Astana Opera Theater: description, address, troupe, management

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The Astana Opera theater was built in a colorful antique style with baroque details and a national imprint of the culture of Kazakhstan, and famous architects from Russia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and Italy worked on its external appearance.

Astana

The city of Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. Before the city was called Akmola. There are many variations on the origin of this name. One - the city of Akmola was named because of the hill of white limestone. The second - the people-Huns called "mola" a large hillock or fortress. And the third version: since ancient times, Akmola has been known as the main core of cattle fairs and is famous for its abundant variety of meat and dairy products (koumiss, ayran, kurt, shubat). Therefore, the name of the city is translated as "white holy place" or "white abundance".

In the 1930s, the city of Akmolinsk grew up on the Kazakh plains on the site of the settlement of Akmola. In 1960, in the month of December, the city had a hundred thousand inhabitants and turned into the Kazakh capital. In 1961 Akmolinsk was named Tselinograd, in 1992 it was renamed Akmola, and in May 1998 it was named the city of Astana.

A bit of history

The Astana Opera Opera and Ballet Theater was established by order of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev. In June 2010, the first pile was driven. The building was built with all the light. Masters of various nations took part in the construction of the theater building: Russians, Kazakhs, Italians, Germans, Albanians, Bulgarians, Moroccans.

German professionals worked on the special equipment of the scaffolds, and specialists from Italy were responsible for the acoustic range of audibility. Designed by Bedget Pacolli. At the Astana Opera, they achieved a balance between Greek, Roman and Kazakh national customs, and also applied Mannerist and Baroque styles. During the construction of the structure, the shortcomings made during the construction of theater buildings in other states were taken into account, and the final construction schemes of the international level were used.

Description of the theater

Astana opera is not inferior to the leading European theaters in its beauty. The theater was built in compliance with the classical direction interspersed with Kazakh national customs. The building is located on 9 hectares of land, and the perimeter of the theatrical building itself is 64,000 square meters. The theater stage is 935 meters, the auditorium can accommodate 1250 theater-goers. The complex also contains auxiliary halls and rehearsal rooms, a chamber music hall, and press rooms. The theater recently opened a theater studio for children.

The ceilings in the lobby of the Astana Opera theater reach the height13 meters. The foyer is decorated with a Bohemian crystal chandelier weighing 1600 kg. Additional illumination is added by side windows. On the sides of the foyer are marble stairs decorated with paintings and having a baroque style. Charyn Canyon is painted on one wall, and Burabay State Park is painted on the other. Italian painters painted the walls.

The spectator hall was built in the Italian style of the 19th century. The auditorium can accommodate 1250 people. Around the stalls there is a mezzanine, above there are lodges, balconies in three tiers and a gallery. Armchairs for spectators of the Italian production. The theater has an exceptional stage with a size of 935 square meters. Only the Mariinsky Theater and the Bastille Opera have such stages.

Stage

The Astana Opera has a main stage of 935 square meters, a sixteen-meter high rear stage and a pair of side pockets. At the rear, the stage descends thirteen meters down to support the movement of the four main lifting machines and provide the potential for performances with the most complex decorations.

Italian masters pored over the sound, as a result, there is not a single place in the hall where it is hard to hear. The sound is reflected literally from everything: beech and birch parquet, cherry and cherry with brass panels. Audience chairs, mirrors and decorative stucco - everything that reflects or absorbs sound is conceived and made by skilled craftsmen. In addition, they took into account the tilt and turn of the seats, as in La Scala in Milan.

Description "Astana Opera" continues the orchestra pit, which accommodates about 120 people and consists of three tiers. The lower level (at -1.1 m) is needed for musicians to enter, the upper parterre tier - at +1.5 m. The chamber hall is designed for 250 spectators, it is not poorly equipped and is no worse than the main hall in terms of technical properties. It has a special atmosphere that allows the audience to plunge into the magic of musical sounds. The ceilings of the hall are decorated with drawings by artists from Italy.

The theater complex has twenty-six equipped rehearsal rooms and about sixty dressing rooms. The floor and walls in the rehearsal rooms are made of birch, beech and cherry planks. Small holes in the wood absorb unnecessary sound, and leave the necessary in the hall. The Opera House also received new special studio equipment and its own lifting satellite station.

Troup

Until the end of 2014, the popular composer Tolegen Mukhamedzhanov was the head of the theater team. The creative troupe of the "Astana Opera" was selected on a selective basis. At the competitions, the jury members were delegates from the main theaters of the world, such as La Scala, Paris Opera, San Carlo, Covent Garden, the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theaters.

The backbone of the theater team are actors with extensive experience in the profession. They were given a goal - to improve the level of art of the opera theater in Astana to the level of world theaters. Members of the team: Toleubek Alpiev - director of the National Opera and Ballet Theater. K. Baiseitova, Abzal Mukhitdinov - conductor, Tursunbek Nurkaliev - chief choreographer,Yerzhan Dautov - chief choirmaster. For the theater troupe, a completely organized environment for work.

