The Qaraghandy Academic Musical Comedy Theatre completed its tour at Astana Opera. The audience of Nur-Sultan gave the artists and musicians unceasing applause. Not only theatregoers, but also the company and the symphony orchestra, impressed by the unique acoustic and technical capabilities of the capital’s opera house, received great pleasure from the performances.
“We are very pleased to collaborate with our colleagues, primarily because such teamwork has a beneficial effect on the viewers, who have the opportunity to get acquainted with new theatrical genres, the work of composers, musicians and artists,” Galym Akhmedyarov, Astana Opera’s general director, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan, says. “This practice enriches the cultural life of the capital, makes it more enticing and dynamic.”
“This is my second time working in this beautiful, I would go as far as saying, one of the best opera houses in the world,” Maestro Nikolai Makarevich, the guest conductor from the Belarusian Musical Theatre, emphasized. “As a listener, I have been to many European opera houses, including the famous Wiener Staatsoper. The beauty of Astana Opera’s foyer and hall makes you transfixed. The nuanced work of designers and painters is staggering and mesmerizing. Not to mention the technical equipment of the stage, where you can store the sets of three productions without dismantling, an incredible ballet studio with an orchestra pit and amazing acoustics. I could put it on a par with the Metropolitan Opera and the Teatro alla Scala.
The conductor of the Minsk theatre has longstanding ties with the Qaraghandy Academic Musical Comedy Theatre. Nikolai Makarevich is the music director and conductor of most of the productions that were shown to the capital’s audience and guests of Nur-Sultan. In case of the Golden Fish fairytale, the Maestro also composed the work itself.
“This tour is very exciting for me, because I work in Minsk, and I fly to Kazakhstan by invitation, and to some extent these performances have become like a test for me,” the conductor said.
Tours at Astana Opera have become an important event for artists and musicians of the Qaraghandy theatre.
“By a longstanding tradition, the Qaraghandy Academic Musical Comedy Theatre presented the best and new productions from our repertoire at the country’s main stage venue,” Amantai Ibrayev, the general director of the theatre, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan, said. “This time we brought a new work by one of the most popular contemporary composers Vladimir Baskin The Canterville Ghost, written in the best traditions of the Broadway musicals, as well as the classics that form the basis of our theatre – Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Zirkusprinzessin, Maxim Dunaevsky’s Scarlet Sails and others.
The Qaraghandy Academic Musical Comedy Theatre is the only one of its kind in the republic, cultivating the genre of operetta and musical. Every year, up to 7 new productions are staged here. In total, there are more than 200 productions in the repertoire.
“Visiting the capital, we are pleased to acquaint the residents of Nur-Sultan and guests of the city with our work,” instrumentalist Margarita Turebekova emphasized. “Our theatre is very much loved in all corners of the post-Soviet space, received with great warmth in the country and abroad.
Along with active staging and touring work, the theatre organizes festivals. This year, the 11th Open Festival of Operetta and Musical DosStar is planned, featured performers from Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Belarus, and the 4th Open Festival of Puppet Theatres Kuklyandiya. Immediately after the tour to Nur-Sultan, the Qaraghandy theatre is expected in the southern capital.