ST. PETERSBURG OPERA IS A LAUREAUTEOF THE ONEGIN AWARD

On December 01, in St. Petersburg, on the stage of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, a ceremony was held to present the 4th National Opera Onegin Award. It was attended by world opera stars, Russian and foreign artists, directors, conductors, directors from different regions of Russia, as well as music critics and journalists, and other prominent representatives of the opera world. The main Russian opera prize was awarded in ten competitive and seven special nominations. Such world-famous singers as Olga Borodina, Sergey Leiferkus, Charles Castronovo, Ekaterina Syurina, Alexey Tatarintsev, Sergey Skorokhodov and others performed at the ceremony. The guest of honor was the world superstar Angela Georgiou.

Theater "St. Petersburg Opera" was awarded a prize in the nomination "Event & Project ”, as the organizer of the 4th International Chamber Opera Festival. The first Festival, held in the spring of 2016, became a significant cultural event of an international level, as it introduced to the audience of St. Petersburg unique European and Russian collectives, as well as rare masterpieces of opera classics. For four years, the famous Moscow musical theatres such “Helikon-Opera", the State Academic Chamber Music Theatre named after Pokrovsky, the Moscow State Academic Children's Music Theatre named after Sats took part in the festival. Foreign groups participated in the frameworks of the festival: the National Opera “Estonia”, the Warsaw Chamber Opera, the Collegium Musicum Riga, the Chamber Opera of Szczecin (Poland), artists from France and Italy, who were represented by the European association ART-EUROPE and others.

Recently, the fourth Festival ended, which brought together guests from different countries. The Greek Cultural Center of the Prefecture of Central Macedonia showed the opera “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell; for the first time, the Hungarian State Opera came to St. Petersburg with the little-known Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “L’oca del Cairo”. The “Duel of Tancred and Clorinda” by Claudio Monteverdi, “Jephthah” by Carrisimi and “Ismena” by Francois Rebel and Francois Francoeur was again presented by the Collegium Musicum Riga, which was already loved by the local audience. Guests from Bashkiria and Kazakhstan showed the “Il Mondo della Luna” by Joseph Haydn and the “La Scala di Seta” by Giioacchino Rossini. By tradition, the St. Petersburg Opera opened and closed the festival.

Artistic Director of the Festival, People's Artist of Russia Yuri Alexandrov: “Our Festival is still very young. This year we held it for the fourth time. The festival was founded in an alarming time, a time of conflict, sanctions, and confrontation. Nevertheless, true art has always been above momentary interests and political passions. Integration is necessary for the theatre in any form - tours, festivals, joint projects. When we are on tour, we feel during the performances a vivid reaction from the audience. When people come to us, we see how genuine interest the St. Petersburg audience is meeting with foreign groups. The festival that we are holding is created for spectators who, having come to our mansion, should receive a positive energy  and food for the mind and heart from what they see and hear... We very much hope that once again our efforts will give a new impetus to the convergence of cultures. ”