The most popular opera premiere on stage of the Mariinsky Theatre according to a survey made at the end of last season is Rodion Shchedrin’s opera Dead Souls. Opera, the world premiere of which took place more than thirty years ago, was presented this spring in a fundamentally new production, with remarkable accuracy to the original story and precision in expressing the main ideas of the poem by Nikolai Gogol. Large scale and ambitious, timeless as the original work, set designs by Zinovy ​​Margolin and truthful, capturing the spirit of the epoch, costumes by Maria Danilova, coupled with accessible, convincing production directed by Vasily Barkhatov provide an adequate interpretation of Gogol’s masterpiece, in tune with the realities of modern life. Distinctive, recognisable musical language of Rodion Shchedrin demonstrates that the opera has stood the test of time, definitely becoming one of the most notable musical works of the 20th century. Performed for the first time this season, its revivals at the Mariinsky Theatre will be held on November 18th & December 2nd.

By the way, the production team of Vasily Barkhatov, Zinovy ​​Margolin and Maria Danilova is working on the December premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: Offenbach’s opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Premiere performances will take place on December 26th & 27th. Valery Gergiev will conduct these performances.