The soloists of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre are going to perform in Paris at the Embassy of the Russian Federation and at the Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Centre where they’ll present a new project of the theatre “Unknown Siberia: under Paris Skies”. It’s dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the first visit of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great to Paris and the establishing of permanent diplomatic relations between Russia and France. The tour will take place from 27 till 30 November.

There are strong creative relationships between the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre and our French partners. In November 2011, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in France Alexander Orlov and the Major Case and Cultural Affairs Assistant of the Prime Minister of France Richard Flahaut opened the festival of Russian-French culture "Krasnoyarsk-Paris". In October 2016, during the IV International Forum "Ballet XXI Century" in Krasnoyarsk, a session with the ex-director of the Paris Opera Ballet and a member of the jury of the International Ballet Competition "Grand Prix of Siberia" Brigitte Lefèvre was held, as well as a round-table teleconference with France “Year of Sergei Prokofiev. Bridges of Culture”. Pierre Sheremetev, Elizabeth Cooper, Ethery Pagava and others were the French participants of the teleconference. And in April 2016, the leading ballet soloists Ekaterina Bulgutova and Yuri Kudryavtsev took part in the gala concert of the “Soul of Dance” award, which was held in Paris.

The new project “Unknown Siberia: under Paris Skies” comprises a multimedia exhibition and a series of gala concerts.

It’ll include a photo exposition "Time Scale", introducing the honourable inhabitants of Krasnoyarsk, artists, architects, sportsmen and musicians who left their mark on our history and made an invaluable contribution to the development of the city. The central "items" of the exhibition will be two 10-minute films about the most famous Krasnoyarsk men of art - writer Victor Astafyev and artist Vasily Surikov. The main roles in the films are played by the soloists of our theatre - People's Artist of Russia Vladimir Efimov and Honoured Artist of Russia Herman Efremov. Also, the significant part and real decoration of the films will be the nature of Siberia.                                        

The programme of the gala concerts includes scenes from the ballets “Swan Lake”, “Snow Maiden” and “The Tsar Fish” performed by the leading ballet soloists - Honoured Artist of Russia Maria Kuimova-Litvinenko and Kirill Litvinenko. Also, famous arias and Russian romances by Sergei Rachmaninov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Georgy Sviridov will be performed by Eugene Sevastianov, Ksenia Khovanova, Alexander Murashov and soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, People's Artist of Russia Irina Dolzhenko.

As guests of honour, cultural professionals from among Russian citizens and the French community partners were invited to the events of the project “Unknown Siberia under Paris Skies”.

The trip will be held with the support of the autonomous non-profit organization “Multicultural Integration Development Center “Cultural Bridge”.