Anna Netrebko and Placido Domingo to take Bolshoi's stage in new season

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia has announced its plans for the new 245th season which will open on September 6 with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Don Carlos, General Director of the Bolshoi Vladimir Urin told TASS on Friday. "The current situation with the coronavirus, unfortunately, does not allow us to conduct the traditional company gathering when we usually announce season plans. But they, those plans, have been finalized and made known to the troupe electronically. The message sent to all recipients informed that the 245th season will open with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Don Carlos. Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov, Ildar Abdrazakov, Agunda Kulaeva and Elchin Azizov are among the performers, this is the most powerful cast of the Bolshoi singers and the invited talent," he said. "The Bolshoi ballet will open its season with Don Quixote on September 12. This will be a performance dedicated to the doctors whose work we admire and are proud of and who in these most complex circumstances of the pandemic worked heroically. It is the Bolshoi's privilege to invite the healthcare workers to one of its best ballets," Urin continued. He noted that last season Placido Domingo could not perform at the Bolshoi due to the pandemic. "Now we have an agreement that Placido Domingo will perform at the Bolshoi in the new season. It is planned that on October 21 he will be a conductor for the Manon Lescaut opera and on October 24 will sing in a gala joined by his friends, colleagues, and the Bolshoi orchestra," the director said. "We will enter the season gradually, carefully, and will do everything so that the coronavirus won’t hamper our creative plans and meetings with the audience," he stressed. He noted that the spectators before attending the performances need to familiarize themselves with sanitary rules published on the Bolshoi website and observe social distancing and the mask regime to avoid issues. A season of anniversaries The Bolshoi general director said that the first half of the season will be dedicated to the 180th anniversary of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. "We will start the season with the big festival of plays and concert programs associated with the name of the great Russian composer," he said. Urin explained that "this festival will feature the best Bolshoi’s productions to Tchaikovsky’s music. I mean, Eugene Onegin, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Iolanta and the ballet Onegin," he enumerated adding that the program will include a concert by Igor Golovatenko and Alla Demidova. "The festival dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s anniversary will be fully represented in the Bolshoi’s repertoire until the end of December," he specified. He also mentioned other important anniversaries, including the 80th anniversary of ballet dancer Vladimir Vasilyev, which was supposed to be celebrated in April but had been postponed until November due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will be marked with ballets the dancer starred in or directed. Another important date is the 95th anniversary since the birth of great Russian dancer Maya Plisetskaya. November 20 will see a gala dedicated to the prima ballerina. New productions The director first mentioned the productions scheduled to run last season yet postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. They include three one-act ballets by young choreographers and The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet. Other premieres include operas by Strauss, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Handel and ballets by Dvorak, Richter and Demutsky. Read more