22nd Fyodor Shalyapin International Opera Festival in Kazan

The 22nd Fyodor Shalyapin International Opera Festival will take place in Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan, the Volga region) on February 5-15.

The 130th birth anniversary of the great singer is celebrated in 2003. Therefore, the Shalyapin festival will expand its geography and the number of participants. Singers from Italy, Netherlands, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Australia, the USA, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and major Russian theatres will participate in the festival. The programme includes Shalyapin's best performances.

The festival will open with "Boris Godunov", with bass Mikhail Kazakov, the leading soloist of the Musa Dzhalil Theatre (Kazan) and the Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow). After that, the audience will see "The Barber of Seville", "The Marriage of Figaro". "La Boheme", "Queen of Spades", "Carmen", "La Traviata", "Rigoletto", "Aida" and "Requiem". All the performances will be shown in the original language. Translations will appear on electronic indicator panels.

The gala concert of 16 laureates of the international contests (Belvedere, Maria Callas, Mario del Monaco, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, contests in Toulouse, Athens and Barcelona) will be a real surprise for music lovers. It will take place on February 11. Traditional Shalyapin readings will be held in the Gorky Literature Museum as part of the festival.