17 June 2015, Wednesday

Tonight, on June 17, press conference dedicated to The Bolshoi 240th season took place. General director Vladimir Urin and Music director and Chief conductor Tugan Sokhiev told which premieres, projects and events are prepared for the audience in the nearest future.

New season is going to be a true joy for opera lovers - The Bolshoi prepares 6 premieres.
The 1st one will be a present for young viewers - "Stories about a fox, a duckling and Balda" with music by Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Pravednikov will be performed at Beethoven Hall. Dmitry Belyanushkin and Anton Grishanin will be the director and conductor just as in "The Story of Kai and Gerda" premiere this season.
The next one is going to be "Iolanta" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky staged by conductor Vladimir Fedoseev and director Sergei Zhenovach who decided to embody the first composer's idea about combining the opera with suite from "Nutcracker" ballet.
One more premiere from Russian repertoire - "Katerina Izmaylova" by Dmitry Shostakovich will be staged by Rimas Tuminas.
Baroque opera will be added to The Bolshoi repertoire as well - Richard Jones will stage "Rodelinda" by Handel joint with English National opera.
And of course we couldn't go without a comic opera, this place will be taken by "Don Pasquale" by Gaetano Donizetti from Timofey Kulyabin.
By the end of the season Peter Stein will present to the audience "La Damnation de Faust" opera by Hector Berlioz.

There will be a lot of interesting events for ballet admirers as well.
"Don Quixote" choreographed by Alexander Fadeechev will come back to the Historical stage with new design by Valery Levental.
Modern choreography evenings will take place on the Historical stage as well - the program will include stagings by JiЕ™Г­ Kylián, Hans van Manen, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon.
As for the New stage young Russian choreographer, "Goden Mask"-2015 laureate Vyacheslav Samodurov will stage "Undine" by Hans Werner Henze.

Among The Bolshoi plans for the season:

- grand modern dance festival DanceInversion
- The Bolshoi Ballet 3-weeks long tour at Covent Garden
- Hamburg Ballett tour with stagings by John Neumeier
- celebrating of many anniversaries and commemorative dates
- Svetlana Zakharova and Boris Akimov evenings
- many The Bolshoi Orchestra and Young Artists Operacon Program concerts at Beethoven Hall

Let's spend another season together!