Manual

In 2014, N. Nazarbayev changed the leadership of the Astana Opera Theater: he changed T. Mukhamedzhanov to T. Alpiev. In March 2015, Altynai Asylmuratova, a prima ballerina from the Mariinsky Theater, was invited to the place of the artistic director of the ballet, and Alan Buribaev became the principal conductor. In September 2016, by the Decree of the President of Kazakhstan, Akhmedyarov Galym Algievich was appointed director of the State Opera and Ballet Theater "Astana Opera"

So:

• Director - Galym Akhmedyarov
• Artistic director of the ballet - Altynai Asylmuratova
• Chief Conductor -Alan Buribaev
• Chief choirmaster - Yerzhan Dautov

Theater repertoire

In 2013, on June 21, the theater triumphantly began the first theatrical season with the famous work of M. Tulebaev - the opera "Birzhan-Sara". The opera "Birzhan-Sara" reveals a colorful personification of melodic and lyrical customs - aitys, which gives inimitability to a unique piece of music, revealed in its complete indivisibility and depth.

"Birzhan-Sara" to this day, 70 years after the writing of the work, is an example of unceasing poetic power that appeared in the combination of national and human cultural and literary skills. In the same year, the world show of the Astana Opera took place, presented to the world community by the work of Giuseppe VerdiAttila.

Universal premiere

The world show at the Astana Opera theater of G. Verdi's production of Attila was held triumphantly. Valery Gergiev was the chief conductor and musical director of the production. The stage director, costume designer, stage designer was the Italian master Pier Luigi Pizzi.

The birth of the theater is an exciting period, since the theater is the main criterion for the civilization and culture of the state and gives confidence that the global crisis will not completely destroy art.

Outfits for actors for the opera "Attila" were brought to Kazakhstan from Italy. Pier Luigi Pizzi personally supervised every fitting. The main colors for the Huns clothes are purple, black, golden and snow-white.

Artists playing "Attila"

The main role was played by Russian opera singer Ildar Abdrazakov. The actor met Pier Luigi Pizzi a couple of years ago. His first experience as Attila was a few years ago in Peru.

The role of Ezio was played by the Italian Claudio Sgura. It was very easy for him to contact the Kazakhs - with unassuming and ordinary people.

It is not easy in the new theatre, there are errors, small mistakes, but everyone understands that gradually everything will be at the highest level, and the Astana Opera will turn into a world-class theater.

The roles of Foresto and Odabella were performed by Anna Markarova and Luciano Ganci.

Decoration for the Astana production of "Attila" was brought fromRome Opera House. The decorations have been enlarged to accommodate the size of the stage.

At the beginning of his career, Pier Luigi Pizzi put on magnificent performances with beautiful decorations. Once he matured as an artist, he realized that it was important to focus on the piece. Emphasize the importance of dramaturgy and emerging music.

The Huns in the opera were performed by privates of the National Guard of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Soldiers are well disciplined and do exactly what is asked of them. Soldiers can be taken with you to performances in many world theaters.

On the day of the show of the opera "Attila" according to the schedule of the theater at nineteen o'clock, the doors to the hall are closed and late spectators are not allowed. Visitors to the performance arrive an hour before the start. At the present time, it is not required to wear a formal suit or evening dress to the theater, but such clothes will be very appropriate here. Behind the curtain after the performance, the actors of the theater greet each other with the success of the world show of the Astana Opera theater with the production of Attila.

Masterpieces of the theater stage

At present, the stage of the Astana Opera Theater is decorated with the works of opera and ballet classics and the most modern operas of international class professionals. In the first season of the theatre, P. I. Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty was staged by the world-class choreographer Y. Grigorovich, as well as S. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet by the famous choreographer from France Ch.production of the popular Russian choreographer B. Eifman - "Roden".

In addition, in the first theatrical season, performances of combined performances by Russian performers with European troupes, including the Rome Opera, La Scala, the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the Mariinsky Theater, the Bordeaux Opera, and the B. Eifman Ballet Theater were performed.

How to get to the theater

You can easily find the Astana Opera and Ballet Theater. The address of the Astana Opera is simple, the theater is located in the main part of the city on Dinmukhamed Kunaev Street. Public transport runs here, you can get there by city bus, choosing auto route No. 32 or 46 to the Astana Opera stop or auto routes No. 21, 27, 28, 35, 42, 50 to the KazMunayGas stop. By car, you can drive to the theater building along Turan street, then turn onto Sarayshyk street. The price of the entrance ticket is determined by the choice of a certain category of the performance, discounts are given to pensioners and children.

Astana Opera is the world's third largest opera house. Italian, German, Swiss, Czech specialists took part in the construction of the theater. Built according to the latest technical achievements, the theatrical structure allows the performance of works of various levels of difficulty on its stage.