato took part in several well-known vocal competitions. In 1996, she came second in the Eleanor McCollum Competition in Houston and won the District Audition for the Metropolitan Opera Competition. In 1997 she won the William Sullivan Award. In 1998 she took second place in the Placido Domingo's Operalia competition in Hamburg and first place in the George London competition. In subsequent years, she received many more various prizes and awards. Joyce DiDonato began her professional career in 1998 with performances in several regional opera companies in the United States, primarily at the Houston Grand Opera. And she became known to a wide audience thanks to the appearance in the television world premiere of the opera "Little Woman" by Mark Adamo. In the 2000-2001 season. DiDonato made her European debut, starting right away with La Scala as Angelina in Rossini's Cinderella. In the following season, she expanded her acquaintance with European audiences, appearing at the Netherlands Opera as Handel's Sesta Julius Caesar, at the Paris Opera as Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville and at the Bavarian State Opera as Cherubino in Mazart's Marriage of Figaro. and in the concert programs "Glory" by Vivaldi with Ricardo Muti and La Scala Orchestra and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by F. Mendelssohn in Paris. In the same season in the United States, she made her debut at the Washington State Opera as Dorabella in Mozart's "This Is What All Women Do". At this time, Joyce DiDonato had already become a real opera star with world fame, loved by the audience and praised by the press. Further career only expanded her touring geography and opened the doors of new opera houses and festivals - Covent Garden (2002), Metropolitan Opera (2005), Opera Bastille (2002), Royal Theater in Madrid, New National Theater in Tokyo, Vienna State Opera et al. Joyce DiDonato has amassed a rich collection of various musical awards and prizes. As critics point out, this is perhaps one of the most successful and smooth careers in the modern opera world. And even the accident that occurred on the stage of Covent Garden on July 7, 2009 during the performance of "The Barber of Seville", when Joyce DiDonato slipped on stage and broke her leg, did not interrupt this performance, which she ended on crutches, nor subsequent scheduled performances. which she led out of the wheelchair, much to the delight of the audience. This "legendary" event is captured on DVD. Joyce DiDonato started the past 2010-2011 season with the Salzburg Festival and debuted as Adalgiz in Norma Belinni with Edita Gruberova as Norma, then with a concert program at the Edinburgh Festival. In the fall in Berlin, she performed the role of Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" and in Madrid - in the role of Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier". The year ended with more awards, the first from the German Academy of Recordings "Echo Klassik", which named Joyce DiDonato "Best Female Singer 2010". The next two awards at once from the English classical music magazine "Gramophone", which named her "Best Artist of the Year" and chose her CD with Rossini's arias as the best "Recital of the Year". Continuing the season in the United States, she performed in Houston, and then a recital at Carnegie Hall. The Metropolitan Opera welcomed her in two roles - the page Isolier in "Count Ori" by Rossini and the composer in "Ariadne auf Naxos" by R. Strauss. Finished the season in Europe with tours in Baden-Baden, Paris, London and Valencia. The singer's website contains a busy schedule of her future performances, in this list only for the first half of 2012 there are about forty performances in Europe and America. Joyce DiDonato is now married to Italian conductor Leonardo Vordoni, with whom they live in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Joyce continues to use the last name of her first husband, whom she married right out of college.

Elina Garanca is a Latvian singer (mezzo-soprano), one of the leading opera singers of our time. Elina Garanca was born on September 16, 1976 in Riga into a family of musicians, her father is a choral director, and her mother, Anita Garanca, is a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music, associate professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a vocal teacher at the Latvian National Opera. In 1996, Elina Garanca entered the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, where she studied vocals with Sergei Martynov, and since 1998 she continued her studies with Irina Gavrilovich in Vienna, and then with Virginia Zeani in the USA. One of the most profoundly influential events on Elina during her studies was Gaetano Donizetti's performance as Jane Seymour in Anne Boleyn in 1998 - Garanca learned the role in ten days and discovered a deep sympathy for the bel canto repertoire. After completing her studies, Garanca made her professional opera debut at the State Theater of South Thuringia in Meiningen, Germany, with the role of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. In 1999 she became the winner of the Miriam Helin Vocal Competition in Helsinki, Finland. In 2000, Elina Garanca won the main prize at the Latvian National Performer Competition, and then was accepted into the troupe and worked at the Frankfurt Opera, where she sang the roles of the Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Hansel in Humperdink's opera Hansel and Gretel and Rosina in Seville barber ". In 2001 she became a finalist of the prestigious international competition of opera singers in Cardiff and released her debut solo album with a program of opera arias. The young singer made her international breakthrough in 2003 at the Salzburg Festival, when she sang the part of Annio in a production of Mozart's opera Titus' Mercy under the baton of Nicolaus Arnoncourt. This performance was followed by success and numerous engagements. The main place of work was the Vienna State Opera, in which Garanca performed the roles of Charlotte in Werther and Dorabella in Everybody's So Do in 2003-2004. In France, she first appeared at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysees (Angelina in Rossini's Cinderella), and then at the Paris Opera (Opera Garnier) as Octavian. In 2007, Elina Garanca performed for the first time on the main opera stage of her hometown of Riga at the Latvian National Opera with the role of Carmen. In the same year she made her debuts at the Berlin State Opera (Sextus) and at the Royal Theater "Covent Garden" in London (Dorabella), and in 2008 - at the "Metropolitan Opera" in New York with the role of Rosina in " The Barber of Seville "and the Bavarian Opera in Munich (Adalgiza). Currently, Elina Garancha performs on the stages of the world's leading opera houses and concert venues as one of the brightest musical stars thanks to her beautiful voice, musicality and convincing dramatic talent. Critics have noted the ease, speed and sheer comfort with which Garancha has control of her voice, and the success with which she applied modern vocal technique to the complex Rossini repertoire of the early 19th century. Elina Garanca has a solid collection of audio and video recordings, including the Grammy-winning recording of Antonio Vivaldi's "Bayazet" directed by Fabio Biondi, where Elina sang the part of Andronicus. Elina Garanca is married to English conductor Karel Mark Chichon and the couple are expecting their first child at the end of October 2011.

