June 28 marked the 105th anniversary of Honoured Artist of the RSFSR conductor Allan Zholents’s birth. Allan worked in the Novosibirsk opera and ballet theatre since 1953 until 1966; he was a production conductor of 14 opera productions. Among them were Il Trovatore by Verdi, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Carmen by Bizet, Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) by Wagner, Ruslan and Ludmila by Glinka, The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov. Staging of Jenůfa or Její Pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter) opera by Leoš Janáček became a major event, significance of which was appreciated not only in Novosibirsk, but in the entire country as well. The premiere was held in 1958; it was the first production of the opera on a national stage.
Allan Zholents had a unique musical erudition and pedagogical talent. He worked in the Novosibirsk state conservatoire n.a. M. Glinka as an assistant professor since the conservatoire was founded in 1956 and as a professor since 1985.