On February 6, Mergen Sandanov, a principal singer of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will appear on the stage of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre as Radames in Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida.

The artist has already performed the role of an Egyptian warrior in the Krasnoyarsk theatre on November 17, 2019. Mergen Sandanov also performed the part of Radames in his theatre.

“The opera company of our theatre has been scrupulous about the preparation of the Aida opera: the famous coach from La Scala Massimiliano Bullo worked with us. I tremendously enjoyed working on the role: Verdi's music is beautiful and fits my voice well,” the singer said.

Mergen received his higher musical education at the Novosibirsk Conservatory. He has been a principal soloist of the Buryat Opera and Ballet Theatre for several years. Since 2018, she has been working in Vladivostok on the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. He performs leading parts of the tenor repertoire there.

On February 6, principal singers of the Krasnoyarsk Opera House, winners of international competitions Ksenia Khovanova and Olga Basova will take the stage along with Mergen Sandanov as Aida and Amneris respectively. Olga is going to play Amneris for the first time.

Amneris is that kind of a role that put a singer through his or her paces: it measures the level of training of a singer, the depth of his or her acting talent, the degree of understanding the peculiarities of the musical style, a singer’s proficiency in Italian. This is one of the pinnacles of vocal music for mezzo-soprano. For me, it is both a dream and a challenge. And I accept this challenge,” - says Olga Basova.

Two performances of Aida are scheduled the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre in February 2021. On February 7, a singer from the Republic of Buryatia Mikhail Pirogov will perform the part of Radames; Honoured Artist of Russia Svetlana Ratslaf-Levchuk will appear in the title role; the role of Amneris will be performed by the winner of international competitions Daria Ryabinko.