April is coming A new children's opera was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre The opera "The Story of Kai and Gerda", based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and composed by Sergei Banevich premiered on the Bolshoi Theatre New Stage The Robbers are, perhaps, some of the brightest characters in this production. Photo: Damir Yusupov This opera has a long performance history: Banevich's score was composed many years ago and it has attracted the attention of various Russian theatres many times. Songs are similar to those from the musical, and changes of emotions are expressed with the childish directness; naturally, such music can appeal to both children and their parents, as it is nice to listen to and easy to follow. Banevich composed several new fragments for the Bolshoi's production; the orchestra, conducted by Anton Grishanin, performed every single music number with due diligence. The libretto follows Andersen's plot; however, the didacticism is more intense, and Kai and Gerda are not a brother and a sister, but two lovers. The characters are divided into two groups that are distinctly different from one another. One group is headed by the evil trolls, equipped with sharp pieces of a mirror, the second - by the kind Lamplighter, wearing a checkered scarf and a top hat; he is a poet and a philosopher and he talks about coldness in people's hearts. The production team, which includes the young director Dmitry Belyanushkin and the experienced stage designer Valery Levintal, approached the task with due diligence as well. The set represents the rocks where the ugly trolls of the same gray color live and the palace of the Snow Queen, covered with shining icicles, where ghosts of frozen children are trying to make the word "eternity" from small pieces of ice. The city, where Kai and Gerda live, has lots of gingerbread houses that travel across the stage; the dry trees swing in the wind and the robbers are hiding in the hollows, the immovable rocking chair stands next to the fire place in Grandmother's house, as the center of the universe. The blizzard that everyone is already tired of continues, the changed Kai enjoys saying nasty things to people, but the good Gerda sings that April is coming soon. The trolls scratch and fight and throw ice into Kai's soul (two strong- voiced leaders - Arseny Yakovlev and Oleg Tsybulko - snort recklessly as they do this).
The robbers (those characters turned out to be very vivid) throw rashers of bacon at each other and the Queen's silent servants shake their battle-axes sullenly. In the end everyone sings "Let there be joy in every home; let there be happiness in every home; let the memories be kind ones, not evil ones". Mr. Belyanushkin chose an old-fashioned format of a "New Year performance"; still, he managed to grab Andersen's main idea. An idyll has to be able to protect itself, happiness is not possible to get for free, and the worst thing is when no one loves you and you do not need other people. The dull entrance of the Reindeer is a bit confusing: we can hear the voice from behind the stage, while the white "plaster" sculpture with horns, which looks like statues at provincial Soviet parks, appears on the stage. It would be nice to see something more spectacular; the production lacks special effects in general. Take the entrance of the Snow Queen, for example. There were so many things that the production team promised to have in this particular scene! They were saying that modern children grew up using tablets and watching cartoons, so it was necessary to make the opera as spectacular as possible for the little members of the audience not to get bored. The result turned out to be rather modest: there was a projection of three horses on the backdrop (and this is happening in the era of multimedia, when the three horses could even gallop!), and the Snow Queen, wearing a black and silver dress (Svetlana Shilova - Lady Macbeth at the apotheosis of the celebration), was brought in on a sedan chair. And then there is the key moment in the finale, when Kai is freed from the magic spell of the Queen and warmth defeats indifference; this could have been something really spectacular, but the characters simply stood in the proscenium and hugged each other. According to the director's idea, this "hot" touch melted winter's cold as well as the cold hearts. In other words, the director, Mr. Belyanushkin, sometimes lingered behind the scene, especially when it came to crowd scenes. At some points the choir just hung around in a rather chaotic manner, as if the singers did not know what to do; sometimes the members of the choir did not do anything at all - for example, in the scene of the town festival. The citizens ran back and forth, took a look at the band and walked to and fro, but the music continued, while there was no action whatsoever. I mean, they could at least dance or play snowballs. Given all the technical capabilities of the modern theatre, all we saw was Gerda flying on the Reindeer once. Why was it so? The situation was partially saved by circus jugglers, which were invited to take part in the production, and one ballet episode (The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Ballerina); however, it was only made worse by a the sterile performance of the main roles (Boris Rudak as Kai and Kristina Mkhitaryan as Gerda). Andrei Jilihovschi (the Lamplighter) and Ekaterina Arnu (the Little Robber Girl) were, perhaps, the only ones that had lively temperaments, much needed in a production for children. By the way, they sang wonderfully as well. Bearing in mind all drawbacks, this beautiful production cannot be called a failure; however, it lacked the atmosphere of a dynamic, fascinating and magical fairy tale. The Little Robber Girl's aria: the Bolshoi Theatre presents the opera version of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The stage director Dmitry Belyanushkin When you come to any opera theatre of the world, be it the Royal Opera House in London, the Paris Opera, La Scala in Milan or Metropolitan in New York, you see the same picture: not very young ladies are accompanied by not very young gentlemen. An aging audience is the main challenge that directors of music theatres face. Audience halls of the most prominent opera houses lack young spectators. For the Bolshoi Theatre's audience hall not to open its doors only to gray-haired audiences in future, it is necessary to make people stop thinking that opera is boring. Many people simply do not know how interesting and modern opera can be; therefore, it is necessary to make people be interested in opera since their childhood. How is this possible? By means of presenting modern productions that can be as captivating as the virtual richness of the Internet. A very "adult" production that young audience would be able to understand and relate to, is the key to success. This is what they think at the Bolshoi Theatre, which presents the premiere of the opera "The Story of Kai and Gerda". December, 2 2014 Newsletter

