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3 Events on Wednesday the 22nd of October, 2008
SNEGUROCHKA, The Snow Maiden
Based on ‘springtime fairy-tale’ and full of genuine Russian folk melodies, the music of Snegurochka has melted the hearts of audiences all over the world for more than a hundred years.
- Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov
- RIMSKY- KOSAKOV’S FAVOURITE OPERA
- (Sung in Russian with English Surtitles)
It has been winter for fifteen years because the Sun God is angry that Frost and Spring have had a daughter together: Snegurochka. Now on the verge of adulthood, she decides to escape the cold and lonely forest and join the world of the mortals. She is attracted by Lel’s seductive songs but is unable to express her feelings for him. Snegurochka’s friend Kupava is engaged to Mizgir, but when he sees Snegurochka he falls in love with her instead and breaks off the original engagement, leaving Kupava upset and angry at her betrayal. She seeks solace in the arms of Lel. Meanwhile Snegurochka begs her mother to grant her the capacity for human love and warmth. At a mass spring wedding, Snegurochka professes her love for Mizgir as a ray of sun strikes her and she melts away. The Sun God is appeased by her death and all celebrate the coming of spring.
Book NowThe Old Maid & the Thief
The first ever opera commissioned for radio is a light and apparently inconsequential satire on women’s innate ability to make reality suit their own needs: in his own words, ‘ woman can do that devil himself can’t do: make a thief of an honest man’
- Gian Carlo Menotti
- (Sung in English)
That’s as may be; Menotti’s little drama is in any case a bit more complicated, featuring a good deal of drinking, and intoxicating music to match.
Book NowLunch Time Recitals
The traditional weekday lunchtime appointment remains one of the defining features of the Festival. Individual Festival singers will have the chance to shine in their own piano-accompanied solo numbers, performed (sometimes with the help of an instrument of their own) for a select audience in St. Iberius Church. Prepare for about fifty minutes of pre-prandial bliss.
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"There are two big opera anniversaries this year: 150 years since the birth of Puccini, and
100 years since the death of
Rimsky-Korsakov. We are managing to celebrate both. The choice of Snegurochka to the
main stage gives us an opportunity to introduce audiences to a masterpiece very rarely performed
outside Russia. Two long running themes of the Festival, the
exploration of neglected but worthy opera in English and that of pre-Verdian Italian opera, are
developed this year in the shape
of the Mines of Sulphur and Tutti in
Maschera"
- David Agler - Artistic Director
