On December 20 at 19:00, the St. Petersburg Chamber Opera will present Peter the First, or the Incredible Adventures of the Russian Tsar , opera by Gaetano Donizetti, on the stage of the State Theater of Musical Comedy (Operetta) of Uzbekistan in Tashkent in celebration of the 350th birthday anniversary of Peter the Great.
The company's tour was organized by the Government of St. Petersburg with the financial support of the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture.
"In 2023, St. Petersburg will be the cultural capital of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Moreover, our city, one of the main and favorite children of Peter the Great, will celebrate its 320th anniversary next year. We are glad that our ties with Uzbekistan are actively developing and strengthening in anticipation of these events. Large-scale cultural events were held in Tashkent and Samarkand in the fall as part of Governor Alexander Beglov's official visit. Now the audience in Tashkent will see a magnificent opera performance dedicated to the first Russian emperor - a musical masterpiece revived by the St. Petersburg Opera Theater," said Fyodor Dmitrievich Boltin, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Culture Committee.
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Russian House in Tashkent and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan provide organizational and informational support.
"The tour of the St. Petersburg Opera Theater in Tashkent in the year of the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great will become a real decoration of the theatrical life of the capital of Uzbekistan, will help the audience to better feel the character and scale of the personality of the first Russian emperor through music," said the head of the Russian House in Tashkent, Mikhail Valeryevich Vozhdaev.
"In recent years, the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan has devoted special attention to the development of culture and art, the promotion of the country's rich cultural and historical heritage. A memorandum was signed between the State Theater of Musical Comedy (Operetta) of Uzbekistan and the Musical Chamber Theater "Saint-Petersburg Opera" on bilateral creative cooperation in the field of culture and art and further development of musical theaters in the framework of the I International Forum of Musical Theaters OPERETTA.UZ in 2022. St. Petersburg Opera Theatre's tour in Tashkent is a remarkable event in the country's cultural life", said Buri Abdujalilovich Ganiev, Director of Uzbek State Theatre of Musical Comedy (Operetta) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Uzbek Theatres.
On December 20, at 12:00, the Russian House in Tashkent will host a press conference devoted to the tour of "St. Petersburg Opera" and cultural cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan in 2022 and 2023. Mikhail Valeryevich Vozhdayev , head of the Russian House in Tashkent, Buri Abdujalilovich Ganiev , director of the State Theater of Musical Comedy (Operetta) of Uzbekistan and chairman of the Uzbekistan Theater Board of Directors, Yuri Isaakovich Alexandrov , artistic director and founder of the St. Petersburg Opera Theater and Evgeny Sergeevich Malygin, director of the St. Petersburg Opera Theater will discuss this topic. In addition, vocalists and soloists from the St. Petersburg Opera Theater Orchestra will perform works by prominent Russian composers and music by the great Gaetano Donizetti.
Gaetano Donizetti is familiar to opera fans as the author of "Lucia di Lammermoor", "Love Potion" and "Don Pasquale". Few people know, however, that one of the 22-year-old Italian composer's first works was an opera about Peter the Great, written on the then-popular subject of a play by Alexander Duval. The opera "Peter the Great, Russian Tsar, or the Livonian Carpenter" was shown at the San Samuele Theater in Venice in 1819. In 1823, the opera score disappeared after a fire at the La Fenice Theater.
Yuri Alexandrov , Artistic Director and founder of the St. Petersburg Opera Theater, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, has rediscovered this masterpiece. The director had to conduct a real investigation in search of the missing score. The Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and the publishing house Doma Ricordi, which owns the rights to the composer's music, were all involved.
"We presented the play in the year of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, and the production became a real sensation in the opera world. We had to reconstruct this work bit by bit, and it occupies a special place in our repertoire," said Yuri Alexandrov .
The opera takes place in a Livonian town on the Baltic coast, recently conquered by Peter the Great from Sweden. The opera's intrigue of love and politics, involving the Russian royal couple, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, does not claim to be plausible but gives rise to a conventionally playful and ironic action packed with unpredictable plot twists.
"In April 2022, we visited Uzbekistan for the first time at the I International Forum of Musical Theaters OPERETTA.UZ. Official events included a meeting with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan leadership and the signing of a memorandum on bilateral cooperation in the field of culture, strengthening friendship between the peoples of Uzbekistan and Russia. It is a great honor and joy to come to Tashkent again and present St. Petersburg and its culture with a landmark performance for our theater and our city, as it is dedicated to its founder, Peter the Great. We thank the Government of St. Petersburg and the Committee on Culture for the opportunity to realize this tour, which will certainly strengthen cultural ties and friendship," said Eugene Malygin, director of the St. Petersburg Opera Theater.