The 2009 Opera and Ballet Season and the ‘IX Festival di Sant’Efisio’ at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari will open with the opera Semën Kotko. The opera is in five acts with libretto by Valentin Kataev and Sergej Prokof’ev, taken from the tale by Valentin Kataev Sono figlio del popolo lavoratore, and with music by Sergej Prokof’ev, produced in collaboration with the Mariinskij Theatre, St. Petersburg.

Following a well-established tradition at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari the season opens with a rare opera of extraordinary musicological interest. The journey began in 1998 with the opera Le fate by Richard Wagner (the CD recorded live was awarded the critics’ prize for disc of the year). In 1999 it continued with Dalibor by Bedřich Smetana, in 2000 with Gli stivaletti by Petr Il’ič Čajkovskij, in 2001 with Elena egizia by Richard Strauss, in 2002 with Euryanthe by Carl Maria von Weber, in 2003 with Opričnik by Petr Il’ič Čajkovskij, in 2004 with Alfonso und Estrella by Franz Schubert, in 2005 with Oedipe by George Enescu, in 2006 with Chérubin by Jules Massenet, in 2007 with Die Vögel by Walter Braunfels and in 2008, with The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitež and of the maiden Fevronija by Nikolaj Rimskij Korsakov. All the operas were recorded in collaboration with Dynamic.

The opera is performed in Russian with Italian surtitles, by a prestigious cast, specialized in this production: Mikhail Gubski/Sergey Nayda (28th, 4th) (Semën Kotko), Nadezda Vasilieva (Semën’s mother), Olga Savova (Frosia, Semën’s sister), Alexei Tanovitski (Remenjuk, president of the rural soviet and commanding officer of a partisan brigade), Gennady Buzzubenkov/Fedor Kuznetsov (Tkačenko, ex sergeant), Olga Markova Mikhailenko (Chivrja, his moglie), Tatiana Pavlovskaia (Sof’ja), Viktor Chernomortsev (Carëv, sailor), Irina Loskutova Lebed (Ljubka, Carëv’s fiancée), Ezio Maria Tisi (Ivasenko, an old man), Evgeny Akimov (Mikola, Ivasenko’s son), Nikolai Gassiev (a worker, ex land-owner Klembovskij), Vladimir Samsonov (von Wierhof, Oberleutnant of the German Army), Emanuele Giannino (an interpreter), Alessandro Perucca (first old man), Francesco Musinu (second old man), Liudmila Kasiyanenko (first woman), Svetlana Volkova (second woman), Liudmila Kannunikova (third woman), Mattia Denti (first haydamak), Fiorenzo Tornincasa (second haydamak), Enrico Maria Marabelli (first peer), Aldo Orsolini (second peer), Alessandro Porcu (a young man), Alexander Morozov (a bandura player), Alessandro Perucca (a German guard), Alessandro Frabotta (a German sergeant).

The experienced and outstanding producer, Yuri Alexandrov, directs the Cagliari production. The audience in Cagliari applauded Alexandrov for the magical production Gli stivaletti in January 2000. Set design by Semyon Pastukh, costumes by Galina Solovyova, lighting design by Kamil Kutyev and choreography by Andrey Bugaev.

The Teatro Lirico Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Alexander Vedernikov musical director at the Bolshoi Moscow, who also opened the last Opera and Ballet Season with the opera The Legend of the Invisible city of Kitež by Rimskij Korsakov. The chorus master is Fulvio Fogliazza.

Semën Kotko was peformed for the first time at the Stanislavskj Theatre in Moscow on 20th June 1940. It then disappeared from the scene until 1957. In the 1970s, it was performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, in an abridged version. The production in Cagliari is produced in the original version in collaboration with the Mariinskij Theatre, St. Petersburg.

Performance dates for Semën Kotko:

Wednesday 22nd April 2009, 8.30 pm - Session A
Friday 24th April 2009, 8,30 pm – Session D
Sunday 26th April 2009, 5 pm – Session F
Tuesday 28th April 2009, 8.30 pm – Session F
Thursday 30th April 2009, 8.30 pm – Session C
Saturday 2nd May 2009, 7 pm – Session E
Monday 4th May 2009, 8.30 pm – Session G











Prima settimana di preparazione dell'Opera

Video by Priamo Tolu







Photo by Priamo Tolu