Elena Vasilievna Obraztsova - Soviet and Russian opera singer, mezzo-soprano. People's Artist of the USSR, Lenin Prize Laureate, Hero of Socialist Labor. One of the famous singers of our time. Elena Vasilievna Obraztsova was born on July 7, 1939 in Leningrad. During the Great Patriotic War, together with her family, she was evacuated from Leningrad to Ustyuzhna. Music was an integral part of Elena's childhood, her father, an engineer by profession, had a beautiful baritone and, moreover, he played the violin well - she will always remember musical home evenings. In 1948-1954 she sang in the children's choir of the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers. A.A. Zhdanova (choir director - M.F. Zarinskaya). In 1954-1957, in connection with the official transfer of the father, the family lived in Taganrog, where Elena studied at the P.I. Tchaikovsky with the teacher Anna Timofeevna Kulikova. At the reporting concert at the music school, Obraztsova was heard by the director of the Rostov Music School M.A. Mankovskaya, and on her recommendation in 1957 Elena was admitted to the school immediately for the 2nd year. A year later, in August 1958, having passed a successful audition, she entered the preparatory department of the Leningrad State Conservatory. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1962 she won the first prize at the All-Union Vocal Competition named after V.I. M.I. Glinka and a gold medal at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki. On December 17, 1963, while a student at the conservatory, E. Obraztsova made her debut at the Bolshoi Theater as Marina Mnishek in the opera Boris Godunov by M. Musorgsky. In 1964, she graduated from the Leningrad State Conservatory. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov in the class of Professor A.A. Grigorieva (opera class A.N. Kireev). The chairman of the graduation committee, Sofya Petrovna Preobrazhenskaya, gave Elena Obraztsova 5 with a plus - a mark that was not given at the Leningrad Conservatory for about 40 years. In the same year she became a permanent soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. Nature generously endowed Elena Obraztsova. She has a voice of rare beauty, timbre, velvety, organ richness of sound, a bright stage appearance, which gives her opera heroines a rare artistic relief and expressiveness, the talent of a real dramatic actress. In 1964, Elena Obraztsova, with the Bolshoi Theater troupe, performed at La Scala as Martha in the opera Khovanshchina and as Marie in the opera War and Peace. Obraztsova's performances in Italy were a great success, and in 1977 she was invited to open the 200th anniversary season at La Scala as Princess Eboli in the opera Don Carlos by G. Verdi. In 1975, Elena Obraztsova, together with the Bolshoi Theater, went on tour to the United States. During the play "Boris Godunov" Obraztsova, who played the role of Marina Mnishek, was summoned to the stage by enthusiastic spectators five times, the play had to be stopped. The triumph of Elena Obraztsova in the USA finally approved her as a world opera star. A few months later, Elena Obraztsova performed in "Troubadour", a performance that opened the season of the San Francisco Opera, with Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland as her partners. In 1976, Obraztsova, already in the status of a guest soloist of the Metropolitan Opera, caused a sensation with her performance of the role of Amneris in Verdi's Aida. In 1977, Obraztsova performed the role of Delilah in the Metropolitan. Thor Eckert, critic of the New York Times, then wrote: "I doubt that you and I have heard Delilah, who would have so easily managed to master two and a half octaves - Obraztsova performs this most difficult part without a shadow of tension." Franco Zeffirelli was invited to play the role of Santuzzi in the film "Rural Honor" (1982). “In my life,” wrote Zeffirelli, “there were three shocks: Anna Magnani, Maria Callas and Elena Obraztsova, who worked a miracle during the filming of the film“ Rural Honor ”. In total, Elena Obraztsova's repertoire includes 86 parts in operas of the Russian and foreign classical repertoire, as well as in operas by composers of the 20th century, many of her roles have become living classics of the modern opera scene: Marina Mnishek (Boris Godunov, 1963), Governess, Polina, Milovzor ( 1964), Countess (1965, The Queen of Spades), Lyubasha (The Tsar's Bride, 1967), Konchakovna (Prince Igor, 1968), Martha (Khovanshchina, 1968). Lyubava (Sadko, 1979), Amneris (Aida, 1965), Azucena (Troubadour, 1972), Eboli (Don Carlos, 1973), Santuzza (Rural Honor, 1977), Ulrika ( Masquerade Ball, 1977), Princess de Bouillon (Adrienne Lecouvreur, 1977), Adalgiza (Norma, 1979), Giovanna Seymour (Anne Boleyn, 1982), Orpheus (Orpheus and Eurydice, 1984) , Neris (Medea, 1989), Leonora (The Favorite, 1992), The Duchess (Sister Angelica, 1992), Carmen (Carmen, 1972), Charlotte (Werther, 1974), Delilah ( Samson and Delilah ", 1974), Herodias (" Herodias ", 1990), Oberon (" A Midsummer Night's Dream "by B. Britten, 1965), Zhenya Komelkova (" The Dawns Here Are Quiet "by K. Molchanov, 1975), Judit (" Castle of Duke Bluebeard "by B. Bartok, 1978), Jocasta (" Oedipus King "by I. Stravinsky, 1980), Eudosia (" Flame "by O. Respiga, 1990); S. Prokofiev: Frosya ("Semyon Kotko", 1970), Princess Marya (1964), Helen Bezukhova (1971), Akhrosimova (2000, "War and Peace"), Granny ("The Gambler", 1996), Count Orlovsky (" Bat ", 2003) and others. In addition to her operatic roles, Elena Obraztsova is actively involved in concerts in Russia and around the world. The repertoire of her recitals includes the music of more than 100 Russian and foreign composers: M.I. Glinka, A.S. Dargomyzhsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M.P. Mussorgsky, P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. V. Rachmaninov, S. S. Prokofiev, G. F. Handel, V. A. Mozart, L. Beethoven, R. Schumann, R. Strauss, R. Wagner, J. Brahms, C. Weill, G. Malera, G. Donizetti, G. Verdi, G. Puccini, P. Mascani, J. Bizet, J. Massenet, C. Saint-Saens and others, as well as Russian songs and old romances ... She took part in the performance of oratorios, cantatas, masses, works of Russian sacred music. Jazz compositions added new bright touches to her talent. In 1986 she made her directorial debut, staging the opera Werther by J. Massenet at the Bolshoi Theater. The singer starred in the television musical films "The Merry Widow", "My Carmen", "Rural Honor" and "Tosca", etc. From 1973 to 1994, Elena Obraztsova taught at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Since 1984 - professor. Since 1992 he has been teaching at the Musashino Music Academy in Tokyo; gives master classes in Europe and Japan, at the Academy of Young Opera Singers at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. She was and is a member of the jury of many international competitions, including the International Competition named after P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow, the International Vocal Competition in Marseille, the International Competition named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, the Ferruchio Tagliavini International Competition in Deutschlandsberg, the Montserrat Caballe International Opera Singers Competition. In September 1999, the 1st International Elena Obraztsova Young Opera Singers' Competition took place in St. Petersburg, and the 8th competition in 2011. Elena Obrazsova recorded more than 50 discs, including operas, oratorios, cantatas, solo discs with works of chamber and opera music. In recent years, special value “live recordings” have been released. From June 2007 to October 2008, she held the position of artistic director of the opera at the Mikhailovsky Theater (formerly the Musorgsky Opera and Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg). Now in St. Petersburg she runs a cultural center named after her, where she works with young performers. On October 24, 1981, the minor planet No. 4623 was discovered, which was named Obraztsova.

Kiri Janette Te Kanawa is an opera singer from New Zealand, lyric soprano. One of the leading opera singers of our time with a warm, beautiful voice and a very wide repertoire of opera roles in various languages. Kiri Te Kanawa (born Claire Mary Teresa Rostron) on March 6, 1944 in Gisborne, New Zealand, to an Irish mother and a Maori father, but little is known about her parents. She was adopted as a baby by the Te Kanawa family, and her adoptive parents were also Maori and Irish. She received her general and musical education in Auckland and was already a popular singer in New Zealand clubs as a teenager and adolescent. At the same time, she collected all the significant music prizes in Australia and New Zealand in 1963, she was second in the "Mobil (Lexus) Song Quest", the first place was taken by another famous opera singer from New Zealand Malvina Major. In 1965, Kiri Te Kanava herself with the aria "Vissi d" arte "from Puccini's opera" Tosca "became the winner of the same competition. In 1966 she won the Australian competition" Sun-Aria "and as the winner she received a grant to study in London. the same year, without audition, she entered the Center for Opera Singing in London, teachers noted both her talent and the initial lack of vocal technique. Sadler Wells, followed immediately by roles in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell and the lead role in Anne Boleyn by Donizetti. In 1969 auditioning for the role of Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, chief conductor Colin Davis said, “I couldn't believe my ears, I did a thousand auditions and it was a fantastically beautiful voice. " ove "and the flower girl in" Parsifal "in 1970. Te Kanawa continued to carefully prepare for the role of the Countess, which was scheduled to premiere at Covet Garden in December 1971, but before that there was a performance at the Santa Fe Opera Festival (New Mexico, USA), where she tried out the role, along with her at the same festival, a singer from the United States, Frederica von Stade, performed, later the press noted their performance: "... there were two newcomers who dazzled the audience ... each immediately realized that these were two finds and history confirmed their performance." The two singers became friends for years. On December 1, 1971, Kiri Te Kanawa repeated her performance in Santa Fe at Covent Garden and created an international sensation. On this day, she received the status of the undisputed opera star and became one of the most famous sopranos in the world, performing at the world's leading opera houses - Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera (debut 1974), Paris Opera (1975), Sydney Opera House (1978) , Vienna State Opera (1980), La Scala (1978), Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco, Bavarian and many others. Her heroines include a huge repertoire for soprano, among them - three main roles of Richard Strauss - Arabella from "Arabella", Marshalsha, Princess Maria Teresa von Werdenberg from "Der Rosenkavalier" and Countess from "Capriccio"; Mozart's Fjordiligi from "All Women Do", Donna Elvira from "Don Giovanni", Pamina from "The Magic Flute", and of course, Countess Almaviva from "Figaro's Wedding"; Verdi's Violetta from Triaviatta, Amelia Boccanegra from Simon Boccanegra, Desdemona from Ottelo; from Puccini - Tosca, Mimi and Manon Lescaut; Carmen Bizet, Tatiana Tchaikovsky, Rosalind Johann Strauss and many others. On the concert stage, her vocal beauty and clarity merged with the world's leading symphony orchestras from London, Chicago, Los Angeles, conducted by such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Georg Solti and others. She has become a regular participant in international opera festivals in Glidebourne, Salzburg, Verona. During her long creative career, Kiri Te Kanawa has released about eighty discs of both operatic repertoire and concert music - concert arias by Mozart, Four Last Songs of Strauss, German Requiem by Brahms, Messiah Handel and others, as well as albums with popular music and songs of the Maori people like a tribute to your people. Some of her discs have won a Grammy award. The last album "Kiri Sings Karl" was released in 2006. There were two significant events in her career, which are almost impossible for any opera singer to repeat. In 1981, she was the soloist at the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana at St Paul's Cathedral in London. The live television broadcast of the event attracted over 600 million viewers. The second record - in 1990, she gave an open concert in Auckland, 140 thousand spectators came to her solo performance. Now her activities outside the stage are associated with the foundation she created for the support and financial assistance to young singers and musicians. Kiri Te Kanawa has been awarded many awards and prizes for her services in the development of art, the highest of which are the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1982), Companion to the Order of Australia (1990), and the Order of New Zealand (1995). She also received honorary degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, Chicago, Nottingham and other universities. In recent years, Kiri Te Kanawa's performances on the opera stage and concert venues have become rare, but she has not yet announced her retirement, although it was believed that her last performance would be in April 2010, but she continues to perform.

