On September 23 and 24, the premiere of the fantastic opera “The Demon” by Anton Rubinstein, directed by Valery Gergiev, will take place on the new stage of the Mariinsky Theater. The main roles are being prepared by: Demon – Gleb Peryazev, Magerram Guseinov, Evgeny Nikitin, Prince Gudal – Yuri Vorobyov, Oleg Sychev, Miroslav Molchanov, Tamara – Inara Kozlovskaya, Ekaterina Goncharova, Olga Maslova, Natalya Pavlova, Prince Synodal – Igor Morozov , Roman Shirokikh and Kirill Belov.
The plot of Lermontov’s poem of the same name has repeatedly attracted the attention of composers. Only in the second half of the 19th century did Boris Fitingof-Shel’s opera, Pavel Blaramberg’s musical paintings and Eduard Napravnik’s symphony appear. However, Anton Rubinstein’s opera, completed in 1871, gained the greatest popularity.
The world premiere of Rubinstein’s Demon took place at the Mariinsky Theater in January 1875. Eduard Napravnik was in the director’s position. Critics received the work very moderately and to some extent unfavorably, although it was a great success among the public. The opera was performed in Moscow four years later under the direction of Enrico Bevignani. Gustav Mahler and Sergei Rachmaninov also directed the work at different times.
The legendary Fyodor Chaliapin appeared more than once in the role of Prince Gudal and the Demon. The famous bass knew how to reveal the painful mental torment of the hero, his intense internal struggle. But the main thing is that Chaliapin’s demon was a proud rebel, whose refusal to fight for love was presented by the artist not as a blessing, but as a defeat. The interpretation that reflected the rising revolution was treated differently, but it cannot be denied that such a Demon became a true hero of his time, the one that the new era required.
Director Elizaveta Korneeva is preparing a new performance on the stage of the Mariinsky-2. The “Demon” of it will be deprived of space-time coordinates. Instead, there are metaphors, echoes and symbols: from the Greek theater to the sandbox. All of this is intended to underline the eternity of the problems raised in both the poetic and musical texts.
Let us remember that today the long-awaited performance of Puccini’s “Triptych” will take place on the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theater. The one-act operas “The Cape,” “Sister Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi” will be performed on the eve of the 105th anniversary of the work’s world premiere and the 20th anniversary of the first full production in Russia.
