The new 45th season of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre will start with a gala-concert on September 23. Its programme will include excerpts of popular operas by Russian and European composers loved by the audience. Tickets for this long-awaited event are already on sale.

The first opera company was created in Krasnoyarsk 100 years ago: the concert (as well as the entire upcoming season!) will be held under the sign of this remarkable anniversary.  In 1923, tenor Pyotr Slovtsov, the legend of the Krasnoyarsk opera, and his wife, opera singer Margarita Rioli-Slovtsova, gathered an opera troupe. It consisted of about a hundred professional and amateur singers, all of them were from Krasnoyarsk. Slovtsov staged 14 performances. On September 23, arias and duets from these operas will be performed: Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, La Traviata and Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, Lakme by Leo Delibes, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Faust by Charles Gounod, Rusalka (The Mermaid) by Alexander Dargomyzhsky.

Guest maestro Mikhail Granovsky, ex-Artistic Director and chief conductor of the Tomsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, is music director and conductor of the show. Production director is Anastasia Kasatkina. Krasnoyarsk spectators know that she turns every concert into a performance of her own dramaturgy.

The best artists of the opera company will take the stage this evening.

The  highlight of the night will be the performance of a guest star - People's Artist of the RSFSR Sergei Leyferkus. This singer has many a time been a guest of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre and is truly loved by the local audience.