Jo Sumi is a Korean opera singer, coloratura soprano. The most famous opera singer is originally from Southeast Asia. Sumi Cho was born on November 22, 1962 in Seoul, South Korea. His real name is Jo Sugyeong. Her mother was an amateur singer and pianist, but was unable to obtain a professional musical education due to the political situation in Korea in the 1950s. She was determined to give her daughter a good musical education. Sumi Cho began piano lessons at 4 years old and vocal training at 6 years old, even as a child she sometimes had to spend up to eight hours in music lessons. In 1976, Sumi Cho entered the Seoul Art School (Private Academy) "Sang Hwa", which she graduated in 1980 with diplomas in vocals and piano. In 1981-1983, she continued her musical education at Seoul National University. While at university, Sumi Cho made her first professional debut, performed in several concerts hosted by Korean television, and sang Suzanne in The Wedding of Figaro at the Seoul Opera. In 1983, Cho decided to leave Seoul University and moved to Italy to study music at the oldest music school, the National Academy of Saint Cecilia in Rome, graduating with honors. Her Italian teachers included Carlo Bergonzi and Gianella Borelli. During his studies at the academy, Cho could often be heard in concerts in various Italian cities, as well as on radio and television. It was during this time that Cho decided to use the name "Sumi" as her stage name in order to be more understandable to the European audience. In 1985 she graduated from the academy with a specialization in piano and vocals. After the academy, she took vocal lessons from Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and won several vocal competitions in Seoul, Naples, Barcelona, ​​Pretoria and most importantly in 1986, an international competition in Verona, in which only winners of other significant international competitions could participate, so to speak, the best of the best young singers. Sumi Cho made his European opera debut in 1986 as Gilda in Rigoletto at the Giuseppe Verdi Theater in Trieste. This performance caught the attention of Herbert von Karajan, who invited her to play the role of Oscar's page in the opera "Un ballo in maschera" with Placido Domingo, which was staged at the Salzburg Festival in 1987. Over the next years, Sumi Cho steadily walked towards opera Olympus, constantly expanding the geography of her performances and changing her repertoire from small roles to major ones. In 1988 Sumi Cho made her debut at La Scala and the Bavarian State Opera, in 1989 at the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, and in 1990 at the Chicago Opera Lyricist and Covent Garden. Sumi Cho became one of the most sought-after sopranos of our time and remains in this status to this day. The audience loves her for her bright, warm, flexible voice, as well as for her optimism and light humor on stage and in life. She is light and free on stage, giving each of her performances subtle oriental patterns. Sumi Cho has visited all countries of the world where they love opera, including several times in Russia, the last visit was in 2008, when they toured several countries in a duet with Dmitry Hvorostovsky as part of a tour. She has a busy work schedule that includes opera performances, concert programs, and work with record companies. Sumi Cho's discography currently has over 50 recordings, including ten solo albums and crossover discs. Her two albums are best known - in 1992 she was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for Wagner's opera Woman Without a Shadow with Hildegard Behrens, Jose van Dam, Julia Varadi, Placido Domingo, conductor Georg Solti, and an album with the opera "Masquerade Ball" by G. Verdi, which received a prize from the German Gramophone.

The National Center for the Performing Arts (National Bolshoi Theater in Chinese), called The Egg, is a modern opera house in Beijing, China. Considered one of the modern wonders of the world, it has the shape of an ellipsoid, is made of glass and titanium and is completely surrounded by an artificial lake. Built in 2007. The National Center for the Performing Arts is located in Beijing, in the immediate vicinity (slightly west) of Tiananmen Square (Beijing's main square and the largest in the world) and the People's Assembly (Chinese Parliament) and not far from the Forbidden City (historical palace complex). Designed by French architect Paul André and conceived to resemble an egg floating in water or a drop of water, this futuristic design sparked a lot of controversy about its construction in the historic center of Beijing. Indeed, the easily recognizable, iconic appearance of the National Center for the Performing Arts poses a stark contrast to its surroundings, making it very attractive. Construction of the Center began in December 2001 and was opened in December 2007. This newest miracle theater was opened by the Russian historical opera "Prince Igor" by A.P. Borodin, performed by the orchestra, chorus and soloists of the Mariinsky Theater under the direction of Valery Gergiev. The architectural ensemble includes the main building, underground and underwater corridors, underground parking, lake and green space The main dome stretches from east to west and is 212 meters long, 144 meters wide and 46 meters high, made of over 18,000 titanium plates and over 1,200 sheets of clear glass for a vivid visual effect. part of the Center goes to a depth of 32.5 meters (like a 10-storey building) and is the deepest in Beijing.The total area of ​​the complex is 118,900 sq.m., the building area is 219,400 sq.m.The center is completely surrounded by an artificial lake and all entrances to it only underground, the use of modern technologies makes the lake non-freezing and clean (without algae) all year round.Around the lake there is a green park where people can relax b from city noise. Inside the building there are three main halls - an opera, a concert and a theater, connected by air corridors, as well as a gallery, an exhibition hall, conference rooms, a library, a cafe and other premises in the National Center. The 2416-seat Opera Hall is the most beautiful, designed for opera, ballet performances and dance shows, and has a predominantly golden color. Its walls allow them to be used as decorations to immerse themselves in a creative atmosphere. The concert hall is designed for 2017 seats for classical concerts of the symphony orchestra and Chinese national music, has an elegant silver shade. The assembly hall houses the largest organ in Asia with 6,500 pipes. The theater hall for 1040 seats, without an orchestra pit, was built in the Chinese traditional style and is intended primarily for folk drama and musical performances. All rooms have been carefully designed to perfectly integrate architecture and acoustics.

Opera Garnier (Paris Opera, Grand Opera) (Opera Garnier, Opera de Paris, Opera Garnier, Grand Opera) is an opera house in Paris, one of the most famous world opera houses. Since 1989 (after the opening of the new opera house "Opéra Bastille" in Paris) it has been named after the architect "Palais Garnier" or "Opera Garnier", nevertheless, the old names are still in use. The building was built in 1875 in the neo-baroque style (Second Empire), is a historical monument and a masterpiece of architecture. The number of seats is 1900. Today both institutions (Opera Garnier and Opera Bastille) are united into the public-commercial enterprise "State Opera de Paris". The Palais Garnier was designed as part of the great restructuring of Paris during the "Second Empire", initiated by the emperor Napoleon III, and was directed by Baron Georges Haussmann (Haussmann). The immediate reason for the construction of the new theater was the assassination attempt on the emperor, which took place on January 14, 1858. Napoleon III was going to visit the opera house of Rue Le Peletier, the Italian revolutionaries led by Felice Orsini threw three bombs into the imperial carriage and the procession accompanying the emperor as he approached the theater. Eight people were killed and about 150 were injured; by accident, Napoleon III himself and his family were not injured, since then the emperor refused to visit the old theater and ordered to build a new one. At the end of 1860, an architectural competition was announced for the project of the "Imperial Academy of Music and Dance", in 1861 the unknown 35-year-old architect Charles Garnier (1825-1898) was declared the winner. The project itself did not cause much controversy and was adopted by the majority, however, disagreements arose between Garnier and Haussmann over the surroundings of the palace - Garnier proposed making a park, and Haussmann was a square and high-rise buildings. The first stone in the foundation was laid in 1861, and construction began in 1862. The construction of the opera house took almost 15 years and was accompanied by numerous problems. One of the first and main problems was the swampy soil and underground lake, which took almost a year to drain. In 1867, the preliminary opening of the theater took place, for the World Exhibition in Paris, the emperor ordered at least the main facade to be completed and in great haste, long before the completion of all work, the construction of the facade was completed. Legend has it that after the removal of the scaffolding, the emperor's wife, Empress Eugenia, commented: “What is this, what is this style? This is not a style! ... he is neither Greek, nor Roman, nor Louis XV, not even Louis XVI ", to which Charles Garnier replied:" These styles are a thing of the past ... This is the style of Napoleon III, madame. " construction befell the theater further, during the Franco-Prussian War, when there were military warehouses in the unfinished building, the subsequent fall of the Second French Empire and the Paris Commune.During this time, construction from time to time stopped or continued and there were rumors that the construction of an opera house could A new incentive for the continuation of the construction was the fire in the Le Peletier theater. The Le Plettier theater was the main venue for the Paris Opera and Ballet since 1821, on October 29, 1873 there was a fire, the fire raged for 27 hours and completely destroyed the building. the new opera house, it was a matter of prestige. The new government again called Charles Garnier to continue the work and allocated large forces and funds for this. At the end of 1874 construction was completed. The Garnier Palace was inaugurated on January 5, 1875. The opening was attended by more than 2000 guests from all over the world, the festive concert included several scenes from various works: "The Dumb from Portici" by Daniel Aubert, "The Jew" by Fromantal Halevy, "Wilhelm Tell" by Giacomo Rossini, "Huguenots" by Giacomo Meyerbeer and the ballet "Brook" Leo Delibes. At the opening there was an incident - the organizers of the event forced Charles Garnier to buy a ticket, this incident caused ridicule by the press: "the government is forcing the architect to pay money to see the opening of his creation", thus emphasizing the attitude of the new authorities towards the respected people who worked with the old emperor. The entire construction of the palace resulted in a total cost of 36 million francs in gold, instead of the planned 20. Remained unfinished places, for example, the Mirror Rotunda and the smoking gallery. The latter was never finished. Opera Garnier is a building of exceptional luxury both outside and inside. The main staircase lobby is one of the most famous places of the Opéra Garnier. Lined with marble of different colors, it accommodates a double flight of stairs leading to the theater foyer and theater hall floors. The main staircase is also a theater, the stage where a select audience defiled during the crinoline times. Various musical allegories are depicted on four parts of the painted ceiling. The foyer - a place for spectators to walk during the intermission - are spacious and richly decorated. The vault of the first foyer is covered with a lovely mosaic with a gold background. A beautiful view of the entire space of the main staircase opens up from here. The large foyer was designed by Garnier on the model of the ceremonial galleries of old castles. The play of mirrors and windows visually makes the gallery even more spacious. The magnificent ceiling painted by Paul Baudry depicts musical stories, and the lyre is the main decorative element. She is everywhere in this decorative kingdom - from vaults to heating grates and doorknobs. In the center of the foyer, near one of those windows overlooking the Avenue of Opera to the Louvre itself, there is a copy of the bust of Charles Garnier by the sculptor Carpo. At the end of the gallery with the bar is the Mirror Salon - a clean and bright rotunda with a round dance of bacchantes and fauns on the ceiling painted by Clairin, with images on the walls of various drinks (tea, coffee, orangeade, champagne ...), as well as scenes of fishing and hunting. Completed after the opening of the Opera, the salon continues to preserve the spirit of 1900. The red and gold auditorium in the Italian style is made in the shape of a horseshoe. It is lit by a huge crystal chandelier, weighing six tons, and the ceiling was painted in 1964 by Marc Chagall. The armchairs are finished with velvet. A magnificent curtain made of painted fabric imitates a red drapery with gold lace and tassels. The Opera Garnier has become an inspiring architectural example in the construction of many other theaters. The architects used elements of this style in whole or in part. In Poland, several buildings are based on Garnier's design - the theater in Krakow (1893) and the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw (1901, destroyed by the bombing in 1939 and restored in a different style), in the Ukraine - the Lviv Opera House (1901) and the Kiev Opera House (1901), in Brazil - the Amazon Theater in Manaus (1896) and the City Opera in Rio de Janeiro (1909), in the USA - the Jefferson Building (1897) and the Library of Congress in Washington, in Vietnam - the Hanoi Opera (1911) and the Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City (1897), built during the colonization of Vietnam (Vietnam was a French colony), all of them are miniature copies of the Opera Garnier.

Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theater is a musical theater in Samara, Russia. The Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theater is one of the largest Russian musical theaters. The opening of the theater took place on June 1, 1931 with Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Its origins were outstanding Russian musicians - a student of Taneyev and Rimsky-Korsakov, conductor and composer Anton Eichenwald, conductor of the Bolshoi Theater Ariy Pazovsky, famous Russian conductor Isidor Zak, director of the Bolshoi Theater Joseph Lapitsky. Such masters as conductors Savely Bergolts, Lev Ossovsky, director Boris Ryabikin, singers Alexander Dolsky, People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR Nikolai Poludenny, People's Artist of Russia Viktor Chernomortsev, People's Artist of the RSFSR, future soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Natalia Shpiller, Lorey and many others. The ballet troupe was headed by the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, a participant in the legendary Diaghilev seasons in Paris, Yevgeny Lopukhova. She opened a series of brilliant Petersburg choreographers, who in different years stood at the head of the Samara ballet. The choreographers of the Samara Theater were the talented choreographer Natalya Danilova, a student of Agrippina Vaganova, the legendary Petersburg ballerina Alla Shelest, the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Igor Chernyshev, People's Artist of the USSR Nikita Dolgushin. The theater is rapidly gaining a repertoire. The productions of the 1930s include opera and ballet classics: operas by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Dargomyzhsky, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, ballets by Tchaikovsky, Minkus, Adam. According to the requirements of the time, the theater pays great attention to the modern repertoire. In the pre-war period, for the first time in the country, the operas "The Steppe" by A. Eichenwald, "Tanya" by Kreitner, "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shebalin and others were staged. Its posters contain dozens of titles, from the classics of the 18th century. ("Medea" by Cherubini, "The Secret Marriage" by Cimarosa) and little performed works by Russian composers of the 19th century. ("Servilia" by Rimsky-Korsakov, "The Enchantress" by Tchaikovsky, "Elka" by Rebikov) to the European avant-garde of the 20th century. ("The Dwarf" by von Zemlinsky, "Les Noces" by Stravinsky, "Arlecchino" by Busoni). A special page in the life of the theater is co-creation with contemporary Russian authors. Outstanding Russian composers Sergei Slonimsky and Andrei Eshpai, Tikhon Khrennikov and Andrei Petrov entrusted their works to our stage. The world premiere of Slonim's opera The Vision of Ioann the Terrible, staged by the great 20th century musician Mstislav Rostropovich in collaboration with outstanding stage masters, director Robert Sturua and artist Georgy Alexi-Meskhishvili, became a significant event far beyond the Samara cultural life. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the cultural situation in the city changed dramatically. In October 1941, the State Bolshoi Theater of the USSR was evacuated to Kuibyshev / Samara (the "reserve capital"). The artistic initiative passes to the greatest masters of the Soviet opera and ballet scene. For 1941 - 1943 The Bolshoi Theater showed 14 operas and ballets in Samara. World famous singers Ivan Kozlovsky, Maxim Mikhailov, Mark Reisen, Valeria Barsova, Natalia Shpiller, ballerina Olga Lepeshinskaya performed on the Samara stage, Samosud, Fayer, Melik-Pashaev conducted. Until the summer of 1943, the Bolshoi Theater collective lived and worked in Kuibyshev. In gratitude for the help of local residents in this difficult time, his artists came to the Volga more than once after the war with their new works, as well as with the historical repertoire of the war. In 2005, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the collective of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia presented the Samara audience with a new meeting with their art. Tour performances and concerts (Shostakovich's ballet The Bright Stream, Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, the great Victory Symphony - Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, a brass band and opera soloists' concert) were a triumphant success. As the General Director of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia A. Iksanov noted, "For the entire staff of the Bolshoi Theater, these tours are another opportunity to express deep gratitude to the residents of Samara for the fact that the Bolshoi Theater found a second home here in the most difficult war time." The pinnacle of the musical life of Samara in the twentieth century, a truly historic event was the performance on the stage of the Samara Opera House of the Seventh ("Leningrad") Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich. The great work, reflecting the tragic events of wartime, conveying all the greatness of the feat of Soviet soldiers, was completed by the composer in December 1941 in evacuation in Samara and performed by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra under the direction of Samuil Samosud on March 5, 1942. The theater lives an intense life. Reconstruction is coming to an end, new names appear on the poster, singers and dancers win prestigious international and all-Russian competitions, new creative forces are pouring into the troupe. The theater staff can be proud of the concentration of talented, bright creative individuals. Honored Artists of Russia Mikhail Gubsky and Vasily Svyatkin are soloists not only of the Samara Theater, but also of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia and the Moscow Novaya Opera Theater. Anatoly Nevdakh takes part in the performances of the Bolshoi Theater, Andrey Antonov successfully performs on the stages of Russian and foreign theaters. The level of the opera troupe is also proved by the presence of a large number of "titled" singers in it: 5 people's artists, 8 honored artists, 10 laureates of international and all-Russian competitions. There are many talented young people in the troupe, with whom the older generation of artists willingly shares the secrets of their skills. Since 2008, the theater's ballet troupe has raised the bar significantly. The collective of the theater was headed by the Honored Artist of Russia Kirill Shmorgoner, who for a long time adorned the ballet troupe of the Perm Theater. K. Shmorgoner invited to the theater a large group of his students, graduates of one of the best educational institutions in the country - the Perm Choreographic School. Young ballet dancers Yekaterina Pervushina and Viktor Malygin became laureates of the prestigious international Arabesque competition, a whole group of Samara dancers successfully performed at the Delphic Games all-Russian festival. In recent years, the theater has hosted several premieres that have received a great audience response: the operas Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mavra by Stravinsky, The Maid-Lady by Pergolesi, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Rigoletto by Verdi, Madame Butterfly ”by Puccini, choreographic cantata“ Les Noces ”by Stravinsky, ballet by Hertel“ A Vain Precaution ”. The theater actively collaborates in these productions with Moscow masters from the Bolshoi Theater, Novaya Opera, and other Russian theaters. Much attention is paid to staging musical fairy tales for children. Opera and ballet dancers also perform on the concert stage. The theater's touring routes include Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, and Russian cities. The intensive touring practice of the theater allowed the residents of the Samara region to get acquainted with the latest works. Festivals are a bright page in the life of the theater. Among them are the Alla Shelest classical ballet festival, the international festival “Basses of the XXI century”, “Five evenings in Togliatti”, the festival of opera art “Samara spring”. Thanks to the theater's festival initiatives, Samara spectators could get acquainted with the art of dozens of the greatest masters of Russian and foreign opera and ballet art. The creative plans of the theater include performances of the opera "Prince Igor", ballets "Don Quixote", "The Sleeping Beauty". By the 80th anniversary, the theater plans to show Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, thus returning to its origins at a new stage in its historical development. On the central square of the city rises a massive gray building - according to the opinions of art critics, “a grandiose monument of the late“ pilonade style ”to which brutal classics have been added”, “a striking example of architecture of the 30s”. The authors of the project are Leningrad architects N.A. Trotsky and N. D. Katselenegbogen, who won the competition for the creation of the Palace of Culture in 1935. The theater was located in the central part of the building. In the left wing there was a regional library for some time, in the right wing there was a sports school and an art museum. In 2006, the reconstruction of the building began, requiring the eviction of the sports school and the museum. By 2010, the theater's jubilee season, the reconstruction was completed. Source: official website of the Samara Opera and Ballet Theater

Teatro Goldoni is one of the leading and oldest opera houses in Venice, Italy. The theater dates back to 1622, changed its name several times and is located in the historic center of Venice, not far from the Rialto Bridge. The theater is operated and is the main stage for the Teatro Stabile del Veneto opera company. Historically, all major Venetian theaters were owned by important patrician families, for example, theaters now known as the Teatro Malibran and Teatro San Benedetto were owned by the Grimani family, and La Fenice was owned by the Venier family. Along with private theaters, the world's first public opera house, San Cassiano, was built in Venice in 1637. The Vendramin family owned a theater now called Goldoni. The theater was built in 1622 and opened with the comedy of Antonio Ciofo, during its history the theater changed its name many times, it was the Teatro Vendramin, San Luca, San Salvatore, Apollo, until in 1875 it received its present name after the playwright Carl Goldoni. In 1652 (after the fire) and in 1684 the theater building was restored twice. During this first period of its existence, the theater mainly staged operas, but in the eighteenth century it hosted mainly dramatic performances. In the 1720s, the Teatro San Luca was rebuilt and renamed the Teatro Apollo. This building has survived to this day. In 1752, the owners of the theater were able to hire Carlo Goldoni, who at that time was considered the most famous playwright in Venice, to lead the theater. This was a major event in the theatrical life of the city and, possibly, the stellar period of the theater. However, the then owner of the theater himself strove to take a direct part in the management and staging of the performances and for this reason he had a difficult relationship and frequent disputes with the hired director. Carlo Goldoni left the theater and Venice in 1761 and went to Paris. In the nineteenth century, the theater underwent many renovations and renovations, among the most important were the restructuring in 1818 under the direction of the architect Giuseppe Borsato, gas lighting was installed in the theater in 1826, allegedly for the first time in Italy, in 1833 the interior was renovated under the direction of the designer Francesco Bagnara. In 1875, during the celebration of the playwright's birthday, the theater was renamed the Karl Goldoni Theater. The Vendramin family owned the theater until 1937, when it became city property. In 1957, the theater was closed due to wear and tear. In 1979, after a major reconstruction, the renovated theater reopened its doors. The Goldoni Theater interior is a typical 18th century Italian theater, four-tiered, seating 800 people, with a stage 12 meters wide and 11 meters long. It currently hosts drama performances, opera performances, children's parties and other events organized by the Teatro Stabile del Veneto opera company.

Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater The Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater (Ufa, Republic of Bashkiria, Russia) was opened in 1938. On December 14, 1938, the premiere of Giovanni Paisiello's opera The Beautiful Miller's Woman (in Bashkir) took place. The Bashkir Opera Studio was created in 1932 on the initiative of the singer, composer, public figure G. Almukhametov in order to train the national artistic and composer personnel of the republic. During the first two years, the Bashkir Opera House gave 13 premieres, more than half a million spectators visited the theater. The poster included works of Russian and foreign classics, operas by Soviet composers: "The Secret Marriage" by Cimarosa, "Faust" by Gounod, "Rigoletto" by Verdi, "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky, "Arshin Mal Alan" by the founder of the Azerbaijani national school of composition U. Hajibeyov, opera "Er targyn" by the Kazakh composer E. Brusilovsky and "Kachkyn" by the Tatar composer N. Zhiganov and others. On February 8, 1940, the premiere of the first Bashkir opera - "Khak-mar" by M. Valeev took place on the stage of the theater, and a few months later, in December, the opera "Mergen" by A. Eichenwald was staged. In the early years, graduates of the Bashkir branch at the Leningrad Choreographic School, the ballet department of the Bashkir Theater School and a group of dancers from the folk dance ensemble worked in the ballet troupe of the theater. Among the first graduates of the renowned Vaganovo school are Z. Nasretdinov, Kh. Safiullin, T. Khudaiberdina, F. Sattarov, F. Yusupov, G. Khafizova, R. Derbisheva. The first ballet production of the theater - "Coppelia" by L. Delibes took place in 1940. During the Great Patriotic War, the Kiev State Opera and Ballet Theater named after V.I. T. Shevchenko, who had a great influence on the formation of the Bashkir opera. The troupe that came to Ufa included the famous opera conductor V. Yorish, directors N. Smolich and his son D. Smolich, famous singers M. Litvinenko-Volgemut, I. Patorzhinsky, Z. Gaidai, K. Laptev, A. Ivanov , young L. Rudenko, I. Maslennikova. In March 1944 the premiere of the first Bashkir ballet "Crane Song" by L. Stepanov and Z. Ismagilov took place. After the war, G. Khabibullin became the theater's artistic director and director; the performances were conducted by Kh. Fayzullin, L. Insarov, Kh. Khammatov. The artists G. Imasheva and M. Arslanov worked here. A whole galaxy of talented performers has grown up in the theater. Along with the singers of the older generation - G. Khabibullin, B. Valeeva, M. Khismatullin, M. Saligaskarova also performed successfully with younger performers: Kh. Mazitov, Z. Makhmutov, N. Abdeev, N. Byzina, I. Ivashkov, S. Galimova, N. Allayarova and others. The path of the Bashkir ballet is inextricably linked with the names of Z. Nasretdinova, T. Khudaiberdina, G. Suleimanova, F. Nafikova, M. Tagirova, Kh. Safiullin, F. Sattarov. The name of the outstanding 20th century dancer Rudolf Nureyev is inextricably linked with the history of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater. For four years he studied at the ballet studio at the theater (teachers Zaytuna Bakhtiyarova and Khalyaf Safiullin). In 1953, Nureyev was admitted to the ballet troupe of the theater. It was on this stage that he took the first steps towards a world ballet career. In the role of Dzhigit in the ballet Crane Song, Rudolf Nureyev attracted the attention of specialists during the famous Decade of Bashkir Art in Moscow in 1955 and was invited to study at the Leningrad Choreographic School. Since 1991, the Shalyapin Evenings in Ufa opera festivals have been held annually in Ufa, with the participation of opera stars from Russian and foreign theaters. The idea of ​​the festival is connected with the opera debut of Fyodor Chaliapin in Ufa on December 18, 1890 (the role of Stolnik in Moniuszko's opera "Pebbles"). Within the framework of the festival, People's Artists of the USSR Irina Arkhipova, Vladislav Piavko and Maria Bieshu, artists from Latvia, Georgia, Germany, soloists of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, as well as musical theaters in Saratov, Samara, Perm and other cities performed on the stage of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater Russia. In December 2001, the tenth anniversary festival was held. It opened with the premiere of Verdi's opera La Traviata in Italian. Since March 1993, the Rudolf Nureyev ballet art festivals have been held. The first festival was organized at the suggestion of the Honorary President of the Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute under UNESCO, a member of the Paris Academy of Dance, Hero of Socialist Labor, People's Artist of the USSR and RB Yuri Grigorovich and was held with the participation of his troupe "Grigorovich-Ballet". In 1993, the theater museum was opened for the 55th anniversary of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater. It is located in two halls on the first floor of the theater, to the left of the central staircase. Here you can find props and personal belongings of famous artists, awards of the collective, sketches of scenery and theatrical costumes, photographs and posters for performances of the 30-70s. The pride of the museum is the Hermitage hall, located on the second floor. Since 2008, an exposition of personal belongings of Rudolf Nureyev has been located there. 156 artifacts from the life and work of the genius dancer of the 20th century - a gift to the theater from the R. Nureyev International Foundation (Great Britain). In 2004, Zagir Ismagilov's opera "Kakhym-turya" won the Golden Mask National Theater Award in the category "Best Conductor". In 2006, the play "The Magic Flute" by W.-A. Mozart staged by W. Schwartz was nominated in three nominations. "Golden Mask" - "For the support of the national theatrical art" - awarded to the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan MG Rakhimov. In 2007, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Masquerade Ball" was nominated for the prize in five nominations. In 2008, People's Artist of the USSR Zaytuna Nasretdinova was awarded the Golden Mask Prize in the category For Honor and Dignity. For her outstanding contribution to cultural achievements, the Council of the International Biographical Center (Cambridge, UK) awarded Zaytune Nasretdinova the honorary title of "International Professional". In 2007, she was awarded the Soul of Dance prize in the Master of Dance nomination by the editorial board and the creative council of the Ballet magazine. In 2008 Shamil Teregulov, Honored Artist of Russia, People's Artist of Bashkortostan, was awarded the Soul of Dance prize in the Knight of Dance nomination. In 2006 the theater was awarded the Fyodor Volkov Prize of the Russian Government in the category “Best Creative Team”. It was presented at the VII International Volkov Festival in Yaroslavl, which opened with the ballet "Arkaim" by L. Ismagilova. In 2008, the symphony orchestra performed successfully on tour in South Korea and was awarded a high award - a copy of Crown I of the Korean Emperor. In 2009, the Small Hall of the theater was opened. New performances are already underway on the new stage: "Love Potion" by G. Donizetti, "Bacchanalia" by C. Sen-Saens, "Walpurgis Night" by S. Gounod, "Birthday of Cat Leopold" by B. Savelyev. The creative principles that have been formed over seven decades live and develop. Careful attitude to traditions laid down by previous generations, experience, continuous improvement of skills, strengthening of professionalism. The key to the theater's success is highly professional creative teams. Artists BSTOiB - laureates, diploma winners of republican, Russian and international competitions, holders of state and republican awards. Stage masters were awarded honorary titles, including 1 People's Artist of the Russian Federation, 7 - Honored Artists of the Russian Federation, 4 - Honored Art Workers of the Russian Federation, 15 - People's Artists of the Republic of Belarus, 50 - Honored Artists of the Republic of Belarus, 4 - Honored Artists of the Republic of Belarus. As before, the collective is focused on staging the best examples of foreign and domestic classics, in the stage embodiment of which directors and performers manage to achieve true mastery.

