The Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theatre tours in Krasnoyarsk on December 13-16, 2017.

The tour opening show takes place on December 13 and 14 - the only Russian scenic version of a légende dramatique “La Damnation de Faust” by Hector Berlioz will be performed in the Krasnoyarsk opera. It’s based upon Goethe's dramatic poem “Faust” that defined a range of moral principles and spiritual quest of mankind. “The book of all times” - Heinrich Heine said about “Faust”. Vyacheslav Ivanov called it “the message to humanity and its symbol”. Nikolai Kholodkovskiy who made the most accurate translation of the book, considered it to be “the earthly New Testament”. “La Damnation de Faust” has already been staged in Europe for more than 170 years, in our country the concert version was only performed. The Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theatre is the first theatre in Russia to perform the scenic version.

“La Damnation de Faust” excites the imagination and triggers all kinds of associations for spectators, like no other masterpiece. It’s even not easy for a modern well-educated reader to read “Faust” without looking through explanatory comments. Berlioz only dropped hints in his “La Damnation de Faust”, - says the director Konstantin Balakin, - “We deliberately avoided symbols that are hard to explain, and if we sparked our spectators’ interest in reading this truly great book and posing questions to themselves, we approached our goal”.  

More than 620 meters of genuine linen were used for this grand-scale performance, as well as 220 meters of fake fur were used to create costumes of lemurs, the minions of Mephisto. 100 lemur masks, 120 flowers and 35 butterflies covered with fluorescent ink, 99 square meters of books of different width that will be spread all over the stage. The fabulous 3D-effects will be made by means of modern complex technologies - without aid of 3D-glasses spectators will plunge into the bottomless void of space and visionary worlds. The pictorial language of the performance allows spectators to take a fresh look at the opera art. The performance will even attract those people who consider any opera to be a dull and obsolete show.

“New project of the Astrakhan Opera is a considerable challenge to get on a par with the largest opera theatres of Russia. The Balakin’s show holds spectators enthralled from the first minutes of it up to the end. I have long had not seen such an all-absorbing, stunning extravaganza of high quality of implementation”, wrote music critic Alexander Matusevich (portal musicseasons.org) about the Astrakhan premiere.

“La Damnation de Faust” performed by the Astrakhan Opera was nominated in six nominations for the theatrical prize “Golden Mask“. Now the Krasnoyarsk citizens will be able to see the impressive performance.

The theatre’s tour will finish on December 16, 2017. That evening, the audience will see a theatrical gala concert "Opera promenade." The leading soloists of the Astrakhan Opera will sing the opera highlights. Prima donna, a multiple nominee for the national theatrical prize “Golden Mask” and the national opera prize “Onegin” Elena Razgulyaeva will perform at the concert, as well as nominees for the national opera prize “Onegin” Ivan Mikhaylov and Vadim Shishkin, winners of Russian and international competitions Ruslan Sigbatulin, Eugenia Startseva, Irina Belaya, Dmitri Kondratiev, Alexander Malyishko, Vitaliy Revyakin, Rostom Iashvili.

The Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theatre tour will be undertaken with the assistance of the Federal Centre for Support of Tour Activities of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.