At the end of January, the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre will introduce the premiere of the opéra bouffe Barbe-Bleue by Jacques Offenbach. Tickets are already on sale. The shows will take place on January 28 and 29, 2023.

The Krasnoyarsk spectators already know the invited professionals who are working on the opéra bouffe: production designer is Maria Vysotskaya, lighting designer is Ruslan Mayorov; they have also created the production of the opera Lakme by Leo Delibes in Krasnoyarsk. Krasnoyarsk musicians are in charge of the music part of the production: music director and conductor is Alexander Yudasin, choirmaster is Dmitri Khodosh.

The theatre team decided to turn to the work of Jacques Offenbach; the genre of comic opera appeared in France mostly thanks to this composer. During his life, Offenbach wrote about a hundred operas comiques and operettas. Barbe-Bleue is a sparkling score filled with catchy melodies. In the Krasnoyarsk production, the opera bouffe is turned into a romantic comedy tailored according to the movies with the heroines performed by Julia Roberts.

In the production team’s opinion, such an experiment can only be afforded by a theatre that has an ensemble of not just vocalists, but also young singing actors. And the Krasnoyarsk Opera House is capable of delighting the audience by shows with such a rare cast of soloists for opera houses not only in Russia, but also in the entire world.

The authors of the libretto of the opera are the famous librettists of the middle of the 19th century Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Barbe-Bleue was introduced on the stage of the Parisian Théâtre des Variétés on February 5, 1866. The production on the Krasnoyarsk stage will be based on the Russian version of the libretto.