Andrey Zhilikhovsky

Pushkin folk tale as comedic opera whose sultry elements expand an Oriental influence. Korsakov portrays the story of Tsar Nicholas II, punished for his cowardice and despotism, using satire to condemn Russia's autocratic ruler.

Lying in bed, Tsar Dodon dreams of retirement. The problem is, people keep invading his country. His astrologer offers him a golden cockerel with magical powers, a weather vane which indicates from which direction danger will come. In his case, it will be from the East in the shape of a charming oriental princess determined to conquer his kingdom.

L’opéra de Puccini, rempli de passion, d’amitié et de chagrin, présente un casting prestigieux, sous la direction musicale de Kevin John Edusei.

Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina headlines a winning ensemble as the feisty heroine, Rosina, alongside high-flying tenor Jack Swanson, in his Met debut, as her secret beloved, Count Almaviva. Baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky stars as Figaro, the titular barber of Seville, with bass-baritone Peter Kálmán as Dr. Bartolo and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Don Basilio rounding out the principal cast.

Sergei S. Prokofiev's monumental setting of Leo N. Tolstoy's epic novel, War and Peace. The composer and his wife Mira compressed the plot, set during Napoleon's Russian campaign, into a powerful sequence of scenes in which the love story between Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky and the description of the Russian army's fight against the French invasion alternate in rich contrast, and at the same time are closely interwoven. All is related by the music in its fullness of splendid themes and touchingly quiet moments. Prokofiev's musical-dramatic masterpiece combines social drama and historical chronicle in its 13 scenes to form an exuberant panorama. In this production by Dmitri Tcherniakov, the opera is performed in in Munich for the first time ever.