Opening the 2025 Diaghilev Festival on June 13, Hændel is a theatrical and musical dedication to the great composer on the 340th anniversary of his birth. Performed by the festival’s headliners — the musicAeterna orchestra and choir under the direction of Teodor Currentzis — the concert presents a pasticcio: a collage of arias, ensembles, orchestral and choral scenes from Handel’s operas and oratorios.

A pasticcio (Italian for “pie” or “mash-up”) was a popular 18th-century stage practice — an artfully crafted mix of musical pieces, often from different works, assembled into a new dramatic whole. In Hændel, this form brings together excerpts from Handel’s powerful Old Testament oratorios, dramatic arias from his Italian operas (Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Orlando, Teseo), and dazzling instrumental pieces.

All music will be performed on period instruments and in historical baroque tuning by musicAeterna artists, known for their thoughtful and detailed work with historically informed performance and their pursuit of authentic sound. The semi-staged format and collage-like nature of the production follow the spirit of baroque spectacle — full of illusion, shifting perspectives, scale play, and a deep focus on the voice and space.

Opening the 2025 Diaghilev Festival on June 13, Hændel is a theatrical and musical dedication to the great composer on the 340th anniversary of his birth. Performed by the festival’s headliners — the musicAeterna orchestra and choir under the direction of Teodor Currentzis — the concert presents a pasticcio: a collage of arias, ensembles, orchestral and choral scenes from Handel’s operas and oratorios.

A pasticcio (Italian for “pie” or “mash-up”) was a popular 18th-century stage practice — an artfully crafted mix of musical pieces, often from different works, assembled into a new dramatic whole. In Hændel, this form brings together excerpts from Handel’s powerful Old Testament oratorios, dramatic arias from his Italian operas (Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Orlando, Teseo), and dazzling instrumental pieces.

All music will be performed on period instruments and in historical baroque tuning by musicAeterna artists, known for their thoughtful and detailed work with historically informed performance and their pursuit of authentic sound. The semi-staged format and collage-like nature of the production follow the spirit of baroque spectacle — full of illusion, shifting perspectives, scale play, and a deep focus on the voice and space.

Samson and Delilah (1877) is a masterpiece of French musical theatre and a pinnacle of Camille Saint-Saëns’s (1835–1921) career. The opera tells the biblical story of the legendary hero Samson and the cunning seductress Delilah, who deceitfully uncovers the secret of his supernatural strength. Merging the grandeur of the Old Testament with the sensual intensity of the music, Saint-Saëns emerges in Samson and Delilah as the heir to the tradition of 18th-century French lyric tragedy. It is no coincidence that librettist Ferdinand Lemaire decided to base on a text by Voltaire, originally written in 1734 for Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera Samson. A gem of the global opera repertoire, Samson and Delilah is a rare guest on Russian stages: the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Diaghilev Festival present the first Russian production of this Saint-Saëns opera in recent years.

Samson and Delilah (1877) is a masterpiece of French musical theatre and a pinnacle of Camille Saint-Saëns’s (1835–1921) career. The opera tells the biblical story of the legendary hero Samson and the cunning seductress Delilah, who deceitfully uncovers the secret of his supernatural strength. Merging the grandeur of the Old Testament with the sensual intensity of the music, Saint-Saëns emerges in Samson and Delilah as the heir to the tradition of 18th-century French lyric tragedy. It is no coincidence that librettist Ferdinand Lemaire decided to base on a text by Voltaire, originally written in 1734 for Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera Samson. A gem of the global opera repertoire, Samson and Delilah is a rare guest on Russian stages: the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Diaghilev Festival present the first Russian production of this Saint-Saëns opera in recent years.

To be honest, this story can only truly be told with jazz. It is poetic from beginning to end. It starts in cigar smoke, to the sound of laughter, and ends in death.

— Bertolt Brecht

Macheath, a bandit nicknamed "The Knife," whose status in the criminal world is similar to that of the Godfather, decides to go legal and become a respectable member of society. To do so, he marries a bride who seemed suitable to him. However, his newly acquired father-in-law not only sends him to prison, but also leads him to the gallows.

Or:

Macheath, a bandit nicknamed "The Knife," with the temperament and charm of Don Juan and as many wives as Bluebeard, has finally found true love — but because of the betrayal of a jealous lover, with whom he still has ties, he ends up on the scaffold.

Or:

Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the king of the beggars, wants to marry off his daughter to save himself from ruin — but finds out she has already secretly married a bandit. Now, to save the family, he must go to extremes, even if it means sacrificing his daughter's happiness.

Today, this is not just a story about bandits. It is a full-fledged myth, equal to the timeless plots of Shakespeare and Sophocles, and the world of London’s criminal underworld is merely the setting where the story unfolds. The creators and the audience inevitably sympathize with each character in the play, constantly shifting their perspective. The sweet, refined, and fierce music of Kurt Weill — his deconstructed cabaret — gives the story the feeling of a mad celebration, a feast during the plague.

The new production of The Threepenny Opera will be a kind of mirror reflection of the opening of the Diaghilev Festival — a concert-performance of opera and oratorio arias by George Frideric Handel. Almost a hundred years ago, in 1928, Brecht and Weill based their show on the legendary English Beggar’s Opera, which was created a century earlier, in 1727, as a parody of Handel’s operas.

To be honest, this story can only truly be told with jazz. It is poetic from beginning to end. It starts in cigar smoke, to the sound of laughter, and ends in death.

— Bertolt Brecht

Macheath, a bandit nicknamed "The Knife," whose status in the criminal world is similar to that of the Godfather, decides to go legal and become a respectable member of society. To do so, he marries a bride who seemed suitable to him. However, his newly acquired father-in-law not only sends him to prison, but also leads him to the gallows.

Or:

Macheath, a bandit nicknamed "The Knife," with the temperament and charm of Don Juan and as many wives as Bluebeard, has finally found true love — but because of the betrayal of a jealous lover, with whom he still has ties, he ends up on the scaffold.

Or:

Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the king of the beggars, wants to marry off his daughter to save himself from ruin — but finds out she has already secretly married a bandit. Now, to save the family, he must go to extremes, even if it means sacrificing his daughter's happiness.

Today, this is not just a story about bandits. It is a full-fledged myth, equal to the timeless plots of Shakespeare and Sophocles, and the world of London’s criminal underworld is merely the setting where the story unfolds. The creators and the audience inevitably sympathize with each character in the play, constantly shifting their perspective. The sweet, refined, and fierce music of Kurt Weill — his deconstructed cabaret — gives the story the feeling of a mad celebration, a feast during the plague.

The new production of The Threepenny Opera will be a kind of mirror reflection of the opening of the Diaghilev Festival — a concert-performance of opera and oratorio arias by George Frideric Handel. Almost a hundred years ago, in 1928, Brecht and Weill based their show on the legendary English Beggar’s Opera, which was created a century earlier, in 1727, as a parody of Handel’s operas.