Bolshoi opens 227th season with "Turandot" on Sept. 8th

The Bolshoi Theater opens its 227th season on September 8 with Puccini's "Turandot." According to the Bolshoi's General Director Anatoly Iksanov, "Turandot" was chosen because it ranks among the most beautiful operas in world classics, and also because the Bolshoi has not staged it for more than 70 years since the only time it ran at the theater in 1931.

Besides, the wishes of the Bolshoi's Art Director and Chief Conductor Alexander Vedernikov coincided with the wishes of Francesca Zambello, one of the world's best opera producers, who is already in Moscow and rehearsing the opera.

"Turandot" will be one of the five operas the Bolshoi plans to stage in the upcoming season. The other four are "The Snow-maiden" by Rimsky Korsakov, "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss /a premiere/, "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Glinka, and "Americans" by Yevstigney Fomin /1761-1800/. The latter, a comic opera with spoken dialogues, will inaugurate the opening of a new stage at the Bolshoi.

The last Bolshoi performance of the current season will be staged on July 3 in the Svyataya Gora Monastery in the Pskov region, Northwestern Russia. The opera, "Boris Godunov," will take place on an open-air stage and will involve almost 500 actors.