Spring season at NOVAT started with a premiere – Verdi’s opera Falstaff was for the first time performed at the Main Stage of NOVAT. Production crew of this staging involves Chief Stage Director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev and designers Petr Okunev and Vadim Dulenko. They came up with an interesting set design for this production – a humorous fantasy based on eclectic nature of London, a colorful medley of various styles and ages, a combination of modern and traditional technology for the scenery. All this resulted in a dynamic, classy and cheerful production.
Soloists of the Novosibirsk opera, chorus and orchestra under the theatre’s principal conductor - Music Director Dmitri Jurowski showed a brilliant and exciting performance of Verdi’s most intricate musical piece. The company’s new production was given a standing ovation, which proved its success.
Alexey Zelenkov, performer of the title role showed not only a masterful vocal skill, rich colors, intense emotions and legerity of sound, but also a striking tragicomedic talent. His interpretation of Falstaff represents not a raddled old cynic, but a well built show-off enjoying his living, and even his narcissism looks childishly naïve and charming. At the end of the performance the main character laughs at himself together with everyone else, which cannot but draw out the sympathy. Lambent vocal dialogues by scoffing friends amused the audience none the less: Alice – Nadezhda Nesterova, Meg – Ekaterina Marzoeva, Mistress Quickly – Svetlana Tokareva. Tender and lyrical duet of love birds Fenton (Vladimir Kuchin) and Nanetta (Yulia Yumaeva) tugged at the audience’s heartstrings. Baritone Gury Guriev came up with a solemn and expressive Ford. Bardolph (Evgeny Kozyrev) and Pistol (Nikolay Loskutkin) along with Dr. Caius (Konstantin Zakharov) cheered up the audience with a comic whiff.
Chief Stage Director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev said “I’m happy to finally have this performance in our repertoire. I consider this opera to be quite contemporary along with Verdi’s idea that there’s no point in taking things to heart, since “life is a joke” as stated by the characters of this opera. However, the musical score requires a lot of work: Falstaff is a gauge is a company’s maturity and capability of complex vocal and acting tasks. One of the goals I set for this performance is to present our unique soloists at their finest, since I can tell with certainty - these are world class singers”.
“Falstaff is rarely staged at the opera theatres, and not only in Russia, the situation is the same worldwide. This happens for a good reason – the score is extremely difficult in terms of vocal skill, in addition to the amount of music an artist would need to learn. It requires not less than a week of training before each show, not only the first night – emphasized the theatre’s Music Director and conductor of the performance Dmitri Jurowski – I believe our company needs to add Falstaff in its repertoire, because it represents the next level of skill, and in my opinion we are all ready for this. There are only a few other operas in the world more difficult than Falstaff, and I’m convinced that due to this production our company will make another step forward in its professional competence”.
We congratulate the company on this successful premiere and invite the audience to see the next performances of Falstaff on March 6th and April 12th.
We are happy to announce the cast for the performance on March 6th: Falstaff – Andrey Triller, Alice – Olga Kolobova, Meg – Marina Kipingan, Nanetta – Daria Shuvalova, Fenton – Kirill Nifontov, Pistol – Alexey Laushkin.
