DIAGHILEV FESTIVAL TO PRESENT THREE OPERA PREMIERES IN JUNE

In 2024, the Diaghilev Festival will start on the 20th of June and last until the 29th of June. This year, the festival will once again present three opera premieres. Pascal Dusapin's opera Passion, recognized by music critics as one of the style-forming compositions of the 21st century, will be performed in Russia for the first time. Opened last year by Perséphone, the 'Stravinsky cycle' will proceed with the production of the opera The Rake's Progress. The new director's version of Mozart's The Magic Flute will be another musical event of the festival.

The Diaghilev Festival will present three new opera productions this summer, consolidating its status as one of Russia's main opera festivals. The production teams will explore the iconic opera scores of the 18th, 20th and 21st centuries in line with the main artistic concept of the festival based on the principle of interdisciplinarity, the search for new ways of interaction between different art forms, and the development of the language of modern theatre.

Teodor Currentzis, the Artistic Director of the Diaghilev Festival:

— This is a step forward that the festival is making. All three operas are entirely new productions. It is a very powerful creative experience, a creative and intellectual process of incredible intensity. We invite young authors who are ready to explore areas of the incomprehensible, fill them with energy and transform them. The artists whose work is now recognized as the canon, back in the day also used to tread these unexplored territories. Thus, drawing from a strong foundation and the values of world culture, we take a step forward. What would have happened if science had decided a hundred years ago that it knew everything? So is art — there is no end to the exploration of the human soul and beauty.

PASSION

Pascal Dusapin is one of the most successful composers in modern France, a student of Iannis Xenakis, a graduate of the Sorbonne, and a long-time participant in the Diaghilev Festival. In 2012, he personally attended the premiere of the opera MedeaMaterial presented in Perm. This time the festival addresses his opera Passion (18+) written in 2007. Its plot is based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. An hour and a half action is a time-stretched moment of their parting. Music flexibly follows the dynamics of feelings, as joy, fear, desire, pain, ecstasy, sadness, anger and love alternate in it. The original interpretation of one of the most important works of the 21st century will be presented by the Musical Director of the production Teodor Currentzis, Director Anna Guseva, the artists of the musicAeterna Orchestra and Choir, and the musicAeterna Dance troupe.

THE RAKE'S PROGRESS

As part of the Diaghilev Festival, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre will present the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress (16+) interpreted by the Artistic Director of the Novosibirsk 'Krasny Fakel' Theatre, director Andrey Prikotenko, and a great connoisseur of the 20th century music, conductor Fyodor Lednev. The Rake's Progress is Stravinsky's only major opera in the truest sense of the word: this is a multi-act composition with recitatives, arias and ensembles, unalloyed with any other musical and theatrical genres. The deliberate obsoleteness of the form becomes the starting point for modernist play: the opera's music, like its libretto, balances between respect for the past and an ironic perspective on it.

THE MAGIC FLUTE

The Magic Flute (18+) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a fairy tale with a double bottom. The opera's plot is saturated with both deep philosophical meanings and theatrical effects. Buffoonery is juxtaposed with high solemnity, while orphic motives are combined with Masonic symbols and ideas of the Enlightenment. Heroes undergo magical trials to find the ultimate truth. Day fights night, good fights evil, and in the end love, loyalty, and fortitude win — and, in no small part, the magic of the music itself. A new version of the classic masterpiece will be created at the festival by conductor Evgeny Vorobyov, the musicians of musicAeterna, and director Nina Vorobyova.

Following the festival’s traditions, the programme will also include symphonic and chamber concerts, dramatic performances, and interdisciplinary performances. The Educational Programme will be organized for students of art colleges, and the Festival Club will work for all residents of the city and guests of the festival. The detailed programme, schedule and ticket sales launch date are to be announced.

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The Diaghilev Festival is one of the largest music forums in Russia. It is held in Perm where the outstanding impresario Sergei Diaghilev spent his childhood. The festival strives to strengthen and develop Diaghilev's traditions and explores various forms of creative search, a new theatrical language, and modern trends in academic music. The Artistic Director of the festival is Teodor Currentzis. The festival takes place annually in summer. Since 2020, a three-day satellite event — Diaghilev+ — has been held in winter.