Moscow theater Novaya Opera them. E.V. Kolobov was founded in 1991 on the initiative of the theater's artistic director Yevgeny Kolobov (1946-2003) and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and soon became one of the best opera groups in Russia. In 1991, the chief conductor of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich Danchenko MAMT, Evgeny Kolobov, due to creative differences, leaves the theater, taking along part of the troupe and the entire orchestra. Kolobov finds support from the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, and founds the Novaya Opera theater, of which he becomes the chief conductor and artistic director. Kolobov's wife, Natalya Popovich, was appointed chief choirmaster. At first, the theater does not have its own premises; there are concert performances of operas, costumed divertissements (Rossini). In 1997, a building in the Hermitage garden appeared at the New Opera. The new theater building is a hall for 660 seats, equipped with modern lighting equipment and stage mechanics, which allow staging performances with complex stage effects. The theater has its own audio and video studio. Relying on opera scores unknown in Russia, Kolobov presents to the Moscow public the operas Two Foscari (Verdi), Maria Stuart (Donizetti), Valley (Catalani), his versions of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Verdi's La Traviata ... In 2000, Dmitry Hvorostovsky performed the lead role at the premiere of the opera Rigoletto. In 2003, in connection with the death of the founder, the theater began a crisis. Bizet's performance "Pearl Seekers" is perceived critically, and "The Tsar's Bride" is negatively perceived. In 2005, the artistic management of the theater invited German directors Yossi Viller and Sergio Morabito (musical director and conductor of the production Felix Korobov) to stage Bellini's opera Norma. The opera aroused admiration among Muscovites. And for a difficult soprano role, Tatyana Pechnikova received the Golden Mask award. In March 2006, People's Artist of the USSR Eri Klas became the main conductor of the theater, who introduced performances with comic shades into the repertoire (The Magic Flute by Mozart, The Potion of Love by Donizetti, The Barber of Seville by Rossini, Gianni Schicchi by Puccini, The Bat "Strauss). In 2008, Wagner's opera Lohengrin was staged at the theater by director Kasper Holten, and the brilliant maestro Jan Latham-Koenig (Great Britain), who became the theater's permanent guest conductor, was conducting. In the spring of 2009, the premiere operetta "The Bat" caused discontent among the public in connection with the free translation of the dialogues, but the reviews were positive about the music. Recently, the theater has begun to offer concert performances of operas that are often performed, but are now unclaimed in Russia: The Troubadour, Prince Igor, The Maid of Orleans, etc. at the Novaya Opera ", dedicated to the founder of the theater Yevgeny Kolobov, who was born on January 19 at Epiphany. Since 2006, the theater has been named after its founder. The full name of the theater: Moscow Novaya Opera Theater. E.V. Kolobov. The theater's repertoire includes classical opera masterpieces; previously unknown in Russia operatic works ("Hamlet" by A. Tom, "Maria Stuart" by Gaetano Donizetti, "Valley" by A. Catalani); performances based on the original musical versions of E.V. Kolobov (“Oh Mozart!” By Mozart, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by MI Glinka, “La Traviata” by G. Verdi, “Eugene Onegin” by PI Tchaikovsky). The theater owns the first performances in Russia of the operas "Maria Stuart" by G. Donizetti, "Valley" by A. Catalani, "Two Foscari" by G. Verdi, "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky (in the first author's version), "Hamlet" by A. Tom. A new theatrical genre has also been created - a kind of creative portrait of famous composers and musicians (Maria Callas, Viva Verdi!, Viva Puccini!, Vincenzo Bellini, Richard Wagner, Rossini, Bravissimo!) ... In total, the repertoire of the Novaya Opera Theater includes more than 70 works of opera and concert genres. Every January the theater holds an international festival "Epiphany week at the Novaya Opera", which brings together outstanding masters of musical culture. The soloists of the Novaya Opera - People's Artists of Russia Yulia Abakumovskaya, Emma Sarkisyan, Honored Artists of Russia Marat Gareev, Marina Zhukova, Elena Svechnikova, Margarita Nekrasova - have received honorary titles over the years of work in the theater. Young opera soloists with a permanent engagement in the theater are laureates of international vocal competitions and winners of prestigious theater awards such as the Golden Mask, Casta Diva, and Triumph. Many theater soloists can rightfully be ranked among the best voices of Russia - Tatyana Pechnikova, Elena Popovskaya, Tatyana Smirnova, Elvira Khokhlova, Margarita Nekrasova, Irina Romishevskaya, Alexander Bogdanov, Roman Shulakov, Andrzej Beletsky, Vitaly Bily, Andrey Breus, Oleg Diden Ladyuk, Oleg Didenko Laduk , Vladimir Kudashev and others; many of them are also involved in the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the Metropolitan Opera, Arena di Verona, etc. The special role assigned to the orchestra is associated with the variety of creative interests of the conductors working in the theater - the chief conductor of the theater, People's Artist of the USSR Eri Klas, People's Artist Russia Anatoly Gus, Honored Artists of Russia Evgeny Samoilov and Sergei Lysenko, Dmitry Volosnikov, Felix Korobov, Valery Kritskov, Nikolai Sokolov. In addition to participating in opera performances, the orchestra performs at the best concert venues in Russia with symphonic programs: in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Concert Hall. PI Tchaikovsky, in the hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. The concert repertoire of the orchestra is diverse: symphonies by P. I. Tchaikovsky, D. D. Shostakovich, S. V. Rachmaninov, L. van Beethoven, V. A. Mozart, works by I. F. Stravinsky, P. Hindemith, A. Onegger, F. Chopin, E. Lalo, concert programs with the participation of the theater soloists, chorus and invited musicians. On an independent tour, the orchestra visited Spain (the cities of Zaragoza, Barcelona, ​​Coruña, San Sebastian, 1992), Portugal (Porto, 1992), Germany (Karlsruhe, 2006). Together with the Imperial Russian Ballet, the orchestra visited Turkey (Istanbul, 2000), Finland (Annual Ballet Festival in Mikkel, 2000-2006), Thailand (Bangkok, 2005). In 2001, the orchestra took part in the performances of the Los Angeles Opera Company "Don Juan" by W. A. ​​Mozart and "Salome" by R. Strauss at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland. The choir of the theater is a constant participant in all performances, a team of like-minded professionals. In keeping with the aesthetics of the theater, the choir is involved at all levels of the production. Great importance in the professional education of the choral collective is attached to the performance of concert programs from the works of Russian and foreign choral classics, spiritual works, large cantata-oratorio forms, such as "John Damascene" by SI Taneyev, "Requiem" by G. Verdi, "Spring" and "Three Russian Songs" by S. V. Rachmaninov, "Requiem" by V. A. Mozart, "Polovtsian Dances" by A. P. Borodin, "Alexander Nevsky" by S. S. Prokofiev, "Moscow" by P. I. Tchaikovsky, Carmina Burana by K. Orf. The Novaya Opera is characterized by a modern approach to scenography and direction. The theater cooperates with famous masters in the field of theatrical art to create performances of different directions and styles: these are directors - Stanislav Mitin, Sergey Artsibashev, V. Vasiliev [who?], Valery Belyakovich, Mikhail Efremov, Alla Sigalova, Roman Viktyuk, Yuri Grymov, Andreis Zhagars, Yuri Alexandrov, Achim Fryer, Yossi Wheeler and Sergio Morabito, Ralph Lyangbaka, K. Heiskanen, Kasper Holten, Elijah Moshinski, Gennady Shaposhnikov; artists - Sergey Barkhin, Alla Kozhenkova, Eduard Kochergin, Ernst Heydebrecht, Victor Gerasimenko, Maria Danilova, Eleonora Maklakova, Marina Azizyan, V. Okunev, S. Pastukh, A. Fryer, A. Fibrok, A. Freibergs, S. Aarfing, E. Tilby. Outstanding masters of musical culture work with the Novaya Opera collective: conductors Yuri Temirkanov, Eri Klas, Gintaras Rinkyavichus, Daniel Lipton; instrumentalists Eliso Virsaladze and Nikolay Petrov, Tatiana Sergeeva (piano), Natalia Gutman (cello), Finnish jazzman Antti Sarpila (clarinet, saxophone); opera singers Jose Cura, Placido Domingo, Mario Frangulis, Dmitry Hvorostovsky (about 10 joint performances), Franz Grundheber, Paata Burchuladze, Feruccio Furlanetto, Deborah Myers, Lyubov Kazarnovskaya and Anastasia Volochkova; the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis; and the soloists of the New York African American Opera Company Ebony Opera. Touring map of the New Opera: Greece (closing of the annual music festival at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens with the anniversary concerts of Mikis Theodorakis in 2005), Cyprus (for several years the theater has been participating in opera festivals together with Mario Frangoulis and Deborah Myers, and also participated in a triumphal concert dedicated to the visit to Cyprus of the outstanding Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis in 2005), Italy (Musicale Umbra Festival in Perugia), France (Champs-Élysées Theater, Paris), Germany (Reithalle Hall, Munich), Israel (Rishon LeZion), Finland (Savonlinna Opera Festival, Kuopio Concert Hall, Mikkeli Annual Ballet Festival), USA (14 Eugene Onegin performances at Martin Beck Theater on Broadway, New York), Estonia (Birgitta Festival in Tallinn), Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Thailand, Belarus, Ukraine, as well as cities in Russia. The high performing skill of the troupe, the originality of the stage solutions brought the theater well-deserved fame. The theater team has won the Golden Mask National Theater Award, the Casta Diva Russian Opera Award, the Triumph Independent Award, the Sony BMG Greece Award (Greece), and the Star of the Week diploma from the German newspaper Abendzeitung. In 1999 the theater was admitted to the European opera community Opera Europa. In 2003, by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the founder of the theater Yevgeny Kolobov (posthumously), director of the theater Sergei Lysenko and chief choirmaster Natalya Popovich were awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the creation of the Novaya Opera Theater. In 2006 the theater was named after its founder Yevgeny Kolobov.

The Metropolitan Opera is a musical theater at Lincoln Center in New York, New York, USA. The largest opera house in the world. It is often called "Met" in abbreviated form. The theater belongs to the most famous opera stages in the world. The artistic director of the theater is James Levine. CEO - Peter Gelb. Created with funds from the Metropolitan Opera House Company. Subsidized by wealthy firms, individuals. The Metropolitan Opera opened with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust on October 22, 1883, with Swedish soprano Christina Nilsson as the female lead. The theater is open seven months a year: from September to April. About 27 operas are staged per season. The performances are held daily, there are about 220 performances in total. The theater goes on tour from May to June. In addition, in July, the theater gives free performances in the parks of New York, attracting a huge number of spectators. There are regular radio and TV broadcasts. The orchestra and choir of the theater work on a permanent basis, and soloists and conductors are invited on a contract basis for a season or for certain performances. Operas are traditionally performed in the original language. The repertoire is based on world classics, including those of Russian composers. The first Metropolitan Opera, designed by J. Cleveland Cady, was located on Broadway, between 39 and 40 streets. In 1966, the theater moved to the new Lincoln Center in Manhattan and has one main stage and three auxiliary stages. The main auditorium seats 3,800 and despite its size is renowned for its excellent acoustics.

The Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theater has come a long way of development. In September 1931, a musical comedy theater began operating in Voronezh, organized on the basis of a collective of professional artists, led by a talented organizer, director and actor Lazar Arkadyevich Lazarev. In the early 30s of the last century, Voronezh was the center of the Central Black Earth Region, which included cities that later became regional centers: Kursk, Orel, Tambov, Lipetsk. One of the main creative tasks of the Voronezh Theater of Musical Comedy was to serve the working people of the Chernozem region. At that time, the theater's repertoire included not only classical operettas, but also modern musical comedies. The high level of performers has contributed to the fact that performances have always been a great success. In 1958, the creative report of the theater took place in Moscow. It was a success and was highly appreciated by the audience and the musical community of the capital. During the tour, the chairman of the Union of Composers of the USSR T.N. Khrennikov proposed to reorganize the theater of musical comedy into the Musical Theater. This proposal was supported by the Ministry of Culture and the leadership of the Voronezh region. The decision to reorganize the Musical Comedy Theater into the Musical Theater was made in 1960. The first performance that marked the birth of a new theater on the Voronezh land was P. Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, staged by the first chief conductor of the theater, V. Timofeev. The premiere took place on February 25, 1961. This date is the birthday of the theater. The ballet troupe headed by the talented choreographer T. Ramonova began its journey into the big art with the play "Swan Lake". In the sixties, talented creative leaders, widely known in the country, worked in the theater: director - People's Artist of Belarus S.A. Stein, chief choreographer - Honored Art Worker of Belarus K.A. Muller, chief artist - Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR V.L. Tsybin. The period of the creative formation of the young collective is associated with the name of the People's Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of State Prizes Anatoly Alekseevich Lyudmilin - an excellent conductor, sensitive teacher and talented organizer. He created the foundations of the classical opera and ballet repertoire in the theater, and repeatedly turned to the works of his contemporaries. Under his leadership, more than 10 performances were staged, including Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata by G. Verdi, Carmen by J. Bizet, Tosca and Cio-Cio-San by G. Puccini, The Queen of Spades "P. Tchaikovsky, "The Demon" by A. Rubinstein, "Lud Gidiya" by the Bulgarian composer P. Khadzhiev, "Years of Fire" by A. Spadavekkia. In 1967, People's Artist of the USSR Yaroslav Antonovich Voshchak was invited to the post of chief conductor. He continued the traditions of A. Lyudmilin, the main of which is the high musical culture of the theater. The operas "Mazepa" by P. Tchaikovsky, "Troubadour" by G. Verdi and "Russian Woman" by K. Molchanov, staged by him, became real theatrical events, they were accompanied by the love of the audience and high praise from critics. Under Ya.A. Voshchak in 1968, the Musical Theater was renamed the Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theater. In the 70s, a significant role in the creative life of the theater was played by the chief conductors, Honored Artist of the Kazakh SSR I.Z. choreographer - Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation G.G. Malkhasyants, chief artist - N.I. Kotov, chief choirmaster, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation L.L.Ditko. In the 90s, a new leadership came: the chief conductor, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Yu.P. Anisichkin, chief director, honored art worker of the Russian Federation A.N. Zykov, chief artist, honored art worker of the Russian Federation V.G. Kochiashvili. For more than 10 years the artistic director of the ballet was the People's Artist of the Russian Federation N.G. Valitova. The choir group in 1999 was headed by the laureate of international competitions V.K. Kushnikov. Since the opening day, more than 200 performances have been staged on the theater stage, including the entire popular classical opera and ballet repertoire. From the first years of its operation, the theater considered an important task in the formation of the repertoire of the organic combination of classical traditions with modern trends in musical and theatrical art. The operas “The Daughter of Cuba” by K. Listov, “The Brest Fortress” and “Russian Woman” by K. Molchanov, “Anne Frank's Diary” by G. Fried, for the first time staged on the Voronezh stage, received all-Union recognition. The production of the opera "Brest Fortress" (director S. Stein, conductor G. Orlov, artist V. Tsybin, choirmaster V. Izhogin) received a wide response. Both the metropolitan and local press noted not only the vocal skill of the performers, but also the high-class artistry, which made it possible to create images of living heroes. The performance was awarded an Honorary Diploma at the All-Union Theater Competition. The theater works in close contact with the Voronezh composers. In 1971 the premiere of the ballet The Song of Triumphant Love took place to the music of the composer and conductor of the theater M. Nosyrev based on the work of I. Turgenev. The performance was highly appreciated by critics and spectators and for more than 10 years was preserved in the repertoire (conductor M. Nosyrev, choreographer D. Aripova, artist B. Knoblok). In collaboration with the composer G. Stavonin, the first Voronezh opera "Oleko Dundich" (1972), which TN Khrennikov called "a remarkable event in the musical life of the country", and the ballet-symphony "The Tale of the Russian Land" (1982) were staged. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Voronezh and the 300th anniversary of the Russian military fleet in 1986, the theater staged a production of G. Stavonin's opera "Vivat, Russia!" Today the theater's repertoire includes more than 40 titles - Russian and foreign classics, works of our contemporaries. Over the past decades, opera and ballet soloists, widely known in the country, have worked in the theater, who have earned recognition for their talent: opera soloists, People's Artists of the Russian Federation E. Poimanov, S. Kadantsev, Honored Artists of the RSFSR F. Sebar, A. Matveeva, L. Kondratenko, E .Svetlova, V. Ryzvanovich, Y. Danilova (People's Artist of Buryatia), I. Monastyrnaya, V. Egorov, B. Erofeev, I. Denisov, I. Nepomnyashchy, G. Kolmakov; ballet soloists People's Artists of the Russian Federation N. Valitova, A. Golovan, M. Leonkina - laureate of international ballet competitions in Moscow, Paris, Varna, her name was included in the book "The Best Giselle Performers" published in the USA, Honored Artists of the Russian Federation L. Maslennikova, S. Kurtosmanova, V. Dragavtsev. Every year young performers come to the theater: graduates of the Voronezh Academy of Arts and the country's conservatories - to the opera troupe, from the Voronezh Choreographic School - to ballet, the Voronezh Rostropovich Musical College - to the orchestra and choir of the theater. The geography of the theater's tours is extensive. The art of Voronezh was applauded in Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Japan, Finland, African countries. In 1996, the Sleeping Beauty ballet was shown in 38 cities in France, and in 1997 and 1999 he toured India. Since 2000, the Voronezh ballet has toured Holland, Germany, Belgium with the performances Giselle, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty. In May 2005, the ballet company took part in the International Festival dedicated to the work of P.I. Tchaikovsky, which was held in Germany. In 2006 and 2009 the theater toured the USA and Canada, where it showed the ballets Cinderella by S. Prokofiev, Giselle by A. Adam and A Thousand and One Nights by F. Amirov. Opera performances "Troubadour" (conductor Mechislav Novakovsky (Poland), director A. Zykov), "Othello" (conductor Y. Anisichkin, director F. Safarov), "The Queen of Spades" (conductor Y. Anisichkin, director A. Zykov) in 1999 and 2001 were shown in the Netherlands. The Voronezh Opera and Ballet Theater, the only one in the Central Black Earth Region, sees its task in promoting opera and ballet art in all regions of the region, conducting visiting performances, constantly expanding the geography of tours. Opera troupe of the Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theater Coloratura sopranos Yekaterina Gavrilova Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Lyudmila Marchenko Elena Petrichenko Laureate of the International Competition Elena Povolyaeva Elena Seregina Kristina Panova Oksana Shaposhnikova Soprano Laureate of the All-Russian Competition Alexandra Dobrolyubova Galina Kunakovskaya Maksimennaya Hall of the Russian Federation Ilya Kunakovskaya Olga Maksimennova Narodnaya Narodnaya Hall artist of the Russian Federation Alexandra Tyrzyu laureate of the International Competition Lyudmila Solod Natalia Tyutyuntseva Anastasia Chernovolos Mezzo - soprano Tatyana Kibalova Laureate of the International Competition Elena Knyazeva Yulia Pronyaeva Tenors Laureate of International Competitions Dmitry Bashkirov Evgeny Belov Aleksey Ivanov Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Yuri Kraskov Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Yuri Kraskov Honored Artist RF Alexander Anikin Leonid Vorobiev Oleg Guryev laureate of International and All-Russian competitions Igor Gornostaev Sergei Meshchersky Alexey Tyukhin Diploma-recipient of the International Competition Roman Dyudin Basy Nikolay Dyachok Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Alexander Nazarov Honored Artist of Buryatia Mikhail Turchanis Ivan Chernyshov Head of the Opera Company Nadezhda Kopytina Directors Alfred Melukha Sofya Shalagina Assistant director, host of the performance Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Tatiana Andreeva Victoria Maryanovskaya Anatoly Maltsev

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sydney Opera House(English Sydney Opera House) is a musical theater in Sydney, one of the most famous and easily recognizable buildings in the world, which is a symbol of the largest city in Australia and one of the main attractions of the continent - sail-shaped shells that form the roof make this building unlike any other in the world. The Opera House is recognized as one of the outstanding buildings of modern architecture in the world and since 1973, along with the Harbor Bridge, has been the hallmark of Sydney. On June 28, 2007, the theater was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Sydney Opera House was opened on October 20, 1973 by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.

