Box Office: 12:00–19:00
Break 15:00–16:00
Break 15:00–16:00
Box Office: 12:00–19:00
Break 15:00–16:00
Break 15:00–16:00
Peter the Great, or The Incredible Adventures of the Russian Tsar by G. Donizetti
13
August
On September 16, 2020 we invite you to the opera Peter the Great, or The Incredible Adventures of the Russian Tsar by G. Donizetti. You can buy tickets on our website or at the box office of the theatre, which will resume work on August 20.
“We decided to resume Donizetti's opera about the Russian Tsar on the eve of the celebration of the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great. It was staged for the first time a decade and a half ago, in the year of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, and became a real sensation. Then we had to restore this piece bit by bit, and for many years it occupied a special place in the theater's repertoire... ”, says Yuri Alexandrov.
Donizetti is familiar to people who cherish opera as the author of “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “L’elisir d’amore” and “Don Pasquale”. However, few people know that one of the first opuses of the 22-year-old Italian composer was an opera about Peter the Great written on the then popular plot of the play by Alexandre Duval. The opera " Il falegname di Livonia, o Pietro il grande, czar delle Russie (The Livonian Carpenter, or Peter the Great, Tsar of the Russias)" was performed at Teatro San Samuele during the carnival days of 1819.
However, the score for the opera disappeared after a fire at the Teatro La Fenice in 1823. The opera was forgotten for 180 years. Yuri Alexandrov rediscovered this masterpiece to the world. The director had to conduct a real investigation in search of the missing score. The Donizetti Opera House in Bergamo, the Venetian La Fenice Theatre, the Ricordi House Foundation and publishing house, which owns the right to the composer's music, and the Italian Consulate General in St. Petersburg were involved.
As a result of painstaking work that lasted for several years on the preparation of the performance, fragments of the score "Peter", scattered throughout Italy, were brought together. Thus, a piece of music by the great composer, which had long been considered lost, was returned to the world.
