Mayor of Kazan attends Chaliapin Festival gala concert

(KZN.RU, February 17, by Alisa Rozanova) The 30th Feodor Chaliapin International Opera Festival ended today. It was held at the Musa Jalil Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre (TAGTOiB). Each year, the Chaliapin opera forum gathers together international stars and thousands of opera fans. This year, as before, the final concert was presented twice. Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin attended the final gala concert.

In keeping with the concept of the director-producer of the concert Mikhail Pandzhavidze, the gala demonstrated the possibilities of the whole range of voices - bass, baritone, tenor, soprano, mezzo, as well as of a rare voice in contemporary opera, countertenor, represented by a soloist of the Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Artem Krutko. The festival conductors were Maestro Marko Boehm and Maestro Renat Salavatov.

The soloists of the Russian and foreign opera houses and the TAGTOiB chorus sang arias from famous operas by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Gaetano Donizetti, Gioachino Rossini, Charles Gounod, Giuseppe Verdi and others in the original languages.

Among the highlights were performances by such Kazan favorites as Mikhail Kazakov (Bolshoi Theatre of Russia and TAGTOiB), Albina Shagimuratova (Houston Grand Opera, USA, and TAGTOiB) and Mikhail Svetlov-Kutikov (New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera, USA).

The classical program was “lightened up” by a vocal sextet from Kiev «Man Sound», who performed a jazz arrangement of Feodor Chaliapin’s song "Ei, ukhnem" and by the famous jazz pianist, honored artist of Russia, Daniil Kramer.