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Afternoon Concert: Thursday Opera Matinee: Tchaikovsky - The Tsarina's Slippers

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Music: Classical: Opera

Ian Skelly

24/12/2015

Tchaikovsky - The Tsarina's Slippers

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert

Performance of Tchaikovsky's only comic opera, the Christmas story The Tsarina's Slippers.

Ian Skelly presents a performance of Tchaikovsky's only comic opera, the Christmas story The Tsarina's Slippers, given at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 2009.

With Ian Skelly.

A second chance to hear Tchaikovsky's rarely performed only comic opera, his Christmas story The Tsarina's Slippers (Cherevichki), which was produced at London's Royal Opera House in 2009.

Inspired by one of Nikolai Gogol's most famous short tales, Christmas Eve, the opera is a mix of village comedy and fairy-tale fantasy. The beautiful Oxana will only marry her besotted blacksmith Vakula if he finds the Tsarina's little leather slippers for her. The desperate Vakula finally uses the Devil to help him fulfil his beloved's wish. There is much devilry, mistaken identity, hiding of lovers and drunken villagers along the way. The music ranges from popular dances and Christmas carols to deeply moving lyrical scenes such as Vakula's despairing monologue in Act 3.

14.00
Tchaikovsky: The Tsarina's Slippers (Cherevichki)

Solokha (a witch) ...... Larissa Diadkova (mezzo-soprano)
The Devil ...... Maxim Mikhailov (bass)
Chub (an elderly Cossack) ...... Vladimir Matorin (bass)
Panas (Chub's friend) ...... John Upperton (tenor)
Oxana ...... Olga Guryakova (soprano)
Vakula ...... Vsevolod Grivnov (tenor)
Pan Golova (The Mayor) ...... Alexander Vassiliev (baritone)
The Schoolmaster ...... Vyacheslav Voynarovskiy (tenor)
Wood Goblin ...... Changhan Lim (baritone)
Echo ...... Andrew Macnair (tenor)
His Highness ...... Sergei Leiferkus (bass)
Master of Ceremonies ...... Jeremy White (bass)
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Alexander Polianichko (conductor).

Afternoon Concert: Thursday Opera Matinee

Thursday Opera Matinee

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