The Alexander Tchaikovsky’s opera Yermak is now a part of the 14th Winter Surikov Art Festival. On January 24, it’ll be performed on the stage of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.

“The personality and works of Vasily Ivanovich Surikov are timeless. We want to talk about him, his life and his artistic heritage using unique experimental creative forms. This season, the festival programme doesn’t comprise a single genre and style - it’ll unite various art movements. The audience will see something completely new, unusual and impressive”, said the head of the Department of Culture of Krasnoyarsk Sergei Kostyukov.

The festival will introduce exhibitions, tours, concerts, performances to the Krasnoyarsk audience. They all are dedicated to the art and personality of Surikov. Among them, there is the opera Yermak based on historical events and commissioned by the Krasnoyarsk Opera House. Employing music, singing and dancing, the performance tells about the creation of Vasily Surikov's canvas The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak Timofeyevich. The historical characters are going to come to the stage: Kuchum Khan, Ivan the Terrible, Maria Nagaya, the merchants Stroganov, Nikolai the Second, Gilyarovsky, Leo Tolstoy... The opera’s production director is Artistic Director of the Natalya Sats Moscow State Academic Children’s Musical Theatre Georgy Isaakian. The theatre’s workshops created about 300 costumes appropriate for the epoch in which the performance takes place. The performance involves more than 40 opera soloists, the choir and the ballet company of the theatre.

The Krasnoyarsk Opera House closed the previous season in June and opened the new one in September with this fascinating, historically reliable and spectacular musical production. It aroused great interest among the Krasnoyarsk spectators. It’s worth mentioning that on December 1, Artistic Director of the theatre Sergei Bobrov received a diploma in the Event Staging nomination category for this performance at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.