ROME, December 27. /TASS/. Boris Godunov, an opera composed by Russia’s Modest Mussorgsky, has enjoyed a successful run at Milan’s La Scala opera house. As the theater told a TASS correspondent on Tuesday, the opera’s lead, Ildar Abdrazakov, won’t sing in its last showing on December 29 due to family reasons.
"Due to family reasons Ildar won’t be able to participate on December 29 but overall the opera had a good run. On the season’s opening night, when it premiered, the theater earned almost €2.5 mln. This is not a record but it is in line with what we normally see for our opening nights. We returned to the pre-pandemic level," the theater’s representative said.
Following the opening of Boris Godunov, the new ballet season at La Scala was launched with The Nutcracker, a Russian ballet which is traditional for the Christmas season. "All tickets were sold out as usual," the representative stated. The ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky is conducted by Russia’s Valery Ovsyannikov from the Mariinsky Theater. "We are choosing whom to work with based on professional and artistic qualities, and the Russians are experts in such repertoire," La Scala’s representative said. That said, he specified that so far, the issue of resuming work with Valery Gergiev is not being discussed. The theater rejected his performances because the conductor did not publicly condemn the special military operation in Ukraine.
Russian art at La Scala
On January 5, a recording of the Nutcracker’s opening night will air on Italy’s RAI TV channel. According to the opera house’s website, a version by Rudolf Nureyev was chosen marking the 30th anniversary of the death of the dancer and choreographer (1938-1993). Sixteen years later, this version returned to the theater’s stage with a historic set design by Greek stage artist Nicholas Georgiadis.
Boris Godunov opened to critical acclaim on December 7 with members of the Italian leadership in attendance, including President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as well as President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who told journalists that she loved and cherished Russian culture. In addition to Abdrazakov, the Russian-language opera features several other performers from Russia. Shortly before the premiere, Ukrainian Consul General in Milano Andrey Kartysh urged that the performance be canceled. However, the administration of La Scala stressed that it was not going to remove Russian pieces from its repertoire and Dominique Meyer, La Scala’s CEO, said that he would continue to invite Russian performers.
The current season also includes Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in Nureyev’s interpretation. Valery Ovsyannikov will return as conductor for the performance of Le Corsaire, a ballet scheduled for early March. The up and coming Russian conductor Timur Zangiev, from the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theater, was invited to conduct Sergey Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet at La Scala next summer.