For the first time in the history of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, the audience will be presented with a concert performance of the opera

On March the 27th at Arnold Kats State Concert Hall there will be the first in the history of the Festival concert performance of the opera. “Tannhäuser” by Richard Wagner will be sounded in an abbreviated version and will be accompanied by a video installation created by Maria Kononova.

On the eve of the premiere, a press conference was held, in which the Director of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival Oleg Bely, artistic director of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Society Vladimir Kaluzhsky, and Acting rector of the Novosibirsk Conservatory Zhanna Lavelina, Igor Yudin, artistic director of the Novosibirsk Choir Chapel; conductor Dmitry Kryukov and Maria Kononova, author of the video installation took part.

“When we discussed this date – March the 27th, World Theater Day - we had the idea to do something special, which was not yet at the Festival,” says Oleg Bely. - Over time, it was embodied in the concert version of the opera “Tannhäuser”, which we will present, despite all the difficulties. This is the first project of the TSAF and the Novosibirsk Conservatory, and we worked very closely, deeply and well. The composition is complicated, the students, from whom we have assembled the Trans-Siberian Festival Orchestra, will gain tremendous experience - performing on the stage with such a complex composition, working with a conductor who knows this score very well and thoroughly, interacting with the choir and soloists. The festival orchestra participates in two more projects of the Festival: in Germany and in France. Let's look at the results of today's performance. We hope that the result will exceed our expectations."

“In our work on the preparation of the Festival, one of the most valuable things is when we gather in very close circles and discuss what we could do,” shared Vladimir Kaluzhsky. - It was in this discussion that opera as a genre and sacred name for our city “Tannhäuser” appeared. The music is beautiful, and the opera is boring. Our task today is to revive the musical merits of this work.”

“It is a great honor on this day to present a musical theater an essay in its pure form,” said conductor Dmitry Kryukov. “Because we must not forget that the purpose of the theater as an institution is to bring people up, spiritually, intellectually. And the main thing that is required of us as performers is to present clear sound, clear music, and everyone will have different meanings. I believe that we have a real celebration of the theater - its essence, religion, because we will play Wagner’s music in its purest form.”

“Unfortunately, Dmitry Yurovsky became seriously ill and was forced to fly to Berlin,” replied Oleg Bely to the question about changing the executive staff. “He will have an operation, he found out about this just a week ago.” But apparently someone is helping us, because literally in a week we found Dmitry Kryukov, he was faced with a difficult task, and it seems to us that he coped brilliantly with her. Life is life, we wish everyone recovery.”