The opera was created by the composer Sergei Banevich. He has written a lot of music for children, for example, the operas "The Little Town in the Snuf f-Box", "The Little Prince" and "Twelve Months", the operetta "The Treasure Island", the musicals "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Little Mermaid". All those pieces have been successfully performed in Russia. However, "The Story of Kai and Gerda", based on "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen, broke all records for popularity. In the beginning of her career Anna Netrebko used to sing the part of Gerda in the production of the Mariinsky Theatre rather often. Quite recently the renowned opera diva announced that she was ready to do everything she could in order for the famous opera to appear on playbills again. Dmitry Belyanushkin, the director of the production, remembers what being a child is like very well. He received his diploma only two years ago and, perhaps, can claim to be a record-holder - the Bolshoi's youngest director in its history. Sergei Banevich wrote an orchestra introduction especially for the Bolshoi's production. Together with the set designer Valery Levental, who has been working at the Bolshoi Theatre for thirty years, and the conductor Anton Grishanin, the director Dmitry Belyanushkin was ready to do anything it takes to attract the interest of modern children and their modern parents. The cast stars first-class soloists from the Bolshoi's company, the Bolshoi's Young Artists Opera Program, and guest singers as well. Modern multimedia in all its glory provides a nice base for the dynamic fairy tale about ice on the windows of houses and in people's hearts, with bad trolls and pieces of a broken mirror, with the comfy fireplace and the singing Reindeer. When the Snow Queen appears in the midst of the blizzard, riding three virtual horses, the Lamplighter- the narrator- gets to the happy ending of his magic parable and spring starts, your children will fall in love with opera, there can be no doubt about it. For articles published 28-30 November 2014 Billboard Japan reports about the Bolshoi Ballet tour of Japan writing that the Bolshoi is one of the world's leading ballet companies. The performances of La Bayadere and Don Quixote were sold and the performances were greeted by "thunderous applause" from the audience. The Washington Post publishes a Reuters video of clips from the Bolshoi Theatre's new opera Kai and Gerda on its Post TV website. Reuters TV has distributed the video which is also being shown on other international websites. Huffington Post, MSN.com and others also link to the video. The Glen Falls Post Star (USA) writes about a local girl who is studying at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. The Sunday Times and its sister tabloid newspaper The Sun publish reports about Russian businessman Roman Abramovich who is a member of the Bolshoi Theatre board of trustees and has become a big ballet fan in the past few years. Ismene Brown the dance critic of The Spectator (UK) publishes two articles in her blog based on translations of Russian newspapers. Former Bolshoi Ballet star dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, has been formally confirmed as Rector of the Vaganova Academy in an unopposed election. The artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet Sergei Filin talks about his life and work since the acid attack on him last year in Hello magazine Russia. The China Daily publishes an interview with former Bolshoi Ballet dancer Jo Womack an American who graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and was invited to join the Bolshoi Ballet but left last year in and middle of a scandal and now dances with the Kremlin Ballet. La Voz De Galicia (Spain) publishes an article about Tugan Sokhiev saying that the Bolshoi Theatre is recovering its former splendor with Tugan Sokhiev as its music director. On the Bolshoi Theatre official pages in the social networks we published pictures from the premiere performances of the opera "The Story of Kai and Gerda" Bordan Volkov (Kai) and Olga Kulchinskaya (Gerda) December, 2 2014 Bolshoi Theatre in the Internet Newsletter

, 7 Anton Grishanin, the music director of the production Boris Rudak (Kai) and Kristina Mkhitaryan (Gerda) The stage director Dmitry Belyanushkin Photos: Damir Yusupov

December, 2 2014