On March 13 and 14, The Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre will introduce Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera to the Krasnoyarsk amateurs of music art. In this masterpiece, Dmitri Hvorostovsky shone on the best opera stages of the world.

Opera production director is Anastasia Kasatkina. Anastasia started working in the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre as an entrance director in 2014, right after she had graduated from the Perm State Institute of Culture.

She is the script writer and director of such theatre’s concert programmes as An Evening of an Old Romance (2014), The Verdi-Gala (2014), An Evening of a Classical Romance: The 20th Century Romances (2015), I Loved You, and many others. She staged a fragment of the Christmas Eve opera by Rimsky-Korsakov for the Gogol-Night project (2019). The independent production of this large-scale opera Un Ballo in Maschera is Anastasia’s debut. This is her graduate thesis in the GITIS (Russian Institute of Theatre Arts); she’s the last year student there (as Director of a Music Theatre).

“Un Ballo in Maschera is the tragedy of the forbidden love of a governor Riccardo and Amelia, the wife of his assistant and friend Renato. Conspirators seeking to overthrow the noble Ricardo manipulate fellow courtiers; hatred grows like a cancerous tumour and leads Renato to kill his friend. The seven-stages performance will be solved symbolically. The opera is set in Rome: the scenography will use elements of ancient Roman architecture (forums, coliseum, columns); however, an unexpected connection will be established on the stage - the connection between ancient Rome and Italy of the 1930s, the times of the dictator Mussolini. The characters will wear modern costumes and dress coats. The combination of the three most dramatic colours - black, white and red - will determine the colour palette of the performance”, says Anastasia Kasatkina.

The libretto of Un Ballo in Maschera is based on the plot of a master of cunning intrigue - the French playwright Eugène Scribe. It’s based upon the real historical event - the assassination of Swedish king Gustavo III at a ball. According to the requirements of Italian censorship, the set was transferred to America; however, the original Swedish names are used in many productions - King Gustavo (Riccardo) and Count Anckarström (Renato). It was the baritone part of Renato that was performed by Dmitri Hvorostovsky.