Astana Opera team wraps up tour to Almaty
For the first time, as part of the Almaty tour, the performances of the capital’s opera house took place not at just one, but at two stage venues.
The exciting and rich program of the Gala Concert, prepared especially for the Almaty audience, was presented in the Concert Hall of the Qurmanghazy Kazakh National Folk Instruments Orchestra. The Honoured Workers of Kazakhstan Saltanat Akhmetova, Bibigul Zhanuzak, Azamat Zheltyrguzov, Medet Chotabayev, as well as Tatyana Vitsinskaya, Saltanat Muratbekova, Galina Cheplakova, Talgat Galeyev, Shynggys Rassylkhan, Sayan Issin, Guldana Aldadossova delighted the audience with their beautiful voices. The program included Almas Serkebayev’s Arnau, Tolegen Mukhamejanov’s Tughan Zher, and in addition, works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Georges Bizet, Antonín Dvořák, Emmerich Kálmán and other composers.
Anatoliy Kanshin, the Honoured Art Worker of the Kazakh SSR, shared his impressions after the gala opera:
«After listening to today’s concert, I can say that I just can’t find the words. A wonderfully curated program. What soloists! What a choir! Orchestra! It is just a real miracle! It seems to me that at this concert, from the first bars of the first work to the very end, there was some kind of, as they say, invisible connection between the participants in the concert and the audience. To be honest, I haven’t heard anything like this in a long time.»
Mr. Kanshin says that he is familiar with the work of foreign opera singers and musical groups, with whom he previously performed together as part of tour programs at the same concerts, and now he listens to a new generation of soloists on the Mezzo TV channel, and the level of Astana Opera is on a par with the world’s best performers.
«You can be proud of such a team!» he emphasized.
«Each visit of Astana Opera to Almaty is a great event for opera and ballet art aficionados,» the Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan Kuanysh Urazgaliyev says. «The gala opera program was chosen simply superbly, starting with the works by Kazakh composers, ending with Alexander Borodin. Flawless orchestra, just an incredible choir! Yerzhan Dautov is a great master who created a superb choir that can amaze all world stage venues. I liked the selection of soloists, all the young performers sang superbly. Such a team must tour, visiting all cities, all regions of our country. We are proud of them!»
A huge impression on the Almaty audience was made by the performance of the outstanding musical creation of the great Giuseppe Verdi – Requiem at the Zhambyl Kazakh State Philharmonic. The joint choir of Astana Opera and the Bakhytzhan Baikadamov State Choir (choirmasters – the Honoured Workers of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Dautov and Beimbet Demeuov), Astana Opera’s soloists and symphony orchestra under the baton of Abzal Mukhitdin made the audience experience an entire palette of incomparable feelings.
After Verdi’s Requiem, performed by Astana Opera’s soloists, choir and orchestra, as well as the Baikadamov State Choir, the audience left the philharmonic hall impressed.
«It was monumental, powerful, there were definitely goosebumps. The soloists, the choir, the orchestra have become one whole,» the Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan Sara Ischanova shared her emotions.
«I especially want to note Zhupar Gabdullina, who demonstrated both piano and forte, excellent support and breathing. All the soloists in general, well done,» she concluded.
«It is difficult to single out someone, because everyone performed indivisibly, together. I watched the listeners: it was clear how much they were immersed in the music, they simply disappeared in it. The unceasing applause that ended the evening spoke for itself,» Svetlana Karyagina, a resident of Almaty, emphasized.
The Almaty tour of Astana Opera has come to an end. However, very soon the artists and musicians of the capital’s opera house are eagerly awaited in Baku. On December 13, the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre will host the first performance in the history of Astana Opera in the hospitable Baku land.