Sergei Aleksashkin

Set in the fictional town of Roulettenburg in the mid-19th Century, 'The Gambler' is a four-act opera that displays the dramatic highs and lows involved in the game of chance. At the centre of the story is Alexei, who is in love with The General s step-daughter, Pauline. All of the characters fall victim to the temptation of gambling, each one consumed by the obsession and greed that drives them.

St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre has staged the opera Dead Souls to the music by Rodion Shchedrin, who turns 80 in 2012. One of the indisputable operatic masterpieces of the 20th century will appear in the brand new, bright, expressive staged version, more than 30 years later, again at the Mariinsky Theatre. The premiere of the production took place on March 18. It is the first Russian production since its 1977 premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre.

La douleur d’un amour non partagé est dépeinte de manière inoubliable par deux des plus grandes stars d’aujourd’hui. Renée Fleming est radieuse musicalement et dramatiquement dans le rôle de la timide Tatiana, qui tombe amoureuse du mondain Onéguine, interprété avec un charisme dévastateur par Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Leur chant et leur alchimie envoûtantes explosent dans l’une des scènes finales les plus déchirantes de l’opéra. Avec Valery Gergiev sur le podium dirigeant la partition passionnée de Tchaïkovski, cette performance restera dans les âges.

A 1998 production staring Anna Netrebko, Larissa Diadkova, Nikolai Gassiev, Aleksander Gergalov in this Kirov Opera & Ballet production of the Prokofiev opera, with Valery Gergiev conducting.