DVD Review: The Guerillas and the Mist

Dmitri Tcherniakov takes on The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya at De Nederlandse Opera.
 by Paul J. Pelkonen

Boy meets girl: Vladimir Vaneev and Svetlana Ignatovich in The Legend of the Invisible
City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya.

Sometimes a bold director can breathe fresh life into a forgotten masterpiece. That is the case with this 2013 Blu-Ray of The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, staged in 2012 by De Nederlandse Opera (in cooperation with the Teatro de Liceu in Barcelona) and filtered through the artistic sensibilities and political message of Dmitri Tcherniakov. This Russian director whose recent Prince Igor at the Met thrilled New York this season, has mounted  Rimsky-Korsakov's penultimate opera in a bleak, pessimistic production. Mounted at the Amsterdam Music Center and released on home video by OpusArte, this disc should do much to increase the reputation and frequency of performance of this challenging but thoroughly rewarding work.

Concert Review: Mysticism, Monologue and Monoliths

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yuri Temirkanov. Image © Medici.TV.

The Russian city of St. Petersburg is invariably associated with Mariinsky Orchestra and its mercurial leader Valery Gergiev. However, the St. Petersburg  Philharmonic Orchestra is an even older organization (founded in 1882) with its own rich history and distinctive Russian sound. Last Thursday night, this splendid ensemble returned to Carnegie Hall for the first of two concerts under the baton of music director Yuri Temirkanov.