History of creation

The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney Harbor at Bennelong Point. This place was named after an Australian aborigine friend of the first governor of the colony. Until 1958, there was a tram depot on the site of the theater, and even earlier - a fort.

The architect of the opera house is the Dane Jorn Utzon, who received the Pritzker Prize in 2003.

Despite the applied concept of spherical shells, which solved all construction problems and was successfully suitable for mass production, precision manufacturing and ease of installation, construction was delayed, mainly due to the interior decoration of the premises. It was planned that the construction of the theater will take four years and will cost seven million Australian dollars. However, the opera took fourteen years to build and cost $ 103 million.

Architecture

The Sydney Opera House is an Expressionist building with a radical and innovative design. The building covers an area of ​​2.2 hectares. Its length is 185 meters and its maximum width is 120 meters. The building weighs 161,000 tons and rests on 580 piles, which are lowered into the water at a depth of almost 25 meters from sea level. Its energy consumption is equivalent to that of a city with a population of 25,000. Energy is distributed over 645 kilometers of cable.

The roof of the opera house consists of 2,194 pre-fabricated sections, its height is 67 meters, and its weight is more than 27 tons, the entire structure is held by steel cables with a total length of 350 kilometers. The roof of the theater is formed by a series of "shells" of a 492-foot diameter load-bearing concrete sphere, commonly referred to as "shells" or "sails," although this is incorrect in terms of the architectural definition of such a structure. These shells are constructed from precast concrete panels in the shape of a triangle, which are supported by 32 precast ribs of the same material. All ribs form part of one large circle, which allowed the roof outlines to have the same shape, and the whole building was complete and harmonious.

The entire roof is covered with 1,056,006 azulejo tiles in white and matt cream. Although from a distance the structure appears to be made entirely of white tiles, the tiles create different color schemes under different lighting conditions. Thanks to the mechanical method of laying the tiles, the entire surface of the roof is perfectly smooth, which was impossible with manual covering. All tiles were produced by the Swedish factory Höganäs AB with self-cleaning technology, but despite this, work is regularly carried out to clean and replace some of the tiles.

The stepped roof structure is very beautiful, but created height problems inside the building, as the height obtained did not provide the proper acoustics in the halls. To solve this problem, separate ceilings were made to reflect sound.

There are rather conflicting opinions about the most famous building in Australia - the Sydney Opera House. Some consider it a magnificent monument to a frozen melody. Others are confused by the amazing shape of the roof of this structure: to some it resembles huge shells, to someone - the sails of the Galleon blown up by the wind, someone associates them with ears listening to the singing of angels, and there is also an opinion that the Sydney theater is very much like a white whale thrown onto land.

In a word, there are as many opinions as there are people, but no one doubts the fact that the Sydney Opera House is a man-made symbol of Australia.

This amazing building is located in Sydney, the largest city in Australia, in the harbor of Bennelong Point (on the map it can be found at the following coordinates: 33 ° 51 ′ 24.51 ″ S, 151 ° 12 ′ 54.95 ″ E).

The opera house in Sydney gained world fame primarily due to its roof, made in the form of sails (shells) of different sizes arranged one after another, which make it unlike any other theater in the whole world. The facade of the opera turned out to be so interesting, unusual, and therefore recognizable, which is considered one of the most outstanding buildings of modern architecture, which for several years has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The creator of this unique building, Jorn Watson, is the only person in the world whose work this organization recognized during his lifetime (he died a year after this event, in 2008).

Description

The opera house in Australia is primarily unusual in that, unlike other structures of this type, made in the classical style, it is a vivid example of expressionism, demonstrating a new look at architecture. The Sydney Opera House is surrounded by water on three sides, and itself is erected on stilts.

The area of ​​the theater is huge and amounts to 22 thousand m2: its length is 185 m, width is 120 m, and in the building itself there is a huge number of premises, including several theater halls, many small studios and theater platforms, as well as restaurants, bars and shops , where anyone can buy a souvenir about a visit to the theater as a souvenir.

The main premises are four halls:

• The Concert Hall is the largest theater venue, with a capacity of 2,679 spectators. It is here that the world's largest organ is installed: it consists of 10 thousand pipes;
• Opera House - this hall can accommodate 1507 spectators, and on its stage you can see not only opera, but also ballet;
• Drama theater - designed for 544 people;
• Small drama stage - designed for 398 people and is considered the most comfortable room in the opera.

Sails roof

The most remarkable part of the building, which has made the Sydney Opera House one of the most interesting theaters in the world, is its roof, made in the form of shells or sails arranged one behind the other. The roof, which is 67 m high and 150 m in diameter, consists of more than 2 thousand sections and weighs about 30 tons.

The structure is fixed with metal cables, the total length of which is 350 km. The two main conch shells are located above the two largest opera halls. Other sails are located above the smaller rooms, and one of the restaurants is located under the smallest one.

The top of the washbasins are mechanically covered with white polished and cream matte tiles, giving the surface an absolutely smooth surface - an effect that would hardly have been achieved by hand laying. An interesting fact: despite the fact that from a distance it may seem as if the roof is painted white, depending on the lighting, it constantly changes its shade.

Such a roof structure looks very beautiful and original, but during construction, due to the uneven height of the roof, there were problems with acoustics inside the building, and in order to solve the shortcoming, a sound-reflecting ceiling had to be made separately. For this purpose, special gutters were made, capable of performing both practical and aesthetic functions: reflecting sound and drawing attention to the arches located above the front of the stage (the length of the largest gutter is about 42 meters).

Idea author

Interesting fact: to build an opera house in Sydney was the idea of ​​the British Sir Eugene Goossens, who came to Australia as a conductor to record a concert on the radio. One can only imagine his surprise when he discovered that there is no opera theater in Sydney.

The city also lacked large auditorium facilities for Sydney people to come and listen to.

Therefore, the decision to do everything in order to build a theater, in which the audience will have the opportunity to get acquainted with both classical and the latest musical works, was made immediately by him. He immediately started looking for a suitable place for construction - it turned out to be the rocky cape Bennelong Point, near which the embankment was located, which was a key junction, since the locals changed from ferries to trains or buses.

Finding a suitable place (at that time there was a tram depot, which was later demolished), Goossens conducted a corresponding campaign and, having infected many influential people of Sydney with his idea, got the government to authorize the construction of the Opera House. The authorities immediately announced an international competition for the best project. And then the matter stalled: Goossens had enemies. After one of the international trips, customs officers found the items of the "black mass", fined, fired from his job - and he was forced to leave Australia, despite all the assurances that the things did not belong to him.

Competition

More than two hundred works from all over the world were sent to the competition. Another important point was that Goossens not only managed to select a qualified commission, but also gave a description of the competition project.

The project was supposed to provide for two halls - one for larger, the second - for small productions. The building had to have rooms where it was possible to conduct rehearsals, store requisites, as well as a place for restaurants.

The task was complicated by the fact that the area on which it was planned to erect the structure had a rather limited size, since it was surrounded by water on three sides. Therefore, most projects were rejected for one simple reason: they looked too bulky, and the facade of the building was depressing.

And only one work attracted the attention of the jury members, forcing them to return to the project over and over again: in the sketch, the theaters were put close to each other, the problem of cumbersomeness was removed thanks to the emphasis on the white roof in the form of sails, and the author suggested keeping the scenery and theatrical requisites in special recesses, thus solving the problem of the wings.

The author of the work was the Dane Jorn Watson (this architect had many such original projects, but this one turned out to be one of the few that was implemented). Despite the fact that the project presented by him was a sketch, the cost of the work was estimated at 7 million Australian dollars. Dollars, which was a reasonable price. The money for the start of construction was collected through a lottery.

Construction works

While the project was approved, it was obvious that it still needed to be well worked (some issues have not been resolved to this day). The main problem was how to make a non-standard roof shape, especially since there was no such experience in the world at the moment.

Watson resolved this issue by giving each sink the shape of a triangle, assembling it from smaller curved triangles, mechanically tiled during manufacture. After that, the sails were installed on concrete ribs (frame ribs) arranged in a circle - this made it possible for the roof to get a complete and harmonious look.

This form gave rise to problems with the acoustics of the hall, which the architect managed to solve later, but it dragged considerable financial expenses with him (for example, since the new vault turned out to be much heavier than the previous one, he had to blow up the already made foundation and begin to build a stronger and more durable one).

Instead of the estimated 7 million austral. dollars construction cost 102 million. Construction proceeded at a very slow pace, which could not fail to attract the attention of local deputies and opponents of the architect.

And after the Labor Party, which supported the construction, lost the support of the population and the opposition came to power, the money raised from the lottery was first frozen (fortunately, there was an excuse), and then they were completely allowed to build roads and hospitals, forcing Watson in 1966 quit your job and leave Sydney for good.

After that, Hall was appointed the chief architect, who, although he managed to complete the construction in 1973, but according to many experts, the work he carried out significantly spoiled the appearance of the building, and the interior turned out to be unremarkable (an interesting fact, during the preparations for the Olympic Games in Australia in 2000, the Australians suggested that Watson return and finish work on the opera, agreeing to do whatever he said, but he refused).

And so it happened that the Sydney Opera House, which is one of the most magnificent buildings of our time, which is mentioned along with the Taj Mahal and other wonders of the world, although it looks great outwardly, inside is no different. True, this did not prevent the building from taking part in the competition for the title of one of the seven wonders of the world and, although it did not enter the prize-winners, to be among the main contenders.