The Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre invites city residents to a new premiere - Léo Delibes’ opera Lakmé. The first three shows will take place on February 11, 12, 13, 2022.

The most vivid professionals of Russian music theatre were invited to work on the production. Its music director and conductor is People's Artist of Russia Alexander Rudin - conductor and Artistic Director of the Academic Chamber Orchestra Musica Viva, cellist, pianist, professor of the Moscow Conservatory. The production director of Lakmé is Sergei Novikov - Head of the Presidential Directorate for Public Projects, Diploma-recipient of the 2nd International Competition for Young Opera Directors Nano-Opera. Sergei has already collaborated with the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre: he staged the concert experiment SlovZov-GALA here, as well as Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi.

“Lakmé is a unique title that almost no one knows, but almost everyone has heard its music. Léo Delibes wrote the opera when an oriental flavour was fashionable among French romantics. But the plot was ahead of its time, and 30 years later - at the beginning of the 20th century - Giacomo Puccini will develop the theme of the collision of Western and Eastern ways of life and ideas in Madama Butterfly, which will become a hit of the world opera art. The West dictates its sometimes opportunistic values with blatant self-confidence ​​and simply rejects what it is unable to grasp. Nowadays, the spiritual and the brute, the lofty and the mundane, the culture and the marketplace are intertwined in the big cities. Therefore, the events that nowadays flare up in various metropolises find an echo in the plot of Lakmé. This Lakmé production raises the question of the care and respect for each other. If we lack them, we may gravely hurt even the people we fell in love with.” said Sergei Novikov.

The production designer is Maria Vysotskaya; the audiovisual content by Dmitri Ivanchenko will also be used at the show. Lighting designer is Ruslan Mayorov Ruslan is the creator of the lighting concept for the performances Bogatyri and Leningrad Symphony; he’s a nominee for the Golden Mask - 2022 award for these works.

Now, the repertoire of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre only represents French opera art with Georges Bizet's ballet opera Carmen. Lakmé will be the second work sung in French. A specially invited tutor Valeria Stenkina teaches complex French phonetics to singers of the Theatre.