On December 10, the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre will hold the concert Happy Lovers, Insane Sufferers. Its programme includes vocal and instrumental works of the Baroque music.

The arias and duets from the operatic masterpieces of European composers of the 17th and 18th centuries will be performed at the concert: the ones by Claudio Monteverdi (L'Incoronazione di Poppea), George Frideric Handel (Rodelinda, Tamerlane, Orlando), Antonio Cesti (Orontea), Henry Purcell (Dido and Aeneas), Joseph Haydn (Armida), Alessandro Stradella (Il Floridoro).

The following performers will take part in it: soloists of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre Anna Kiseliova, Violetta Grishko, Natalia Plotnikova, Zoya Rzheplyanskaya, Inna Spodina, Victoria Maslyukova, Aliona Babivskaya, Victoria Kangina, Olga Basova, Denis Grechishkin, Sevastian Martyniuk, Eugeny Sevastianov, Oleg Alekseev; they’ll be accompanied by a chamber orchestra conducted by Dmitri Kosolapov. The musicians will perform several instrumental works: the suite Battalia by Heinrich von Biber, the Concerto for two flutes by Georg Philipp Telemann, the famous La Folia (a version of the Spanish dance melody from Trio Sonata No. 12) and the Overture to the opera L'Olimpiade by Antonio Vivaldi. The concert will be closed with Purcell’s Aria from the drama Oedipus glorifying the art of music: a version of Sophocles’ work written by the English poet John Dryden and called Music for a While (music, at least for a while, will distract you from all your concerns).

Chamber vocal and orchestral concerts have already become one of the favourite formats of Krasnoyarsk music fans. Such events usually take place in the second floor foyer. But on December 10, the audience will head to the concert hall, and the artists - to the Theatre’s stage.

The Baroque style had dominated Europe for about 150 years and left many excellent examples of amorous poetry. In response to the restrained, predominantly God-oriented medieval art, musicians and poets of later eras sought to show human feelings, cruel passions, in order to evoke a strong emotional response in spectators. The production team (director Irina Lychagina, set designer Maria Vysotskaya) and the singers are going to plunge the concert guests into the abyss of passion, make them experience moments of mental stir or spiritual soaring. And realize what the heroes of the Baroque era once experienced.